WGN new color studio - 1961
 

Broadcast News December 1961
WGN's new "Color House"
(8.6 MB pdf file)

http://www.bretl.com/tvarticles/bnde...wsdec61wgn.pdf

Get a load of Bozo. No wonder so many little kids are scared of clowns.

Phil Nelson

Curious about a few things:
a) At what point did WGN replace its TK-41's with more modern TK-44A/B class cameras (and, later, TK-45A)?
b) How long did the TK-26 chains at WGN last, and what color chains (I presume TK-27 or 28) replaced them and when?

Contrast this with their New York sister station WPIX (Channel 11), which didn't go color until 1965 (the first New York indie commercial station to air anything in color - at first, solely via film and slides with RCA TK-26's - was WOR-TV [Channel 9], beginning in 1960; but that station was the last to have all local origination in color, in late 1967).

Nice piece of history there. WGN is still operating out of that same studio at 2501 W Bradley Place.

New York's channel 11 didn't get color til '65? I doubt that is true. Makes no sense unless I suppose it was not ABC, NBC or CBS?

I love the design of this building for being logical and pretty instead of the ornately garish stuff they glue on most modern stuff. The new buildings with purposeless stuff glued all over reminds me of those haunted looking buildings from the 1800's an up with gargoyles, etc only alot cheaper looking.
I was pleased to see the building looks exactly the same today. Logical beautiful buildings like that are against the law to preserve where I live... seems that way.

I remember watch Wgn channel 9, and although it took a big yagi antenna to pick them up in South Bend, the color was excellent

WPIX and color in the fall of '65 seems right, since they were the latecomer in the NY market. I recall their first colorcasts were the syndicated Bozo show and the color episodes of Superman.

WNEW's first colorcasts were Tomato Juice commercials and The Virginian on Movie Greats around that time also.

WPIX actually started limited colorcasting in the spring of 1965, but WNEW didn't follow until the fall (the latter was the last NY commercial indie VHF to go color, with public-TV's then-WNDT the last New York area VHF to colorcast in 1967).

Hard to believe, though it is true. Though WNEW was the last NY commercial indie VHF to go color, they were the first of the indies - in 1966 - to have 24/7 live color studio capacity, with their acquisition of Norelco PC-70's. WOR and WPIX, by contrast, didn't have all-color local-originated programming until the latter half of 1967 (WPIX's newscasts were B&W as late as summer 1967, if TV Guide listings are of any indication; and pre-1967, WOR only had live studio color on their programs in off-season when the Mets weren't playing; both stations, when they went all-color all the time, went with General Electric PE-250's, and when WOR moved its studios in 1968 to 1481 Broadway, they replaced their RCA TK-26 color film chains with TK-27's which were already in use at WNEW and WPIX).

Interesting that I did not see any mention of their video tape equipment. I see this was an RCA story on WGN. I wonder if WGN was using Ampex video tape equipment, hence the absence of any mention about their tape equipment.

A few notes:

The Chicago Symphony broadcasts were done as remotes from Medinah Temple.
The antenna mast on the Prudential building expanded on the sunny side and tilted away from the sun, gradually changing the radiation pattern during sunny days.
WGN had a history of producing car commercials, including even remotes (black and white) from a Ford dealer (Courtesy Motors). Hence the installation of a turntable to support their commercial production.

I wondered the same about their video tape I bet you are correct they must have been an Ampex house.

It could be a possibility.

Seems logical assumption since they had to use videotape often and RCA prolly made them not mention it

The posts are correct... WGN had Ampex 2000's. (They also had an HS 200 for commercial production.)

Yep...Up in Kingsport, there was a very nice looking office building that had a similar design, & judging by the photo, it was prolly close to the same age...In the late 70s or '80s, they "Modernised" & "Improved" it by adding sunshades & IMHO TOTALLY ruined its looks...Right down the road, about 1990 or so, Tennessee Eastman built their new corporate headquarters building, a 5 or 6 story brick basic square-@zz box. Well, SOMEBODY decided it didn't make a big enuff "Statement", I guess, so they HAD to add this "Dramatic" entrance- Gotdam thing is positively SCARY lookin'... Looks like what you'd imagine the Klingon High Command palace prolly looks like...Nothing succeeds like excess, I guess...(grin)

Though at the time of the 1961 article, WGN presumably would've had VR-1000's and/or 1100's (the 2000 wasn't introduced until 1964).

the car dealer your thinking of was Bert Wineman as he would say "come down and see these beauties at 3535 North Ashland Ave" the spots were like 5 min long and featured several new and used cars. you can see some of his commercials on youtube the spots usally were run on sunday afternoon douring the lone ranger, the cisco kid and the noon movie. 1 week charlie chan the next sherlock holmes, and right into familey classics time frame was from the early 60s th the early 80s

I do remember Bert Weinman, who was the longest-term TV auto sales spokesman in Chicago, but that is not what I was mentioning. Jim Moran "The Courtesy Man" had a large part of the repair shop kept clean and painted. WGN installed banks of fluorescent light pans and did remotes from there on weekend nights (Saturday or Friday?). Moran sponsored the Saturday(?) night movie - they would show 10 minutes of the movie, enough to get you hooked, then he would do a 20-minute long commercial, and then finish the movie without interruption.

More about him here:
http://www.jimmoranfoundation.org/Bu...ABusiness.aspx

Speaking of nice modern buildings that were badly updated:

http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=image&id=108427

These three office buildings are located quite close to my home. I had my first
summer job in the middle one in 1981 (and again in 1982). They were built in
1964, finished with fairly good looking white bricks. What you see here is the
result of a facelift done in the late eighties as far as I can remember. In
addition to ruining the exterior, the architect in charge of the project had the
bright idea to remove a plaque inside the main hall of the leftmost tower
(the one with two wings), commemorating the official opening of the complex
by the mayor of Montreal, Jean Drapeau. I guess this was done so that
visitors would not get any evidence that the buildings were 'that old'.

P.S.: here is another modern picture, but I could not find any 'before' view.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/caribb/5216159992/

And there's Ray Rayner on page 5. Bless him. Always enjoyed his morning show back in the Seventies.

Yeah - he made kids (and adults too) feel they weren't so inept when he bumbled around little arts/crafts projects for the kids.

Having grown up in Chicago, I have fond memories of WGN. I was in the audience of Bozo's Circus in 1967 (I was six). I wasn't chosen for the Grand Prize Game :tears: I remember Bozo and Ring Master Ned making wisecracks during the commercials. At home, I watched it on a B&W Motorola in our basement with just rabbit ears. Multiple ghost images were just part of the experience.

I also recognize Ray Rayner on the the set of the "Dick Tracey" cartoon show. That was before my time, but I sure remember Ray Rayner and Friends-- it was on every weekday morning. Who can forget Cuddly Duddly?

And the Bert Weinman "your TV Ford man" was an institution. As I recall, the pitch man in the commercials was Lynn Bertun. All the used cars had "radio, heater and whitewalls" and were "100% winterized!" Lynn Bertun was also owner of Ribs 'n Bibs restaurants and would sometimes work the counter at the one on south 53rd street. Ah, memories :D

-Clark

Funny to think that a heater was optional in many cars up until congress passed a safety bill in the mid-60's. I would hope no one in Chicago was foolish enough to buy a car without one! They're a necessity even down here.

Here's a link to Linn Burton's bio:
http://www.chicagotelevision.com/linn.htm

The one thing that always bugged me was that the color of Comiskey stadium was a dark hunter green, but every color set I saw in that era always showed the stadium as a blue color. All the other colors were accurate.

I wonder when they last used that turntable for showing new cars. I suspect it hasn't been used since the '60's

Thanks, old_tv_nut. I didn't realize how badly I butchered the spelling of his name. No wonder I couldn't find anything when I Googled :-)

The story of him getting his tie stuck in a wringer washer during a live spot is classic!

-Clark

the 1977 Rca could get WGN 9 after dark with a booster and rotor, it was fuzzy but pretty good for the distance across the lake