November 30, 1956…First Videotape Delayed Broadcast, CBS Television City

CBS made broadcast history when they replayed ‘The Evening News With Douglas Edwards’ to the west coast. After recording the live feed coming down the network line from New York at 4 p.m. Pacific time, the program was played back three hours later.

In the large photo, we see CBS Engineer John Radis at the Ampex VRX-1000 playing back the show. On the phone to his right is Jim Morrison who is probably on the phone to the control room. I think a kinescope of the newscast was rolled simultaneously just in case there were problems with the tape playback.

This VRX-1000 is one of only 16 hand-built machines Ampex rushed to produce after debuting the VTR eight months before. The two racks of tube equipment to the left contain the electronics for the recorder.
Also pictured here is one of the first photos of the new CBS videotape room at Television City which was kept busy recording network feeds for time-zone delay and eventually, programs produced in the studios at Television City.

It would take over a year for CBS New York to get videotape machines due to a huge backlog, even though the networks got priority. In early 1958, 14 VR 1000 went into service as CBS Grand Central. NBC too had the bulk of their machines on the west coast but both CBS and NBC had two VTRs in New York which were mostly used for testing and engineering purposes.

In the color photo, we see the historic Douglas Edwards machine being retired in 1978. Early on, it had been fitted with RCA color modules as Ampex and RCA traded technology rights. RCA had developed color recording in 1954 and allowed Ampex to use it if they would allow RCA to use the Qaud recording head.

The final photo shows one of two Ampex VRX 1000s used at the first public demonstration at the NARTB convention in Chicago in April of ’56. In today’s next story…the history of the first instant playback. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee

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