MARCH 2004 San Francisco Roy Trumbull - Editor roy547@msn.com Bill Dempster - Artist |
Santucci Video Systems - Sandra Santucci - (818) 704-6324 Belden - Steve Lampen - (415) 440-8393 Media Technical Consulting - Paul T. Black - (925) 827-9511 MARCOM - Martin Jackson - (408) 768-8668 William F. Ruck, Jr. Broadcast Engineer - (415) 564-1450 Ross Marketing Associates - Kevin Frost - (408) 988-8111 Kathrein (Scala Division) - Michael Wm. Bach - (541) 779-6500 Hammett & Edison, Inc. - Dane E. Ericksen, P.E. - (707) 996-5200 Howell Communications - Mike Howell - (559) 674-8989 Econco - George Badger - 650-327-7599 Improbable Missions Fource - Mike Schweizer - (888) 4-ISDN4U Digi-Gear / Cancomm - Eric Lane - (818) 980-9188 West Penn Wire/CDT - Michael J. La Porte - (650) 652-9080 Microwave Radio Communications - Clark Rhoads - (909) 246-1602 |
Heil Sound, Ltd. Enters the commercial broadcast industry with their introduction of the Heil PROLINE products. Heil"s new "PROLINE" microphone element has raised the bar on dynamic microphone technology and is winning the heart and ears of many commercial broadcasters.
As usual, our luncheon will be at Sinbad's just south of the Ferry Building on the Embarcadero near the foot of Mission St. We meet at 11:30 and are seated at 12:30. To make reservations call Paul Black at 925-827-9511 and leave a message on his machine.
The first UHF TV station in San Francisco was KSAN ch32. It was owned by a company under the control of a radio evangelist. They made an effort to succeed but this happened prior to the FCC mandate that all TVs have UHF tuners. The station sold UHF converters to viewers but couldn't build a large enough audience to be competitive with the VHF channels. Thus they had to bide their time until the FCC acted upon their request to go dark. Since video tape hadn't been invented yet, they relied heavily on film programs.
Bob Morrison stopped by to see Berry Brose in Piedmont who just happened to be on the phone with Don. They were discussing reception as Barry fiddled with a converter box. A rather fuzzy Buck Jones western was tuned in on the TV. Barry said to Don, "Morrison is here, do you want to say hi?" At that, the movie audio faded just as Buck Jones was to about to speak, and instead, out of the speaker came: "Hi Morrison."
Lincoln and Morrison would exchange unusual gifts. Don's first wife once owned a frame shop and Don gave Bob a nicely framed picture of Warren G. Harding in his salad days. Bob felt that anyone who could be involved in the Teapot Domes scandal and also father a bastard, while in the White House, was his kind of man. I believe Bob had a cat named Gamaliel (Harding's middle name). For his part, Bob gave Don his recent finding from a secondhand bookstore.
Don worked at KPIX-TV (then on Van Ness Av.) and kept his gift book in the technical library along with the manuals for the cameras and video tape machines and other gear. When someone had a technical question, Don would scratch his head and beckon to his visitor to follow him. He'd take the visitor to the tech library, pull this book off the shelf, answer the question, return the book to the shelf and leave. Hardly anyone could resist taking this wonderful font of knowledge from the shelf as soon as Don's back was turned. Instantly they knew they'd been had. The book was "Tom Swift and His Electric Picture Phone."
Roy also posts the current newsletter at http://home.earthlink.net/~rhtrumbull but the posting is without links.