[QuadList] Super Stars etc

Sat Feb 6 12:31:51 CST 2010

-----Original Message-----
From: W4wj at aol.com
To: quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com
Sent: Sat, Feb 6, 2010 12:48 am
Subject: Re: [QuadList] Super Stars etc

George...

Don (The Gorilla) Adamson, (K4FBP, Free Beer and Pizza)...  Definitely 
always on his best when he could shoot one across the bow!! 

hE SURE IS! 

Don left TVJ and went to work with the Hero Teleproductions and 
teleport in Hialeah.  Hero was later bought out by GlobeCast.

I wasn't at that particular Super Stars shoot...

BTW, one year, the tape bus was hit by a huge wave as it was being
barged from the port of Palm Beach to Nassau!!  The windows were
both blown out!!  What a mess!!

DON TOLD ME ABOUT THE BUS, i SAW IT A WHILE BEFORE  IT WAS HIT.  I SEE HIM FROM TIME TO TIME AND WE ARE ALWAYS IN TOUCH VIA E-MAIL.

AM INCLUDING A FOTO OF US IN THE HOT TUB HE HAS IN HIS GARAGE.  I WONDER WHAT ALL THOSE BUBBLES ARE AROUND HIM???

73,

GEORGE KELLER

Later...

73,

Don Murray, W4WJ
Fredericksburg, Texas

Retired from 40 years in Miami TV
35+ years at NBC O&O WTVJ 

In a message dated 2/4/2010 12:54:52 P.M. Central Standard Time, georgenann at aol.com writes:

Guys,

RE: ACR blowers: CBS always had 3 or 4 spare blowers on hand, they were rarely needed, also the machine shop rebuilt them on a couple occasions. (Geniuses)

When all 6 ACR's went into the dumpster, I gave a couple blowers to one of the guys for his organ. (The one that makes music)! One of the guys in my shop grabbed the spare blower motor, for his lathe.  One evening he came in with a suitcase in which he brought it home on the LIRR.

I'm glad I retired before the blowers in the Archive AVR-1's die.  I tried to set the position of the pulley on one of them, but found someone had put too much "Locktite" on the setscrews in the pulley.  I was able to loosen it by heating it with a small blowtorch, but it is now frozen again and the setscrews are somewhat "Reamed out". Not to worry, the guys in the machine have bailed maint. out of worse situations.

My earlier comment about blanking widths was not a joke, it was serious business. Back when the FCC had nothing better to do than complain about blanking widths (Was it 10.7us??) one of the managers who had heard some of the "Buzzwords" about it had a meeting with me in which she asked me if the blanking was OK on all of the ACR's.  I explained to her that the tape tensioning system on all of the ACR's was very good, perfectly servo controlled so that if the widths were too short it would put a little extra tension on the tape to make them a bit wider or if they were too wide - less tension.  She expressed great joy and thanked me very much for my attention to this matter.

Oh yes! Some time later after CBS had put in it's tape distribution facility, (Lots of dubbing machines, NTSC, PAL conversions) which is supposed to be making lots of money,  I told her that we needed Time Code converters for the PAL Digibets's, because "Over there in Europe, where they use PAL, (I was pointing my finger twords New Jersey) they use "Zulu Time" which is different than "American Time", and it must be converted to "Zulu Time" or they can't use it there. She went to one of the guys in Engineering and he told her that CBS ordered the Digibetas with the Pal Time Code converter boards installed. Again she was quite pleased.

Years ago I had the occasion to do a couple of "Super Stars" shoots (ABC) with the crew from WTVJ who did the taping, production, etc. I went with a rented VPR-2 for maint. This was the first time a 1" tape machine was being used on the show. WTVJ's tape Guru was one of the best in the business named Don, (K4FBP) who is about my best friend.  He is also (almost) as good a joker as am I.  After we got everything set up, there was sort of a production meeting in the tape truck.  Don was standing off to one corner and spoke rather loudly to the director and told him "You Had Better Watch Those Wide Shots". The director did a double take and asked him "Why"? Don told him that we have a 1" machine in the truck and it can only handle the narrow angle shots. For a brief moment the director stood frozen, as he hadn't expected this curve ball.  Then he caught on and the whole truck broke up.

There were also a bunch of BBC guys there and that was the first time I tried the Time Code conversion gag, (On them) but they were a sharp bunch and it didn't phase them at all, they saw the humer, I think, but they have a very dry sense of humer to begin with.

I'm sure I will burn in Hell for some of these gags, if they have internet there, I will let you know what it is like. I am used to this Global Warming so it may not be so bad. HI

DE,

George Keller

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