KTLA…Covering The Rose Parade Since 1947

Covering the Rose Parade has been a great KTLA tradition that continues today. Bill Welsh and Dick Lane announced the first telecast in 1947.

In 1953, before videotape made such things easy, KTLA found a way to air the parade twice. They televised the parade once at the beginning and once as it neared the end. KTLA also did this with a twist starting in 1955 when they broadcast the parade in both black and white and color. The black and white unit was at the top of the parade and the color unit at the end. By the time the parade had passed the black and white cameras, it was in front of their color cameras.

Stations were extremely competitive in those years, each trying to find the best camera locations. KTLA scooped them all in 1959, having Tom Hatten ride a camera equipped station wagon (seen below) televising live pictures from the very front of the parade as it moved down Colorado Boulevard. New rules went into effect the following year-cameras were never allowed to precede again.

Also in 1959, KTLA was the first to cover the parade by helicopter. The “Telecopter” was the first ever flying television station featuring a minicam that gave viewers a remarkable overview of the festivities.

The Rose Parade came of age when color television became a reality. The first KTLA colorcast was in 1955, but NBC had done a nation wide colorcast of the parade the year before. KTLA’s colorcast was almost a washout. The skies were so gray and overcast that the temperamental new cameras had trouble reproducing the bright, vivid colors of the parade but Klaus Landbreg’s engineers were only partially successful that historic day.

There is more on the photos, so please click though them and there is more of how KTLA covers the parade for Los Angels at the link below. Enjoy, share and Happy New Year! -Bobby Ellerbee

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/79849/ktlas-rose-parade-heritage-keeps-growing

Here’s the KTLA mobile station wagon that led the parade in 1959, complete with generator, a microwave relay and heavy-duty suspension.

This is the 1956 color cast, a year after their first which was cloudy and misty. Notice Ma Bell’s truck on the left.

I think this is 1960 and the end of the parade, remember the parade had already aired in B/W on KTLA and now they redid it in color for a second time.

This is 1960 also, but this is the top of the parade that was done in black and white. The whole parade was done in color too from start to finish with the color truck a few miles down the road.

I think this is 1962 with NBC up top and KTLA on the left.

Here’s another shot from 1960 with two TK41s and their lifts at the end of the parade.

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