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Broadcast  Radio, television, cable TV
T. Buckingham Thomas physics Oberlin WOBC Richwood Tom Thomas Chyron Infinit Pittsburgh
Most articles in this category are listed below.  There's also another category, WOBC, specifically about my college radio station.  To search for specific names or events that might be listed elsewhere, use this utility:

 

Stratocasting

In 1948, TV pioneers proposed transmitting from five-mile-high "towers."

The Intercontinental Web

Discovering an ancient TV show through on-line research.

Where's NBC Radio?

Remembering network radio, from 1955 until my college friend shut it down.

This Is Your Secret

Some of my earliest memories of TV shows, including M Squad and What's My Line?

Dotto

My 1958 visit to the TV quiz show scandals.

The Bixbys

A script for a radio sitcom that I wrote in 1958.

Ed Paulin and the Radios

A portable radio in a $4,000 carrying case; a sportscaster who called Richwood High School basketball.

Ernie and the Marxkado

Two unlikely television Ko-Kos introduce me to Gilbert & Sullivan.

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1960

Keeping Score

Scoreboards, from the huge one at the L.A. Coliseum to the antiquated one at the Richwood gym, inspire my playful experimentation.

Kentucky Derby

The 1962 telecast featured the band playing "My Old Kentucky Home."

The Trial of Mrs. Peter Piper

The script of a comedy sketch, transcribed from network TV in 1962.

Dizzy Dean and the Goose-Eggs

Half an inning with the legendary broadcaster.

Script vs Performance

Comparing the written word with the spoken word for a scene from The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Hoops Copy

Introductions and imaginative commericals for my mock radio broadcasts of basketball.

Let the Sportscaster Beware

High-school fans don't like to hear their kids criticized.

Where Can We Put the Camera?

The gym's too small; try on the wall!

Audio Radiance

Previously published pictures of WOBC, circa 1967.

WOBC Control Engineer's Handbook

Excerpts from the 1968 instruction manual.

The Sorcerer's Effects

Sound effects, that is, in a little radio play about incantation incompetence.

Radio and TV at Syracuse

Letters from my year of study in 1969-70.


Primary Colors

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1970

TV Show & Tell, 1970

Studio production miscellany.

Broadcast Stuff

Ideas for a radio studio complex, a handheld camera, and TV studios tricked out with mirrors.

Benchmark Series

1970 field trips take me to Johnny Carson's New York studio and to the Nixon White House.

WAER in Syracuse

A brief stint at another campus FM.

Fantastic Fred Legend

DJ Vin Ialenti presents his Annette Funicello Dance Festival & Retrospective.  I play a scientist.

Determination of Audience Size

Preparing to leave Syracuse, I propose how ratings could be measured at Marion CATV.

Marion CATV

My first real job is with a tiny local operation where I have to do just about everything.

Cable TV Bingo

A small-budget game show occasionally starring yours truly, Tom Baby.

Those '70s Shows

Tales from Marion CATV.

Washington Channels

My next job takes me to Washington — the college town of Washington, PA, that is.

A Bicentennial Newscast

In 1976, Washington plans new downtown construction.  Included: update photos from 2002.

Earl Bugaile

Collaborating with a radio reporter and attempting to interview a hockey coach.

Message Cards

Graphic displays from an automated 1970s cable TV channel.

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1980

TV3 New Kensington

Local cable starts inserting ads into ESPN.

Early 1984 

A photo album of TV3 productions during the first week of 1984.

Total Communications

I become a TV sports graphics operator.

The Evanston Story

I travel to Illinois.  It's a needless trip, since my employer has come up a few million short.

Backstage in Paradise

Miami Beach!  New Orleans!  Maui!  All on a corporate TV tour in the spring of '85.

Pecos Bill

Scenes from a 1986 TV show featuring the lovely Rebecca DeMornay.

I Invented the Fox Box

Or at least the diagram of the bases.

Indianapolis 1987

Hanging out at the Pan Am Games, occasionally running off to work telecasts elsewhere.

The Day I Touched the Net

I held CBS on my fingertips.

All News All the Time

If WOBC were all-news, how would I organize it?

Security

Adventures in making a training video for security guards.

Game Day

Hour-by-hour details of telecasting a Pirates baseball game, with pictures of me and my colleages.

The Seoul Cypher

The 1988 Summer Olympics in Korea.

Freelancing

My work in 1988-89 involves Las Vegas, logos, a helicopter getaway, and a French T-shirt.

Chunk Beefsteak!

Transcribed from MST3K.

An Eighties Flashback

More than two dozen video frames from 1989-90 Pirates baseball telecasts, including commercials.

1990

The Nineties

More adventures take me to Tokyo and London.  Also, technical details about my Chyron designs.

I'm Still on the Road

I get to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame while pondering rusty towns, blood pressure, and Bach performance.

Atlanta and After

The 1996 Olympics, followed by baseball and C-USA football on Fox Sports Net, long travel days, and more.

End of a Century

Brayett, Mitch Miller, 9/11, and the climax of my football and baseball travels.

2000

What Is It Again That You Do?

I work in sports television, but not as an announcer.

TV Truck at PNC Park

Hooking up at the new baseball field in March 2001.

Directing Our Attention

High-definition TV may make it possible to change camera angles less often.

Bryan & Mary Seip's Party

Pittsburgh-area sports TV folks gather in December 2001.

How I Watch Television

Keeping track of 131 channels requires more than one TV.

What I Did at the Olympics

There was a lot of sitting around at Salt Lake City 2002.

Bammer Interviews Brian

A lesson in TV production.

The Pete

Surveying Pitt's new basketball arena with an eye to TV.

Century XXI

In rainy Santa Monica for tennis, snowy Buffalo for hockey, and frigid Pittsburgh for high school football.

Methodist Conferencing

I'm behind the scenes as the denomination holds its quadrennial General Conference.

If You Teach Us Not, How Shall We Learn?

Why radio stations should identify the music they're playing.

The Six-Box

We can put six camera angles and a lot of stats on a high-def TV screen, but should we?

I Never Thought about That

Creating high-definition TV pictures that will be compatible with your old ten-inch black-and-white set.

 


A $64,000 moment

A TV "camera" from 1961

Anchors' intros to reporters' intros to reporters' stories

Backdrops for TV could have been minimal rather than realistic

Bingo arrives on ABC-TV

Captioning explains what's happening in a commercial

Circus TV; re-pairing a basketball doubleheader

Comcast's complex On Demand menu

Comcast now brings me 159 unique channels, 34 of them HD

Digital switchover now on staggered schedule; might be a good thing

Dizzy Dean "slood" into third

Don't put me in the credits

Dreaming of problem-solving at my former studios

Fantastic plot premises leave me cold

Harding High School band pre-empted by Cosell

Holographic TV is in the future; my concept was in 1960

Jubies and bummage

Line painters are unimportant?

Lists:  oldest first, or most recent first?

Literal-minded cameramen

Mistakes in the telecast of a horse race, with likely explanations

Munich 1972:  No translator available

Pitt Stadium

Predicta:  the Edsel of television sets

Providing context for statistics

Radio music once had more variety

Scripts that interleave three story lines

Sitcom characters we never saw

Specialization in TV production jobs

Split-screen audio

Spreadsheet tracks timing of TV program segments

Stylized headshots of newsmakers

"Sunday Driver" tours the farms outside town

Super Bowl XLII inside the TV trucks

Synching live radio with live video

Transfer type; Bud Hedinger lands a video tape "on the moon"

TV closed-captioning goofs

TV is becoming less tapeworthy

TV movies are 37% commercials

TV production trucks:  Rows of computers

TV shows that invite you to leave them?

Using ancient Shatner footage

Widescreen TV on the wall — in 1966

Working half as hard and earning twice as much

Yvonne Strahovski's two front teeth