Broadcast Equipment Failure in Early Television

[Rinehart]

So there is something to be said for television advertising after all. But to be nit-picky here, videotape belongs to a later era than the one that I'm researching. The fault need not be something that would lead to a complete signal loss, but the kind of problem that would lead to the "Do Not Adjust Your Set" slide being sent out. How reliable, for example, were the microwave transmitters on remote broadcast vans; how often would a camera malfunction; how often would film in a telecine jam or tear? (I seem to remember this happening a lot with Star Trek reruns, because the episodes had been aired 700 or so times.)