NBC premiered College Bowl on radio in the early 50s. In 1959 it moved to TV and back to NBC in 1963. At that time, I was a studio announcer at the NBC affiliate in Richmond, WRVA TV (now WWBT). Management decided we needed a High School Bowl to pit the brightest students from local schools against each other in a quiz show of knowledge.

The news anchor was chosen as the host. I was the off-camera announcer. The host asked the questions, and it was my job to blurt out the school and student name of the one, who had hit the buzzer first, for the opportunity to answer the question.  To let me know which student buzzed, a light flashed with the buzzer in front of each student.

The engineering department had designed a buzzer-light system that locked out everyone else when the first button was pressed.  In other words, when the first student hit his button, all the other buttons went dead. But the system had to reset quickly in case the first student missed the answer and another student buzzed in for a chance. At the time it was an amazing bit of engineering. Remember, there were no computers so it was a total mechanical-electrical system.

The host was given the questions earlier in the week and spent hours rehearsing, so he wouldn’t sound like an idiot on the air. Many of the questions were very complicated. Occasionally I would help him study at either his house or mine. By contrast, I only had to learn each student’s name to say it and the school name at warp speed.  The show was broadcast live so I also had to announce the opening and closing.

 I sometimes miss the days of live TV. No retakes. No spending hours getting it right. The show ran for a half hour and when it was over, it was over. With few exceptions, the only thing broadcast live these days is news. -dm-