AUGUSTA, Ga (WJBF)- This yr marks 70 years the WJBF NewsChannel 6 has been bringing native information to the CSRA.

In the primary of a 4 half Hometown History collection on the historical past of WJBF– Kim Vickers takes a have a look at how the know-how used to carry you the information has modified over 7 a long time.

From 1953 to 2023 every thing from the tools used, how a broadcast is transmitted and even the format of native TV information has advanced. 

WJBF was began by J.B. Fuqua, when tv was in its infancy and radio was nonetheless the primary supply of stories.

“In the early days of television, it was all live. There was no video recording. So that was the main thing to understand about 1953,” stated Benjamin Singleton, manufacturing supervisor of Moving Image Research Collections on the University of South Carolina. 

When J.B. Fuqua began WJBF in 1953, radio information was king. The first broadcast information packages had been newsreels– brief documentary-like movies proven earlier than a film in a theater.

“Newsreels had been in business, you know, 50 to 60 years before television came along. And they had kind of developed the science of how to go out and get a story fast and put it out twice a week, which was an amazing thing,” defined Singleton. 

TVs had been changing into extra frequent in American households for leisure. 

In 1944, CBS launched a 15 minute information program and NBC adopted one yr later. Singleton stated that the format was very like the cinema newsreel.

“You had to talk to the camera every minute you were on air or you had to show a film. And that’s pretty much what you could do.”

The first cameras utilized in information had been reel to reel cameras that used movie. These had been the identical cameras utilized by photographers when WJBF obtained began.

“And a news station- cinematographers- they had to go out and use motion picture film, just like they did in Hollywood. They had to be developed and it took several hours,” Singleton defined. “So it took planning to get out there, get a news story, get it developed, find the shot that you need and get it on a projector to go out to the viewers.”

Mike Ludwikowski, Senior Associate Producer, started his profession in information in 1973 at WJBF as a movie processor. He stated that although the cameras had been newer and extra superior than they’d been within the 50’s, they had been nonetheless utilizing reel to reel movie on the time.

“You had to go out with, again, film, shoot the story, come back, process the film. And the film that you had to use, you physically tore it, taped it back together to make an edit. So once you used the shot, that was it. You’ve used it.”

Lud, as he’s affectionately identified at WJBF, defined that in these days placing collectively a full size story took time, typically days. They not solely needed to edit the movie and write the story, however they’d so as to add sound as properly.

“It wasn’t like today where everything is all together. Now when you record, your sound is on the video. But back then there was no… we had special cameras that could do that, but you normally went out with a silent film camera and then had to come back and work on your piece and it took a while to get everything together,” Lud stated.

He stated there wasn’t a lot of a margin of error when utilizing movie. 

“Because when you were sent out with, say 100 feet of film to do a story, that was 3 or 4 minutes worth of film. You better select your right shots.”

Lud knew the founding father of WJBF and stated he made certain the station stayed updated on the newest know-how.

“J.B. Fuqua, the man whose initials are still on the station, was a pioneer in technology. He loved reading and acquiring the newest technology,” stated Lud. “And in 1975, he was in Japan and he came back with a reel to reel recorder that used the audio tape they were using for that day, but was able to do video.”

This was the lead in to the change from movie to video tape within the late 70’s and early 80’s, the primary main tools change in TV News.

“Video tape was a huge technological leap for television because then it didn’t have to be live all the time,” Singleton stated.

Video tape recorders required loads of tools within the discipline.

“You had so much gear with you that, basically when you got set up, you were locked in there. Big heavy tripod because it was a big heavy camera. A camera with a cord to a recorder, explained Lud. “Batteries for both devices. Batteries for your lights. You needed much more light because we weren’t using chips. We were using tubes that required a lot more light in order to make an image.”

The enhancing course of modified too.

“In tape to tape editing you start with a blank tape, you find the shot you want to put on that blank tape and you put that shot on. Then you find your next shot and put it after the first shot. So you basically built a sequence of shots,” Lud stated.

In movie enhancing, they couldn’t use a shot greater than as soon as and in present digital enhancing they’ll use a shot as many instances as they select. But in tape to tape enhancing, whereas photographs might be reused, an editor needed to be cautious as a result of the standard of the video might be compromised.

“You had generations. When you would first record something in analog, that’s your first generation recording,” stated Lud. “Once you made the edit from one tape machine to another your finished story was now second generation. If you took that second generation and made another copy of it, there was a definite, visible degradation of the signal.”

Video tapes had been utilized in information till as late because the early 2000’s when Lud stated every thing modified from analog to digital.

“The progression from analog to digital; and getting away from recording on a moving format, and putting it on a memory card has been one of the biggest changes that I’ve seen. It sped up- it sped up everything.”

The digital format means faster filming and enhancing permitting for information stations to get extra information out. Lud stated the change was an enormous adjustment and was robust for him to get used to.

“With the speed, for an old timer, a lack of the polished quality that we were used to. We used to light things better. We used to take our time. It’s gotten more immediate and frankly that doesn’t bother the viewer. The viewer wants to see what’s happening and that’s our job.”

Recording tools aren’t the one adjustments in tech that WJBF has seen over the past 7 a long time. The means we get the information to a viewer’s TV has too– to some extent. 

Since the daybreak of tv radio frequencies have been used to transmit image and sound to radios and tv. And our Chief Engineer, Matt Johnson defined that’s nonetheless true immediately.

“Here at Television Park, we are broadcasted from Beech Island, South Carolina. That’s where our transmitter site is. We have a technology- RF- which stands for radio frequency that happens between the tv station here to Beech Island. It is a line of sight, point to point connection that occurs. That’s how the signal from the TV station here in the studio, gets out to everyone in the community,” Johnson stated.

When former Chief Engineer, Cary Hale began his profession at WJBF in 1973, TV sign transmission regarded lots totally different than it does immediately.

“When I first got here it was mostly all over the air broadcast. Cable was just in its beginning. So everybody had to have an antenna,” stated Hale.

In the late 60’s information stations started utilizing microwave vans. They transmitted video from the truck on to the station permitting reporters to go reside on location. In the 80’s a special discipline transmission methodology took place.

“Our satellite van is on a Ford E-350 van, much like families use to travel with. The satellite signal goes between the satellite van to space,” defined Johnson. “Then back down from space to here at Television Park to our Satellite Garden. And the video signal comes into the studio here and then back to the transmitter site and then back out to the public again.”

“That made stuff a little more instantaneous, let’s say. We didn’t have to go through three steps to get a signal back to the station. Just one,” stated Hale.

And as with filming tools the transition from analog to digital was probably the most vital change for transmitting  alerts. 

WJBF went totally digital in 2009. 

Engineers went from needing extra information in electrical to extra of an IT base. Hale stated it was an adjustment and loads of work to remain updated on how the brand new tools labored.

“Every time we got a new piece of equipment, particularly transmitters and things like that, I would go to the… generally speaking a lot of the corporations that built this equipment would have training for the engineers.”

Johnson stated that the swap from analog to digital transmitters saved loads of electrical energy. The station’s electrical invoice dropped practically $16,000 a month. He thinks that so long as know-how advances the higher ready WJBF might be to carry the group high quality information.

“Technology has really made broadcast television more accessible for people. We’re able to go to places that we were never able to– probably never could have went before.”

Hey CSRA! That’s simply PART of your Hometown History.