Link: http://oldgleaner.com/wgsf_tv/images/Studio1.jpg

INNOVATION & IMPROVISATION -

WGSF was always short of finances and equipment, but - fortunately - long on improvisation and innovation!
Here are a few examples of techniques and "tricks" use at the station.
Leland Hubbell (Mr. H)

WGSF Studio 1967
01/11/09 21:56
Camera Dolly

Unconventional Camera Dolly.
There were no dollies or tripods at WGSF to support the RCA TK-30 cameras when WGSF first received them from WJW-TV.
An impromptu mount was constructed, and it worked! I took a wide board, cut a hole to fit the pan/tilt head, and mounted it to the cart as seen in the photo.
This is the 'infamous' Blue Cart: It served many different functions over the years, at times even as a "mini-mote" production utility.
I think that the blue cart was built by the Industrial Arts (Shop)
department. The Newark High School shop department again came to our aid, building two tripod/dolly units that also be adjusted up and down. Mr. Defenbaugh and perhaps some others were responsible.
Bill Clifford operating the camera; Scott Elliott, seated; John Hall with WGSF sign.
Scott Elliott worked for many years at WCET Cincinnati, the station that loaned us the Dumont TV Cameras in 1966; he died of cancer a few years ago.
John and Bill are members of the WGSF Group here on-line.

I thought it to be a good opener picture.
The Blue Cart was used for all sorts of duties, first at the station, and then at the TV Center at Newark High School. It was still there when I retired in 1995, but they have dumped a lot of stuff since then, so I don't know if it is still around or not.

A later view of the studio, with a camera on one of the tripod/dollies:
Studio With cameras

Can You Hear Me Now?

What do you do when you arrive at a 'remote' taping, only to discover that you have left the microphones back at the station?
And the game is about to start?
Well, you could rant and rave, stomp about, risking apoplexy. Or you could do what I did:
We did have an older style dynamic headset with a 'standard' phone plug. It may sound like putting the cart before the horse, but an old permanent magnet type headphone will work like a microphone, as I had discovered in my youthful experimenting period. We just plugged the headphone into the microphone input jack, spoke that famous phrase, "Can You Hear Me Now?" - and maybe a "test, test." Not the highest quality sound, maybe, but sure beats the alternative.
Try it some time - you non-believers!

Time Base "Corrector?"

WGSF was never fortunate enough to own a video tape recorder that was the standard in most stations through the 1960's and '70's - a 2-inch quadrature (4 head) machine. Small, portable video camera and tape combination machines didn't even come close to broadcast technical standards.
We entered our I&I mode, and hit the road with a couple of portable B&W reel-to-reel units. They used the EIAJ format, popular at the time for non-broadcast purposes. A reporter could go just about anywhere with these hand-held units, covering news assignments in sound and picture.
Back at the station, we converted the videos to broadcast stability by playing the tapes to a jig composed of a small video monitor and TV camera. Sure, the quality suffered a little, but was about like that of a "kinescope recording," except the kinescope system used a 16m film camera, rather than our TV camera.
Most stations at the time depended on news "pics," or 16mm film. The process required a film developing system, with the time-lag of processing the film, and getting it air-ready.
We pre-dated the timebase corrector systems! Later, WGSF had a true time-base corrector, but we continued to utilize the Panasonic and Sony reel-to-reel, EIAJ format system.