Dinner With Eddie

Eddie took me around. I wasn’t yet in TV. Everything he showed was dazzling.

In a control room full of monitors a guy was editing a concert.

I’m in Palm Desert this evening, at the TV station. I drove in from Orange County earlier today. No sooner had I sat down than I got a text message from Eddie Ackerman.

Let’s grab dinner this week.

This week became this night. We went to Five Guys near the station.

Eddie’s a former New Yorker, like me… from Flushing, like me. He lives in Palm Springs now and loves it. How could you not?

I remember meeting Eddie the first time back in the late 70s or early 80s. He was working for Compact Video. They were a large video production company.

Eddie took me around. I wasn’t yet in TV. Everything he showed was dazzling.

In a control room full of monitors a guy was editing a concert. As the tapes played, he punched the show on a switcher. Every once-in-a-while he’d hit a shot he didn’t like, rewind the tapes and pick it up from there.

Close to 40 years later I remember how impressed I was. It’s a day vividly etched in my mind.

Companies like Compact don’t exist anymore. Million dollar plus control rooms aren’t needed. TV can be done on the cheap from nearly anywhere with quality not imagined back then.

Nothing ever stays the same. Certainly not Eddie and me!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *