Every local TV station in the United States evolved from the vision, personality and brilliance of the original pioneers, driven to invent, discover and produce the most popular TV possible.

TV production was completely different than film or live stage, it was all electronic and usually sponsored. Lighting, frame composition, camera shading and audio were all unique to TV. There was no template, no preferred F-stops; live TV was 4:3, and it needed lots of light. Beyond the public brand, the early TV pioneers made nearly every local station’s internal operation distinct. The workflow depended on directors, producers, sales, traffic and engineering.

I began as a vacation relief engineer at WDAF AM-FM-TV in 1967, one of the first of the 2^nd generation of TV engineers. All the originals were military vets. I was hired primarily because I was a ham radio operator like most other engineers. WDAF-TV was the first commercial TV station in the Kansas City market. It was also the center of a Landmark 1957 U.S. Supreme Court Decision: U.S. v Kansas City Star.

Media Bullies Aren’t New

The first U.S. commercial radio station was KDKA in 1920. Kansas City Star Newspapers obtained a license for WDAF radio in 1922. The KC Star newspapers were the local news media monopoly, and it began selling ad packages that tied newspaper advertising to WDAF radio ads. Clients couldn’t advertise only in the paper or the radio. Star ad sales policy was all media or nothing. Advertisers complained, but the broadcast and print ad sales packaging policy continued for decades, and nearly another decade after WDAF-TV signed on in 1949.

Eventually, several major local media advertisers filed for criminal antitrust protection. The Star’s advertising package policy ended in the U.S. Supreme Court 1957 decision that the Star could not own broadcast stations in the same market as its newspapers. WDAF radio and TV were sold, and things seemed relatively calm when I was the kid they hired in 1967.

Mutiny On Signal Hill

Broadcasting in 1967 was a bit like the old wild west. It was before Human Resources, security teams, interns, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) regulations and U-matics without TBCs on TV. Until then, the FCC didn’t care much about new video technology.

Before cable, over-the-air TV was the only TV source. There were only three or four channels to choose from, and few TV sets had remote controls. It wasn’t unusual for a local evening newscast to get a 50% or higher share, and ad rates reflected that level of market penetration.

At the time, the WDAF TV VP/GM and Program Director were twin brothers who secretly started a new independent TV station. It was directly across the street from the WDAF studios on Signal Hill and formed during the turmoil of post-KC Star ownership changes. A couple of other engineers and I installed a super-secure intercom line through the station attic through solid steel conduit between the twins’ private intercom devices. Something was up.

The twins quietly hired some of the best WDAF people and setup a sweetheart tower and transmitter space lease on the WDAF-TV site before the new WDAF owners realized what was happening. The new station eventually replaced WDAF-TV as the local NBC-TV affiliate. WDAF-TV became the Fox affiliate.

Local Pioneers Trained In NYC

Many military people received extensive electronics and RF training during WWII and the Korean conflict, and afterwards they were looking for good jobs. The timing of dozens and then hundreds of new local TV stations inventing brands of local TV across the US at the same time couldn’t have worked out better.

WDAF was a long-time NBC radio network affiliate when WDAF-TV became the local NBC-TV affiliate. As the station was being built and electronics ordered, several new engineers went to New York City for training at WNBT-TV (now WNBC). That’s where the local TV pioneers that trained me first learned about TV broadcast operations.

Nearly every engineer I worked with invented something useful for the station to improve workflow. Invention was commonly needed at new stations. Nearly all new local TV stations had their own procedures and ways of doing things, such as their internal numbering system for ads, PSAs, promos and local non-news productions, often based on their roots.

In its heyday, WDAF-TV hosted everything from international and local VIPs to weekly high-school, live-band, sock hops, and political town halls, to live professional wrestling every Saturday at Noon. When the wrestlers weren’t beating each other on live TV, they stood around the control room discussing where to eat lunch.

Early Local Operations

Many new TV station systems were based on the procedures of sister radio stations and/or how their networks operated in New York. Every station developed a unique workflow and ecosystem that suited it best. In 1967, most technical people belonged to unions, from IBEW and IATSE, to projectionists, stagehands, and news talent. As the original older union members retired, the local unions gave away many jurisdictions for better retirement benefits. The first to go were union studio camera operators.

Station GMs quickly learned that at 4 AM, lower paid non-union operators are less reliable than engineers paid a good living. Some non-union studio operators just didn’t feel like showing up at 4 AM and never came back. So much for showbiz.

Early-morning studio crews were always short of an operator or two. Managing them with 4 AM calls begging for help from union engineers was a huge headache. Nobody wanted to come in. Morning TV news studios became a minimum-wage revolving door. Automated studio cameras eventually resolved the news set no-show problems.

1967 Master Control

In 1967, local commercial breaks required four technical people and a director; an engineer to switch the video, another engineer to switch/mix audio and play audio carts, a videotape engineer to load, cue, and roll videotapes, a projectionist to edit, cue, and roll film, and director to direct the live commercial breaks. Virtually nothing was remote controlled then.

The commercial break crew all wore PL (party line) headsets and loved sarcastic joking and banter about current spots and/or the show between breaks. They had 10 years of master control PL headset sarcasm and were mockery experts. It was great fun to laugh at stupid TV stuff with a group of seasoned local TV pros. The inside jokes were usually more hilarious than anything on TV. Thank goodness, nobody recorded the PL in those days.

Most WDAF engineers were about 20 years older and glad to learn that the new kid wanted overtime. As a vacation relief engineer, I was trained and became proficient in operating all engineering positions. Mandatory overtime for network sports and special projects kept many engineers separated from their families more than they wanted as they grew older. I made great overtime pay because I could do every job and was nearly always available. My fellow engineers weren’t jealous. They were glad I gave them an opportunity to spend more time with their families. It was my best career win-win ever.

A Day At The Station

In 1967, outside news was shot on 16mm film, developed and printed off-site, and edited with glue at the station before it airs. All other local content originated in the TV studio, live or on 2” videotape. If a VIP wanted to appear live on TV, they had to be ready in the studio, on time. It was before ENG, U-matics, TV vans or live-shots.

It was the year I helped replace its three RCA original black and white studio cameras with two new GE PE-250 color studio cameras. It took three men and a boy to lift a broadcast studio camera off and on a pedestal, and I was the boy. The GE PE-250s were unstable on their best days. TDs spent hours every day trying to make them match and look good.

The NBC TV network signal was delivered to the station over more than 700, 5kHz bandwidth telephone lines multiplexed to decode an analog 3.58 Mhz NTSC color signal. Mono audio was on one 5kHz circuit that sounded like AM radio. A Telco engineer spent a couple of days every week at the station tweaking and equalizing the video lines. 15 kHz stereo audio came when NBC switched to satellite distribution.

Tower Safety

Tower climbing safety regulations didn’t exist until 1971 when OSHA was signed into federal law. WDAF-TV built a new 1000’ tower in 1967 with an internal elevator. Engineers were asked to take local VIPs on tower rides up the tower elevator without any safety gear. The top view was impressive because it was about 300 feet above the nearby glide path into the Kansas City airport. At the top, passengers were saturated with enough RF from the nearby FM and TV antennas to warm their keys and pocket change.

One summer day in ‘67, the elevator loaded with four VIPs stopped dead about halfway up. Nothing worked and walkie-talkie communication didn’t work. The remote for the elevator winch that raised and lowered the elevator was powered by an elevator-carried, car battery we didn’t know required manual recharging.

The engineer operating the elevator (not me) had to disconnect the heavy lead car battery with a pair of pliers and carry it approximately 500 feet down the tower ladder without safety gear. After it charged for about an hour on a maintenance bench, he carried it back up the ladder to the elevator cage. There were no alternatives. Everyone got down safely because broadcast engineers did what had to be done. It was the last VIP elevator ride ever.

Digital Technologies

By 1977, the only digital gear WDAF-TV owned was a Vidifont CG (one font, one size), and a single-channel Quantel DVE capable of a 2D squeeze zoom. Two years later, ENG cameras, U-matic VCRs, digital TBCs and ENG Vans, made local ENG legal within FCC specs and much easier and less expensive than 16mm film to gather, prepare and air content. Before digital video, generation loss crippled analog videotape production creativity.

Digital technology has and will continue to change virtually everything about video production. The commodity pricing of powerful off-the-shelf computers makes elaborate productions much more affordable, and it made digital HDTV broadcasting possible and affordable. Many of today’s production solutions run on inexpensive consumer computers that are easy to learn and upgrade.

The Y2K era brought major changes to broadcast technology made possible by video servers replacing expensive videotape machines with better performance, pictures and control at about the same time as DTV, HDTV and ATSC 1.0 went on the air. Flat screen HDTVs revolutionized viewing, and streaming video over the internet has multiplied distribution possibilities for all video producers.

Never Say Never

The smartest TV engineers I worked with usually didn’t take long to change from “That’s crazy” to “We need that,” when they objectively recognized significant technical advantages. Some of today’s cheapest HD or 4K cellphone video cameras and players look better than the best SD NTSC video ever displayed at any NAB Show. At the time, many engineers said “That’s crazy.”