Here's a story I would tell if asked what I did in the past that I wouldn't do now.

Television broadcast stations can be contentious places. While every industry has lots of egos spread about, I think broadcasting, all of media today, has a higher density of them than most. Often there was, and still is a lot of infighting between departments in many facilities. Coming from the engineering end of the business, we historically could be difficult to deal with. Many outside of engineering thought we often were obstructionist, and sometimes even too condisending. Early on, mainly because technology was a lot less stable than it is today engineers were the gatekeepers of what made it to air.


Into the 80s it took some technical knowledge simply to playback a video recording.


Studio cameras had to be set up daily. Many facilities actually set them up with every shift change. There were dozens of knobs on both VTRs and cameras to produce decent video. No, it wasn't because this gear was sophisticated. Just the opposite. If todays equipment is the equivilent of a graduate with advanced degrees, equipment when I started was in the third grade.

What was commonly known as a video operator controlling the levels of cameras during a show. All those knobs in front of him were the controls for only two cameras. The camera head, the part of the camera seen inside the studio wasn't even half the electronics required for these early color cameras. The rest was found in the control room.

What changed? Starting with the basic electronics. Components became much more stable in operation, and technology, namely semiconductor advancements, first with more stable transistors and then ICs allow more complex circuitry to occupy less space. That means you can fit more circuitry, at lower costs into a given piece of gear. This allowed for more feedback and circuit self correction through the 60s, and 70s. Than in the 80s microprocessors hit. This made more self‐aware and stable systems. The dozens of knobs were no longer needed. A human wasn't required to continually tweak circuitry into peak performance. Now hardware and software would make the adjustments necessary to stay in peak performance.


You no longer needed a technical background to operate most gear. Engineering departments evolved from people with vocational electronic education, a smattering of people with four year engineering degrees. These 'technicians' began to be replaced with folks that became known as "operators," as they operated the equipment with little technical knowledge about how the gear worked, just knowledge of its operation. Cars no longer needed mechanics to take a trip.



So engineering departments went from technicains only to both techs and operators. Some stations split the operators out from the engineering department, and segragated them to what many called production departments. Usually there were many more operators than techs, as techs now only did what actually required some technical knowledge.

The bottom line is that this split of what was a single department usually meant that now there was contention between those two groups. Usually the larger divide, sometimes a "grand canyon" carvass was between engineering and news departments.

A "TD" today at a video production switcher. This is often the most sophisticated piece of equipment in a video facility. This is the device that adds all the layers of graphics and effects, all in real time, during a production. Our TD today doesn't need to know how it does its magic, only how to command it. The TD is the user and all those rows of buttons in front of him are the user interface. Why that instead of the normal KVM computer approach? Today's video switchers have many pages of GUIs. These are mainly for configuring the switcher for a show. They set the user's general operating parameters. Believe it or not, even today users find the easiest way to keep track of all the visual layers and effects via the layout of switches on the control panel. This device is in some ways like a musical instrument, or even a stunt plane. It's easy to learn the basics. For example, you can play "Chopsticks" or "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" on the piano. Or keeping the wings level on our plane. Playing Scriabin Sonata No. 5 or Stravinsky’s Three Movements from Petrushka, or doing Hammerhead Stalls and Immelmann Turns in our plane most never learn to do, or are even capable of learning.

The same with video switchers. I was able to do simple, maybe a couple of effects at a time, in my time around these. Orchestration of complex transitions involving just 20% of what the most high end switchers could do, in real time, would absolutely overwhelm me. Not all, actually I would say most, can make the device soar in complex situations. Actually, often when engineers and technicains had to troubleshoot this devices, we often put them into modes where all the physical buttons and levers could be tested for simple functionality, and not know the actual procedures needed to see if a particular button was actually operational.

The person at the mixing "board," or audio console. The person who manages the audio portion of a show is called the "A1." If that is the only person involved with capturing the program's audio, they will be known as the audio mixer, or simply audio. If the program is large enough to need multiple people for the audio effort, the A1 will be the main person mixing the audio. The others will be known as A2s. A2s will handle all microphones and sound pickup devices. They will also usually manage intercoms and the IFB. This is the earpiece you see in the talent's ear. It's how talent hears the complete audio program.

Interestingly, if there are noticeable audio delays, like with satellites, the talent will receive "mixed minus." That is the complete audio program except for their own voice. Those who remember old landlines recall the occasional echo on long-distance calls. It was very irritating for conversations. The same happens if the A1 doesn't eliminate the talent's voice when they are talking. They hear an echo. The universal sign that on-air talent uses to indicate that they are hearing themselves and are not happy about it is when they very demonstratively remove the earpiece from their ear.

Mixing audio has become increasingly complicated over time. Way back when I started, TV sets had a single speaker. Sound was a point in front of you. In the 80s, the industry started to roll out stereo. While there were a few other abortive attempts to have more than two audio channels. It wasn't until DTV became widely available that over-the-air surround sound became available. 5.1 audio consists of left, right, and center front speakers, plus two additional behind the viewer. The .1 is the low frequency effect channel. So the A1 has to manage an image produced in 3D space instead of audio being a point.

As you can see, while technical knowledge doesn't need to be in great supply in the operator ranks. But instead, you need a different skill set and a certain level of talent. Many of the jobs those folks do, I would suck at. Although one caveat is I always liked running camera and liked to think I was good at it.

Large, bustling television newsroom circa the late 80s, early 90s.

Now, engineers often made enemies when they didn't need to. But, the same situations were often hosted by news departments. For more on this, see the egg "Hanging out in the newsroom."

Now on to the story listed above. It was a station with the usual rancor between engineering, operations, and news. This is an example that the right situation can bring people together and have some fun to honor someone.



The year was 1988. The ABC affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio.

The assignment desk is the heart of the newsroom. This is the central receiving site for incoming news tips and a whole lot of ignored press releases. It is often where reporters, producers, and anchors meet. They discuss where to assign people and resources. This site was central to the following story.

I have a friend who started a little after me at this station. He was an engineer at another station in town and came here for a little more excitement. The station he was at did not do much in the way of local news and production. At his new station, they did a couple of live shows every day and many hours of news. Besides having a bunch of ENG news vans, they also had a Ku-band satellite uplink truck. He loved TV on the road, and that was what he aimed to get involved with. But they hired him as a part-time engineer and to fill in at master control. This is the release point for the stream of programming and content that goes to air. He still managed to position himself to do many "remotes" when he wasn't tethered to master control. He eventually became the station's chief engineer. Then, he managed the engineering department of the local Fox affiliate.

Ku uplaink satellite truck, much like the one the station had.

This friend was getting married. A couple of us, I was the ringleader, decided to throw him a surprise bachelor party. But how to make it a surprise? It was decided to have it at a station watering hole, "The Factory." The name was fitting as it was in an old factory. It made sense since it was only a mile from the station and had a large room in the back that could be reserved. But we needed a justification to get him to the bar where everyone would be waiting. Turns out my friend was popular across a number of the departments. Most importantly the news department.

An ENG microwave van with a small satellite truck behind it.

A number of people in operations, news, and engineering discussed how to lure him to the bar by himself. Someone suggested a fake news (maybe we helped invent that term) story. But what? I don't remember who, but someone hit on an idea that took on a life of its own. It involved a story that would happen behind the party. The Factory had a set of train tracks behind it.

It was decided that the 'story' would be that a train had derailed with much carnage and chaos. It was arranged for him to have to fill in at master control that day, as that was within earshot of the satellite and microwave coordination desk. The station's news staff completely accepted the duplicity.

At about 3:00 p.m., we used a frequency we thought was unused. The assignment desk then began sending fake radio messages, that could also be heard at master control. The microwave and satellite operators responded in kind. The first truck seemed to be sent, followed by the second. Then a Sat truck was called on to head to the site. Additional photographers seemed to be dispatched out to the nonexistent disaster. None of this activity, outside of the fake radio traffic, was occurring.

What was known as the Key Bank Building is now something else. When it was built it was the tallest building between New York and Chicago. Now it's the tallest between Philadelphia and Chicago. It wasn't built when this story took place. It was completed in the early 90s. Most TV stations in the market soon had microwave dishes on its top, (circled) on all four sides. ENG vans would point their transmit dish towards the building.

This building was the tallest until the Key Building. At the time of this story, microwave vans covering stories would point towards it. It is literally across the street from the Key building. Actually its across what is known as Public Square.

My friend phoned the ops manager to ask if he could help at the site when he was sprung from master. He was told he could head out but not until his relief had shown up. He was scheduled to be at master until 4:00 p.m. But, unbeknownst to him, we arranged to intercept his 4:00 p.m. replacement and keep that person out of the master control area. Poor kid, fairly new, as he got close to the tech center, a couple of us intercepted him and took him to his supervisor’s office, where we told him to hang out until further notice. So 4:00 came and went with no sign of his replacement. I don't think I’ve ever seen someone pace as much in master control before. Finally, at about 5:00 p.m., his replacement meekly showed up. By then, he was spitting fire. But, he was so eager to leave that he just told his relief they'd talk later.

It was about then that we realized we had someone half crazed in getting to the story and that we were going to have to exert some braking on his actions. I quickly made sure that I had the keys to the vehicle he was going in and that I said I would drive. It was an old, beat-up news truck used only for hauling stuff. I ran ahead to the exit and with the help of a couple others, as he passed, we stopped him and said they needed some more equipment at the site. We proceeded to hand him miscellaneous cables, many without any connectors on them. We also loaded him up with old, unused test equipment, a camera no one had used in years, and even a garden hose. Oh yeah, and a bucket. He paid no attention to the crap he was now loaded down with. He sat in the passenger's seat and stared ahead the whole short trip to the gathering place. His jaw set, showing his anticipation.



All this time we had a photographer acting like he was tagging along to get a lift to the site. In reality he was videotaping our trip.



We arrived. I told him twice to take the 'needed' stuff. The quickest way to the site was through the bar's front door, one he'd visited many times. He sensed none of the setup. A photog stationed himself where we parked. He wanted to capture our bachelors sprint into the bar, where many of his colleagues were already. He ran past them to the back of the barroom, looking for a back exit to the 'story.' He found none. Then, he turned to a room full of laughter. He finally realized that he had been had.



Later, we learned another station must have been monitoring our radio. They spent some time trying to find the 'story.' They wondered if we had lost our minds. Luckily, that station's news director had a sense of humor. She was amazed at how many parts of the facility could come together to pull that off. If someone had reported our fake radio traffic to the FCC, we could have faced a world of hurt.