August 6, 1965…President Johnson Signs Voting Rights Act
August 6, 1965…President Johnson Signs Voting Rights Act
I’m not sure if this photo was taken on that day as I don’t see any civil rights leaders, like Dr. King, but the anniversary offers a prime occasion to post this photo which is one of the only images I have ever seen of NBC handling the pool coverage from the White House.
All three networks would rotate pool coverage of White House events, but NBC and ABC were usually glad to pay a small fee to CBS to handle most events as CBS had two mobile units in Washington and it was easier for them all.
I think the larger, four camera, CBS unit was a network truck kept there for Redskins football and the other was a WTOP local unit. NBC used the WRC unit and as you see here, they were equipped at the time with RCA TK30s, but would soon carry TK41s. Notice the early “through the lens” teleprompter. That belonged to the White House and Johnson used it often. Please remember to visit the Eyes Of A Generation page…don’t rely your timeline to deliver all the daily posts.
In looking at the relatively compact size of what look to be TK11 cameras, I can definitely understand why NBC kept their newscasts in black and white for quite a while. Lugging TK41s around wouldn’t seem all that feasible and must have been quite a chore. But then again, we had a black and white set well into the 70s and wouldn’t have known anyway.
I have commented on this before and like the video people you are sound is a red haired step son. BUT, The mics being used here and for a while before this were a pair of RCA BK-1A mics. I am familiar with them as I worked at a radio station that used one and the sound quality was awful. Which always made me wonder why they used them for the president from about 1959 on till a pair of Shure SM57s were used and have been since.
Maybe the first phone, aka the owner had them wired wrong because I have heard decent recordings from this very omnidirectional mic. Maybe it was the preamp used.
I went and searched for stats on the mic which rills off at 10k and yes it has 3 different ways to wore is that is more or less a bass roll off. It’s the high end bump that starts at about 1k that makes my perception of this mic so horrible.
But there’s my two cents.
CBS MU-10 the White House Truck notice the U-Haul for Tripods and Cable this was on Oct 6, 1996 – The Clinton-Dole Presidential Debate.
from the Bushnell Theatre in Hartford, Connecticut. CBS MU-10 was working for NBC at this Location
CBS use to call on WMAR from Baltimore for remotes a lot also as they had a large mobile unit also. WMAR was used for JFKs funeral march to Arlington. When I worked at WMAR in the late 80s early 90s many of the old timers use to talk about that day.