Newark Schools Television

Link: http://wgsf.oldgleaner.com/

The main item of business following the final day of broadcasting, June 30, 1976 at WGSF Television was to sever the links to the broadcast world. The FCC license to broadcast was formally returned to the Federal Communications Commission. Many steps had already been taken, such as scheduling the cut-off of feeds from PBS, O/NET, and the press feeds for news. Now the equipment itself had to be relinquished to the various agencies.
The Channel 31 Mobile Production van was deeded to the Ohio Historical Society, along with some equipment and programming records.
The Telephone company came to take down the microwave dish that had provided our PBS feed. I jokingly commented that if they didn't want the antenna, I would take it. A little later, one of the men came in and asked if I was serious about taking the antenna. Seems that the truck they brought wasn't big enough to hold a ten-foot diameter parabolic dish antenna. I said that I really would take it (for a possible ham radio use). They called back to the office in Columbus, where it was determined that they could not just give it to me; I would/could pay for it, though. How much? The grand sum of $4.00!

The WGSF files were transferred to the Board of Education Office downtown. The WGSF office on 5th Street was cleaned out, and a new occupant moved in. Secretary Ellen Wolfe was transferred to a clerical job at the Board of Education.
There were still many telephone calls - the mail and calls would continue for many years. Some people seem to never get the word!
Alice Armstrong came up to make copies of some of her music education programs. There were a few visitors to the station on Horn's Hill, but it was, for the most part, a quiet, lonely summer.
There had, of course, been discussions as to how best to utilize the equipment that remained, and especially how to integrate the television service into the overall Audio-Visual/Media program. There was very little in the way of video tape equipment in the Newark School System in 1976. Most of it was located on Horn's Hill, not the most convenient way to service the classrooms. Finally, a room was found on the Newark High School campus, in 'E' Building. This room measured only 9 x 18 feet, but was enough to set up a shelf with several video tape recorders. Tapes could be made, then taken to the classroom for playback on one of two available reel-to-reel machines on a TV Cart.
I still had access to the old blue route van from WGSF, and it made many trips up and down The Hill that summer of '76!
The beginning of the school year was not the end of frequent excursions to the station, but the room was ready to go!
Room '15 E' became the "TV Center" and I quickly became responsible for the scheduling and movement of the TV/VTR Carts.

Motion picture films were once the mainstay of media resource centers in schools. You could obtain films for just about any subject. My job included setting up up the projector and requested film before a class started. I would run part of the film to adjust the focus and check the sound, then switch to ‘Reverse Play’ to go back to the beginning of the film. Of course the picture movement was backward, and so was the sound. It sounded something like, “ weep dwroop vfoo scrahees det”, making no sense at all. One day I noticed a student watching, seemingly fascinated by the reverse process, as I made my check on a film about Japan. Jokingly I said, “ Isn’t that interesting? You play it foreword, it’s English but play it backward, and it’s Japanese.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “That’s pretty cool!”
Total acceptance!
I wish people were as quick to believe the true facts rather than myth, fable and rumor.
Phonograph records were also the subject of myth and fable. Numerous records were purported to have messages recorded backwards in them. You could hear incantations, dirty words and the like, if you played them backwards. ‘Backwards’ was not easy to do on a regular record player, but a professional turntable like we just happened to have in the TV Center would work. We had a steady stream of ‘believers’ wanting to check it out. Even the theme song to “Mr. Ed”, the program about a talking horse, was supposed to have something. They seldom came up with anything that sounded remotely like the rumored message.
For the most part, it was silly, good fun; we were willing to oblige them in their searches.