My broadcasting career has
always been in news and public affairs ... starting
in 1954 with radio news in Hamilton ...then in 1957
I moved to CKCO-TV- CH. 13
in Kitchener...
Television was then still in its infancy... and our
news department in 1957 - compared with television
news operations today - was PRIMITIVE to say the
least.
We had four in the news department... Al Hodge &
myself and 2 photographers....with Tom Rafferty and Reg Sellner in sports plus Ron Hill a jack of all
trades for an entire on-air staff of five.
Everything put on the air locally was LIVE...video
tape hadn't even been dreamed of. If a goof was
made, you corrected it and moved on. Sometimes you
didn't know you had uttered a blooper ...like the
time I was reading a news story about an airplane
and called it a CATALINA FLYING BLOAT.
Or the guy doing a voice over commercial for
Weston's. Their slogan was - "For the best in
bread... get Weston's. He said - "For the breast in
bed... get Weston's". He didn't even know he had
goofed up.
|
 |
|
The CP, AP
teletype machines with the AP Facsimile
machine on the right |
At Channel 13 we had newscasts
from 6-6.30 seven days a week, plus the late night
news. Our national and international news came
in on teletypes -large electric typewriters- on
rolls of paper... CP - AP - BLIP - we simply tore
off the stories we wanted. Local stories we got from
what we could cover in the way of meetings... city
councils- plus police and fire checks and since
there were only two of us, we couldn't get out very
much to cover local happenings, so we scalped
the local newspaper.
We also had what was called 'WIRE PHOTOS".. -A
machine which used heat sensitive rolls of paper. ..
to record B&W pictures ... the same as the
newspapers used... but we just stapled them onto a
bulletin type board and shot them with a studio
camera at the appropriate time in stories.
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
Staff photographers
Paul Cassel(left)
with handheld silent camera and
John Donahue with the Auricon 1200 sound
camera |
Our 2 photographers used mostly
silent B&W Bolex & Bell & Howell wind up cameras
that held 100 ft. of 16 MM film-about 2 and a half
minutes worth.
Occasionally a photog - sent out to an accident or a
fire would get excited and start shooting.. .without
checking to see that he had film in the camera.
Also had sound cameras made by Auricon that were
large, heavy, and needed electricity to run-hence
portability was very limited. Photogs carried
tape measures because they had to measure the
distance between the subject and the camera to be in
focus because those early cameras didn't have thru
the lens viewing. They held 5 or 10 minute rolls of
film..some held up to half hour rolls.
The sound was recorded on the edge of the 16 MM
film. It was optical sound-variable area
or variable density where you could actually see the
sound track on the edge of the film. Later-we got
film with a magnetic stripe along the edge.. which
produced better quality sound.
Initially our film was processed once a day at 4 PM
in John Columbo's lab on Pandora Ave. in Kitchener,
just in time for our 6 pm newscast.
Anything that happened and was filmed after 4 pm,
couldn't be seen until the 6 pm news the next day.
CONTRAST THAT with today where we enjoy live, on the
scene reports from satellite feeds, or trucks that
connect with microwave systems, and light, portable
video tape cameras that can go anywhere and what
they shoot can be played back immediately. There are
cell phones to keep in touch with people and
Blackberries for computer and internet links and
messaging. Tape recorders are the size of your
hand.
Initially we didn't even have 2-way radios in our
news cruisers. When they went out contact was
lost until they returned. The first tape recorder I
used was a wire recorder - no tape. It weighed about
15 pounds and had a running time of about three
minutes and ate batteries at horrendous rates. I
think it was a WWII leftover.
Our national & international newsfilm stories were
sent to us by overnight CNR express train. We
picked them up at the station in the morning for use
that day-and for our film morgue. Today such feeds
come in via microwave and satellite links or on
computer lines.
In the evenings.. .when major accidents or fires
happened-we went out and took polaroid pictures
ourselves, But often they were brought in to us by
the owner of the company that had the police towing
contract who, at the time was Emils Auto Body &
Towing on King Street E. near what then was the
Hiway Market. We'd staple the Polaroids onto sma!l
cards called BALOPS. .. which went into a machine
and could be
transmitted on air.
| |
 |
| |
Gary doing a
live commercial for Forbe's Motors about
1957 |
You had to be versatile in those days. .. in
addition to doing the news ...we filled in on sports
and weather forecasts, and the live and voice over
commercials. For a time there was a scheme in effect
which paid us small sums to do station breaks
(which we hated to do because they interrupted our
work ) and other Voice Over commercials on those
breaks. One month, Ron Hill did so many of them that
he earned more that month that the Program Manager
and that ended the scheme, much to Ron's dismay.
WEATHERCASTS - TODAY... there are satellite images
showing continents, countries, regions and the
clouds, rain, hurricanes and other weather
happenings. Computer programs display the jet
stream, symbols and information pop on and off the
screen- making the weather so understandable.
|
 |
|
|
The author, Gary
McLaren doing weather in the late 1950s on
plywood map |
|
Years ago, we had painted maps
on plywood, or on Plexiglas where you wrote on them
with chalk, and magic markers to show rain, snow,
clouds and so forth. You couldn't get much lower
tech than that. Everybody had a crack at doing the
weather... it was something every new announcer was
first stuck with.
I recall once having the bright idea o create a
car-train crash. Nobody was ever able to get
one on film as it happened. My idea was to get an
old car from a wrecking yard, haul it to the
level crossing just west of Kitchener, out what was
then called the Snake Road, position two photogs at
different spots and shove the wreck onto the tracks
in front of a CNR freight train and film the
smash-up. Then some one wondered if we could get
into trouble so we checked with a lawyer who nearly
had a fit and said we could be liable to any damage
done to the train engine and tracks, the clean-up
and what if the train was derailed .... etc & etc...
So we quickly and wisely abandoned the idea.
Those early days of TV were
also a lot of fun. People didn't seem to be so
serious. We pulled stunts and jokes on each other.
For example ...we applied our own make-up in a
little room up in a corner of the main studio. While
Al Hodge was putting his makeup on one day, we
lifted the top two pages of his newscast script,
which he had laid on the desk, and stapled around
the sides and bottom of the remaining pages.
When he sat down at the desk and the camera light
came on, he read the first two pages, laid them
aside and was faced with the stapled down script. He
hardly missed a beat, read the next page and clawed
it off the pile and continued like that for the
entire 10 minute newscast. Needless to say, he was
less than amused.
We once crawled along the floor
to the weather-caster and tied his shoelaces
together so he could barely move, or the camera
would dolly in on the sportcaster, for a close-up.
Then we'd pull his desk away, leaving him having to
hold his script and read it and then at the end,
the camera would pull back showing him sitting alone
in the middle of the studio. Once this gambit showed
Tom Raffert wearing the shorts and slippers he had
on when he came in to do the late night sports.
And then there was the night
when Tuffy Truesdale, an animal trainer, brought his
wrestling bear into the studio to promote an
upcoming show. Tom Rafferty did a stand up interview
with Tuffy, the bear sitting down beside him,
when the bear hooked one paw around Raff's legs and
flipped him flat on the floor and started dragging
him across the studio. Tuffy leaped on
the back of the bear, Rafferty still holding
the mike - was yelling. One cameraman toward whom
the bear was heading, abandoned his camera and
left the studio while the other kept his camera on
the action but backed into a corner. The control
room director finally went to black, but the
audio guy was much slower in cutting off the mike...
so we heard the muffled yelling and scuffling for a
few more seconds. Tuffy finally got the bear
away from Rafferty - the switchboard lit up entirely
- order was restored - the program was completed.
And there was the time an
announcer was doing one of those LIVE commercials
for BUDDS Stores.. which was featuring imported
scotch tweed-jackets. The announcer blithely urged
people to get down to Budds for their imported
scotch and rye. He was unaware of what he had said.
But Nat Budd had more than a few people come into
his store asking for his imported scotch and Rye.
To begin with. .. many merchants and business-people
were leery of advertising on Television. Since no
way then existed of recording their on-air
commercial.. they had to be watching when it
aired... and it seemed to go by so quickly..many
couldn't bring themselves to believe that such a
brief mention could bring them customers. They were
used to newspaper ads that they could hold in their
hands and read and re-read. Actually..goofs such as
the Budds commercial proved to sponsors that people
were actually watching their commercial messages.
|
 |
|
|
Gary McLaren interviewing Prime Minster
Pierre Trudeau |
|
We had no trouble getting
politicians to talk to us and show their faces on
air. We had in our studios people like Lester
Pearson, Paul Martin SR. Tommy Douglas, John `Robarts..Bill
Davis, Bob Stanfield..and many local MP's and MPP's..
. and the local mayors and councillors.
I recall the time that a candidate in a provincial
election from Guelph was in the studio delivering
his message-which he was reading from our first tele-prompter...which
consisted of a roll of paper on which - on a very
large typewriter - the man's remarks had been typed.
The paper on the prompter was rolled around by a
rheostat and electric motor operated by the
cameraman. On this occasion.. it malfunctioned..
moved very slowly, much slower then the candidate
was reading.. .so the candidate motioned frantically
with his hand and arm for the prompter to be speeded
up..all this visible on air-the candidate got all
mixed up in his remarks-the appearance was a
disaster... he was furious... and in the end he lost
his election bid.
Saturday afternoons we used to
have live professional wrestling in the
studio..Whipper Billy Watson, Yukon Eric, Sweet
Daddy Siki, Lord Athol Layton, the Kalmikoff
Brothers, Fritz Von Erich and others. Everything was
staged and scrripted..they all knew each other and
travelled together. Most were ex american football
players..Fritz Von Erich had been a lineman at
Southern Methodist University. At one time...
our station custodian... Fred Macavoy... kept a cat
in the studios. .. he liked cats. It so happened
that Frank Selke Sr.- the noted hockey man- was in
our studio for a live interview. He and the
sportsguy were sitting on a chesterfield. In the
middle of the interview. . the cat jumped up onto
the back of the couch-and slowly walked along the
back between the 2 men-and stopped in the middle.
Macavoy who knew Selke, saw this... and walked right
into the set behind the chesterfield ... picked up
the cat.. leaned over toward Selke and said "Hey -
Hey"..then walked out the other side of the set.
Selke just grinned..and the interview continued as
planned.
|
|
 |
|
|
Gary
McLaren hosting Bandstand with guest artist,
Conway Twitty |
CANADIAN BANDSTAND
For a few years after the wrestling ended, we
had a show called "Canadian Bandstand"... a live
in-studio dance party for teens and young people.
Wally Crouter from CFRB in Toronto did it for the
first year, I did the second and it continued
for a few years after that, modelled after
Dick Clarks "American Bandstand" in the U.S. We
played records, the kids danced... and whenever we
could, we got live performers in the studio - the
Everly Brothers, Robert Goulet, Conway Twitty were
among the singers who came in and lip synched to a
record.
|
 |
|
|
Gary McLaren and
Don MacDonald hosted the 62 Election Returns |
|
ELECTION BROADCASTS- Our
election coverage 40 odd years ago was basic - VERY
BASIC. We simply wrote the vote totals on pads of
paper fastened to the studio wall beside the name of
the candidates. The vote results we got from the
chief returning officers... or the city clerks
office in the case of municipal elections. Results
then often weren't complete until 10 or 11 o'clock
at night or even later. We later added photos of the
candidates, and put scrutineers in polling stations
to get vote totals which they then called in to us
and we totalled them up. That approach disrupted the
vote counting routine, which the KW Record had
operated for city hall. and resulted - I think - in
that city taking over it's entire municipal election
results system.
As you know ...Today ... by
means of computer programs and projections. .. we
are told the probable outcome of federal and
provincial elections sometimes almost within minutes
of the polls closing. The contrast -for someone like
me who worked in the early systems. .. is
stupendous.
SO CALLED LIVE ON SITE Q & A REPORTS
We have all seen the TV anchorpersons talking in a
question and answer format to a reporter out in the
field.. Iraq ... New Orleans, Afghanistan.. .and so
forth. It looks like there is a live present-time
audio/video link between the 2 people. It's not
always what it seems. Sometimes there is indeed a
direct satellite or microwave link and the
interview/report is happening as you see it.
BUT, oftentimes the reporters
answers have been given earlier... perhaps several
hours earlier.. . in response to questions they have
received over the satellite or microwave hook-up. ..
or even via the phone. When the tape
containing the reporters answers is played back on a
newscast... the pauses between his answers have been
closely timed out to the second. The anchorperson
then asks the already asked questions and times the
length to match the gaps in the reporters tape so
that the reporters answers appears to be a direct
response to the anchorpersons questions. The control
room director gave the anchorperson- via their
headset... the countdown for each gap. Usually it
works pretty well but. .. sometimes the timing is
off and you'll note that the anchor's questions end
several seconds before the reporter answers.
Working in TV in those early
days was a bit of an adventure. Systems, procedures,
routines were still very much in the developing
stage.. .we tried and tested various ways of doing
things. .. if they worked - we kept on using them.'
Those approaches that didn't work ...we abandoned.
Those early days at CKCO-TV may
have been pretty simple and low tech... but we were
largely breaking new ground and providing a new
information and entertainment service to mid-western
Ontario. At the same time creating the need for ever
improved and advanced technology that has led to the
sophisticated television we all watch today.
And... it was a stimulating and
generally pleasant way to make a living. I look back
on 42 years in radio and television with very few
regrets and many happy memories.
Gary McLaren
News Director
