Early Color TV

[kyleP]

Re: Maryland & Virginia

> >
> > BTW...with the new gear, WMAR was able to do live on the
> > scene news reports in 1975.
>
> Wonder when WBAL and WJZ achieved that capability?
>
> ixnay
>

WJZ was doing live reports in 1976. They were calling it "Instant Eye".
I would imagine WBAL was doing it as well around the same time. Actually, I believe they were. Maybe even earlier than WMAR. I seem to remember watching an old news promo from about 1975/1976 that said "..Action news is everywhere: and one shot was of a guy holding a mini-cam.

 

[ixnay]

Re: Maryland & Virginia

> WJZ was doing live reports in 1976. They were calling it
> "Instant Eye".
> I would imagine WBAL was doing it as well around the same
> time. Actually, I believe they were. Maybe even earlier
> than WMAR. I seem to remember watching an old news promo
> from about 1975/1976 that said "..Action news is everywhere:
> and one shot was of a guy holding a mini-cam.
>

WBAL-11 definitely had remote capability by 1977. I attended the Orioles home opener that year at Memorial Stadium and WBAL had its minicam van parked behind the visitors bullpen. On the upper deck facade was the slogan quoted by kyleP, "Action News is Everywhere", a slogan Philly's WPVI-6, also called "Action News" (then as now), was using at that time.

WBAL's news is now called "11 News."

ixnay

 

[bpatrick]

Re: Maryland & Virginia

> >>
>
> >> >
>
> >
> In Richmond, I think WWBT ( then WRVA-TV ) was color in by
> 1967 with WTVR and WXEX not too far behind. Norfolk, yes
> WAVY was the first to go color and I think WTAR ( WTKR )
> followed a year later.

I recall that both WTVR and WRVA/WWBT were in color by 1967
at the latest; WRVA, I believe, was first. WTAR/WTKR started
color in 1967; I was on one of Channel 3's first colorcasts:
the Ledger-Star Spelling Bee.
>
> I seem to recall reading that WVEC didn't go color until
> either the late 60's, perhaps 1970. WYAH I know was in
> color in 1969 as there is a scene of an old Jim & Tammy Faye
> Bakker program that was featured in the film "The Eyes of
> Tammy Faye". The clip was in color.

I believe Channel 27 was in color by 1967, certainly by '68;
they even had an opening animation on color shows that resembled
what CBS and NBC were doing at the time.

When I left Virginia in June 1968, the three ABC affiliates in
the Eastern Virginia edition of TV Guide were still doing local
programs in black and white: WSVA/WHSV Harrisonburg, WXEX/WRIC
Richmond, and WVEC. So color may have come later that year, I
don't know. My next stop was Greenville, SC, where the Carolina-
Tennessee edition circulated; WJHL/11 Bristol/Kingsport/Johnson
City was the last station in that book to get color, late 1968.
>
>

 

[ixnay]

How was the conversion to color TV marketed, station by station?

The post title is self explanatory.

ixnay