MY TV JOURNEY

Unofficially WWAC-TV had been broadcasting a test signal for a week but tonight we would “officially” publicly go on the air.  Our engineering department constructed a large switch that was connected to nothing for Frank, our chairman to “turn on”.  Everyone was nervous.  The 7:PM show time was announced in the AC Press which had a big distribution throughout South Jersey.  We had radio spots on all 4 of our local radio stations (several of their morning drive-time staff were going to moonlight on our air - their dream was to come  true; their faces would be finally seen after years of never being recognized in restaurants.  I spent a lot of time pacing and checking things that already had been checked and double checked. I got into my “costume” two hours early - a new expensive gray suede sport coat, french cuffs and a great regimental striped tie that was provided by one of our newest sponsors.  Our first trade deal with the top men’s store on the is...

The Premiere broadcast was 10 days away and it was a madhouse of details to be decided.  One must understand for the months leading up to this big event only the essential employees needed for building the studio and building our programming = me were on the payroll.  The full staff was “hired” but not being paid but many of my production folks were working anyway.  They were finding apartments and rooms as most were not local.  Nora our “street” reporter was out and about every day for several weeks shooting “B” roll clips of police cars, fire trucks, boardwalk scenes, etc. which could be used to supplement our news stories because of our limited story shooting staff (and we only had one RCA handheld news camera ($15K) and two  studio models $25K each).  (The handheld would be used in the studio on a tripod after it returned from the field.  This budget factor limited our daytime production capabilities). Seven days out from going on the air I made (w...