Yet Another Old Perserved VTR Recording

[W3XWT]

It’s not often that an old B&W VTR of local origination from a non-major market station crops up. But, here’s one circa 1961 from WIS-TV channel 10 in Columbia, South Carolina. (A year earlier, this was the first TV station I’d set foot in, courtesy of my then 76-year-old grandfather who wanted to see inside a radio and TV station when WIS had an open house to celebrate the 30th anniversary of WIS radio.) The announcers on this program were “borrowed” from WIS-AM (560 kc), with one slipping and saying “listening”…! With the exception of the main transmitter, it’s likely that everything was still 1953 RCA, although WIS-TV did carry color off the NBC-TV network. (WIS-TV went to a 1526’ (1546’ HAAT (1877’ AMSL!) tower in the vicinity of Lugoff and Elgin, S.C. in Kershaw County a couple of years earlier –with another RCA rig. They ran 316 KW visual and 63.2 KW aural. Before that, they had a 582’ (643’ HAAT) tower behind the studio building, running 265 KW visual and 160 KW aural. (Originally 106.5 KW Visual, IIRC)) They sold off much of the old tower years ago to the S.C. highway department.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w0hanSL_nM

By contrast, here’s a clip from the first WIS-TV newscast in HD… Notice how the cameras tracks one of the anchors!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcA3j6a0kpg

73,

John
W3XWT/4