Today's the day!
We have been celebrating our 50th year broadcasting, via our own air and in publications and magazines and now this is it! The actual day we went on the air. A reminder for people on the West Coast. KCET will be airing "KCET 50 Years at the Forefront", tonight at 8PM.
I had the honor to work with the man who was in our Master Control the day we turned on our transmitter for the first time and began broadcasting to the Los Angeles community.
He was all of 21 at the time and the weight of the entire enterprise rested on his young shoulders. Though I am sure there were many others helping to make it happen, it all came down to him.
His name is Roy Stewart. If you read some of my other blog posts from many months ago, you may remember me mentioning that we had an editor nominated for an editing Emmy for the 13 part series, Cosmos. That editor was Roy.
I went out to lunch with him recently and asked him questions about what it was like at 1313 Vine Street, when we actually went on the air.
Roy remembers well that we went on the air around Noon that day, airing many children's programs for the schools in our Los Angeles area. I am not sure if they were called this, back in 1964 but we aired children's instructional programs from an organization called RETAC (Regional Educational Television Advisory Council). Those shows may have been from them, or were a precursor of them.
One show that definitely aired on KCET that day, was Julia Child's The French Chef. That to me, is so important. She was an icon for generations of viewers and her show was aired way back then.
As we are now days, there was no such thing as PBS in 1964 and so we did not belong. There was instead, a sort of system called NET (a piece of trivia, that is where WNET gets its call letters from). They would provide the National Productions which aired in our Prime Time schedule back then.
Roy was an incredible employee, a joy to work with and toward the end of his service to KCET, he was back in Master Control, leading the overnight shift for us. Many a day I would come in and there would be a phone call or message telling me of potential problems for later in the day. I always felt better knowing he was on duty, giving us his best.
He always cared for our station, the one he put onto the air 50 years ago today.
All the best to you on a great day!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Martha. Glad it is finally here! It has been quite a trip down memory lane, for the past 6 or so months.
ReplyDeleteRoy is always in a good mood and he even put up with the temp. librarian who was lost most of the time. It is always fun to get together with all of the guys who put the station on the air in the early days.
ReplyDeleteI find that hard to believe. You lost? :-)
ReplyDeleteI love seeing the guys upon occasion and I am glad you have been able to, also.