Hi there, my name is Cathy and I have a daily blog that I write and have done so, for the past 4 years.
I work at KCET and over the many years I have called it home, there have been lots of people I have worked with and seen and lots of things I have done and learned about. In other words, I know a bit. The fact that I blog, caught the attention of the New Media powers that be and they asked if I would like to blog a bit here, on KCET.org.
I actually began with a few Easter Recipes back in April, just to get my feet wet, but what I really hope to do is take you to a few places and show you things of interest in the world of KCET. This is obviously a time of big change here at 4401 Sunset, as we get ready to move from our lot of 40 years. So come along with me for a ride.
The first place I thought I would take you, is over 5 thousand feet above the floor of the Los Angeles basin. That is where our transmitter is, high atop Mount Wilson.
I have been privileged to visit it 2 times in my career. Once, just before we put in our digital equipment and the other, in 2008. You can see our green building, just behind me in the first photo.
As most of you remember, we turned off our analog equipment for the last time, in June of 2009. So what you might be seeing in these photos, may not be there anymore. This is a recap of a post I did at the time. Enjoy.
I took off yesterday, to take my family up to our transmitter, on Mount Wilson. I set it up with the person who maintains the transmitter and amazingly, the weather cooperated. There was snow, but it was almost just for show. Everything up there was covered with a small amount, maybe 2 inches or so. The roads, thankfully, were clear. We headed out around 10AM, to give any ice on the road, time to thaw out. We reached the base of the Angeles Crest Highway around 11AM and began our climb into the "Chains Only" area of the Southland. I didn't have chains and hoped that no one would stop me and thankfully, they didn't. The ride is a one lane, mountain road, with lots of curves, but not too bad. The view is incredible and when we finally reached the turn off for Mount Wilson, the mountains around us became almost total rocks. How they drive new antenna's up this 5 miles of mountain road, totally escapes me. It is constant turns and very steep. Finally, we arrive and drive around the front of the towers and reach our destination for the afternoon. We knock on the door and immediately our host for the day, opens it and greets us.
He gives us a detailed tour, showing off our analog equipment on the lower floor and then we walk upstairs for a tour of the digital equipment. I have been up there one time, just before we installed the digital equipment and the place has changed so much. One of the things he shows off, is something I remember from my first trip to the mountain, the klystron. Over the years I have heard about that, quite often, at work.
Then he takes us outside. One of the things you can see out back, is the receiving microwave dishes. They are located behind a window (seen in photo 3), to keep snow off of them. If you have ever seen our lot, you have seen the sending microwave dishes on our tower at Sunset Blvd.
After the tour, we get pictures. It is just beautiful up there. The cloud cover over the L.A. Basin doesn't reach the top of the mountain and so we see the clouds down below, but our day is sunny and beautiful. He says that we could see to Catalina on a clear day, but I liked it just the way it is.
We then let him get back to work and we went off to this picnic area at the very end of the antenna farm, where there is a place to eat, with a commanding view of the entire park. In case you care, CBS is the skinny tower all the way on the left side, as you look at Mt. Wilson from the Los Angeles area and KCET and KLCS (who shares our location) is on the extreme far right side. Everyone else, falls in between us.
We enjoy our lunch, look around a little more and then head back down the hill.
I hope you enjoyed a visit to The Mountain and I hope to see you again, soon.
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