Re: [telecom] Walter's Telephones [Telecom]

I was curious about the background equipment. A variety of
> typewriters, from manual to various kinds of IBM electrics. A variety > of phones, including Call Directors in later years. I thought I saw a > non-dial keyset.

You may have done so. There were many reasons in some newsrooms to have receive-only telephones. News rooms havw a great number of telephones per capita.

It's entirely possible, even from day one (or especially from day > one), that much of what we saw in the background were props, not real > equipment. In the early days I strongly doubt they broadcast from the > working newsroom, the camera equipment and lights would get in the way > of people actually working. You don't want people stepping (or > tripping) on the cables interconnecting the equipment. During the > broadcast there needs to be room for the cameras and crew running > around.

In the early days (remember John Cameron Swayze and the first network news program) there weren't the elaborate sets they use now. As I recall, he just sat behind the microphone at what was probably his real desk or at an announcer's station and read the news. There were not a lot of graphics in the news report-- no way for instant transmission except at great cost and a lot of trouble. I rememberr when the news shots, such as they were, were mostly newsfilm (not electronic) sent by air freight or air mail special deliveryn. (Air Express was less reliable, very costly, and often slower.) I remember trying to get those newsfilms getting to their destinations promptly, or at least less slowly.) You recall the networks in the early days considered news, which they didn't usually carry, as more or less a public service with no commercial value. Reports well of how Swayze had a battle convincing them it could a revenue source and putting his revolutionary idea on the air. I'm sure everyoned with memories of that time remembers his presenting the Timex commercials that they "keep on ticking."

Obviously they can't risk a telephone going off in the middle of the > broadcast.

Any more it seems to happen with increasing frequency on both local and network news programs.

-- Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@aol.com snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com