Today Show

[NW Mailing List]

Thanx 4 the update. News and speed always take precedence over preservation 
in the news biz -- at least at the newspapers where I've worked. I ended up 
with a couple of Richard Prince's books after a friend retrieved them from 
the newspaper "morgue's" trashbin in another city.
sounds like what I've known to happen to photo negatives at newspapers.

Andre Jackson and/or Lisa Burrows
Life is short; update your anti-virus software
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
To: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>
Sent: Monday, April 02, 2007 7:15 AM
Subject: Re: Today Show



> Even thought this is way off topic, I thought I would pass a little  more 

> on, as there is a bit to think about.

>

> Video tape was a rarity in those days, shows were more often recorded  on 

> kinescopes. Even if it had been video tapes, the chance of the  tape still 

> being playable, much less having a machine working to play  it on would be 

> pretty unlikely. I suspect such a show would have had  little interest 

> beyond its original broadcast, and probably was  trashed many years back, 

> if it was even NBC's policy to record each  show.

>

> My experience with Channel 7 in Roanoke was the 1980s and early  1990s. 

> All news was shot on film up until probably about 1977-78,  that was when 

> the switch to video tape. However, there was an entire  collection of news 

> film, day by day, stored in the basement. More or  less, this film dated 

> from when the station first went on the air in  October 1955. Sometime in 

> the mid 1980s, it was decided to transfer  this film to tape, 3/4 inch 

> tape, which is terrible archive material.  Most of the early film was 

> transferred, through our terrible  condition film chain, recorded on this 

> tape and shot sheeted then  hung in a rack in the news edit room. They 

> were not transferred in  any systematic method, therefore you might find a 

> 1964 story on the  same tape as a 1957 story, not related in subject 

> matter, just  transferred as material was needed. In 1985, we were putting 

> together  promos for the 30th anniversary of the station, and I spent 

> quite a  bit of time going through tapes. Of course, most all was shot as 

> b/w  at least until the late 1960s. I found a bunch of interesting stuff, 

> railroad related, but the kicker is, the 3/4 tapes were already  showing 

> wear and tear with drop outs, and glitches. After only a few  years of 

> use.

>

> Now the real gotcha on this is, after all that film was (poorly) 

> transferred, the original film was taken back to the processor and 

> stripped for silver recovery, so once those 3/4 inch tapes are  useless, 

> the film is gone. The last time I asked a friend at the  station about 3/4 

> inch machines, she said they had one still working,  but only barely, and 

> that was 3 years ago. When the station moved,  most of the remaining film 

> was given to the History Museum, I  believe. However, virtually all the 

> early stuff was gone by then.

>

> So my point is, this was a local station, the news film was racks and 

> racks in the basement, imagine the size of an operation like NBC, it 

> would take warehouses of space to keep all the old film and tape. I  would 

> suspect that anything this insignificant was likely long since  discarded.

>

> Ken Miller

>

> On Apr 1, 2007, at 10:05 AM, NW Mailing List wrote:

>

>> Yep, the latter point was what I meant. Wonder if the master tape  still 

>> exists, and if there's a railfan at network HQ? A society  letter might 

>> provide an interesting archives exhibit.

>>

>> Andre Jackson (college TV-radio minor)

>> Life is short; update your anti-virus software

>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing- 

>> list at nwhs.org>

>> To: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

>> Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2007 6:20 AM

>> Subject: Re: Today Show

>>

>>

>>> Andre,

>>>

>>> I don't believe any railfans could afford video recording  equipment in 

>>> the 1950s. Most folks in those days were doing good  to buy one of those 

>>> new B&W TV consoles.

>>>

>>> Still, I wonder what it would take to get the network to make a  copy of 

>>> the show from their video archives, assuming the footage  was recorded 

>>> and is still playable.

>>>

>>> Ron Davis

>>>

>>> At 11:11 PM 3/31/2007, you wrote:

>>>> Anybody unearthed a  tape of this event?

>>>>

>>>> Andre Jackson and/or Lisa Burrows

>>>> Life is short; update your anti-virus software

>>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing- 

>>>> list at nwhs.org>

>>>> To: "NW Mailing List" <nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

>>>> Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2007 5:54 PM

>>>> Subject: Re: Today Show

>>>>

>>>>

>>>>> The Today show broadcast from Roanoke on May 15-16, 1958. There was

>>>>> an interview segment with Stuart Saunders standing next to the

>>>>> Pocahontas, and a filmed (not live) segment riding the cab of the J

>>>>> between Roanoke and Bedford. There was a two page article in the  June

>>>>> 1958 N&W Magazine. pages 344-345.

>>>>> Having worked in the television business for 11 years, The first

>>>>> satellite to orbit the earth was Sputnik in October 1957, just  about

>>>>> 7 months prior to this broadcast. As I recall, it was capable of

>>>>> broadcasting a "beep" tone every few seconds during its orbit.

>>>>> Satellite television broadcasting did not originate until  sometime in

>>>>> 1962, when Telstar was launched to become the first television

>>>>> broadcast satellite. Live broadcasting in those days was a

>>>>> considerable technical feat with a small scale broadcast truck  at the

>>>>> site. Satellite or microwave broadcasting that is common today was

>>>>> unheard of in 1958.

>>>>> Ken Miller

>>>

>>>

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>

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