Engineering Pit

Engineering was the heart of operations and we fondly called it the “pit.” When I started at 13 we were still using 2 inch video tape for a large portion of our daily programming, 3 of which are on the table. We also used a lot of film and slides for programming, commercials, news footage and public service. There were two islands that each contained a film chain. In each chain there were two projectors and a slide drum that focused their output onto a camera that then became a video source. Mirrors were flipped around to select a projector or the slide drum. Dick Burt is chatting with photographer Joe Pal. Dave Able, an engineer, is loading slides into the slide drum in the back. News relied heavily on the engineers to load film and slides for the news programs. The large reel tapes were usually only used during news to provide some national news from ABC or a primitive weather loop.