Southern Bell Waits
Of utmost importance for the telecast to be delivered to New York, for distribution to ABC's affiliates, was a frequency coordination to solve potential terrestrial interference problems. C-band (4-6 GHz) was then the only frequency for U.S. satellites and was also widely used for microwave links of local telephone companies and others.
ABC notified Southern Bell Telephone Co. (now BellSouth) of its plans and a need for Southern Bell to measure the mobile uplink's C-band signals for any frequency conflicts. Hynes recalls the curiosity of Southern Bell's people questioning why ABC had hired a Colorado company to transmit a television signal to New York. By satellite, for heaven's sake! What happens if it falls out of the sky? Furthermore, since ABC had not ordered a Long Lines backup feed to New York, they would have no route out of Elizabeth City if there proved to be any interference with Southern Bell's local facilities. "The Southern Bell guys were missing dinner and a taste, like us," Hynes recalls, "and they were becoming unhappy."
Midnight Approval
As the night wore on, Hynes used every scheme except bribery to keep Southern Bell at the parking lot site. Eventually, the WTCI truck rolled in at a time that Hynes now says, "must have been at the stroke of midnight. We were ready to be pumpkins."
Before long, Romrell's team was transmitting test signals and, thankfully, Southern Bell's people said their scopes were finding no interference. All concerned shook hands and departed the now-darkened parking lot.
When Hynes and Romrell were asked 23 years later to recall some details for the record, Romrell first thought he had been in Norfolk. Hynes, amazingly, had kept his 1978 daybook with "Elizabeth City" scribbled in it. Neither had a recollection of who had played whom, and who won. (For the record, Via Satellite learned that Winston-Salem's Rams defeated Elizabeth City's Vikings, 28 to 6.)
Following the North Carolina experience, Romrell authorized an upgrade of the hauler truck to a diesel tractor with a sleeper cab. Both cab and trailer were equipped with air- ride flotation devices to protect the human and electronic valuables.
Hynes is now with Pacific Media Technologies in Studio City, CA. Romrell is a member of the board of directors at Liberty Media in Denver.
What's Next?
There should be no further questions as to when commercial, mobile satellite news gathering and uplinking had its actual beginning. Following WU's "MES" in August 1976 came WTCI's "TES" in August 1978, to be followed by a continuing series of WTCI jobs.
It was in late 1979 when the FCC relaxed many of its satellite rules, including the ownership and operation of a backyard C-band TVRO. For 1979, Neiman Marcus in its Christmas book featured a TVRO from Scientific Atlanta for a nifty $36,500 if you acted by February, 1980.
The overall amount of broadcast traffic escalated in 1979 and became very large in 1980. On the cable-TV front, ESPN launched in September 1979 and CNN launched in June 1980, with both becoming major new traffic contributors.
During the year 1980, mobile uplinks were extremely busy with the Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid, NY, and the political conventions at Detroit and New York. Among the new providers of mobile uplinking services in 1980 were Greater Starlink, Trinity Broadcasting and this writer's former company, Wold Communications.
Contributing Writer Robert N. Wold is based in California. His E-mail address is robertnwold@cox.net.
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