[QuadList] NBC Broadcasting Pioneer Jack Weir Dies at 88--SportsVideoGroup magazine

[David C. Crosthwait]

Ted,

I'd like to know more about that satellite feed from Selma. Ya never  
know who will turn up with info. I think the only Early Bird uplink  
was Bangor, Maine at that time (?).

Ted says: "A round of budget cuts closed the NBC News/KNBC-TV  
Sacramento bureau, where I'd been a Group 3 daily hire. I had the  
dubious distinction of loading up the van with all the gear (TK-76,  
BVU-100, etc.) turning out the light, closing the door on that minor  
chapter of NBC and taking the van to Correspondent Doug Kriegel's  
house for him to drive to Burbank. So much for that."

Doug Kriegel (recently retried) was once of the funnest guys to work  
with. He loved coming into edit 50 and having us fly dollar bill  
graphics around to enhance his money segments on the evening news  
show. A great laugh and a great story teller. He had a knack for  
eating at every restaurant in LA at least once. This was the time when  
KNBC was giving KABC a run for it's money in the local news race,  
frequently beating them. It was a fun time. Then, GE came in/took over  
and the fun ended.

David





Quoting Ted Langdell <ted at quadvideotapegroup.com>:

> David,
>
> Thanks for the personal recollections and corrections.  More below:
>
> On Jun 4, 2010, at 9:27 AM, David C. Crosthwait wrote:
>> Jack was well known when I was there. I don't recall If I met him   
>> or  not. Perhaps on some of the early Ku sports uplinks when NBC    
>> contracted with Comstat
>
> The article on Sports Video Group's website reports:
>> ?Sometime in the mid ?50s, Jack and colleagues had an idea, or more  
>>   like a vision,? Vacca says. ?He, Don Kivell, and Frank Badami  
>> sold   NBC technical management on the concept of a central  
>> department   where instant on-air management decisions would be  
>> made. From that   idea evolved the BOC [Broadcast Operations  
>> Center], the go-to place   for all operational decisions on  
>> breaking news, sports, and  programs.?
>>
>
> David recalls:
>> Yes, BOC was the "go to place". They ran the operation. Most    
>> everyone I worked with in BOC was very professional and courteous.   
>>  Burbank videotape was across the hall from BOC, so we conversed    
>> frequently, especially in hectic, last minute events."
>
> The article also asserts:
>> "Weir also executed the first live satellite uplink for network   
>> news  out of Selma, AL, during the days of civil disturbance.
>
> David notes:
>> Perhaps John Turner would know, but if I recall correctly, in 1963   
>>  or 1965 Selma events, there was no commercial C band uplinks, and  
>> I   doubt there was for news for at least 10 more years. Perhaps  
>> the   writer means that Jack broke into the network round-robin at  
>> Selma   to feed New York. But even that was a routine event for  
>> networks.   So, I don't know which Selma disturbance she is talking  
>> about.
>
> I suspect it's the Sunday, March 7. 1965 march where Alabama state
> troopers beat the marchers after they crossed over the Edmund Pettus
> Bridge in Selma
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selma_to_Montgomery_marches
>
> The only reference I could find involving NBC, Satellites and 1965 is
> that the Today Show did the first live television broadcast using the
> (then) new "Early Bird" sat, which was also known as INTELSAT-1. I've
> not been able to find what frequencies it used for the 200+telephone
> or one television transmission.
>
> This NASA article, last updated in 2007 has a good chronology of
> communications satellites:
> http://history.nasa.gov/satcomhistory.html
>
> Regarding TV in Selma:
> A quick google brings up the Selma/Montgomery market's NBC affiliate's
> Wikipedia page
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSFA with this notation:
>
> "During that period, WSFA gained a national reputation for its
> coverage (fed periodically to the NBC network) of local events in the
> Civil Rights Movement such as the Bus Boycott of 1955 involving Rosa
> Parks and the varied activities of Martin Luther King, Jr. during his
> pastorate at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. The station's News Director
> for much of the Civil Rights era was Frank McGee who eventually joined
> NBC News and hosted Today until his death in 1974."
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_McGee_(journalism)
>
> There's this about ABC's coverage:
> http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100408/remnick_excerpt_100408/20100408/
>
> "That night, at around 9 p.m. on the East Coast, ABC television broke
> into its broadcast of the film "Judgment at Nuremberg," for what the
> announcer called "a long film report of the assault on Highway 80."
> The ABC audience that night was huge -- around forty- eight million --
> and the newscast lasted fifteen minutes before the film resumed."
>
> The SportsVideoGroup article reports:
>> "Weir also worked on the 1972 Moscow games that weren?t.
>
> David correctly notes:
>> Munich was '72. Moscow was '80.
>
> NBC had the rights to the 1980 games... and when the US didn't go, NBC
> didn't go, which cost the network (and RCA) a lot of anticipated income.
>
> A round of budget cuts closed the NBC News/KNBC-TV Sacramento bureau,
> where I'd been a Group 3 daily hire. I had the dubious distinction of
> loading up the van with all the gear (TK-76, BVU-100, etc.) turning
> out the light, closing the door on that minor chapter of NBC and
> taking the van to Correspondent Doug Kriegel's house for him to drive
> to Burbank. So much for that.
>
> Ted
>
> Ted Langdell
> Secretary