So, what did Zenith do to make their CRT's fail quicker?

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

My grammar school had B&W sets installed when NYC's educational channel 13 (ancestor of PBS) went on the air around 1961 or so. These sets were rarely used, maybe they saw 10 hours a year. We did watch some badly written anti-drug shows (just like sex ed at the time, they didn't want to really say what they were talking about).

In the '80's, my elementary school had a ton of those commercial grade steel cabinet RCA CTC39 tube sets connected to Sony U-matic tape machines all housed on roll about steel carts. We usually watched interesting films such as: tornado safety, '50's cold war era "what to do" in case of nuclear attack, and films on nutrition. If we were good, they would take us into the library and show us a tape of "Sesame Street" or some animated cartoon. There was one newer '80's era 25" particleboard Zenith with pull on volume knob and a green LED channel readout connected to a Panasonic U-matic tape machine. I don't think the school got a regular VHS player until '87 or so (and, it was donated). Even in the '80's, our school system was about 15-20 years behind on technology. Heck, that school didn't even have A/C until late '88.

In '89, the school system caught up a little when they installed 19" Magnavox sets in all the classrooms. They were used to show a short "news" broadcast called "channel one" every morning and they were also connected to a CCTV system located in the library. I think the TV's were donated by the communications company that produced "channel one". If a teacher wanted to show a film, he/she just had the library feed it to their classroom. I think those TV's are still in use.

For some reason, my 10th grade Biology classroom didn't get one of those newer TV's and there was still one of the old tube RCA's in there for "channel one" use. The last time I saw it play, it needed some 6GH8's bad. That was back around '92-'93 and I'm sure that set has long since been dumped.

[andy]

000

[wa2ise]

My high school, around 1971, had a B&W video tape machine. And a couple B&W monitors to go with it. It may have been a "U-matic" but I don't remember clearly what it was. The student newspaper did newscasts that were played during lunch hour in the cafeteria. "And yesterday Joey set the school record on the number of "milkies" (those little cartons of milk with pictures of USA Presidents on them) drank at one sitting, 15 of them".

[Jeffhs]

When I was in high school (1972-'75) in suburban Cleveland, we had a rather elaborate (by 1970s standards) closed-circuit television system. Three channels in the beginning (2, 4, 6), three b&w Sony VTRs (CV series, IIRC), and three monitors in the control room. Channel 2's monitor was a 1960s Zenith 19" B&W TV; channels 4 and 6 used small (5") Sony b&w sets. All of our programming was from video tape, programs taped almost exclusively from the Cleveland NET (now PBS) affiliate and school events such as football games, concerts and the like, although we did take a stab at a live newscast in my senior year. I could tell you lots of stories from those days, as I was a member of our school's AV/TV crew and spent quite a bit of time with the CCTV system (camera operator for live tapings, control room operator lots of times during free periods, et al.).

We got our first and only color channel, channel 7, in my senior year. The VTR was a Sony AV-series color machine, the control-room monitor was a 25" RCA "Lyceum" TV (with the control panel to the right of the CRT, looking at the set from the front). We used RF modulators ("mini-mods", as we called them) to create the signals allowing us to send the videotaped programming over what must have been hundreds of feet if not a mile or more of coax cables behind the walls, terminating in the classrooms to F-type connectors mounted in standard electrical outlet boxes, to any or all classrooms in the school building.

I miss those days, although I think of them quite often when I use my video equipment (TV, VCR, DVD player) here in my apartment. I moved from the suburb my school was in some 34 years ago and haven't been back since, so I don't know what the CCTV system there is like these days--if it's still around (I heard, a year or so after I graduated, that the amateur radio club, of which I was also a member, had disbanded; I don't know whether or even if the club has been reinstated--I've been away far too long and have gotten out of touch with all the guys I knew there).

However, my experiences on the A/V and TV crew are memories that will be with me for many years to come. Some of those experiences could have parallelled those in the 1980s TV series "WKRP in Cincinnati", but never mind. I wouldn't have missed any of it for the world.

[bgadow]

Mostly our schools had 25v "old-logo" Magnavox table models, woodgrain cabinets. Our elementary school had one on a cart with a Panasonic U-Matic. In high school the classrooms in the newer part had these mounted on the wall. In elementary a couple of the classrooms had early 60s bw 21 inchers-one a Motorola, another had an Admiral. The only time I ever recall one being fired up was for a shuttle launch or some such, and it wouldn't work. There was also a lone GE KE chassis color set, 23v, on a cart. I only recall seeing it in use once, when they connected it up with the Maggie/U-Matic so a larger audience could see the program. I can recall that the GE had no color. Wish I had it now. In middle school they had a late model GE 19" with a VHS machine; the teacher in charge of A/V had all kinds of neat stuff piled in the back of his classroom, like a Sony reel-to-reel video deck that worked (he demonstrated it one day; someday I need to ask him if he kept it when he retired) and a 19" Zenith color set that was either a tube chassis or a very early CCII.

[zenith2134]

My high school had early 90s magnavox's in all the rooms. They were 20" 4:3 sets mounted on little swivel stands attached to the walls of the rooms. Rarely used, I remember they were set up all wrong and had terribly washed out black levels for the most part.

In elementary school I remember a 25" RCA on a cart. Probably a CTC-120 or so.

[AUdubon5425]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

In '89, the school system caught up a little when they installed 19" Magnavox sets in all the classrooms. They were used to show a short "news" broadcast called "channel one" every morning and they were also connected to a CCTV system located in the library. I think the TV's were donated by the communications company that produced "channel one". If a teacher wanted to show a film, he/she just had the library feed it to their classroom. I think those TV's are still in use.

We got the same thing at my high school around '91 - Channel One did provide the sets, 19" Magnavoxes on swivel wall mounts. My school did not make use of the CCTV capabilities other than broadcasting Ch. One - we still used the old metal cabinet analog tuned sets hooked up to c.1980 top-loading VCRs on rollaround carts to watch anything else. I do remember we could pick up the local cable channels on the new sets though.

(Channel One rant here)
Our 15-20 minute homeroom period changed, as the faculty was pretty adamant that we watched and paid attention to those stupid (imo) Channel One news broadcasts and their commercials. Personally, I had been watching the local morning news since I was in the 6th or 7th grade and had no interest in these hip, dumbed-down "newscasts." I raised an ethical issue about an archdiocesan school forcing it's students to watch commercials, but the brothers & priests were disposed of by then and, like most everything else with the Church down here, it was all about the money (free TVs.) I wound up using Ch. One as an avenue for humor, cracking jokes about much of their subject material.

I have no idea if Channel One or the sets still exist, as I haven't set foot in my high school in 16 years.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Trance88

I'm guessing all hotels these days are quickly switching to the plasma widescreens. Who knows what kind of problems could pop up in these!

Plasma TVs are about the worst thing they could put in hotel rooms, compared to CRTs or LCDs. I stay in a lot of different hotels and so far they have all still had CRT TVs. I never even turn the TV on in my room anymore, since I always bring my laptop, and the TVs are always horribly misadjusted. I used to adjust the TV for a decent picture first thing when I got in a hotel, but the newer sets have menus (of course) instead of knobs, and the menus are usually locked out. I tried a Pocket PC that included a universal remote control program a couple times, but I didn't get very far and it was not worth the trouble to try any harder.

High-end hotels do already have flat-panel TVs, though.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by AUdubon5425

(Channel One rant here)

I remember the big controversy when the Channel One service was first announced. They would provide free TVs to schools and a ten-minute newscast each day, provided that their two minutes of commercials were shown to the students as well. I always thought, "What a wasted opportunity", when the service was just rejected because of the required commercials (or if the service was just accepted as-is). What the schools should have done, is to accept the TVs and service, show it each day, and then discuss the commercials afterward. They could have taught the students how to be better consumers and shoppers, and how to see through the commercial messages. "Notice how the Pepsi commercial has good-looking people in it... But, they are only actors, and now lets talk about the calories and sugar in soft drinks compared to water or fruit juices." "That basketball player with the exciting shoes only wears them because the shoe company pays him thousands of dollars." And so on...

[AUdubon5425]

You have a very good point Chris - I never thought about that.

Thinking back, I don't remember a great variety in the commercials aired, so that may have been a dead discussion rather quickly.

[andy]

000

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by AUdubon5425

Personally, I had been watching the local morning news since I was in the 6th or 7th grade and had no interest in these hip, dumbed-down "newscasts."

I know exactly what you mean. I live near Cleveland; the local newscasts on the major network affiliates (channels 3, 5 and 19) are nothing like how I remember them from 30+ years ago. Those 1970s-era newscasts had anchors who actually looked and sounded as if they belong on television, and they didn't clown around either. This whole monkey business started maybe 20-30 years ago, when a TV news format called "happy talk" swept the nation's local newscasts; unfortunately, it stuck and will be with us I don't know how long, probably for many, many years to come.

Today, 30-odd years later, it's a completely different landscape as far as TV news in Cleveland (and the rest of the US) is concerned. The anchors still report the news as they are paid to do (channel 3, the NBC affiliate for this area, has a motto, "Report the facts. Respect the truth"), but the manner in which they do it just leaves me cold.

I just remembered, after reading a news item on Broadcasting&Cable.com a few minutes ago (I'm writing this on 02.16.09, one day after originally posting this message) why I like (and have liked for over 35 years) watching channel 3 news. The newscasts on WKYC-TV channel 3 in Cleveland are actually among Cleveland's better local news programs; their motto, which I quoted elsewhere in this post, says it all. The same article in B&C.com also had an observation that WOIO-TV 19's local news is "noisy" and very much resembles tabloid newspapers; this is why I do not care for the station's local newscasts. Channel 3 is not as bad as I said it was; in fact, 19 could take some lessons from channel 3's news department, although I don't think they will, since WOIO-TV has defined itself as an "unconventional" television station which apparently does things its own way, the other stations in the Cleveland market be darned.

This, among other quirks the station has, makes me very sorry that they picked up the CBS network from channel 8 a decade ago or more. With all the quirks and fluff channel 19's "Action News" has, I don't think the station deserves to be an affiliate of a major US television network; it should have remained with FOX or become an independent, and CBS should have remained at channel 8.

CBS wouldn't have moved from channel 8 to channel 19 over a decade ago if FOX hadn't purchased the former station from its previous owner (as it did with stations in several other markets across the country). That sale caused channel 8 to drop CBS and pick up FOX in the blink of an eye, and channel 19 to do the reverse. The result? A no-holds-barred Wild West newscast on channel 19 with the CBS Evening News at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time.

Of all stations in this market to pick up CBS, why the devil did it have to be channel 19? Crying out loud, the station didn't even have a local newscast until about the mid-'90s.

The only time I watch the so-called "local" news is if I should miss the world news at 6:30 p.m. local time; otherwise, I don't bother with the six or eleven o'clock newscasts. These programs mostly cover Cleveland and the suburbs, hardly ever mentioning small towns such as the village in which I live, not to mention another even smaller village near here. When I lived in a Cleveland suburb (that's all of my life until I was 43--I'm 52 now), I was interested in the suburban news from other parts of the area, not to mention Cleveland (as I had relatives there at the time--I still have one aunt who lives in the city), but since most of my older relatives have passed on, and since I don't really know anyone anymore (except two cousins and an old friend of mine) in the suburb in which I grew up, I have little reason anymore to know much of anything that goes on in the city of Cleveland or its suburbs.

I don't get the Cleveland newspaper anymore, but I do have a subscription to a local paper that covers all of Lake County, Ohio (where my current residence and my former one are located) and the part of Cleveland in which my aunt lives, so if there is anything I really should know I can find it in that newspaper. The TV news in this area won't say much about Lake County or any other place further east than the Cleveland suburb of Euclid, so as I said, these newscasts are of little value to me anymore.

I realize times change, but what the changing times have done to local TV news leaves me cold. The previous poster said the newscasts in the New Orleans area are "hip (and) dumbed down"; well, that's apparently a trend that has swept the nation, including Cleveland and other cities. Sheeesh, even the NBC station in Cleveland has laid off many of its on-air staff because of the state of the economy; there is one man working weekends at that station (whom I cannot stand watching, even when he used to work at channel 8 in the seventies, when that station was still a CBS affiliate, before they switched it to that poor excuse for a TV network called FOX), who anchors all three of its newscasts--noon, six and eleven p.m. The station used to have a full staff of weekday/weekend anchors.....oh well.

That's the way it's going these days, like it or not. What local TV news will be like five years from now is anyone's guess.

Please don't get me started on the media storm that hit after NBC named David Gregory as the moderator of that network's "Meet the Press". I could not believe the to-do they (and the rest of the news media) made over the fact that Gregory is six feet five inches tall! What difference does (or should) that make? I'm sure NBC, after all, has other people in their employ who are at least as tall as Mr. Gregory is. Who cares (or should care) how tall he is, as long as he does a decent job moderating MTP? Why was such a fuss made over this in the first place?

I no longer watch NBC national/world news because of the foregoing, unless the other two networks have preempted their news for sports events (and the latter run past 6:30 p.m. local time). I think NBC had better clean up its act, and soon. This network, after all, was the first TV network in the nation (and America's first radio network as well, until GE disbanded it and sold all of NBC's O&O [owned and operated] radio stations), and, in its heyday, IMO, had some of the best programs Hollywood had to offer. NBC was also the first television network to go full-color.

All of the foregoing was done under RCA's ownership of the network. All GE cares about is money (so what else is new?).

Meanwhile, the network and its programming continue to sink lower and lower. I'm surprised it hasn't sunk out of sight already, amid the other networks competing against it for viewers (CNN, FOX News, et al). NBC used to say that their network's nightly news was America's #1 newscast. I don't know if it is any longer. A television station in Cleveland, the CBS affiliate on channel 19, also proudly announces, with a screen using slanted, bold letters at least four inches high, that its six and eleven p.m. news programs are Cleveland's #1 rated newscasts. I beg to differ. I think channel 19's news is Cleveland's answer to the news program on the old Mary Tyler Moore Show on CBS in the '70s. That program had a poor excuse for a newscaster by the name of Ted Baxter, on WJM-TV's newscasts. He was funny there (and was meant to be), but Channel 19 in Cleveland has a slew of Ted Baxters working on its newscasts, many of whom are news anchors. The weather forecaster is one of the worst I've seen on Cleveland television in my life; dancing around the studio as he does the forecast, waving his hands around, et al.

And these people are professional newscasters? I don't think so. That is, they may be in the business, but the manner in which they present the evening news, IMO, leaves one heck of a lot to be desired. Channel 19 defends the style of its newscasts by stating (this has been in print in the local newspaper) that it is an unconventional television station and, as such, will do its newscasts in an offbeat manner completely unlike the other three Cleveland network TV stations.

I don't watch this newscast (19 Action News) for just that reason. I am all but convinced that, these days, Cleveland is where a TV news anchor either begins or ends his or her career; many former anchors at Cleveland stations have gone on to bigger and better things in important markets such as Chicago, New York or Los Angeles (I don't consider Cleveland an "important" media market anymore), but how they are doing at their new stations, I don't know. I certainly hope they don't pull the same monkey business they did when they were in the Cleveland market.

I don't know if or when the powers-that-be at channel 19 will wise up and cut out the nonsense on their local news. However, I guess enough viewers must like their style of newscasting; otherwise, the station would have abandoned their "Action News" format some time ago.

Please, whatever you do, don't get me started on CNN. That network has to be one of the most dramatic news networks on cable today. I mean it: CNN itself is more a clearinghouse for Hollywood news and gossip than a pure news channel, especially at night and on the weekends, and boy, do they ever overdramatize the stories they report. CNN Headline News isn't much better. What does Turner Broadcasting think it's doing? Are they running news channels or the television version of scandal sheets such as The National Enquirer, et al.? If the latter, they can forget me as a viewer.

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by AUdubon5425

We got the same thing at my high school around '91 - Channel One did provide the sets, 19" Magnavoxes on swivel wall mounts. My school did not make use of the CCTV capabilities other than broadcasting Ch. One - we still used the old metal cabinet analog tuned sets hooked up to c.1980 top-loading VCRs on rollaround carts to watch anything else. I do remember we could pick up the local cable channels on the new sets though.

(Channel One rant here)
Our 15-20 minute homeroom period changed, as the faculty was pretty adamant that we watched and paid attention to those stupid (imo) Channel One news broadcasts and their commercials. Personally, I had been watching the local morning news since I was in the 6th or 7th grade and had no interest in these hip, dumbed-down "newscasts." I raised an ethical issue about an archdiocesan school forcing it's students to watch commercials, but the brothers & priests were disposed of by then and, like most everything else with the Church down here, it was all about the money (free TVs.) I wound up using Ch. One as an avenue for humor, cracking jokes about much of their subject material.

I have no idea if Channel One or the sets still exist, as I haven't set foot in my high school in 16 years.

There were a few teachers at my high school that would unplug the TV from the AC outlet when channel one came on. They saw it as 12 minutes of wasted time that was cutting into already limited educational time. My 10th grade English teacher would allow it, provided 100% of the class was glued to the TV. If someone made the slightest noise, the TV got unplugged. In the more liberal teacher's classes, we'd just use that 12 minutes to socialize and act up, not paying a bit of attention to their so-called "news" broadcast. Whatever the situation, I always liked that 12 minute interruption because that was 12 minutes that I wasn't having to do algebra equations or having to engage in "critical thinking" for English class.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by Trance88

When I was in 9th grade back in '03-'04, my high school consists of a separate freshman campus building from the main high school building for 10-12 graders. The freshman campus building used primarily Zenith sets in all the classrooms which were from around 1994. These sets were still going very strong back in 2006, which was the last time I ever went to the freshman campus. Many of them are constantly used on a daily basis to display daily announcements and stuff like that.

I was very impressed with the picture and sound quality of these sets too.

when I was in grade school from 1973 - 1979, we had these old Setchell/Carlson B&W TV's:



I remember they had a "standby" position as well just to keep the tube filaments warm.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

I know exactly what you mean. I live near Cleveland; the local newscasts on the major network affiliates (channels 3, 5 and 19) are nothing like how I remember them from 30+ years ago. Those 1970s-era newscasts had anchors who actually looked and sounded as if they belong on television, and they didn't clown around either. This whole monkey business started maybe 20-30 years ago, when a TV news format called "happy talk" swept the nation's local newscasts; unfortunately, it stuck and will be with us I don't know how long, certainly long after the digital transition if not for many, many years to come.

Today, 30-odd years later, it's a completely different landscape as far as TV news in Cleveland (and the rest of the US) is concerned. The anchors still report the news as they are paid to do (channel 3, the NBC affiliate for this area, has a motto, "Report the facts. Respect the truth"), but the manner in which they do it just leaves me cold.

The only time I watch the so-called "local" news is if I should miss the world news at 6:30 p.m. local time; otherwise, I don't bother with the six or eleven o'clock newscasts. These programs mostly cover Cleveland and the suburbs, hardly ever mentioning small towns such as the village in which I live, not to mention another even smaller village near here. When I lived in a Cleveland suburb (that's all of my life until I was 43--I'm 52 now), I was interested in the suburban news from other parts of the area, not to mention Cleveland (as I had relatives there at the time--I still have one aunt who lives in the city), but since most of my older relatives have passed on, and since I don't really know anyone anymore (except two cousins and an old friend of mine) in the suburb in which I grew up, I have little reason anymore to know much of anything that goes on in the city of Cleveland or its suburbs.

I don't get the Cleveland newspaper anymore, but I do have a subscription to a local paper that covers all of Lake County, Ohio (where my current residence and my former one are located) and the part of Cleveland in which my aunt lives, so if there is anything I really should know I can find it in that newspaper. The TV news in this area won't say much about Lake County or any other place further east than the Cleveland suburb of Euclid, so as I said, these newscasts are of little value to me anymore.

I realize times change, but what the changing times have done to local TV news leaves me cold. The previous poster said the newscasts in the New Orleans area are "hip (and) dumbed down"; well, that's apparently a trend that has swept the nation, including Cleveland and other cities. Sheeesh, even the NBC station in Cleveland has laid off many of its on-air staff because of the state of the economy; there is one man working weekends at that station (whom I cannot stand watching, even when he used to work at channel 8 in the seventies, when that station was still a CBS affiliate, before they switched it to that poor excuse for a TV network called FOX), who anchors all three of its newscasts--noon, six and eleven p.m. The station used to have a full staff of weekday/weekend anchors.....oh well.

That's the way it's going these days, like it or not. What local TV news will be like five years from now is anyone's guess. Even the world news on one network (NBC) has gone to pot since NBC was sold to General Electric from RCA in 1986, which is why I've been watching ABC news the last few years or so, and will continue to watch it (or CBS news) until or unless NBC cleans up its act and starts producing a professional national news program, without the clowning around. I personally do not like the manner in which they identify their reporters on-screen during the newscasts; the reporter's first name is shown in capital letters in thin style; the person's last name is shown also in caps, but a very bold type style is used. For example: The manner in which NBC would identify Tom Brokaw would be as follows: TOM BROKAW, and below it, "NBC News", which would be replaced a few seconds later by the location from which the person was reporting.

Please don't get me started on the media storm that hit after NBC named David Gregory as the moderator of that network's "Meet the Press". I could not believe the to-do they (and the rest of the news media) made over the fact that Gregory is six feet five inches tall! What difference does (or should) that make? I'm sure NBC, after all, has other people in their employ who are at least as tall as Mr. Gregory is. Who cares (or should care) how tall he is, as long as he does a decent job moderating MTP? Why was such a fuss made over this in the first place?

I no longer watch NBC news because of the foregoing, unless the other two networks have preempted their news for sports events (and the latter run past 6:30 p.m. local time). I think NBC had better clean up its act, and soon. This network, after all, was the first TV network in the nation (and America's first radio network as well, until GE disbanded it and sold all of NBC's O&O [owned and operated] radio stations), and, in its heyday, IMO, had some of the best programs Hollywood had to offer. NBC was also the first television network to go full-color.

All of the foregoing was done under RCA's ownership of the network. All GE cares about is money (so what else is new?).

Meanwhile, the network and its programming continue to sink lower and lower. I'm surprised it hasn't sunk out of sight already, amid the other networks competing against it for viewers (CNN, FOX News, et al). NBC used to say that their network's nightly news was America's #1 newscast. I don't know if it is any longer. A television station in Cleveland, the CBS affiliate on channel 19, also proudly announces, with a screen using slanted, bold letters at least four inches high, that its six and eleven p.m. news programs are Cleveland's #1 rated newscasts. I beg to differ. I think channel 19's news is Cleveland's answer to the news program on the old Mary Tyler Moore Show on CBS in the '70s. That program had a poor excuse for a newscaster by the name of Ted Baxter, on WJM-TV's newscasts. He was funny there (and was meant to be), but Channel 19 in Cleveland has a slew of Ted Baxters working on its newscasts, many of whom are news anchors. The weather forecaster is one of the worst I've seen on Cleveland television in my life; dancing around the studio as he does the forecast, waving his hands around, et al.

And these people are professional newscasters? I don't think so. That is, they may be in the business, but the manner in which they present the evening news, IMO, leaves one heck of a lot to be desired. Channel 19 defends the style of its newscasts by stating (this has been in print in the local newspaper) that it is an unconventional television station and, as such, will do its newscasts in an offbeat manner completely unlike the other three Cleveland network TV stations.

I don't watch this newscast (19 Action News) for just that reason. I am all but convinced that, these days, Cleveland is where a TV news anchor either begins or ends his or her career; many former anchors at Cleveland stations have gone on to bigger and better things in important markets such as Chicago, New York or Los Angeles (I don't consider Cleveland an "important" media market anymore), but how they are doing at their new stations, I don't know. I certainly hope they don't pull the same monkey business they did when they were in the Cleveland market. This sort of thing is exactly why channel 3 is almost always at the bottom of the ratings, year after year after year. It has been said that eventually, one Cleveland television station will leave the air for good. I am all but amazed that station isn't channel 3, as its ratings must be at the bottom of the barrel (or worse, if such is possible) by now.

With the economy in the shape it's in, I am amazed as well that some of the smaller suburban radio stations in this area haven't gone silent. One, a small 1kW daytime-only small-town operation about 20-25 miles south of here, did in fact go off the air permanently at 5 p.m. on Memorial Day, about five years ago.

I don't know if or when the powers-that-be at channel 3 (or channel 19, for that matter) will wise up and cut out the nonsense on their local news. I do know this much. Until they do, I'll skip the local news and watch the world news exclusively on ABC or CBS, or else read the local news in the newspaper. At least those networks know how to produce a professional news program. I honestly do not know for the life of me what NBC is trying to prove, with that poor excuse for a news program it calls NBC Nightly News.

Please, whatever you do, don't get me started on CNN. That network has to be one of the most dramatic news networks on cable today. I mean it: CNN itself is more a clearinghouse for Hollywood news and gossip than a pure news channel, especially at night and on the weekends, and boy, do they ever overdramatize the stories they report. CNN Headline News isn't much better. What does Turner Broadcasting think it's doing? Are they running news channels or the television version of scandal sheets such as The National Enquirer, et al.? If the latter, they can forget me as a viewer. I have programmed CNN and CNN Headline News out of the channel scan on my TV for that very reason.

Sheeeeeeesh! What's this world coming to?

There is an interesting news clip of NBC News on Youtube from July 4th, 1972 that went into detail on the planning of America's BiCentennial that will happen 4 years later and about President Nixon making preparations for it. Of course, this was before Watergate got legs and the rest is history so to speak. They then went into a clip of two different celebrations of the 4th. One was Attica Prison in upstate New York showing the prisoners chilling and enjoying themselves to jazz music and the other was parkgoers in Washington DC, listening to a country/bluegrass band where you saw people relaxing, kids running around, people paying games and so on. During these two clips, hardly a word was said, you just saw what the camera saw and the microphones were picking up, the pictures themselves told the story. I sit there and think, those kids in the park are around my age, they are my generation when we were little. I'll be 43 in July. It was refreshing to see that, just sit back, take in the pictures and let them go on with the story.