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From Jim Donnelly: Tony hosted the WTEV Portuguese-language musical-variety television program "Portuguese Around Us". One of the unpopular jobs for the TV crew was to set up the signaling system for the taping of his program: a foot pedal for Tony connected by wire up the stairs to a buzzer near the director. Tony would read introductions to tapes and hit the foot pedal about five seconds before finishing, so the director could roll the tapes at the appropriate time. The WTEV production crew crew used to jokingly call this program "Portuguese Surround Us". I didn't realize the basis for that joke until a few years after I left WTEV. I entered the local cable television industry in 1976, where I've been ever since. Over the years, we built a Portuguese-language network serving approximately 40 communities in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In the beginning, Tony Costa was editor and/or publisher of The Portuguese Times newspaper. Tony hosted numerous programs on "Channel 20" during those first few years. We would lug black and white, 1/2 inch reel to reel video equipmnt to Tony's office on West Rodney French Boulevard in New Bedford to videotape news programs and interviews. Later, when we moved in to a color studio on Kempton Street in New Bedford, I set up a foot pedal signaling system for the Portuguese newscasts similar to WTEV's, so that the English speaking crew would know when to move on to the next tape or graphic element. Tony Costa moved on to other opportunities after a few years, to (I believe) an ambassadorship. | |
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