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Submitted by: Bob Neary, Feb 16, 2010 Sometime in early 1975, I remember showing up for work in the afternoon as usual. But things were anything but 'usual' at the station. The studio was a flurry of activity. Checked the production schedule and saw that no commercials, promos or other production had been scheduled. Something was up, but what? The production video switcher was located upstairs and there was a big plate-glass window that permitted a birds-eye view of the entire studio. As I looked into the studio, one by one, faces would look up and smile and shrug...and then return to their frantic activity. It wasn't long before I was informed that the long-rumored 'new' Newscope 6 set was being constructed and we would go LIVE with it on the 6pm news that very evening. It was already 3pm. "What time were we scheduled for a walk-through for camera blocking and lighting checks?" I wondered aloud to nobody in particular. The news crew were also responsible for constructing the set and for placing the lights on the grid, as well as for setting the lights for on-air talent. I figured we'd need about 45 minutes to do at least a reasonable run-through with the talent to have a decent news program on the first night of the new set. I expressed my concern to news director, Truman Taylor -- but he was not overly concerned. "I dunno, we used to change formats at the radio station all the time - we didn't need any run-throughs....." Ommm... "But Truman," I hoped to explain, "TV has cameras and everyone has to be on the same page, otherwise it could get sloppy.. real quick." I tried several approaches, but he would only commit to a 15 minute run-through just prior to the news... and it wasn't a very firm commitment. Next stop was Andy Neschesnoff, production manager. He understood my concern. We talked a bit and then approached Truman together and had him go through some of what the format was to be like. He said he would try to be in the studio at 5:30pm for a full rehearsal with crew. But, once again, he wouldn't promise. A little after 5pm, it was evident that the set was not going together as planned. Lighting was way behind schedule and just about every other aspect of the project was experiencing delays. At 5:30pm, no Truman. I went into the studio and one-by-one, walked around with each camera operator and the floor manager to give them some idea of what I understood the format to be. At 5:45pm, still no Truman, so I went up to the newsroom with the audio operator and projectionist to block out the show as per usual. We finished blocking at 5:57pm, three minutes before we went LIVE. Everyone rushed to their stations. I arrived back at the video console, put on my headset and joined the crew. I was shaking my head and shrugging my shoulders. "Lets do the best we can," I remember thinking. And then it began- the music theme was running as I took my seat: "6pm and time for Newscope 6 with Truman Taylor and the Newscope 6 News team..." The on-air talent, were looking to the wrong cameras, cameras were on the wrong talent. Microphones were on different pots and lighting -- hell, I didn't really look at the lighting! The first 15 minutes bordered on confusion. Did my best to keep it all together, but live television is unforgiving. The only good thing is that it wasn't taped. Can't remember who was running audio that night, but remember looking up in the rear view mirror the director had to see into the audio booth - and he was having a good time, too. Finally, I just laughed. Not the funny kind of laugh, but something to release the tension. The second half of the show, things settled down -still a bit rough and a few missed cues, but we reached the finish line and yours truly was already running to the front door to get out of the building and to dinner. Apparently, I was not running fast enough, for halfway down the stairs stood Mr. Lee Tanner. He is red-faced and since he was also much bald, I was seeing a large red spot right in front of me. "We need to talk right now." said Mr. Lee Tanner "We can talk later, Lee... right now I just want to go to dinner," I said, as I tried to walk around him. "No, come downstairs, we need to talk right now," says Lee. It was an offer I could not refuse. He spent the next 45 minutes telling me what a terrible job I did. When I opined that I agreed it was not a good show, but considering that we finished the set with minutes to go before the show went LIVE -and that the studio crew had not had any rehearsal time and were busy with the set up until air time -and that the on-air talent had not even sat on the set prior to the start of the show -- a good outcome could not be logically expected. But, he would not hear of it. It was my fault. Finally the meeting was over. I exited the building, got in my car, started the engine and sat back in the seat. I sighed as I exhaled and then suppressed a smile. Anything to diffuse the tension. I later learned that Lee had been all set to fire me on the spot! From a production standpoint, I'd have to admit the news was rather quirky over the next several weeks. The production aspect of it settled down somewhat, but the news department and management were still experimenting with the format and look of the show. I'll relate that story - one of my favorites - in a future posting entitled: "1-2-3, 3-2-1, 2-1-3." From Jim Donnelly I remember this very well, as it occured during my brief 6-month tenure at WTEV. There were like six or eight small desks lined up in rows on the news set. Some of the talent, including Bob Basset were looking at each other with "WTF" expressions, and clowning around like they were kids at their desks in a classroom. I don't think that format lasted very long. |
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