In the late ’60s, Saturday afternoons were the dog days of Richmond television. Nobody was watching…especially in the summer. The 3 V’s (VHF stations) all ran B-grade movies. WRVA-TV, channel 12 (now WWBT), where I worked as a newly hired director, generally ran westerns. Always in black and white because local color was a thing of the future, and several starring a future president of the United States…although no one would have believed it at the time.
A former local DJ and brilliant pitchman by the name of Jess Duboy had as a client, Richmond Chrysler-Plymouth, a car dealership, which was about a quarter mile from the station. He approached the Channel 12 sales department with a unique, at the time, idea.
“How about running live remote cut-ins during the afternoon movie, with the dealership buying the entire afternoon?” (at a greatly reduced price, of course). Jess would be the host and invite people to come visit the dealership and see a live TV remote. The station agreed
Now came the fun part. In the late 60s, there were no such things as portable TV cameras. Nor were there such things as local TV remote trucks. WRVA purchased a used Nolde’s Bread truck…a truck, used to deliver the bread to markets for resale. It was only slightly larger than a mail truck, with bread racks already installed. Our engineers converted those racks into broadcast equipment racks.
The director and engineer sat side by side near the front of the truck, facing backward. In the panel in front of them were the switcher, camera, preview, and programs monitors, and scopes and video shading controls used by the engineer. At a right angle to them facing the passenger side of the truck, was the audio man with the audio board in front of him. It was small and tight, but it served the purpose.
The signal was sent by microwave from a disk mounted on top of the truck to the receiving disk located halfway up the tower.
Now nobody in the production department wanted to work on Saturday afternoons, especially when setting up the cameras took two people just to carry them, and cable runs with cables as fat your arm. The station did purchase three-legged tripods so at least we didn’t have to move the monsters in the studio, just two studio cameras. Since nobody volunteered to work, the production manager came up with a solution for the crew. The last hired. Guess who was the director. Yep, yours truly.
But in hindsight, it was exciting to be a part of something new in Richmond. And the remoted was a rousing success. So many people came out each Saturday to watch, that the police had to be called in to direct traffic. Several radio stations also did remotes from the location. I don’t know how many cars they sold, but generally, the crew had fun. And Channel 12 blew away to other two V’s in the ratings.
After the shoot, the cables and cameras were loaded into the bread truck and moved to a church on Grove Avenue. But that’s another story. -dm