Russia, An Auto Parts Store's Dream

Like many people, I have become enthralled with the dashcam video of traffic and driving conditions in Russia on the net. I must admit when I first saw it, I thought that it was taken over time from law enforcement or other safety vehicles. But after a while, it became obvious there was too much video out there for just safety vehicles so I thought it could be that commercial vehicles have installed the dashcams as a way to cut insurance costs. But then even that didn't account for the amount of video in some fairly short time frames. Not wanting to believe that Russia had THAT many accidents, I Googled "Russia driving" and what I found just shocked me! Driving so, so bad that everyday motorists have installed the dashcams for their own protection.

In Russia, traffic enforcement is all but non-existent with police corruption a way of life, insurance scams from drivers and pedestrians alike, road rage over any little thing that is perceived as a slight, plus drivers and pedestrians who do not follow the driving laws and you get total and complete chaos on the highways. A real life Mad Max of driving. The rule of thumb is to carry an extra 5000 rubles (about $200) to use as bribe money for the police because they can and do stop you for no reason at all. Out in the country, robberies of motorists at roadblocks are not unusual.

The roads are in bad condition with hardly any multi-lane divided highways outside of the major cities. The countryside is almost always 2 lane surface roads in various states of disrepair. Add winter conditions and alcohol and you have a recipe ripe for a country with one of the highest death rates per capita of any developed nation.

The biggest problem is pedestrians who WILLING jump out in front of vehicles to scam insurance companies. It is really amazing how many pedestrians will wait for a car or truck to come by that isn't paying attention and then jump out and roll over the hood! 9 times out of 10 after hitting the ground, they get up and walk away! Some don't make it because the driver gets out, runs them down on foot and then pummels senseless. All caught on dashcam.

Of the drivers, most are driving WAY in excess of safe speed, driving ALL OVER the road, left lane, right lane, creating lanes where there are none, and using the shoulder as not only one lane but two or three lanes! Ignoring traffic lights completely, cutting off other drivers, forcing themselves into lanes, you name it. I am starting to see videos about something called "suicide runs." This is a video where the driver is on a freeway type highway and driving as fast as possible, weaving in and out of traffic while not slowing down. The chances taken mean one wrong move and DEATH, hence the name, "suicide run."

You see many head on collisions with most avoidable. You see a car in the distance in their lane when for no apparent reason, they move over into the oncoming lane and sometimes the collision is unavoidable. Or you see a car in the right lane turning left across the left lane and a vehicle, traveling in the same direction, t-bones the turning vehicle. You see snow and ice on the road and instead of slowing down to adjust to conditions, people just keep driving at the normal speed and then, boom, they hit a patch and off the road or into the oncoming lane or up a tree or into a snow bank or out into a field or..... Just stupid stuff. But the most amazing head on I have seen dealt with a snob nose panel truck. It hits a semi head on, the panel truck slides to the left and the driver of the panel truck tumbles out of the broken out front window to land on his FEET! He shakes his head a little and then walks around the wreck of his truck looking at the damage!

Parking in the cities are a nightmare. You will see cars parked any and every place. There were laws enacted to stop the practice, but the public didn't like it and they continue to park where ever they want and because of the number of people doing it, the police don't even try to stop it anymore.

Drinking is also a serious problem. It is so bad, the government has put in some of the toughest laws against DUI, but the culture is such, it will take many years to get that even close to being under control.

If you go to Russia, it is well worth the expense to hire a car to take you. If you aren't a VERY expert driver, Russia is a death trap to the driver. Don't believe me? Take a look for yourself.

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Nazi Television?

Those who know me know I am a big history buff of many topics. Broadcasting is of course one of them. But I recently stumbled across a little know recent discovery of television artifacts in Germany. Television under Adolf Hitler's Nazi Regime. These artifacts were locked away in East Berlin for years where they languished, forgotten. A few years after the Berlin Wall fell the Soviet era German archives were cataloged and moved to a new archive and during this process is when the 285 canisters of film were rediscovered.

It is generally known that during the Nazi Regime in the 1930's and 40's, Nazi Germany had a fairly advanced form of television. The 1936 Berlin Olympics were televised live in Berlin. But there was no way to record it other than to film a TV tube where a film camera is pointed at a TV monitor (later called kinosope) so television of the time consisted of test patterns and extremely exaggerated made up people in either extremely bright lit studios or complete dark boxes with a spinning disk and light shining through it "performing" for the "camera" live. So to find that film of those programs from that time has survived is remarkable.

At the time the US, Great Britain, and to a lessor extent, France, were all developing useable television. In the US, there had been experimentation with mechanical spinning disk television developed by the German inventor Paul Nipkow in the 1890s. In the 1920's it slowly became obvious that the mechanical spinning disk TV was approaching its technical limits of about 150 lines of resolution. Philo T. Farnsworth began developing the first electronic scanning system, the basis of today's TV. Soon Dr Vladimir Zworykin, working for RCA came calling on Farnsworth to find out about this new system which lead to the first TV standard in the US, the RCA 441 line system which eventually morphed into the now familiar and recently defunct "analog TV" 525 line NTSC-M system . In Britain, the Marconi Company and an inventor named John Logie Baird were competing for which system, mechanical (Baird) or electronic TV (Marconi) would become their standard. In France, they were attempting to develop an early RCA electronic type called the 343 line system. In Great Britain, 1934 saw the Marconi-EMI 405 line electron system win and was used until 1985.

As the Nazi' came to power in Germany in 1933, they saw TV as a propaganda tool, but it was still deep in development with the mechanical/electronic debate still hotly being contested in many areas of the industry. They first began development on the Nipkow spinning disk and very quickly abandoned it for development of the early RCA electronic 343 line system. The 1936 Berlin Olympics were broadcast in this 343 line format. Since electron video tubes were still in their infancy, the German's developed a TV camera that used film and that film was then immediately developed in the camera and a small video tube imaged the developed film and then transmitted it via coax into the system. Total time from the exposure of the  film to time seen on a TV monitor, 1 minute. Some of this film still exists in the German archive. Development continued and in 1937 Germany adopted the RCA 441 line electron system as their standard.

German television broadcast only 3 nights a week and only for a couple of hours a night. Only about 100 sets were produced and those went to party officials, some journalists and the rest to "Television Parlors". These were areas where the public could come in, watch TV on two 25 cm screens. The hope was to produce a "people's television" similar to the Volkswagon or "people's car". People were not that impressed with Nazi television. Even the Party officials were not impressed. Only Berlin had an over the air transmitter. Other major cities had coax from Berlin run to them.

Unlike the other TV countries of the time, the German's did not confine themselves to studios. The surviving film shows they shot many programs on film and then ran the film on the air as we do video tape today. Most programs were of an entertainment-variety types,  but were very heavily laden in Party rhetoric. To watch these films now, it is very chilling to see and hear the anti-Semitic language used. One of the first regularly scheduled programs was "Garden Party" shot in a rooftop garden. It was basically an entertainment show with Vaudeville and radio acts but the underlying message was clear and was tied in the Socialist slogan of the time, "Strength through joy" meaning you worked hard for the Fatherland and the Fatherland would reward with "joy." Another show was a called "Variety Show" shot in a theatre. It too was vaudeville acts and plays and a not so subtle message of you comply or you will go to a "rehabilitation camp." The example used in the show I saw was the host praising the preceding musical act and then switching to "not everyone is playing the same notes. Those who do not play the correct music will go to musical reeducation camp." Message received loud and clear, Heir Hitler. Even all these years later! There was even a homemakers show telling the women what was expected of good Nazi women.

When war broke out and Germany invaded France, the French 343 line system was replaced with the German 441 line system. At that time only Paris had television and it was broadcast from the Eiffel Tower. Again only very high party members and the military had access to television. One thing the German's didn't count on was that the British were also watching German TV broadcast from Paris as well, setting up a receive station along the English Channel on the British side. To help the morale of the wounded German solders, TV's were placed in the French military hospitals. On these sets were shown how the German's were repelling the English from German newsreels and other programming. What they actually did was show the British just how much damage aerial bombing was doing to Paris. It was an unfettered look into the city in a way that traditional Intelligence could never get. German TV from Paris continued until they were driven out. On the way out of town, the 441 line transmitter was destroyed.

Television in Germany continued over the air until an Allied air strike in 1944 took out the Berlin transmitter. It was never repaired or replaced. The TV coaxial lines that had been laid years earlier continued to send Nazi TV signals to those fortunate enough to still have TV's connected until early 1945. The Nazi's were finally defeated on May 7th, 1945 and the war in Europe ended and so did Nazi television.

The DVD "Television Under the Swastika" outlines much of this history.

Aspect Ratio -- or "Why is that person short and fat?"

I was watching my HD TV the other night when it occurred to me. I am seeing A LOT of full screen material. Why is that so earth shattering? Well, it wasn't that long ago that most of the material did NOT fill the screen. I had just gotten used to it the old way. I had noticed a change. Subtle, but a change.

First, a quick history lesson on how we got here.

The reason TV was a square, 4:3 in the first place was to mimic movies. They were roughly 4:3 aspect meaning, for every 4 units wide, the picture will be 3 units high. It is basic physics of 35mm film. In the 1950's, the movie industry was afraid that TV would kill it so they created, Cinemascope type or wide screen formats where the picture was wider that the old standard of 4 units wide to give it an edge over television and keep seats in the movie houses filled. When digital TV was developed in the 1980's, it was decided to again adapt to the wider screen format of movies. The only problem is that there are several different wide screen cinema formats so 16:9, 16 units wide to 9 units high was adapted for digital television. That is why you can sometimes still see black bars at the top and bottom and really wide movies when played on a HD TV. It is all about aspect ratio. "Why is that person short and fat?"

I bought my first HD TV in 2003. I got it for work since we had just started digital broadcasting and network was sending actual 16:9 formatted programming. I wanted to see it to be sure it was being broadcast correctly. In 2003, very few people had HD TV's. I jokingly said I had my "own" TV station. I could turn it on and off and do all kinds of stuff with it and no one ever called and complained. (They didn't) Problem was for all of 2 hours maximum a day, we had full screen material to broadcast. The rest of the day, we ran our analog 4:3 video through a converter that put black wings on the side of the picture to keep people the correct aspect and to fill out the 16:9 screen. It was simple. If network on was line, the converter was out of line and network worried about its own programming. When not in network, the converter was in line. Correct aspect was maintained. We did that for years. So did the majority of TV stations nationwide.

On June 12, 2009, full power TV stations were required by the government to turn off their analog transmitters. This forced the viewing public to conform to the new digital standard. This also forced stations and program distributors beyond the networks to begin dealing with aspect ratio since the new defacto standard had moved from 4:3 to 16:9. Literally overnight.

When the digital standard had been set, it was stated that standard definition could be 4:3 or 16:9. There was no embedded way to tell the set how to automatically format the picture though. Still isn't. All HD would be 16:9 and if it were upconverted SD the picture formatting signal was an option. After the Digital Transition in 2009, production companies very quickly moved towards converting their programs from 4:3 SD to 16:9 HD. In just 3 years, very few programs intended for mass distribution are still in SD where only network programs were in HD 16:9 before June 2009. Even local stations have converted to HD in a fraction of the time that they converted from black and white to color between the late 1950's into the mid to late 1960's. We began true 16:9 programming in the fall of 2009. Our newscast was still in SD, but it was true widescreen. In the fall of 2009 only 4 non network programs were available to us in HD and we broadcasted those programs in 16:9 HD while the rest of the schedule was upconverted SD 4:3 with black bars on the side, including locally produced programming. In the fall of 2010 we converted our news and production operation completely to HD including live field news reports via microwave and via satellite. Today, only 3 non network programs are SD. We air over 20 hours a day of HD 16:9 programming. Not bad. But........

On the other hand, commercial production has lagged way behind. The majority of commercials at the national level are still produced in 4:3 standard definition. The reason? Production houses charge more for HD commercials. It cost more to distribute them. Gone are the days of sending tapes with the commercials on them. They are now sent to severs located at the stations as files via the Internet and satellite. It takes bandwidth to do that. HD commercials use A LOT of bandwidth. So they charge more for it. That is changing, but very slowly. We have been producing our local commercials in widescreen and then in HD since the fall of 2009. The other local stations have also started to produce their local commercials in widescreen at least. We get about 6 HD national commercials a week compared to the more than 250 we get in SD.

The other night is when I noticed that I was seeing more and more national HD commercials. I was seeing less and less of the back bars on the sides. As a matter of fact, most of the commercials were in widescreen. Something in 2003 was unimaginable. It is amazing how far we have come in just 8 years.

Rememberance - June 12, 2009

I was looking through some screen shot pictures of TV stations on several DX web sites. The majority of them were from the analog days of TV broadcasting. This summer marks two years since full power analog TV broadcasting in the United States ceased. You can still fine some low power stations still broadcasting with analog, but many have already either ceased broadcasting all together or are converting to digital or have converted to digital broadcasting. many believe that even these low power analog broadcasters time is very limited. With only tens of months left and all TV broadcasting in the United States will be digital only. To me it seems hard to believe we have been broadcasting digital only for almost 2 years. It many ways it doesn't seem that long. But in other ways, it seems like a life time.

I admit it. I do miss the analog days. I didn't think I would. Too many nights at the transmitter tuning up finicky exciters and outright defiant power amplifiers. Logging a list of signal readings a mile long. Snowy 4:3 standard definition pictures. Working with technology first developed in the 1930's and added to in the early 1950's. Being amazed we got a picture of any quality to broadcast. Ah, the "good ole days."

I was walking through the old transmitter building the other day replacing a repaired power supply in the back up transmitter and thinking about the television history that was made from that little building. And it was 99% analog history. The building was built in 1963 when the station was built. The third station to come on the air for the air. It was just big enough to surround the RCA TT-25DH (D-Line) transmitter. A monster in size compared to today's technology for the power level. In those days the site was manned whenever the station was on the air. Day one on the air made history. Not only for the fact it was the first day on air, but it was also the day the station went off the air. After being on the air for only a few hours, the main power bus in the circuit breaker panel melted taking the station off the air. It was hastily repaired and that patch lasted until that power panel was gutted in an electrical rewire of the building in 1993.

This picture is of a TT-25DH that was at WQAD channel 8 in Moline, Il. There are no surviving pictures that I am aware of for WGHP's TT-25DH. Interesting sidebar, WQAD became a sister station to WGHP in July of 2008.

In 1981, the original transmitter was replaced by a Harris TVD-50H dual tran transmitter and the building was enlarged to install the Harris while staying on the air with the RCA. The old "D-Line" was sold to a PBS station in Washington State on channel 9 that had the same model transmitter and was looking for another one to use in back up service. A few years later, the site was converted to unmanned operation as the era of wide spread manned transmitter sites drew to a close all over the industry. Several of the transmitter engineers moved to the studio and remained with the station for many years while others moved on to pursue other interests.

For the next 10 years, the site was maintained by one man basically, the late Roy Allman. Roy came to work at the station just as it was signing on for the first time in 1963. Roy worked as a transmitter engineer until the early 80's when he was named Transmitter Supervisor. But by then, there wasn't much to supervise with the site now unmanned. But he was responsible for the maintenance and operation of the transmitter. Roy passed away at age 73 in 2008, just months before the cessation of analog broadcasts.

In February of 1992 I graced the transmitter building for the first time. I was being interviewed to replace Roy upon is retirement in early 1993. My first thought was, "thank God the transmitter isn't a RCA." I had dealt with several old RCA radio transmitters in my career and I had heard the stories of the TV transmitters that made my experiences with the radio transmitters pale in comparison. The TVD-50H was very similar to the Harris FM-25K FM transmitter I was used to. Later I found out the trip to the transmitter was to see if I would run when I saw the transmitter and to see how comfortable I was around it. Guess I passed since I was hired in April of 1992. I spent the next year "apprenticing" with Roy on TV engineering which for me was to learn the video end of it since I already knew the RF and audio side of it.

March 1993 saw Roy's retirement and the mantle of "transmitter supervisor" being passed on to me. I got started by cleaning out 25 years of stuff that was lurking in hidden places and equipment that really wasn't useful anymore. The interior got a paint job and we rewired the electrical of the building. The next year we replaced the old shallow 20 inch RCA equipment racks with new 30 inch deep equipment racks and a rewiring of the audio and control cabling for the building. In 1995 we replaced the old reflector microwave receive antenna system with direct antennas mounted on the tower and added stereo generators and processors to the on air chain and began stereo broadcasting for the first time. Over the next few years life turned to planning for the digital transition.

In 1999 plans were to increase the size of the building to include a new digital transmitter and replace the tower with a stronger tower that would hold multiple antennas for both analog and digital since no one knew how long we broadcasting both. Plans were proceeding when 9/11 occurred and changed everything. Being owned by FOX at the time, FOX lost 3 transmitter sites on World Trade Center 2 when it came down that day. It was decided that if a station had viable analog facilities that could be converted to backup facilities, then it was better to build a new site for digital. That put in motion the two site concept that was eventually built. But on that Tuesday, I spent the whole day in that building watching the events unfold in New York City. Not knowing if another attack was coming and to keep the transmitter running at all costs.

On April 29th, 2002, we fired up digital channel 35 for the first time from the building with a super low power transmitter. A whopping 4200 watts total!

The Harris "dual tran" was finally retired in 2005 with installation of half of the new Larcan TTP-44H channel 8 transmitter for the new transmitter building that was being built at the same time.

The Larcan transmitter ran in the old building until March of 2006 when it was joined with its other half in the new building and main operations switched to the new tower and building on the other side of the property and the old building was relegated to auxiliary service. The old building was cleared out and a new 6 kw auxiliary channel 8 analog transmitter was installed along side of the low power channel 35 digital transmitter. In August of 2006, digital operations moved to the new tower and building with the low power channel 35 transmitter becoming a auxiliary transmitter.

After the digital transition, the plan was to remain on channel 8 digital and the analog channel 8 transmitters would be converted to digital. Two of the three transmitters were converted but due to signal problems with digital VHF, channel 8 was abandoned for channel 35. The two big VHF transmitters, one that had be converted to digital and the other which was never converted were traded in for a 5 kw channel 35 auxiliary transmitter that was installed in the old building. The low power channel 8 transmitter in the old building is being shopped around. The transmitter room that held the channel 8 analog/digital in the new building is now empty and is used for storage.

Strange how fast that much history can run though ones brain while taking only ten steps.

James Kenneth "McKay" McManus

Over the last few weeks, fate has continued to remind me that I am not the "young whipper snapper" I like to think I am. More often than not, I will make a comment about something with a reference from years gone by only for the recipient of said comment, who is young enough to be my child, to have a look of puzzlement on their face like, "what are you talking about?" I was once again reminded just last night as I was watching a DVR'ed episode of FOX News Channel's politically incorrect late night comedy panel show parody, "Red Eye."

On the panel of this episode was comedian Joe DeVito, lawyer Brooke Goldstein and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. In discussing the MTV show 'Skins' and how children are not being raised with any kind of moral teaching anymore, in a joking response to a non sequitur comment from host Greg Gutfeld's sidekick Bill Schulz, Governor Huckabee replied "I think Captain Kangaroo is the most dangerous show for kids. Yelling at Grandfather clock to make him wake up! (pause) There are only a handful of people watching who even know what that means." I KNOW! I WATCHED Captain Kangaroo when I was going up in the 60's! The panel had no idea what Governor Huckabee was talking about. That got the laugh. For those who don't know. Grandfather Clock was always asleep. The other characters on the show got a big chuckle from waking him up all the time. Wow! I. Am. Old. To drive the point home further, this morning in perusing the Video On Demand of the DVR, I found the 2003 documentary of the late ABC Sportscaster, Jim McKay. McKay, died in 2008 of natural causes at the age of 86. I had seen this when it first aired on HBO in 2003. It was written and narrated by McKay himself.

McKay was born James Kenneth McManus. He wanted to be a big time newspaper sportswriter. He loved story telling. And while a huge sports fan, he was always more interested in the people behind the box scores and that is what he wanted to write about. If not for a chance offer to be a part of the first TV station in Baltimore, WMAR, we would have never heard of Jim McKay. We might have heard of a newspaper writer named Jim McManus instead. But after a few years at WMAR, opportunity knocked in the form of a new show in New York City and did McManus want to be a part of it. It was basically the same thing he had been doing at WMAR, a little bit of everything on air, just to do it in New York City. One small problem. The show had already been named, "The Real McKay." McManus would have to change his name to match the show. McManus agreed. Hence, "Jim McKay" was born.

During the documentary, it showed how this little known sportswriter became one of the best known sports reporters ever even though he never did a Super Bowl or World Series. But he did host the Kentucky Derby's, Indy 500's and many of the British Open's for ABC.

McKay found himself to be at the center of many historical sporting events. In part thanks to his sports show, "Wide World of Sports" which was the catalyst of the modern day sports reporting on the athletes themselves and not just what they do on the field of competition. It was the show that spawned these classic cultural words that are used today, mostly out of context, Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport... the thrill of victory... and the agony of defeat... the human drama of athletic competition... This is ABC's Wide World of Sports!

As the old video and film clips played documenting McKay's professional life, it became too apparent that I remembered many of these things as they were originally broadcast. You can't really say broadcast live since international satellite broadcasting didn't really start to happen until the late 60's and only then cost a small fortune and was saved for really truly exceptional events like coronations or the Olympics. Some big event that the coverage could be planned for. Not like now where all you need is a computer, camera and an Internet connection. Many of the events shown are now etched in the cultures collective memory. Jim McKay was there. Sadly, he will be best remembered for his coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympic murders. His finest moment broadcasting. An event he said that haunted him 30 years later. It was that broadcast that truly showed he "had the right stuff." Many of the big names in television news at the time recognized him as being the right man in the right place at the right time for that story. The legendary Peter Jennings, who himself in later years would become a beloved anchorman, stated in an interview, that at the time, he could not do what McKay did on that broadcast. He watched in awe how he guided the viewing audience through that terrible time with such dignity and integrity to get the the story right the first time, knowing that back home in Ohio, a family was wanting to know the fate of their loved one. As Roone Arledge, then ABC Sports President stated, "we all knew we were not reporting for the nation, but the Berger family. We had to get it right the first time." McKay's old friend and former co-host in the early days, Walter Cronkite sent him a telegram while still in Munich congratulating him on the coverage he had done and that it was recognized at the competitors shop. Not ABC, but Jim McKay owned the story as no one reporter in the world could. It was one of the the most important stories of the 20th Century, and Jim McKay is the only name that you remember with it.

And speaking of the Olympics, McKay's little ABC show, "Wide World of Sports" pretty much single handedly created America's love for ice skating and gymnastics. Back in the day, ABC was a far third place in just about all categories. ABC's Wide World of Sports was an attempt to find a niche within the sports reporting world with little known sports or off the wall sports. Arledge went around the world buying the rights to all kinds of things for pennies on the dollar to air on WWoS. Things like ski jumping, demolition derbies, barrel jumping, rodeos, gymnastics, track and field, just about any kind of off the beaten path sporting event or sports that didn't play on the other networks. McKay was perfectly suited for the job. This was to not only be the box scores, but to know the people of the events. WWoS went to gymnastic events of all kinds, track and field events and such all around the world. It was the 1960 US/USSR Track and Field broadcasts from the Soviet Union that took WWoS from a summer replacement program to a permanent place on ABC's schedule. This was the first broadcast by an American network from the Soviet Union and while the event wasn't available live in the US, ABC did record it on a new invention called "video tape" and flew the tapes back to New York for broadcast a week later. McKay made both sides human, even the Soviets got praise when they did well, something that hadn't been done before and was received with positive viewer reaction. Because of the accomplishments of McKay and WWoS with track and field and gymnastics and ice skating, events that NBC and CBS hardly touched, when ABC got the rights to broadcast the Olympics in the US market, McKay was the natural choice and became known as "Mr Olympics." Even after ABC lost the rights to the Olympics, the public expected McKay to be a part of the broadcast in some way and both CBS and NBC honored him by negotiating with ABC to allow him to be a part of their Olympic broadcasts until his retirement in 2000. You just couldn't have the Olympics without him. In 2008, NBC who had the rights to the games, dedicated the broadcasts to McKay after his death.

To me he will always be THE BEST sportscaster, period. There will never be another Jim McKay and the current crop of sportscasters are all too aware of it having grown up watching him and wanting to do what he did and are in his debt. The ones coming along? They have no idea whose shoulders they are standing on. They should get a clue.

Yeah. I am now officially old.

footnote - Sean McManus, President of CBS News and Sports is McKay's youngest child.

Ancient History

This past week I was struck how those under 30 years old reacted to the 30th Anniversary of the Assassination of John Lennon. Those of my generation clearly remember December 8, 1980 as if it were yesterday. But how does someone who wasn't born process an event like that? When one thinks of 30 years, the first thought is "boy that is a long time." But when you are looking through the lens of life experience thought that time, 30 years can be a long time or just yesterday. But through the lens of someone not even born then, 30 years takes on a completely different tone.

I didn't really watch much of the coverage. Mainly because I am recovering from major abdominal surgery, and I know the ending of the story. But I did watch an updated "Behind the Music" on VH1 Classics on the last years of Lennon's life. The episode starts after what has become known as the "Lost Weekend" where Lennon moved to Los Angeles in the early 70's with Yoko's assistant, May Pang whose job it was to be the "woman" to John, that Yoko couldn't while trying to deal with John's demons. During this year or so of time, John parties, and parties, and parties, and parties and parties some more. Along the way falling in love with May Pang (and May Pang in return), all with Yoko's blessing. At the end of the "Lost Weekend," Lennon realizes he needs to get his life together and that Yoko is the one he truly loves. May Pang is jilted and John goes back to Yoko, a changed man. May Pang remains bitter to this day. A year later Sean is born and this is where the story starts.

It goes through the years of John the househusband and then in 1980 taking the sailing trip to Bermuda where the sail boat is almost destroyed in a storm and from this comes the music for John's last two albums, "Double Fantasy" and the 1984 release, "Milk and Honey." After John publicly resurfaces in 1980 to restart his music career, with actual TV news video, right through the world wide reaction to the assassination. The updated portion is from 2006 where the addition of Strawberry Fields in New York's Central Park is stated as well as the Anthology songs "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" are mentioned.

The thing that struck me was in the interviews with the people in Strawberry Fields. Most people were younger that 30 who had never known John when he was alive. All they knew of him was archival and his music. Many see him as omnipotent. A great thinker. A man before his time. Reverent, almost to the point of religious. My personal opinion is John would be quite appalled at that. John considered himself part of the working class proletariat. He was no better than anyone else, and didn't want to be. He was just a musician speaking his mind through his music. Nothing more, nothing less. Take it or leave it. He is on record saying that anyone who looked for deep inner meaning of his music beyond what was on the surface, was "Daft."

To many of the under 30 crowd, John Lennon is God like. Of course Yoko hasn't tried to dissuaded people of the thought. It helps keep John's memory and causes alive. Something she has stewarded for years oh so carefully creating and shaping and guarding John Lennon's legacy. The question is who will do that when Yoko Ono finally no longer is here to guide that legacy? Julian Lennon from John's first marriage with Cynthia Powell? Doubtful. He hardly knew his father. Sean? No one knows what his thoughts on the subject are. He has never publicly stated. I don't think he has ever publicly stated anything. So who knows?

I see John Lennon through the eyes of someone who remembers Beatlemania from news reports on TV. I remember when Sgt Peppers was release in 1967. I remember the breakup of the Beatles. I remember the Bed-In's for Peace. I remember when "Imagine" was released. I also remember vividly the events and my own feelings of December 8, 1980. John Lennon isn't God like to me. He is a man who died too young and the world was deprived of his creativity. He is a man who entertained me with his music. On occasion made me think about things differently. I don't think John would be disappointed if I just thought of him as a "musician." Who knows, he might have even song a song to me because of that thought.

Imagine THAT!

Imagine - 70 Years

Today would have been the 70th birthday of the founder of the band, The Quarrymen. Who? The Quarrymen? Yes. The Quarrymen of the English port town of Liverpool who would become, The Beatles.

October 9th, 1940, Alfred and Julia Lennon welcomed John Winston Lennon into the world. Alfred, a merchant marine, who would soon depart Julia's and John's world, only to resurface years later after The Beatles made it and John rejecting him outright. Julia, herself a free spirit, soon left John with her sister Mary Smith, better known to the world now as "Auntie Mimi." "Uncle George" and Auntie Mimi raised John and did the best they could for the rebellious child. Julia did resurface in John's life from time to time buying him his first guitar and taught John cords on a banjo hoping John would get it out of his system saying "The guitar's all very well, John, but you'll never make a living out of it." On July 15, 1958 Julia was struck by a car and killed. John was only 17.

In March 1957 John formed The Quarrymen as a skiffle band, with jazz, blues, folk roots and country influences and then later shifting more towards rock and roll. It was during this time he met Paul McCartney and George Harrison.

As rock and roll became more prevalent, the band went through many names and members with the core remaining Lennon, McCartney and Harrison. By 1960, the band was now known as The Beatles, a play on words for the beat movement of rock and roll and from the "Mersey Beat Scene" the name used to describe the sound coming out of Liverpool and Merseyside England. The grueling Hamburg, German tours progressed over the next two years as the constant 8 to 10 hour stretches of playing in Hamburg's Reperbahn bars created The Beatles sound as the world would come to know. John, not one to sit on his laurels if it meant some mischief learned the "ways of the world" with his free spirit mother and father's genes on full display in Hamburg. But John's love of words blended in with his songwriting began in earnest with Paul in Hamburg as they honed their craft and played the standards of 1950's rock and roll along with standards of the 1930's and 1940's to the sailors and ladies of the night who, along with the beatniks of Hamburg, made up the Reperbahn club scene in the early 1960's.

If not for the now famous chance request of "My Bonnie" by "Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers" at the NEMS Store in Liverpool, and Brian Epstein going to The Cavern Club to hear The Beatles, John Lennon would more than likely have stayed in Liverpool working the blue collar job of the docks or on board ship and music history would have been much different. The general thought is John would have either been in jail or dead by 1970 had there been no Beatles as we know them today. John had been quite a teenage delinquent and was on a road to self destruction with only music saving him. Even in 1963 when George Martin first heard The Beatles, he had little faith this band of four, with Pete Best on drums and not Ringo Starr would amount to much more than a fad band. Thank goodness Sir George was willing to give them a try and Ringo agreed to join.

For those of us who remember December 8, 1980, the question will usually surface, "Where were you when John Lennon was shot?" Like the John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinations and most recently 9/11, those events are elevated above all else and are markers in people lives that get relived over and over again. For me Monday December 8, 1980, I was at college. A friend of mine had stayed over Sunday night in the dorms and we had partied pretty hard so we slept in that Monday morning. After class that afternoon, we resumed the party from the night before. By the time the news filtered out from ABC's Monday Night Football where it was first announced, we had been partying many hours. In an instant, our party turned into a wake as we found a TV and turned it on and watched the news updates. After midnight when the TV stations went off the air (GASP! Yep, stations didn't stay on 24/7 like they do now) we went to the radio and started tuning up and down the AM radio band. Every station you heard had either Beatles or John solo music. My suite mate Mike Ivey, made a cassette tape of that night, but I don't think it exists anymore, being erased a short time later because it was too painful to listen to. The wake continued until morning. Sometime during the night, we took a sheet and painted a sign of remembrance to John and flew it out the dorm window. The sheet still exists. I have it somewhere in my things. I saw it a few years back. A picture of the sheet flying out the window was in the year book.

In the early days of John's and Yoko's relation, she really came off as a nasty interloper. But since John's death, she has really been wonderfully giving to the world of John. A few years back she allowed much of John's artwork to tour and pieces to be sold. It came through here. I went. The cheapest pieces were around $1000. I didn't have the money then. I still don't, but I could probably get it now, when I couldn't then. If I ever get that chance again, I will. Not as an investment, even though it will have value and hopefully it will increase, but to own a piece of John. Sentimental. They were small cards with original pen or pencil drawings. I suspect they are all gone now, but if I ever get the chance again, I will take advantage of it.

So at 70 years old what would John Ono Lennon be like? The same he was at 40 upon his death. He would be doing music. Championing causes of world peace. And I suspect global warming as well. Maybe even a Beatles reunion. That was never out of the question. It just never had the time to mature. And still loving Yoko even more (was THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?) and watching Julian and Sean becoming their potential. No doubt he would be mellow but with a rebellious streak, but he would have the wisdom to use that rebellion for good as he was starting to do that the last 5 years of his life as house husband and primary caretaker of Sean while Yoko tamed the business world.

John is missed, not only by his family and friends, but by the people of the world, fans and non fans alike. The music that could have been created over the last 30 years is that never happened, is a crime. The fact that his music of the 20 years of his adult life and the causes are still championed by the proletariat speaks volumes of John's timelessness. The world is a better place for John's contributions and the world is a worse place for what was never done.

The Picture Becomes Clearer

As I said in an earlier post, I didn't have much to say, even though lots had been going on. As Paul Harvey used to say, "And now, the rest of the story." Actually this picture is the culmination of my not having much to say. I will try to explain.

First the set up.

This is Melissa Painter, our weekend anchor I caught in a candid moment of contemplation sitting on our new High Def set waiting for our weekday anchor Neill McNeill to join her for our inaugural High Def newscast. Melissa is a very capable reporter and anchor in her own right. Melissa normally anchors the weekends by herself with sports guys Kevin Connolly and Danny Harnden and Meteorologist Charles Ewing. Management decided that with this newscast being the first newscast in High Def in the market and it being on a Sunday night, it needed to be co-anchored by two people. The media blitz leading up to this had been MASSIVE. We needed to be sure this newscast delivered on all kinds of fronts. I saw Melissa about an hour before the newscast walking down the hall. I said, "You're looking very pretty tonight." She responded with "I put some extra work into it!" as she smiled and winked at me. That is Melissa. She is a warm hearted, fun loving person who enjoys life and it shows in her work. She is a real joy to work with. We are lucky to have her.

Here is Neill McNeill on the left with his regular weekday partner, Julie Luck during rehearsals on the new HD set. Neill is a part of a generation of newsperson that takes his craft seriously. Neill started in the business around 1980. He, like me, grew up watching Walter Cronkite and watching the 1960's on TV, remembers the Moon landings and saw Watergate happen (where the "-gate" comes from in any kind of a political scandal now) before even going to college. Neill has a somewhat dry sense of humor, but is quite funny in his own right. You would never know it watching him on TV, but then, as a reporter, cred is the Holy Grail in this business. Do you want your news from a serious professional, or some laughing buffoon. Me? I want serious. And Neill delivers.

And just a quick word on his weekday co-anchor, Julie Luck since she is pictured here but was not on the first HD newscast. Julie is just a mess! Julie lives life to the fullest and she IS the life of the party on and off camera. Just a fun loving lady. And the viewers just love her too. I like being around her. She is so unpredictable. That is why we like her so much.

So there you have the ending. Being the first station in the market to bring HD news to the viewers. The beginning? Well, that is going to take a while.

Let's start this installment at the beginning of the day the top picture was taken, September 12, 2010. For months we had been installing new HD equipment along side the SD equipment. We had to stay on the air with the old SD equipment while installing all the new HD equipment and it's a logistical nightmare all its own. The equipment racks and control room were busting out of its seams with old and new equipment. We had to have it all installed together to do weeks upon weeks of rehearsals when we were not on the air with news. We had two of everything! You can see in this picture taken during rehearsals, the new HD equipment is toward the back of the picture where 6pm Director Amy Convery is sitting and a corner of the old SD switcher equipment and support equipment in the front of the picture. I am standing at the back wall taking the picture and can only get a small piece of the SD equipment in! TIGHT!

That Sunday we in the engineering department assembled at 8am to start to remove the old SD equipment and to relocate the HD equipment to its permanent location. We had to have everything ready by a 4pm 2 minute news break that airs during the halftime of the second NFL game. We were confident we could get 98% of everything done by then and the remaining 2% by air time (10pm). By 2pm, the only items left to do was remount the headset intercom system box at the new HD switcher and check the video wall monitor to be sure the video matched the locations. Most of the engineering team left while I stayed and finished up the intercom and tested the monitors. At 4pm the 2 minute news break was recorded to the HD server and about 45 minutes later, the first locally produced news program in the market aired. I stayed until the 10pm news was over to be sure everything worked. It did with just little nitpicky items we had either forgotten about or hadn't thought about. It was a big success.

We had most of management on hand for the first HD newscast and a full crew as if this were a full fledged weekday newscast. I saw one of the producers heading for the control room and asked did we have enough news for such a momentousness launch. They laughed and jokingly said, "Well...... we could use another hurricane to fill out the hour!" meaning we already had three hurricanes in the Atlantic, what was one more?

Well, all went according to plan for this madden voyage of our foray into HD news. I think the biggest problem was Neill had some issue with his new HD makeup that was fixed on Monday and life goes on.

More on our journey to get to this point in future posts.

Now here is a YouTube video from that first HD newscast.

9-11-2001

Please take a moment today to remember those killed on 9/11 by purely evil people.

Including the six television transmitter engineers who were working on the 104th & 110th floor of the World Trade Center.

Robert Pattison - WCBS
Isaias Rivera - WCBS
William Steckman - WNBC - WA2ACW
Donald DiFranco - WABC
Steven Jacobson - WPIX - N2SJ
Gerard "Rod" Coppola - WNET - KA2KET

What Time Is It?

For listeners of WWV and WWVH, that isn't a problem. Why you say? WWV and WWVH are US Government time stations. Time stations? What the heck is that?

Long before GPS, actually in the 1920's, electronics needed a time/frequency standard for accurate measurements. Time/frequency radio stations provided (and still do) that service. WWV was the first going on the air in 1920 from Washington, DC. Over the next few years WWV moved around the Washington area before settling in at Beltsville, MD from 1932 to 1966 when the station was relocated to Fort Collins, CO to better serve the lower 48 continental United States. WWV operates on five shortwave frequencies, 2.5 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz and 20 MHz. WWVH is located on the island of Kauai, HI with four shortwave frequencies of 2.5 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz and 15 MHz and serves the Pacific Basin.

So what do you hear on WWV/WWVH? Well with a shortwave radio tuned to WWV/WWVH you hear, clock ticks, varies tones, top of the minute time announcements ("At the tone the time will be 15 hours 32 minutes Universal Coordinated Time - BEEEEP") and at certain minutes of the hour, oceanic weather conditions, solar wind conditions and shortwave propagation conditions are broadcast. And that is about it. But what you can't hear is just as important if not more.

Because WWV/WWVH uses atomic clocks to be sure they are EXACTLY on time, this also allows the transmitters to be EXACTLY on frequency. This also allows a subcarrier to be transmitted with digital information that can be read by computers for all kinds of test and measurement and standards signals and the user knows that it is as accurate as can be made.

If you remember seeing the "atomic clocks" of a few years ago, they worked on a very similar system. Instead of using shortwave of WWV or WVVH, they received a special time signal station co-located with WWV, time signal station WWVB. WWVB broadcasts on the Long Wave band below the AM band at 60 kHz. This allows the signal to be more stable and remain receivable longer with more reliability than the shortwave frequencies used by WWV/WWVH. Because the frequency is so low, WWVB doesn't use voice to broadcast information. It broadcasts computer data and these same atomic clocks that WWV/WWVH use are also used on WWVB's signal to keep corrected time and frequency.

In the late 90's NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the government agency that runs WWV/WWVH/WWVB, completely rebuilt WWVB and increased its power. WWVB had started at the Ft Collins site in 1963. The station was long overdue for a rebuild. This rebuilding is what spurred the atomic clock craze of the late 90's and early 2000's. You can't as easily find atomic clocks as you once could because of GPS, but they are still out there and there are many reasons where the NIST stations are preferred over GPS, even though GPS provides everything the NIST stations provide. WWVB reception isn't affected by the Sun as WWV/WWVH and GPS is. The 60 kHz receivers are much cheaper than GPS receivers. The data is easier to manipulate and you don't need a clear view of the sky to make it work as with GPS.

When I first went to work at the station in 1992, we had a 1980's model WWV Master Clock receive system at the studio that kept us on time for network and other programming. In the late 90's we upgraded to an early GPS Master Clock system and replaced the aging and ailing WWV Master Clock system. When we installed the new automation system a couple of years ago we had to install a better GPS Master Clock system that offered more features that the automation required. I grabbed the original GPS Master Clock system and moved it to the main transmitter building and it is really nice to have it and what it does. But at the backup transmitter building, it doesn't make sense to spend that kind of money just to tell time, which is all I need there. So two $39 Radio Shack atomic clocks work just fine. Time correction provided by WWVB, Fort Collins, Colorado of course!

Back in the tube days, test equipment at stations were not as stable as they are now and required a known frequency standard to keep the equipment and transmitters within tolerance. Cheapest way to do it? In the rack was a WWV receiver with a test port on it for the standards measurement. We had a WWV receiver at the transmitter for that very purpose. When we rebuilt the transmitter site in 1994, the receiver was finally retired. That old receiver is now in my collection. It still works!

Technically the NIST stations are utility stations because they serve a utilitarian purpose, but they are also fun to listen to. Depending on how the band conditions are, it isn't too unusual to hear WWVH under WWV at times. Since both stations are exactly on the same frequency, there is no interference and you will hear the female WWVH voice announce the time at :45 seconds followed by the WWV male voice announcing the time at :53 seconds as if from a single station. That is how you tell which station you are hearing. WWV/WWVH identify themselves at :00 minutes and :30 minutes.

Other countries have time/standards stations as well. In the US, the easiest one to hear is CHU, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. CHU broadcasts on 3 frequencies, 3.33 MHz, 7850 MHz and 14.67 MHz. CHU alternates time announcements every minute with French on the odd minute and English on the even minute with station ID every minute. "CHU, Canada. 15 hours 32 minutes UTC."

For more info on WWV/WWVH/WWVB including pictures go to http://www.nist.gov/physlab/div847/grp40/wwv.cfm. For CHU check out http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/services/inms/time-services/short-wave.html

Digital Transition - One Year Later

June 12th, 2010 makes the first anniversary of the termination of full power analog broadcasting in the United States. So how has the broadcasting world changed in that first year? Actually not that much. Over the air digital television has certainly gone through some teething pains and continues to do so. Some people on the fringe of analog stations can no longer receive those same stations as digital stations. Some stations have had to change digital channels after the transition to improve reception to it viewers. Some stations have had to add low power translator stations to cover the same area they did as analog stations. Over the air viewers are relearning the lessons about antenna reception with digital as their parents and grandparents did in the 50's and 60's before cable and satellite. While we still field reception questions, it really isn't more than what it was in the analog days, believe it or not.

Certainly the transition to digital over the air television was not 100% painless as some in the government and trade organizations made it out to be. Some viewers have lost stations they grew up with because those stations are no longer on VHF channels and UHF doesn't quite carry as far way out on the fringe while other viewers are now receiving stations they never received before. Of course if you are one of the viewers who lost stations, this whole digital TV thing sucks. If you were one of the viewers who picked up new stations, this digital TV thing is pretty cool. It is all in your perspective.

What we are finding is that viewers with decent outside antennas pick up all the local stations with no problems. Those with inside antennas have problems. Truth is, those viewers always had problems in the analog days but because they could see something, even a noisy static filled signal, they put up with the aggravation of a bad signal. In the digital world, if the signal isn't a certain signal level, a "NO SIGNAL" will be seen on the screen so those viewers see nothing. We have proven time and time again that a UHF screen antenna mounted in a bucket on an apartment porch or balcony will receive more stations and better signals than an indoor antenna. Yet, when you tell people that, they think you are lying to them to just get them off the telephone. We WANT YOU as viewer. Why would we lie about something like that?

I must admit, I always have to suppress a laugh when I get a viewer who tells me, that the problem they are experiencing is with our station only. And just about EVERY caller tells me that. Listen folks, you aren't the first ones to tell me that and that will NOT make me move any faster. Been there. Done that. Got the tee shirt. 99% of the time, after asking several questions, it turns out that we are NOT the only station they are having a problem with. Most of the time, the viewer doesn't realize they have problems on other channels. One such example was a call I got from a little old lady about 15 years ago. She called up complaining she could get all the other channels except us and she wanted us to "fix our problem." After questioning her about her problem, I asked her how old was her TV. She immediately snapped back, "I can guarantee you it isn't MY TV. It is only 20 years old!" Twenty years old? Right. Not your TV. Well it turned out it WAS her TV. The mechanical tuner in this late 1970's model TV (this was before the electronic tuners we have today) had just worn out after 20 years of use. It happens. It is mechanical. She finally admitted after a few more questions she had to rock the channel knob back and forth on ALL stations to get them to come in. Classic mechanical tuner issue. But remember, she only had this problem with OUR station.

I got a call a few months back from a lady who lives about 5 miles from the transmitter complaining she could get all the other stations but couldn't get us and we needed to "fix our problem." (See the pattern?) After asking the usual questions, it sounded like the signal wasn't getting from the antenna to the TV. But no, it was only our station. I recommended some things to do and a few days later, she called me back to say that her son had gone on the roof and found where the coax had become disconnected from the antenna and she now had a perfect signal and thanked me for the information. (I like THOSE calls!)

I can honestly say that 99% of the callers are truly nice people who really want to watch our station and are looking for answers (sometimes miracles) from us. They are just very adamant about it at times. But that last one percent can be so vile and so hateful, we just hang up on them. That is verbal abuse and we are not required to deal with those callers and we don't.

Most of the issues these days deal with antennas and their placement. Lots of bad information out there about antennas and how to install them. A big one we are seeing are people installing two antennas, one pointed to Sauratown Mountain for WXII and WUNL and the other pointed toward north of Randleman where the other stations are located and using a splitter in reverse to combine the two into one to avoid having to use a rotor. On paper, this looks like a great idea. In reality, you have to know you are doing to make this work. The problem is you can introduce multipath (ghosting) in the system. With one antenna pointed in one direction and the other antenna pointed in another direction, the signals of the stations arrive at slightly different times to your receiver causing ghosting since one of the signals has to travel a longer distance by bouncing off of something like a water tank or building and then being received by the other antenna. Your receiver sees the two (or more) signals and is not sure which one to lock and so you don't get any picture at all or it breaks up at best. You have to use special antenna combiners and the length of cable between the antennas and the combiner is critical as well to not have this internal ghosting. You may also need specific channel filters to reduce ghosting or overloading of the receiver. It can get very complicated and you will need expensive test equipment to trouble shoot problems as well to make it work. You are basically creating a small cable headend and they are not simple or cheap things.

I must admit, I have gotten smarter myself as people call and I have to try and troubleshoot their problems over the phone so it has been a win-win as far as I can tell. As time goes by, things will get better. The same thing happened with analog TV. It got better over time. Digital will also. In just 12 months, things have gotten much better and the ratings show it. So hang in there. We are.

KJL-88

Time moves on. It is only one of two constants in the world. The other being death. And that is certainly true in broadcasting. After the Digital Transition, it has amazed me at how fast the industry as a whole is moving away from analog. In less than a year, you walk into most any TV station in the country and you may not recognize it from this time last year. Widescreen news is just one of those things. Two years ago widescreen newscasts weren't on ANYONE's radar. Now, stations that don't have widescreen newscasts are going the way of the dinosaur faster than the Chicxulub meteor that wiped them out.

The past two weeks we have been upgrading our intercity microwave systems from analog to digital. It hit me that some of this equipment is the oldest in the whole station. Some of it was manufactured while I was still in junior high school! (As the kid on the add says, "That's oood!") The first question that hits me is why hasn't this stuff been changed out sooner! These are the links that bring back the video from the news scenes out in the community. The simple answer, Why? It works. It is bullet proof. It never fails. It is out of sight. It is out of mind. And there are literally TENS OF THOUSANDS of these transmitters and receivers slaving away all over the country. And have been for decades!

Starting in 2008, due to a rule change by the FCC, and the money of Sprint/NEXTEL who wanted to carve out a piece of the broadcast mobile microwave band for commercial use, all broadcast mobile microwave transmitters and receivers nationwide had to be changed out. In order to fit the new band, it had to be digital. The Piedmont Triad was one of the first areas to convert. So from the trucks to the microwave receive sites it has been digital since 2008. But from the receive sites back to the studio, it has remained analog. And the pictures provided it. Hence, the change out.

But one link holds a special place in my heart. And that is KJL-88. If you saw the changeover from analog to digital last June, after the Star Spangled Banner played, you saw a "slide" of an old WGHP ID logo sign off. On it, in the lower third, KJL-88. It is on YouTube. Check it out!

You may be asking, "What is a KJL-88?" KJL-88 is the call sign assigned by the FCC for a specific fixed microwave link. It just happens to be the first microwave link assigned to WGHP back when it came on the air in 1963. (We now have over 10 fix point microwave links running all over the Triad to bring back live pictures of news events.) If you ever watched WGHP from October 14, 1963 to March 31, 2006, you were watching KJL-88! It was the main, and at the time only, studio to transmitter link. That is how the programming got from first the Old Sheraton Hotel studios and then later the current Francis St studios. After the new transmitter site went on the air in March 2006, KJL-88 was reclassified as the backup microwave link since the original tower (which we now call the "Plainfield Transmitter Site") became the stand by tower site. (SIDEBAR, WGHP is the only TV station in the Triad that has two completely separate and independent transmitting sites so if thereWGHP Auxiliary Transmitter Site - 1999 is a major problem at one site, the other site can come up and we can continue to broadcast.) For the next 3 years, KJL-88 continued to operate as it had for the preceding 43 years, just no one was watching since the backup transmitter was not turned on except for testing into the dummy antenna. After the June 12th 2009 transition to digital television, it looked like KJL-88 may have broadcast it last. The analog equipment was not compatible with digital broadcasts and the equipment itself was over 30 years old. We had placed a digital receiver that was on the main microwave link to the new tower site (which is call the Courthouse Site) at the Plainfield Site to keep the channel 8 digital backup transmitter serviced, but that wasn't a permanent solution. You see the Plainfield Site is also the location of one of our microwave receive sites so we have to be able to send video from the trucks back to High Point from there. When the return link was put in back in the late 70's, early 80's, it too was analog. In order to continue to keep communications with that receive equipment, we had used some of KJL-88 to send the controlling signals over it. How to do it now? The microwave link back TO High Point (WLD-423) was staying. What about the link FROM High Point (KJL-88)?

The old analog equipment for KJL-88 was removed last year and it was traded in for other microwave equipment we needed on other microwave links. So for the first time since 1963, that link was open. We maintained the license (good ole' KJL-88) but what to do with it now? It is interesting to note that the equipment removed from KJL-88 last year was not the original equipment. Even though the equipment removed was installed in 1976, it replaced the original KJL-88 equipment (version 1.0) from when WGHP went on the air in 1963. That equipment was a RCA tube type microwave system. It had no backups that I have ever heard of. One story of interest was the receiver. There was one tube that would go out on a fairly regular basis. Since the transmitter site was manned in those days when the transmitter was on the air, if the tube went bad, there was a case of tubes sitting close by. As the signal started to fade into snow, which viewers at home could see just as easily as the engineers could, the duty engineer would pull the offending tube out and plug a new one in. But these tubes were famous for not always working straight out of the box. I am told it was not uncommon to try 5 or 6 tubes before one was found to work. Of course while all this was going on, there was no picture on the air. Just black or a trouble slide on air generated at the transmitter site. Remember, it would take 30 to 60 seconds per tube to see if it would work so this process could last 5 minutes or more! The station suffered through this until KJL-88 version 2.0 was installed in 1976, with the solid state equipment I pulled out of service last year.

Earlier this year it was decided that there would indeed be a KJL-88 version 3.0 and it would be digital. It would feed the new channel 35 backup transmitter at the Plainfield Site and continue to provide control signals for the receive site. And since we were upgrading this link, what about the return path back to the studio (WLD-423)? It was decided to make that link digital as well. And I guess while we were on the subject of microwave paths, what about the others. Obviously, the main microwave link to Courthouse Site was already digital so we didn't have to worry about that one. Pleadings and beggings were performed. Arms were twisted. Compromising pictures taken. Deals cut. Money extorted. In the end, it was decided that while we had the attention of the microwave companies (who were begging us to buy and willing to give first borns if we did) let's upgrade the other paths as well and clean up our microwave shots that would then be digital from the field all the way to the viewers TVs. Equipment was ordered and after waiting what seemed an eternity, it began arriving several weeks ago. First link to be installed? KJL-88 and its return link sister WLD-423. Since then, we have installed the link from Greensboro back to High Point and next on the list, the link from Winston-Salem to High Point and the link from our news bureau at the Winston-Salem Journal. As sweet as it is to have those links converted to digital and the improved pictures from the field that viewers can see now, to be able to fire back up KJL-88 after almost a full year of being dark, was a great feeling. A connection to those engineers of yesteryear who first put KJL-88 on the air in 1963. The link I remember watching as a kid. A year ago, I didn't know if KJL-88 would ever live again. Today, it will live for the next 30 years at least.

So if you are awake around 3 or 4 AM, that is when we run the ID graphics of the microwave links and you will see KJL-88 on it. And that's the story of KJL-88.

"So long! Farewell! See you NEXT time! NOT."

On Friday the 5pm newscast producer put together her last show. She is moving up to a larger market and WAAAY up the east coast. Several of us were taking a coffee break in the Green Room across from the control room about 3pm and she came by getting things ready for her last show. We called her in and told her how we would miss her and don't forget the little people and oh yeah, come around occasionally. She said she would and I don't think ANYONE believed she would be coming back. She might THINK she will, but it will NEVER happen.

It isn't that she doesn't WANT to. It is just life doesn't move like that. She isn't from around here. She has no family here. She came to college here and that is what brought her here in the first place and this was her first job out of school. No real reason to come back except to see former co-workers who may or may not even be working here then. I mean, it isn't like we are FRIENDS or anything. Why would she or why should she want to come back? Nothing personal. Honest. Circle of life, Simba.

I speak from a certain first hand knowledge of such situations. I have seen it a thousand times in my career. I have even been in that very position myself a couple of times before believing life would go on as before with worker-friends, just that I would be a little farther down the road, that is all. But the truth is I was moving on to a new job in a new town and any ties I had were being cut in two with all the precision a surgeons scalpel. I just wouldn't acknowledge it.

The first time it happen to me it was in the town I grew up in. But by the time I moved on, family had moved away and all my growing up friends had moved on and it was only co-workers I associated with. A couple of them I even considered good friends, but in the post move era, I have only talked to one of them twice on the phone and have never seen the other one in over 20 years. I do feel bad about that, but the 2 times I have been back that way, I was passing through going somewhere else with no time to spare it seemed and my hometown was on the route. In all honesty, the one who I haven't seen since I left, I did go by his "house" to see him one time, but found out he had moved somewhere else in town, but I didn't know where and didn't have the time to find out where. People just don't stay at a job like they used to. Normally.

My station is unique in that many people stay for 10's of years. That isn't the case anywhere else anymore. My immediate supervisor has been there for 30 years and my department head for 31 years. The General Manager has 34 years of tenure there! Some are on their second time around! Some have never worked anywhere else in their lives! Me? I am a newbie. A rookie. Only 18 years of service to the station. People cross town? If they make it 5 years, they consider themselves lucky.

Now adays those being hired don't plan on staying. This is a stepping stone to bigger and better things so I really expect we who have the tenure of decades are the last of a dying breed. To be honest, I never expected to still be working at the same place after 18 years and counting either. Bright lights are always over the horizon.

Have I had other offers? Yep! You bet! More money too! But not only what you make, but the environment you make it in is just as important to me and so far I haven't found anything better, yet.

So Jen, enjoy Connecticut and be as successful as you want to be! Nice knowing you and working with you! But we shall never see each other again. Blame the Gods of life.

Time Flies

Holy cow Batman! Where did the time go?

May 23, 2009 was my last blog. And it was a rant at that. Surprisingly no hate mail from it either. So either no one cared, no one read it or no one reads me. That is Ok. No hard feelings. Honest. I have had nothing really to say. Well, I have, but I have had no blogging energy to do it. Have pretty much ignored facebook and Twitter too over the last year. Trying to get better.

Writing takes a lot out of me. Don't know why. It just does. The run up to the actual act I have LOTS to say. Sit down to do it and BAM! Nothing. Or it comes out WAY too long that even I don't want to read. I don't know how professional writers do it. I don't mean the people who write books (God I would kill myself if I knew I had to write a 200 page book. I don't think I have 200 pages in me for an entire life). No I mean the people who write everyday for a living like news reporters, PR people, Editorialists, etc. I slave hours over what piddle I write here. With this posting I am trying to do it all in one take with one proofread, not the over and over and over proofing and touching up I usually do. It seems when I do that, that is when my "few lines" grow into a novel.

I hate when others do that and I REALLY hate it, when I do it so I guess that is the real reason why I have been tardy in this endeavor, even though my life has been pretty full the last 12 months and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. Lots to write about, just need to be more brief and concise about it.

I am starting to fall into the old funk. OK, I'll stop now.

The Bill of Rights Only Apply to Liberals

I must admit I had not intended to blog on such a volatile topic so soon from my last bomb blast. I need to mention something about the upcoming digital transition, a topic I have been blogging on the work web site, but not so much here. But here I am. And here goes.

I have been amused over the last few days how the extreme left has blown a gasket over comments and remarks of former Vice President Dick Cheney taking to task the Obama Administration's continual pounding on the Bush Administration's handling of the whole "War on Terror" and what is the definition of "torture." After a chance encounter with the "Randi Rhodes Show" on satellite radio and her tirade of how Dick Cheney needs to just "shut up and go away and stop lying to cover his own ass" to a new Facebook group called "Telling Dick Cheney to shut the hell up" to comments made by MANY DIFFERENT people on MSNBC to even the Obama Administration on the defensive over Mr. Cheney's comments.

People, "you doth protest too much." Hate to be the barer of bad news, but the Bill of Rights and particularly the First Amendment, one that the Ultra Left clings to like a baby to its mothers breast appears to only be allowed when they use it and everyone else who doesn't believe what they believe just shut up and go away. You saw the same thing with the Tea Parties. It would appear that in their minds, only Obama supporters are covered by the Bill of Rights and everyone else is just s*** out of luck.

Now I don't agree with EVERYTHING Mr. Cheney says, but I do believe in his right to say it. Our laws protect that right to EVERY citizen, Obama supporter or not. I don't remember this country becoming the United Socialist States of America yet, even though some on both sides of the issue thinks it has. And if you objectively look at what has happened in the last 4 months since Mr. Obama came into office, one could argue it has lurched in that direction.

My own opinion is the Ultra Libs are afraid that Cheney is making points, and many on both sides believe in this round, the current Administration is losing this war of words and the only way to stop Cheney is to marginalize him. Which seems to be back firing. It has the sound of desperation in it and mainstream America and many in the media have picked up on that. If you analyze what the Administration is doing, it is very quietly following the Bush Administration in lock step, which has the uber left bloggers going after Obama viciously, in a wonderful demonstration of the left eating its own for its own cause. So much for transparency and "change we can believe in."

So far I am not believing what I am seeing. This country is more divided now than it was under Bush. I am seeing a smart but naive man who holds the most power in the world, squandering it and our position in the world away just so he looks good to the Europeans. All I have to say to that is if it wasn't for the US in the 1940's, they all would be speaking German in Europe now. But then they say memories are always short lived in poltics.

Don't "Threat" On Me

Being from the old school in the media, where you do not show sides when covering a story, I refrain from speaking my mind in public. I don't display bumper stickers on my vehicles, I don't allow political signs to be placed in my yard, I don't protest and when out in the public away from friends, if people ask my opinion about issues of the day, I always attempt to be as neutral as possible.

This blog is about as far as I have gone into the "public opinion arena" and even it has been tame with mostly issues that deal with the business of broadcasting, not hot button issues of the day. But I am about to break that public silence, at least this once and it is a doosy of an issue to break the ice on, but I feel very passionate about it.

First off, I am a life long registered Democrat from a long line of Southern Democrats. I am a moderate. I am pro-Choice. I am pro-Gay civil unions but believe marriage should be between a man and a woman. I am fiscally conservative. I have voted in every election I have been able to vote in. I vote for whom I think will do the best job, not ideology. I judge a candidate by their policies, nothing else. Because of that, I voted for Ronald Reagan, Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Al Core, but I must confess, I voted against John Kerry in 2004 and I voted against Barak Obama. Yes, I admit I didn't vote for President Obama. And it was because of his policies. I have never believed in big government nor socialism/fascism. I am no fan of John McCain's policies either. It boiled down to Ultra Liberal with Obama or Liberal with McCain. What a choice!? I sure wanted to vote for "None of the above."

I don't know why people are all up in arms about what the President is doing. He said he would do all this and more when he was running. And he has done most of it within the first 100 days of his Presidency. DUH! And you are surprised? You bought it, you live with it. You will have another chance in 2012 to put someone else in the White House. Until then, just SHUT UP about it. You can't do anything about it now anyway, the election is over. You want change? Start next year in the mid term elections with the bums we call Congress people. Reign them in and the White House will follow right along behind them. It won't have a choice. It will be in their interest to do so. George Soros may think he owns the country at this point, but he is a fool if he really believes that. The real power still resides in the ballot box. You don't believe me? Just ask Arlen Spector. His reason for changing parties last week? He spouted off about the Republican Party not seeing things his way, yada, yada, yada and then he said it. He couldn't win in the primaries next year as a Republican. BOOM! There is. Winning is more important that serving the voters. That is one of the major problems with our elected officials today. Me, first. Voters, second. Schmuck. It is past time for term limits. Spector proves it, again.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is an embarrassment to the Party. Majority Leader Reid can't put two words together to make up a complete thought if he had to. Both parrot what they THINK people want to hear. That isn't leadership. That is stupid, plain and simple. They are too afraid of failing and loosing power. I certainly respect someone who honestly tries and fails than someone who never tries and believe me, they ain't trying. During the President's speech to the joint Session of Congress, I swear, I got tired of seeing Speaker Pelosi jumping up and down every other word to clap. I kept shouting at the TV, "Nancy, SIT DOWN! It isn't about you!" Another SCHMUCK. Sec of State Hilary Clinton. She is a Clinton, what else do you need to know? By the way, what is so damn funny that just about every time she speaks in public now she feels she has to laugh? Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. He is a Bush. I don't trust him. In all honesty, he may have the real stuff, he does act differently than George H. W. or George W., but we will never know, thanks to his big brother George. On second thought, he may be the greatest guy for the job but I still don't trust him. Mitt Romney. Which side of the political spectrum does he live on anyway? Don't trust him. Bobby Jindel. Republican's Obama. Too young and wide eyed. He needs to learn to read and speak at the same time. And then there is Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin. Don't know. First glance, impressed. Second and later glances, too soon to tell. Seems to have peaked already and so may not matter after all.

As you might guess, I don't like ANY of them. Well I don't. They are all bums. I am getting more and more of the feeling like my own Party is not my Party anymore. I find that I am disagreeing with the planks in the party platform. I am thinking of myself more like an Independent these days and not a Democrat. The current extreme left leaning Democrat Party is not the Party I grew up in. I don't know this Party anymore. I am no Republican either. I don't identify with that Party either. And I guess that is why I feel the way I do about the next group.

I guess my biggest anger is with my beloved industry (HHMMM, I guess I get back around to the media anyway!). They are so in love with Barak Obama, The Myth. Many in the media were so anti-George W. Bush, they would have supported Hitler in 2008 if he were alive and running for President. No joke. I know several of them who would have. The media will jump on a bandwagon for a tenth of a ratings point and Obama had a back story that couldn't be resisted that could be used against Bush. Now, for complete disclosure, I know many people in the business who are right wing and many are in newsrooms. The problem is there are more Liberals than Conservatives in the newsroom (have been for years and it is mostly the younger ones who lean left since the older ones who either were Conservative or became Conservative move on to real jobs sooner or later) and they are frequently drowned out. Also, for complete disclosure, I know many Liberals and Conservatives in the newsroom who both try very hard to not let their political bent distort their reporting. To them, the profession is worth it. But then you have almost as many on both sides of the political spectrum that will prostitute themselves out for a story. SMUCKS!

The coverage, or lack there of the Tea Parties is very troubling. While I do not believe there was a coordinated effort within the industry to embargo the Tea Parties, the attitude of many in the media on the Tea Party story was a small group of disgruntled Republican stalwarts stirring up trouble and so it wasn't worth their time. FOX on the other hand saw it for what it was, a true grassroots effort of public protest having been hearing about it for several months and played it for all it was worth, and very successfully getting mentions on all the other news programs and cable news channels. The confrontation of CNN reporter Susan Roesgen with Tea Party participants in Chicago showcases in very negative terms what the Media perception of the Tea Parties were. Believe me, the media is now KEENLY aware of what the Tea Parties are all about and Susan Roesgen is the poster child for the media's and the Administration's reaction to it. Why do you think the President continues to talk about it weeks after it happened? THEY GET IT! If not, they wouldn't STILL be talking about it. But it ISN'T their agenda so how do you get around that? When you can't fight them with logic and reasoning, you start to demonize your opponent, loudly and often. It is your only weapon. Why do you think people like Janeane Garofalo and Keith Olberman and Rachel Maddox spouted hate speech about the Tea Parties? Why do you think they called participants "Redneck Tea Baggers?" For those who don't know what a "tea bagger" is, it is a euphemism for a sexual act performed by a man on another man. It is meant to be degrading to the Tea Party participants. It IS HATE SPEECH in all of its horrible glory. Actually what it does is shows how hypocritical the extreme left is. Free speech is all the rage until it is something they don't like. The Tea Parties are exposing that in a way nothing else has been able to. Susan Roesgen has become a symbol of that hate, something CNN is not real happy about these days I am sure. That one clip is still played on the air at FOX as a rallying cry. Now while I don't think continuing to do that is helpful, it keeps ratings up. So they do it.

Personally, I support the Tea Party concept. I pay way too much in taxes now and $13 a week tax cut is a joke. When all this Stimulus and budget hits, taxes are going up, FOR EVERYONE. Get ready. You heard it here first. It doesn't take a financial genus to figure that one out. You can't keep spending what you don't have. It has to come from somewhere. And before the taxes go up, the inflation that is a direct result of all this deficit spending will be here. I remember the Jimmy Carter years of 23% mortgage interest rates. If we don't stop with the spending, it will be worse than that. Would I participate in a Tea Party? Probably not because of that "old school media" thing. I help bring the story to the masses, I am not a part of it.

But if things get worse, who knows, maybe I would. There are a lot of ticked off people in this country right now and I am one of them. Oh yeah, I vote too. And pay taxes. A LOT OF TAXES. And I am no where NEAR making $250,000 a year. Or even half of that.