Broadcast
Radio,
television, cable TV
T.
Buckingham Thomas physics Oberlin WOBC Richwood Tom Thomas Chyron
Infinit Pittsburgh
Most
articles in this category are listed below. There's also
another category, WOBC, about my college radio station (clock the
green icon on the left).
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To search for specific names or events that might be listed elsewhere, click the icon to bring up a Google search box. Replace ql in the search box with the word or words you seek. |
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1910 |
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Once upon a time there wasn't 4K television or even Wrestlemania in theaters, but technology could nevertheless take us to ringside. |
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1920 |
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Advertisements should stand out (e.g., a thank-you from a losing candidate). |
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1930 |
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"Your Hit Parade" advertises cigarettes on radio, and later on TV. |
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1940 |
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In 1948, TV pioneers proposed transmitting from five-mile-high "towers." |
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1950 |
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Discovering an ancient TV show through on-line research. |
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Was a 1953 movie made in the broadcast standard of 30 frames per second instead of the film standard of 24? |
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Remembering network radio, from 1955 until my college friend shut it down. |
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Some of my earliest memories of TV shows, including M Squad and What's My Line? |
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My 1958 visit to the TV quiz show scandals. |
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A script for a radio sitcom that I wrote in 1958. |
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A
portable radio in a $4,000 carrying case; a sportscaster who called
Richwood High School basketball.
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Two unlikely television Ko-Kos introduce me to Gilbert & Sullivan. |
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1960 |
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Scoreboards, from the huge one at the L.A. Coliseum to the antiquated one at the Richwood gym, inspire my playful experimentation. |
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My
father won $22 at Churchill Downs in 1942. Twenty years later,
the telecast featured the band playing "My Old Kentucky
Home." |
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The script of a comedy sketch, transcribed from network TV in 1962. |
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Half an inning with the legendary broadcaster. |
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Comparing the written word with the spoken word for a scene from The Dick Van Dyke Show. |
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Introductions
and imaginative commericals for my mock radio broadcasts of
basketball. |
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High-school fans don't like to hear their kids criticized. |
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The gym's too small; try on the wall! |
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A movie being filmed at a nearby NFL game features Walter Matthau and "Stop Action" instant replay. |
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Starting with a basketball broadcast on December 1, 1965, I soon become WOBC's sports director. |
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Previously published pictures of WOBC, circa 1967. |
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The TV detective Mannix drives not-my-father's Oldsmobile, and my grandmother's "TV" clock is digital. |
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Letters document my junior and senior years at Oberlin, when I rose to the position of WOBC station director. |
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Excerpts from the 1968 instruction manual. |
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Sound
effects, that is, in a little radio play about incantation
incompetence. |
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The Vice-President accuses the Administration's critics of controlling public opinion via a TV monopoly. |
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Letters from my year of study in 1969-70. |
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1970 |
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The inside story of WEXI(FM), which switched from rock to "clean air." |
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Studio production miscellany. |
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How chroma-key works: blue screen, green screen, even white screen. |
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Ideas for a radio studio complex, a handheld camera, and TV studios tricked out with mirrors. |
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1970 field trips take me to Johnny Carson's New York studio and to the Nixon White House. |
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Audio
recorded in the control room while videotaping a 1970 student
program — with Beatles cameras. |
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A
brief stint at another campus FM. |
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DJ
Vin Ialenti presents his Annette Funicello Dance Festival &
Retrospective. I play a scientist. |
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Preparing to leave Syracuse, I propose how ratings could be measured at Marion CATV. |
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The story of a longtime central-Ohio entertainer with whom I worked briefly. |
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Cable
shrinkage, Marti units, and a telco-assisted viewer call about
Watergate. |
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A
small-budget game show occasionally starring yours truly, Tom Baby. |
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Tales
from Marion CATV. |
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Drawing on my Marion experience, I help plan a local cable studio in another Ohio city. It's never built. |
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My
next job takes me to Washington — the college town of
Washington, PA, that is. |
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In my first month in Washington, I covered a beauty pageant. You can read my script. |
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I explain that with only a bagful of viewers, not a roomful, our little TV channel nevertheless does its best. |
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Our local cable channel televises the 1974 international baseball tournament. |
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Cable TV-3 travels to Penn State to tape the annual high school wrestling championships. |
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In
1976, Washington plans new downtown construction. Included:
update photos from 2002. |
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Video stills of a majorette and an actress lead to "where are they now?" updates. |
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Collaborating with a radio reporter and attempting to interview a hockey coach. |
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An NBC goof, a local tennis tournament and firemen's parade, a magic chalice, and Robin Williams on HBO. |
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Be skeptical of the mentalist with a balloon. |
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Escaping a blizzard, my parents and I watch a groundbreaking Daytona 500 telecast in Arizona. |
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I televise the 50th anniversary of Washington's YWCA building, which would be repurposed 36 years later. |
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Graphic displays from an automated 1970s cable TV channel. |
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1980 |
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Local
cable starts inserting ads into ESPN. |
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A photo album of TV3 productions during the first week of 1984. |
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I
become a TV sports graphics operator. |
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I travel to Illinois. It's a needless trip, since my employer has come up a few million short. |
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Miami
Beach! New Orleans! Maui! All on a corporate TV
tour in the spring of '85. |
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Scenes from a 1986 TV show featuring the lovely Rebecca DeMornay. |
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Hanging out at the Pan Am Games, occasionally running off to work telecasts elsewhere. |
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I held CBS on my fingertips. |
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If WOBC were all-news, how would I organize it? |
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Adventures in making a training video for security guards. |
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Hour-by-hour details of telecasting a Pirates baseball game, with pictures of me and my colleages. |
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The 1988 Summer Olympics in Korea. |
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My work in 1988-89 involves Las Vegas, logos, a helicopter getaway, and a French T-shirt. |
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Transcribed from MST3K. |
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More than two dozen video frames from 1989-90 Pirates baseball telecasts, including commercials. |
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1990 |
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Why everything on my TV screen was magenta. |
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More adventures take me to Tokyo and London. Also, technical details about my Chyron designs. |
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A visiting TV director whom we all despised, because the feeling seemed to be mutual. |
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I
get to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame while pondering rusty towns,
blood pressure, and Bach performance. |
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I never posed with the Stanley Cup, but I did receive a visitation. |
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The 1996 Olympics, followed by baseball and C-USA football on Fox Sports Net, long travel days, and more. |
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Brayett,
Mitch Miller, 9/11, and the climax of my football and baseball travels. |
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2000 |
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I work in sports television, but not as an announcer. |
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Hooking up at the new baseball field in March 2001. |
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High-definition TV may make it possible to change camera angles less often. |
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Pittsburgh-area sports TV folks gather in December 2001. |
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Keeping track of 131 channels requires more than one TV. |
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There was a lot of sitting around at Salt Lake City 2002. |
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A lesson in TV production. |
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Surveying Pitt's new basketball arena with an eye to TV. |
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In rainy Santa Monica for tennis, snowy Buffalo for hockey, and frigid Pittsburgh for high school football. |
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An NMT mobile unit makes a movie appearance; some cast members later star in Schitt's Creek. There's singing. |
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I'm behind the scenes as the denomination holds its quadrennial General Conference. |
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Why radio stations should identify the music they're playing. |
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We can put six camera angles and a lot of stats on a high-def TV screen, but should we? |
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Creating high-definition TV pictures that will be compatible with your old ten-inch black-and-white set. |
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Fox News Channel's bigger fonts flll a wide screen that everyone can see, even viewers with old TVs. |
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2010 |
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Hockey in French and Division II hoops in California. |
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Details of how I prepared the Chyron the day before our Opening Day telecast. |
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Laying out a graphics package for the Vulcan Sports Network. |
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Oberlin welcomes back my classmate the science radio star and dedicates a new football stadium. |
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My abbreviated single-page index to high school football graphics, with instructions to decipher it. |
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Two comedy sketches about interpreters with different approaches to literal translation. |
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2020 |
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Working less every year after age 66, I finally retire at age 73. The pandemic has something to do with it. |
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Pitt's radio crew doesn't go to games during COVID-19; they describe what I'm watching on TV. |
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The live reveal of the first pictures from the James Webb Space Telescope isn't a smooth telecast. |
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My
first real job is with a tiny local operation where I have to do
just about everything. 
Oddly, "World News Tonight" saves all its commercials (and
a little bit of news) for its second half.
Some
shorter notes refer to my experiences as a broadcasting student and
professional and a cable subscriber, while others refer to
broadcasting in general. Click the boxes for lists in the
following categories:
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My Experiences |
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Radio and TV in General |
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