Tag: Teleprompter

It’s Starting To Look Like A Studio

I was just in the garage. It’s more studio now. Boxes still litter the floor. The rugs we ordered haven’t yet released their folds. The lights aren’t properly pointed. But there are signs it’s not for cars anymore.

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I was just in the garage. It’s more studio now. Boxes still litter the floor. The rugs we ordered haven’t yet released their folds. The lights aren’t properly pointed. But there are signs it’s not for cars anymore.

The sideview monitors are mounted. That’s how I’ll see the maps while on-air. There’s another monitor in the TelePrompter.

I’ve also erected a sound baffle/equipment room from an old cubicle KMIR let me have. Inside are utility shelves I brought home from Lowes. Equipment sits on them, waiting.

My Blackmagic Studio Camera has arrived, as has its zoom lens. The focal length was a guess. The camera itself is as cool as can be with a large flat monitor on the back.

The size and cost of cameras and everything electronic has dramatically plunged. This seems a good time to get in.

There are just two pieces missing. I am praying they arrive this week. Hey, NewTek, I’m talking to you. Pretty please. Seriously.

NewTek makes the Tricaster Mini. It’s the brains of the operation, acting as a full broadcast control room. Without it there is nothing.

I’ll be directing my own segment while on-the-air with its assistance. Yes, that is totally crazy!

The other missing item is the tripod. It will hold the very light camera and the much heavier Teleprompter.

I went to Fry’s and bought some cable last night–75 ohm coax with bnc connectors on each end in varying lengths. Even the nerd at Fry’s didn’t know where it was. These will be used to tie equipment together. I overbought. It’s inexpensive enough to consider an insurance buy.

I ordered a few 50 foot lengths of HDMI cable today. These will be used on the sideview monitors. 25 foot lengths were originally ordered. Oops.

Once the studio’s complete I’ll need to test with the station and make sure everything’s perfect. A week from today would be nice. It’s my goal.

I think I’ll call it Studio 5E, after the apartment I grew up in. I’m living the dream.

Holy Crap Was I Skinny! Video Found As I Clean

PM Magazine/Buffalo hosts Jan Stager and Geoff Fox - circa 1980

Jan Stager and I hosted PM Magazine/Buffalo starting in September 1980. She was great. We don’t speak often enough, but remain friends.

Jan was from Kent, Ohio and had worked in Wasau and Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Me… well, you know.

This episode looks to be early on, possibly Fall 1980. I had been working in TV a matter of weeks or months by then!

I was so skinny the Buffalo Evening News’ TV critic said Chef Tell should fatten me up! Suggestion taken.

Also, please note the hair hat. That is not what my hair wants to do.

Here’s the way the show worked. Sometimes you had local stories, but most of the time the hosts introduced stories ‘on the reel’ from other stations.

We’d look at the list on totally unrelated stories scheduled on any given show, then find a location that might tie-in to some or all of them.

Right.

That was the goal.

The connections were often tenuous.

For each story, which of course we hadn’t seen, there’d be a suggested script. We’d look at the script, find out from the producer how much time was allotted, then ad lib our ‘ins-and-outs.’

TelePrompter? We don’t need no stinkin’ TelePrompter!