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, specifically about my college radio
station. To search for specific names or events that might be
listed elsewhere, use this utility:
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In 1948, TV pioneers proposed transmitting from five-mile-high "towers." |
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Discovering an ancient TV show through on-line research. |
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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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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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Letters from my year of study in 1969-70. |
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1970 |
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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 recordings inside the control room during the taping of a student TV program in May, 1970. |
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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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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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My
next job takes me to Washington — the college town of
Washington, PA, that is. |
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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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Be skeptical of the mentalist with a balloon. |
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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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More adventures take me to Tokyo and London. Also, technical details about my Chyron designs. |
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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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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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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, Division II hoops in California |
My
first real job is with a tiny local operation where I have to do
just about everything.
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3D TV from The Masters in April 2010 |
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A $64,000 moment |
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A TV "camera" from 1961; a similar-looking camera on the moon |
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Anchors' intros to reporters' intros to reporters' stories |
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Audiences are aging at the same rate as traditional TV networks |
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Backdrops for TV could have been minimal rather than realistic |
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Baseball on radio has to go to commercial in a hurry |
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Bingo arrives on ABC-TV |
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Broadcasting & Cable among expiring subscriptions |
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Captioning explains what's happening in a commercial |
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Captioning is apparently prerecorded on Saturday Night Live |
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Channel “4” has at least eight other numbers |
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Circus TV; re-pairing a basketball doubleheader |
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Comcast's complex On Demand menu |
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Comcast now brings me 159 unique channels, 34 of them HD |
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Conan and Cardozo |
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Condensed fonts: mixing them with regular fonts to save space |
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Cronkite at age 20 had the same job as I |
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Digital switchover now on staggered schedule; might be a good thing |
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Dirk Kruger remembered |
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Dizzy Dean "slood" into third |
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Don't put me in the credits |
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Dreaming of problem-solving at my former studios |
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"Fantastic Fred" wraps up his career at Providence College |
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Fantastic plot premises leave me cold |
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Flying? None since 2007 for me |
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Graphics were primitive on TV in 1962 and 1952 |
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Harding High School band pre-empted by Cosell |
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High school football "broadcasting" debut is NUHS debut, 1965 |
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Holographic TV is in the future; my concept was in 1960 |
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Honkus, Debbie: award winner |
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Jubies and bummage |
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Kobes: remembering Mike Kobik |
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Laugh tracks: why not screen the show for a real audience? |
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Line painters are unimportant? |
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Lists: oldest first, or most recent first? |
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Literal-minded cameramen |
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Marathon presentations of TV series episodes |
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"Mast cam" provides good location for televising 3D sports |
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Microphone oddity for Groucho and me |
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Mistakes in the telecast of a horse race, with likely explanations |
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Mister Rogers gets a scary statue |
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Mockumentaries: Pay no attention to the fictional cameramen |
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Monk gets good numbers but not good demographics |
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Munich 1972: No translator available |
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NEP's fleet of remote units for the Super Bowl |
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Never font the President! Okay, once I almost did |
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New Girl makes me wonder? Jess! Sí, sí! |
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News story from 1960 as I remember it |
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Old photos: tips for using them on TV |
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Parade-telecasting techniques |
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Penguin wedding on Parks and Recreation |
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Pitt Stadium |
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Predicta: the Edsel of television sets |
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Providing context for statistics |
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Radio music once had more variety |
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Scripts that interleave three story lines |
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Season-ending episodes should be identified, especially cliffhangers |
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Sitcom characters we never saw |
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Soap opera that my grandmother watched goes off the air |
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Specialization in TV production jobs |
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'Splainin'? I can explain everything |
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Split-screen audio |
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Sponsorship: 1950 product placement, 1960 billboards |
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Spreadsheet tracks timing of TV program segments |
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Stylized headshots of newsmakers |
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"Sunday Driver" tours the farms outside town |
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"SunRides Earth" tours a national park in Maine |
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Super Bowl XLII inside the TV trucks |
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Synching live radio with live video |
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"Touch of Evil" and "The Dish" |
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Transfer type; Bud Hedinger lands a video tape "on the moon" |
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TV closed-captioning goofs |
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TV is becoming less tapeworthy |
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TV movies are 37% commercials |
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TV production trucks: Rows of computers |
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TV shows that invite you to leave them? |
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Two-strip Technicolor in silent movies; other updates |
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Using ancient Shatner footage |
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Viewers of a TV station are not its customers |
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Widescreen TV on the wall — in 1966 |
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Working half as hard and earning twice as much |
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Yvonne Strahovski's two front teeth |
