Why Did NBC Use Trinitrons?

[bgadow]

I've been watching recordings of Saturday Night Live from the early 80s. Here we have a rather notable show being broadcast live from the headquarters of RCA, yet on many episodes they use Trinitrons as monitors or props. I could snap photos if anyone wanted. I have seen some shots where you can see the main monitors used for the audience and they look to be RCA sets; was there some special reason for using the Sonys? Cost, image quality? It seems like this would really get under the skin of somebody in their broadcast equipment sales division!