I did not know ABC used TK-27 film chains. All of my ads show GE color film chains although I have an old RCA ad from 1955 that shows a B&W RCA TK-21 film camera connected to a RCA 35mm film projector so I know ABC did use RCA equipment (as well as others).

I am not at home right now but somewhere at home I have a link that explains how ABC started colorcasting. From what I remember (and I could be wrong), when ABC started to colorcast in September 1962 with the Jetsons and Flintstones, they had no color film cameras in NY so they had to have their LA broadcast center (that had a RCA TK-26) show the programs and microwave them across the country to NY for network feeds. It was not until seven months later (April 1963) when ABC installed the GE color film cameras in NY that they were finally able to originate colorcasts from NY.

We got our first color TV in the fall of 1963 and I spent many of hours watching color back in those days and could actually tell what brand of color film camera a station had by just watching their film broadcasts. RCA TK-26 and GE looked similar, but TK-27 films looked way different and were awful compared to the GE and older RCA TK-26. TK-27s were washed out, low in contrast and saturation and did not the "wow" look of the others. I have read since that even NBC did not want to use the TK-27s for the same reason and kept the TK-26s going until the TK-28 3 tube film cameras came out later.

What was ABTO's goal?

Lenticular projection screens (for super brightness theatrical) or
Lenticular camera film (for easy-to-process hot color kines on B&W film stock) or
Lenticular film for front projection (instead of rear screen projection for process shots during live or taped shows.)??

(Of the three only the first was a success.)

I worked at ABC NY, from 1965 to 1968, but in Film Services (450 West 56th) and not Engineering and this is news to me. In 1965, almost all of our kines were B&W. In fact, at the time, all of ABC's 35mm and 16mm network air prints included B&W protection copies of color video tape commercials as a back up if the video tape recorders went belly up.

James.

Can't find your $200 TK-40/41 hiding in the basement of some retired engineer from West Oatmeal? Don't want a TK-42/43 along with everyone else in the day? Now you can blaze a trail in broadcasting history collecting with your own GE 250/350/400 because the seller does not know what it is. Neither do I as it is not mine.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vtg-GE-Gener...item20d72c3072

HTF=Hard To Find.

Hi All-

ABTO's idea was to save money on remote color film acquisition for newsgathering using B&W negative film. This was in the days of 2-1/2 U.S. television networks, and ABC was struggling to convert to color origination. They even engaged their Boston affiliate, WNAC, as a testing partner.

The idea was not successful, and ABTO folded quickly.

When the ABC Lab closed in 2010, they gave me the ABTO collection of press clippings in a large binder. It's at the Museum of Broadcast Technology in Woonsocket, RI.

James, you must have known Ed Messina?

John, there is a picture of RCA TK-21s in NY coupled to TP-35 projectors that appeared in RCA Broadcast News.

Re: TK-27. This camera was not popular at the networks, even at RCA owned NBC. The TK-26 was the mainstay at NBC, and other places, for network origination. In the late 1970s, the TK-27s in Burbank were assigned to KNBC news and not used by the network. The 26s had FET preamps built by Technical Maintenance and were fitted with Dynasciences image enhancers, but still used TX-1 encoders. These chains were retired around 1980.

The TK-27 relied on auto target mode in unmanned operation, but obtaining good tracking was difficult in my experience. Later, Beston Electronics introduced a neutral density wheel kit for use with the 27, and it seemed to do the job. An RCA field engineer once told me that the ND wheel on those kits wasn't really "neutral."

Some felt that the lag on the 27 was very good, as the tubes were hit with a high level of illumination (no ND wheel). Some added Grass Valley, CBS, or RCA aperture compensators (2H) and these made a big difference in the look of the camera. Registration on this camera was never very good, but it was a reliable film camera.

There are a couple of ABC veterans still alive who might know about the GE film chains. I'll see if I can hunt them down.

Regards,

JB

J Ballard, it would be great if you could tack down some ABC veterans and ask them about the early days of color broadcasting.

It was interesting in that when ABC started color broadcasts in September of 1962, they only showed a couple of shows in color, (The Flintstones and The Jetsons). Then for the 1963 season, they added Wagon Train and The Greatest Show on Earth and some movies. But the following year, Wagon Train went back to B&W and ABC reduced their color broadcast schedule.

It was not until the 1965 season that ABC (and finally CBS) went with many color programs.

See this link: http://www.novia.net/~ereitan/studios.html

for some interesting information on early color history. Be sure to scroll down to ABC color studios.

Could not these properties be have been changed by a changed set of
adjustments, at the cost of increased noise?

Hi all-

Today, I received word from a former ABC colleague who confirms that ABC did indeed have 3 GE color film cameras at the Union City, NJ site. These were located in NJ to avoid the 35mm exhibition tax in NYC (NBC had a similar arrangement in Englewood Cliffs), and the signals were microwaved back to the NY TOC. Being in NJ is probably the reason why photos don't exist (I've been through the ABC Technical Photo archive, and don't recall seeing any GEs).

However, in NY, ABC had 10 TK-27s and 4 TK-28s. These telecines also supported WABC-TV's newsgathering efforts.

A former ABC Hollywood manager confirms that ABC's first color programming originated in Hollywood in September 1963 on an RCA TK-26. Two years later, a second TK-26 was added, followed by seven TK-27s and later, a TK-29.

The only GE cameras of any type in Hollywood were 250s used for the "Joey Bishop Show."

An interesting discussion-thanks to all.

Regards,

J Ballard

Many thanks J Ballard for the info. I was not aware of the 35mm exhibition tax in NYC.

At any rate, a couple of questions and remarks:

You stated that ABC's first color programming started in September 1963. I assume you meant September 1962 as it is well documented ABC started color broadcasts in September 1962 and I even have some old TV Guides showing color this.

The fact that ABC NY had 10 TK-27s was interesting so I guess they did not stay with GE cameras. However, I think TK-27s started shipping in the late spring of 1965 so until then, ABC NY must have still been using the GE cameras. It is also interesting in that around that same time, (late spring 1965) I started to notice a change in the quality of ABC color film shows, looking pale, low contrast, and muddy (as if the lens on the camera was dirty) that was so similiar with TK-27s, so this may have explained why I was seeing the change. As I said, to this day, I have a vivid memory of the differences between TK-27s and GE PE24/240 cameras. There was no comparison in my mind. Why ABC went with TK-27s was (IMHO) a big mistake.

Finally, you mention the ABC Technical Photo Archive. Do you have old pictures showing the ABC Broadcast Center? If so can you share any of them for I would love to see them for I collect old broadcast equipment pictures.

Very interesting, all. But I remember the exhibition tax issue and the setups of NBC and ABC. I think this even affected independent station WNEW-TV, which had much of its telecine equipment (involving the showing of movies on their various umbrellas, i.e. Five Star Movie, Metromedia Movie, Movie Greats, Hollywood's Finest) in its final years of Metromedia ownership around the area of that company's corporate HQ in Secaucus, NJ.

But in a sense, it makes sense ABC in NY would have used TK-27's. I once saw a clip someone taped off of WABC-TV in New York in 1983 where the color test pattern's white balance appeared turquoise green/bluish, not unlike what people waking up in Washington, DC to WRC-TV's test pattern saw on their color sets. So, that would mean that the following NY stations would have used the TK-27 (that I know of):
- WNBC-TV
- WNEW-TV
- WABC-TV
- WOR-TV
- WPIX
- WNDT / WNET (?)
with WCBS-TV the odd one out, the only one to use the GE PE-240's (but then, they were housed on the grounds of the Broadcast Center, so . . . ). Don't know about what the old WNYC-TV used at the point they converted to color in 1968 . . .

It would also likely mean that sometimes when they had on the color test pattern in the morning, the blacks were sort of dark green-bluish, the greys were about greenish, and the whites orange/pinkish. I've seen quite a few video clips of test patterns on local stations known to have TK-27's in their telecine setups to notice.

And then the auto-iris which was part of the TK-27. Many a video clip on various sites besides YouTube show the characteristics thereof, where a scene goes from dark to light and the first second or so is too light before the exposure adjusts.

Now, can any member of this forum from Chicago apprise us of the telecine setups of the local stations there? (I seem to remember WBBM and WFLD definitely used TK-27's, probably WCIU via hand-me-downs, maybe even WSNS).

I have no direct knowledge of equipment used in Chicago (or anywhere else), but as a viewer I can recall a time when WGN obviously installed some new automatic color correction gear, because the film material got a new look and you could see the color wandering around during individual scenes (IIRC, sensitive to actor movements or other scene changes, but also wandering even in mostly static scenes).

W.B. thanks for your reply and info. I thought that WOR-TV went with GE color cameras. I know that WNAC-TV in Boston did and it was a RKO General station. I also thought that WOR-TV was a RKO General station so I would think both would purchase the same equipment.

I remember having a tour of WNAC-TV back around 1967 and they had GE PE-250 live color cameras and a slug of GE PE-240 color film cameras. I think they had something like 5 color film islands. They had also replaced their RCA TP-16 projectors with Eastman 285 16mm projectors.

To be sure, WOR-TV did use GE PE-250's for their live studio camera setup, beginning in 1967 . . . it was with their film chains that they were RCA. Same thing with WPIX.

Hi all-

John, the September 1963 date as the commencement of ABC color film was obtained from a retired ABC engineering manager on the WC. I did no research to confirm that date, so my apologies.

Color film origination had its pitfalls in the early days. Somewhere, I have an NBC memo about the colorimetry on "Bonanaza" and its overall red cast. It turns out that the film stock was passing a large amount of near IR light, so a correction filter was added on TK-26s for that show.

It was generally regarded at NBC and ABC that the TK-26 was a superior camera than the TK-27 in most respects, and they were assigned prime time network programming. Considerable work went into improving both designs in the field. In the case of the 26, new SS preamps were installed (reports at both the network level and at ambitious affiliates), adding 2H enhancers, and replacing the encoder. NBC even designed a polarity reversing amplifier for color negative film for a few 26s.

The TK-27 could operate in automatic mode using "auto target." Many users were not pleased with results, as tracking among channels was not uniform. A small company, Beston Electronics, developed an ND wheel and servo kit for cameras using auto target such as the TK-27. This was a big improvement in color tracking, I thought, but a former RCA field engineer said that the ND wheel was not neutral throughout its range. Many customers added 2H image enhancers, and you could replace the proc modules in the color channel with Proc D modules designed for the TK-42. This gave you variable gamma control in the color channels. Color trim filters were also modified.

The TK-27 never registered very well, and the tubes made in Lancaster suffered badly in quality after a strike in the late 1970s. I know some NYC stations were buying their vidicons from EEV, and even as late as the TK-29, EEV tubes were sold by RCA if the customer so requested.

Some users felt that lag on the 27 was far better than on the 26 and 28/29s, since there was no ND wheel, and the vidicons were being hit with higher light levels.

RCA sold over 1100 TK-28/29/290 telecine cameras by the time the company closed its doors in October 1985.

Regarding the ABC archive, I can ask about it. It was mostly Kodachrome slides of TK-41s on remotes, but also some B&W prints about the early days of color.

Regards,
JB

J. Ballard,

I'm old enough to remember when NBC color film series aired in the early 60's. Shows like Bonanza, Tales of Wells Fargo, Laramie ect. did have a red/brownish cast. I mainly point out western series as they tended to have more red/brown in scenes. Wooden structures, saloon & cabin interiors, barren ground and such. This seem to improve during the later 60's & on:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bizY20UIDg



-Steve D.

Steve,

I'll have to drag out that memo concerning "Bonanza." This was a highly rated program for NBC and it generated a lot of concern.

Bonanza might have been shot on Technicolor, where the 26s might have been more sensitive to IR, as opposed to Eastman print stock.

I promise everyone an answer.

BTW, RCA made a low cost color film camera, the PK-610 , later rebranded the TK-610, that also used auto target for stand alone operation. The results and relaibility of this low cost camera were medocre, at best.

Regards,
JB

JB

JB,

I found this reply to a post on an old VK thread: "Bonanza was processed by Consolidated Film Industries in Los Angeles. Not by Technicolor. They have always been Eastmancolor. Around 1990, Republic Pictures, the owner at the time of Bonanza, had new master prints made from the original Eastman camera negatives, which had faded slightly. They looked vastly better than they had in the past. These were 35mm. The printing negatives were worn out over the years from use and title changes, etc.
Remember when Bonanza went into re-runs, and was retitled "Ponderosa?" I still have some film reels with the name Ponderosa printed on them in white lettering. Nice.

I ran Bonanza in syndication for a number of years on 16mm film prints. They were always a bit reddish, but usually looked very nice on the air.

Now, Bonanza is on digital product and is way-over sharpened up, to me. It almost looks gritty on screen.

As for old TV film cameras, NBC used RCA chains. They needed regular attention, which I'm sure they got when someone complained about the lag issues. I can recall several times when I could see camera registration errors on network films.

Our station used RCA TK-27, and TK-28 film cameras, and TP-66 projectors. These cameras were 'tweeked' weekly. They went out of service in the mid-90's when everything went to tape. I do miss film on TV."

I have also read that Bonanza was shot in Technicolor and processed by CFI.
Seems to be some room for confirmation on what color process was used and perhaps, over the show's run, that different color processes were used.

-Steve D.

Here is a clip form "Music Scene" which aired on ABC, this is form 1969 and is of "The Archies" "Sugar Sugar" which would have been on film. Sure is a lot softer then the Live video, which would have been PC-60/70's

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKywSgQ4OHE

Matt

So, is this a 4-tube telecine? Sure looks like the color is off register from the luminance in the upper right especially. The lesser smears elsewhere could just be from the multiple generations of transfer/coding the video has been through.

Hi All-

I looked for the NBC "Bonanza" memo this past weekend, and was unsuccessful, but I did locate two pieces of documentation related to this issue.

The first is a paper from the SMPTE "Color Television" collection dated November 1964, p.80, by Hank Kozanowski, head of advanced camera development at RCA, and the lead engineer on the TK-26. The paper is titled,"Infrared Transmission Characteristics of Various Color Release Prints and Their Effects on Color Television reproduction."

To receive the attention by Dr. Kozanowski, this subject had to have been of major importance. I have no doubt this was related to "Bonanza," as that show was likely NBC's biggest cash cow film program.

He describes tests done at NBC Burbank by Ken Erhardt on changes in telecine red channel black level adjustment when switching between Technicolor Imbibition print stock and Eastman 5385 film. Later, NBC-NY performed similar tests, affirming the Burbank results, showing a predominant red "haze" (elevated black level) from the Technicolor film.

Spectral measurements conducted in Camden revealed a 5-6 fold greater transmittance of near IR light in the 700-750 nM region of Technicolor print stock than the 35mm Eastman version. In addition, the original 1954 TK-26 red filter did not have a steep cutoff chaarteristic below 700 nM, but remained at about 20% transmittance beginning at approximately 650 nM.

Tests were conducted with a Technicolor T-1247 filter and also a filter from Fish-Schurman, both correcting the IR transmittance issue. The Technicolor filter began cutoff around 640 nM, and the F-S not as drastic. The final design was a combination red trim and IR cut filter, tested at NBC NY by Ed Betero, and installed in all NBC TK-26s, made by Fish-Schurman.

The second piece of documentation is an RCA Technical bulletin #G27 applying to all TK-26 models, encouraging customers to replace the original 1954 red filter with the better Fish-Schurman model, availabe from RCA as stock #230098. The change applied even to the TK-26C which was in production before the release of this paper.

The filter replacement addresses 4 items, according to the Tech Bulletin:

The modification was designed to improve the color fidelity and color balance tracking.

The amount of infrarared light transmitted through color film varies with the technique used in processing the film.

The red trim filter filter modification greatly reduces the amount of infrared light reaching the vidicon photo cathode.

The "red channel" pedestal shift, with changes in film of various processing techniques, is greatly produced. Thus the need to rebalance the equipment signals for changes in good color film is greatly reduced.

Again, I'm 99% certain this change was related to "Bonanza" and I'll keep searching for the NBC memo.

Regards,

JB

W.B: Actually, here is an ad for GE from August 1965 stating that WOR-TV did purchase GE PE-24 4 Tube color cameras. If they did use RCA film chains, they must have been later on.

GE Color Film Chain
 

I know that WNAC-TV in Boston (An RKO station) had GE PE-24 cameras on their film chains around 1968 or so. As I recall there were three film chains that used RCA projectors and one that used Eastman 285's. The RCA chains also had a black and white RCA vidicon camera, so you could select either color or B&W to put on the air, depending on program content.

The ad did not explicitly mention that WOR used PE-24's, just that they first used "the 4-V type" starting in late 1964 (apparently an RCA TK-27; kind of like RCA's Broadcast News, whenever they spoke of a TV station's equipment, occasionally failing to bring up videotape recorders which is a tipoff that the VTR's were Ampex). I did read in one of the trade papers (Broadcasting? - no, on second thought, it was an earlier 1965 Broadcast News) that WOR had placed an order for RCA TK-27's in 1965 (those were definitely fully operational by the time the station moved their entire kit 'n' kaboodle - studios, VT, telecine and master control - to 1481 Broadway in 1968). That GE ad mentioned only two RKO stations ordering PE-24's - WNAC and WHBQ. KHJ in Los Angeles, from what I read in another forum, used vintage RCA TK-26's (the 3-V variety) well into the 1980's (and from what I saw of one of the slide replications, apparently a TK-27 or two). As did WOR - at first; besides what they first got in 1960, they also got at least one, possibly two, TK-26's from RCA's 1964-65 World's Fair exhibit after the fair ended. Then CKLW-TV (now CBET) may have also had RCA 4-V's.

RKO's other major GE order, in 1966, was for a huge bank of PE-250 color cameras, the lion's share of which went to WOR-TV (six for use at Shea Stadium for Mets broadcasts, three for their studios), others went to WNAC (five, I.I.N.M.) and WHBQ (two).

No, in terms of film chains, apart from WCBS and the GE PE-240's that were shared with CBS network at the vast Broadcast Center, New York was otherwise generally RCA territory from the mid-'60's and into the '80's.

Hi all-

In an earlier post, I mentioned that the Museum of Broadcast Technology (Woonsocket, RI) would be receiving a GE PE-240 color film camera shortly. Sure enough, last week a shipment arrived with the GE in good cosmetic condition, but when the top access door was opened, it was completely absent yokes, tubes, and optics! Plus the dreaded encoder .Groan.

Still, some observations can be made about this camera. First, the build quality is excellent. As with RCA, GE Electronics Park was a defense contarctor, so the wiring and layout were of top quality. The optical bedplate had to be 5/8"-3/4" thick aluminum.

There were test points on one card for masking (color matrix), suggesting a variable matrix-something not available on the TK-27. Also, there was reference to the GE "AutoTrast", unless this was a module also used in the live camera. This was an auto knee circuit that became common on Japanese and European ENG cameras.

But, there was a muffin fan on the ear of the upper housing, and from photos seen of the GE 4V design, the deflection assemblies and optics were not enclosed, as in the RCA designs. If so, I bet dust was a serious problem.

If anyone has the missiing pieces to a PE-240, please contact off list-TK41C@aol.com.

Regards,
JB

I figured that origination of filmed TV shows and presumably The ABC ___________ Night Movie would have been in Union City, and thus via PE-24's. I presume that local film and slide capacity for WABC-TV would have come from the TV Center on 66th Street, and thus projected through TK-27's and later -28's (not just for WABC's newscasts). However, my question has to do with from which outpost would WABC's local movie shows (including and notably The 4:30 Movie) have originated.

Seeing that clip, it looks like the film transfer would have been put through one of the two TK-26's that ABC's Prospect & Talmadge setup would've had.

To bring this back to life, it appears CBS's first GE color film chains would have been the PE-24 class - as they delivered their first 4-V color chain to the network's Broadcast Center in New York per this link to a Broadcasting magazine article in its April 26, 1965 issue when their line was the PE-24 (and about a year before they developed the PE-240 - the first references to which were in a GE ad in the March 21, 1966 Broadcasting):

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/hd...%20electric%22

I was right, though, about both BC and Television City using GE chains.

But Broadcasting has also been illuminating in other ways. A July 18, 1966 article noted that while WCBS-TV, having access to network facilities, was already loaded for color, WCAU-TV ordered RCA TK-42 cameras; WBBM-TV, KMOX-TV and KNXT all ordered Marconi Mark VII's - and all four would receive or had received RCA TK-27 film chains:

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/hd...rca%20tk-27%22 (p. 54)
https://www.worldradiohistory.com/hd...t%20marconi%22 (p. 55)

WCAU had not just TK-42s but was pretty much full turnkey RCA in the late '60s - surprising for a CBS O&O. RCA Broadcast News from June 1969. Story starts pg. 24:

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/AR...ws/RCA-142.pdf

(And elsewhere in that issue is the wrapup from the 1969 NAB show that highlights the new TK-44A cameras and TCR-100 "cart" carousel some of you may be well familiar with.)

Notice they didn't mention what videotape equipment 'CAU used, though by the photos it looks like Ampex VR-2000's.