Television's Future

[Towntalk]

Here is the TV studio while it was still the radio master studio and was large enough to seat 300 people

[AllanY2525]

I love it !

[Towntalk]

Allan, here is what the control looked like back then.

[AllanY2525]

That's absolutely true about food and drink - NOT allowed in the control room
when I used to visit WFMJ.

Good thing the guy in your story didn't totally fry something - the hardware back then
was much higher voltage, I am sure....

[Towntalk]

Allan here's something you might get a kick out of. This happened back in the 1950's.
One evening the TV engineers were sitting around gossiping during a network feed when a break came up, and the video guy reacting quickly (too quickly) knocked over his can of coke and it spilled all over one of the key switchers, but fortunately there was a redundent switcher that he could use in an emergency, but as soon as they switched back to the network, he had to turn that switcher off so that he could clean it up, and it was a mess. Had his boss heard about it, he would have been in trouble, but fortunately no one told on him, but he never took pop into the control room again

[AllanY2525]

When I was a kid and my dad would take me to work with him at WFMJ, there were
always two camera operators, a couple engineers, two or three newscasters (including
dad doing the Accu-weather forecast) and a couple of others, including at least one person
working in the DJ booth for their AM radio station.

Dad would also sit in the anchorman's chair if it was a weeknight and things were slow,
with only two broadcasters working on the 3-11 PM shift.

I don't know how things are set up at WJFM these days but I'm sure they've automated
a whole BUNCH of stuff since those times.  The hardware in the control room used to
fascinate the he** out of me as a young kid - SO many knobs, dials, lights on the
panels.

Of course I wasn't allowed to touch any of them... under "pain of death" as dad used
to say... LOL.

Some folks he worked with:

Ed Baron (the boss man who, once in a blue moon sat in the anchorman chair...)
Dave Justice (newscaster)
John Hires (engineer)
Don Dempsey (AM Radio D.J.)
Arthur "Art" Jordan (newscaster)
Denny Leiberman (newscaster)

[Towntalk]

For those who have no knowledge about the inside workings of radio and television stations, I'll try to provide some information about the radio side and Allan can do the same for television.
At the medium size radio station such as WKBN, WFMJ, WBBW back in the day it took 4 individuals to handle the broadcast day ... 1. Transmitter Engineer ... 2. Studio Engineer ... 3. Staff Announcer ... 4. Newsman. In the case of all three stations there was also a 5. Sports Reporter. On weekends, there would only be 3.
As to the "Off Air" personal: 1. The General Manager; 2. Program Director; 3. Chief Engineer; 4. Traffic Manager; 5. Sales Manager; 6. Continuity Director; 7. Accountant; 8. Receptionist/Secretary
In the smaller stations the task of Staff Announcer/Studio Engineer falls to a single staffer who is also the station's DJ.
Today there is just a Chief Engineer who also serves as studio engineer, an announcer/dj for music stations/talk show host for talk radio, and for some stations a sports reporterand for news/talk station, a news reporter.

[Youngstownshrimp]

Nice topic. I'm studying consolidation as we speak as i slowly build my retirement hut.
towntalk, have not neglected your message just busy right. Thanks.

[Towntalk]

Using your scenario my friend, we will also see a whole new way that television stations will operate just as we've seen mighty changes in radio which means that we will see fewer career opportunities in broadcasting as a whole, and for those in the industry, fewer people will stay at any one station for their whole career, and this is especially true of the in front of the camera personal especially in the station's news department.
At the same time, there are fewer programs being produced by local TV stations outside of news.
In radio, most of the content is syndicated as opposed to being locally produced leaving few chances of getting a career in radio.
The big question is: How many college students majoring in broadcast communications actually get into the industry?

[AllanY2525]

Steve Case [one of the founding fathers, CEO of America Online] predicted that the tv, stereo,
cable tv stations, broadband and the computer would merge into a single device some day.
He made this prediction in the early 1990's.

I have a flat panel TV on my family room wall - but I never use my cable converter box
to watch live cable broadcasts.  Instead, I use it as a large monitor for my desktop
computer - through which I have access to Comcast cable programming using my account
and a web browser for video playback.  Hulu.com provides some of the infrastructure to
make this possible for Comcast.

I don't think the "TV Set" is ever going away completely, as many will still use it to watch
content at home on the "big screen" - something that cannot be done on a mobile device
because of their small size. 

I have and use a Google Chromecast dongle to stream movies wirelessly from my tablet
to my television set over my home network.  The tablet is nothing more than a high-tech
version of the VCR and DVD player I used to use several years ago.  I tend to take my
movies and recorded TV shows on the road with me as local files on the device, rather than
stream from the internet when I am mobile - it keeps my data usage down on my cell
phone - which unlike my home Internet service is NOT unlimited data.

[Towntalk]

Are television sets becoming obsolete? Is the day coming when the only place you will be able to buy a conventional TV set is at a second hand store?
When you need a new TV you may have to buy it at your local Goodwill store or a pawn shop.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/thewire/streaming-devices-poised-dominate-viewing-preferences-seven-10-tv-viewers-stream-programming/136884