“Thank God For Canada”! RCA Sales Chant….
On January 22, 2013
- TV History
“Thank God For Canada”! RCA Sales
From 1965 – 69, RCA sold a total of 376 TK42s. From 1967-70 they sold 93 TK43s. Except for a few dozen sold to the CBC and Radio Canada, all other sales were to local stations. It was the only RCA camera the US networks never bought. The next big camera sales to US networks were the TK44 and the TK47 studio cameras and the TK76 ENG camera.
Nothing to do with cameras, but take a look at the mic boom. Why would you point a 77DX at a performer that way? The way it is facing her, she is singing into the butt-end of the ribbon.
Ken, and many of us remember the Avco “White Whale” with TK-41’s.
Shown here:
http://eyesofageneration.com/Gallery_WLW.php
The 41 was a workhorse for sure, but you had to be as strong as a horse to lift one. Actually, I’m not sure anyone could lift one by himself. If I ever met someone who could, I’d certainly try to stay on his good side.
Probably until the day it was torn down, Mile High Stadium had two rooms just behind the press box that was an NBC control room and a video shading room in the bad old days. One of the rooms still had racks with TK-41 CCU’s in them. The main room was used for craft services for the TV crews although there were still some shelves for monitors in it.
Thankfully, by the time I got to the Denver NBC O&O (at that time) and then later started directing football and stuff for NBC, we were using trucks everywhere and the TK41’s were a thing of the past.
Edit to add that WLW-D in Dayton had TK-42’s at the time The Phil Donohue Show first syndicated out of there.
This is a response to Ken Fouts comments about TK-41’s and NBC.
The 41 was the workhorse at NBC New York when I started directing sports for them in 1968. The cable was the size of a firehose!
Canadian Colour Broadcasting started n the Fall of 1966, so all the Canadian Stations had to get colour equipment at that time. CBOT here in Ottawa went with RCA, and CJOH went with Philips. (known as Norelco in the US)
two tk 43s were used at nbc o&o wrc they came from nbc new york.
WHDH-TV Boston used TK 43’s for baseball and they had a washed out look. CBC in Toronto got rid of the TK-42’s used for hockey in Toronto and replaced them with TK-44’s in 1970 but Montreal had to wait a few more years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GjrpnQjQf4
The PC70 made the TK42/43 a non starter. HUGE difference! No IO blooming, far less light required, three plumbs vs 4-tubes, etc, etc. Not even NBC bought one. The one that was in their building was never purchased. It was a “demo”. I ran 42s and 43s in the 70’s at a Kaiser station on Boston. Nothing to be proud about…
The Tk42 was the first camera I ever operated and it seemed like it weighed a ton when I had to dolly it across the studio.
Never thought those cameras looked good.
why,it was a bad choice?