[QuadList] NBC Burbank: Au Revior--Historical tidbits about Burbank's early Quad operation

[lee williams]

Hay Dennis, 
 
I can give you a simple answer to that one. 
The CT time zone did not generate enough money to justify the expense of a separate feed. 
Before Ku, a single C band satellite transponder could cost well over $150K a month in 1980's money. 
Before that, AT&T owned the 2ghz band for both Terrestrial and Satellite links and they provided land link connections between stations using old Ratheon microwave relays. 
Election years, big football games, and regional events could qualify for the extra expense; but on a daily basis, it would become way too much of a pain. 
 
Also you have to remember that the local stations in the Central Time Zone are a lot more local centered that those of the bigger cities. 
When I worked for the NBC affiliate in North Dakota, they will preempt prime time network programming for 4 weeks to air the State Boys and Girls Basketball playoffs. South Dakota and Nebraska would do the same thing. Curling finals would get priority in Minnesota.  
 
The smaller affiliates expected to be paid by the networks, blow out programming for local events, and get free or subsidized broadcast equipment with total control as to what they choose to put on the air. I can easily imagine the network bean counters asking whey they should pay to provide a service that a lot of stations would not be all that much interested in getting and I can guarantee you would not pay for. 
 
  
 

  

________________________________
 From: Ted Langdell <ted at quadvideotapegroup.com>
To: Quad List <quadlist at quadvideotapegroup.com> 
Sent: Wednesday, January 9, 2013 7:26 AM
Subject: Re: [QuadList] NBC Burbank: Au Revior--Historical tidbits about Burbank's early Quad operation
  



Hi, Dennis,

As I mentioned at the top of the post... I had some questions regarding what happened to the one-hour delay for Central time zone.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the plans for CT delay weren't implemented.  What I would like to know is:

What were they thinking?
>
>
>Why was it NOT implemented?

My list of reasons did include the need for main/backup record/play capability. As you point out, if one deck went down, the plan as outlined had major problems.

You indicate that NBC began delaying programs for CT in the 80s, concurrent with implementing Ku Band transmission to stations. Why and for what dayparts?  

Seems Prime stayed "9, 8 Central time," but I can see some benefits from unifying start times for other dayparts, such as Today and other daytime programs.

Perhaps David's NBC Burbank alums can shed some light on what happened in 1959.

Ted

On Jan 9, 2013, at 2:50 AM, Dennis Degan wrote:
I offer:
>
>
>Ted, it sounds like you're confusing two different technical needs.  Burbank did not provide delayed feeds to the Central TZ.  All they did was provide delayed programming to the West Coast feed, and as I recall sometimes the Mountain TZ feed as well.  They did not provide a one-hour delay for the Central TZ.  Until the 1980's, there was no one-hour delay to the Central TZ at all, to my knowledge.  In the early days (well actually, right up until the 80's when satellite distribution took over), the Networks operated essentially a two-zone system:  the Eastern/Central TZ and the Pacific/Mountain TZ.  NBC New York would not be very involved in the operation of the Pacific/Mountain TZ feeds; they merely provided a source feed for either the local affiliates or Burbank/Denver to do whatever was needed.
>As far as the Burbank system described in your 1959 article, I'm pretty sure David is right:  The system as described was not in operation very long.  Frankly, I don't believe it was ever implemented as a half-hour delay system.  It must have been operated as a one-hour delay system.  This would free up half of the VTR's, allowing dual-record/playback, thereby providing backup for the system.  Keep in mind that the system as described originally in the 1959 document offered no provision for VTR maintenance or downtime.  If even one of the VTR's failed, there would be no way for the system to work as described.
>
>Dennis Degan, Video Editor-Consultant-Knowledge Bank
>     NBC Today Show, New York
______________________________________________
Please trim posts to relevant info when replying.

Change subject to reflect thread direction. Thanks.
_______________________________________________

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