From Tony Landry

Our First Out-of-Town Trip for CBS

New Yorkers had been suffering and griping about an unprecedented heat wave that had lasted for more than a week. Temperatures remained somewhere in the 90s. A very high humidity did not help the situation and the weatherman
predicted that there was no relief in sight.  At work with CBS I had no valid reason to complain. I was busy in the small,
delightfully air-conditioned General Engineering Laboratory, located on the 7th floor of the studio building. All I had to do was to come up with an answer to a problem handed to me by CBS' top authority on audio, radio frequency and video, Howard Allen Chinn. Chinn was an outstanding engineer and a great guy. When he handed out a problem, he wanted a solution; no excuses, no alibis.  One Thursday afternoon about 3 p.m.I received a phone call from our secretary that Mr.Lodge wants to see me and Mr.Fitch in his office NOW. My reply: "I am on my way".
When Lodge finished a phone conversation, he turned to Fitch and me asking:

"How soon can you guys get out of town for about a week?" Bill Fitch's answer was quick: "I would like to go right now, but how about next Monday?" My answer was " too' Lodge explained that this was the first of a number of assignments having to do mostly with radio frequency measurements of some of CBS's affiliate radio stations that seemed to have problems. Later we were to check on WCBS and settle some questions that needed to be answered.  About two weeks previous, General Engineering had received a black 4-door Chrysler Sedan that we were going to use for our assignments, it took a week to make certain changes, additions, etc. to suit our requirements. An Esterline-Angus recorder had been mounted on the floor of the passenger side.  It could be used standing still or by engaging a lever to connect it via speedo­meter cable while the car was in motion. An antenna loop was mounted on the top of the car and a large fold-down stainless steel shelf was mounted in the back to hold several pieces of radio equipment. An extra storage battery was placed under this table to power our equipment.  In good weather we could set up a folding table in a nice cool shady spot and make our measurements, while in foul weather we could comfortably operate from the back seat.

Monday morning we left for Albany NY to measure an affiliate station in the Greenbush area. The temperature was still in the 90s. The car had a heater but no air conditioner, so we drove with All the windows open. After a while Bill thought that the heater might be partly on and pushed the control lever on and off. The lever got stuck in the ON-position. At that point we had about 75 miles to go. We arrived in Albany about 3 p.m, tired, soaking wet and disgusted. While I was having a shower, Bill called the local Chrysler dealer. Could they give us prompt service? The car had only 200 miles on the odometer and the dealer suggested we bring the car in by 8 a.m. so we could have it back by 2 p.m., as it would be a 4 to 5 hour job.

Due to failure of my internal modem I was unable to update information for a couple of days.  I should have all photos that I have received updated in the next couple of days.

From Tony Cucurullo

Year 2001

      How will you address it as; two thousand and one or, two, oh oh, one.  In either case it is the start of the new millennium. Just get it right when you post it on your checks.
    It is also the time to make those innocuous, resolution lists, that everyone tears up within a week. I don't bother to even think about resolutions. I am too selfish to make any sacrifice whether it is trivial or mundane. But, if you care to write your list and send it in to our WEB page we will print it and then we can see if you possess any resolve to live past the first two or three. I have the spine of a jellyfish (who has no vertebrate). I usually give up parachute jumping, deep sea diving, and wishing for Marilyn Monroe. Now in this my final hours, I find Rosie O'Donnell, Oprah, delightful, and sexy. (Yeah, sure!) So come on, poke some fun at yourself and send us your list, we can all use a little insight to your mystique.
      This year started off with the "market" causing me to double and triple up on my heart pills. I wish I could get my cholesterol down as far as my few stocks have gone in this seemingly unstoppable plunge. What "pisses me off" is that someone is making the money I am losing. Why can't I be clever enough to do it also?
      We have a new President. Another Bush. It seems we already had one Bush, making the old axiom, "a bird in the hand is worth two in a bush", fodder for the likes of Leno, and Letterman. I wish him well, and hope the only thing he likes to play with is an Har-Monika.
    I watched 60 minutes last night. I got to see the new president of CBS. He was on during a piece on Reality Television Stories. He looks and apparently acts like a man with vision; (he took a chance with "The Survivors").  It worries me a little though that the networks will use this form of entertainment to spike up the ratings. It worries me because I expect the major nets, IE: CBS, ABC, and NBC to be the moral leaders of the communication industry.
      This isn't the "Chicken Little" syndrome, you know, "the sky is falling". I worry about addictions, of all kinds. Be they, alcohol, gambling, sex, drugs or just thrill seeking, These shows can upset your psyche. The sensationalism attached to this can spiral out of control. Someone could reach a point of never being sated. There isn't any limit to what the human desire is set at. It is different for different folks.     Maybe you can handle it, but what about children? They are already fighting a losing battle with the drug problem. Why excite them more?
    The days of "The Jack Benny Show", George and Gracie Allen, Bob Hope, even the "Lone Ranger" they seem so bland now. The great voices of radio were tempered with constrictions of propriety. Civility was carefully observed. We had censors cleaning up a show before it aired. Now we have blatant and explicit sex, and moral degradation openly exploited. I don't see the need for the nets, to get involved. It is their responablity to draw the line "collectively" for the good of the American principal that it is held to a higher standard.  The Sopranos, is a titillating show, "no doubt". But, you have to pay to see it. Free television MUST have some non-'First Amendment restrictions placed on it for the good of the character of the country. Think about it...PLEASE!
      Guys remember this?  It's Thursday, we rush into the lounge, grab the schedule book, scan the pages for your name find out if you're headed out-of-town on a remote. Then you look to see if anyone else got a better assignment than you did. I can recall a famous audio type going to phone and asking the desk, (in whispered voice of course) could he be relieved of his
audio assignment so that he could do some shopping, "after all it is only a local news break, and there is another audio man sitting here playing tonk?" Yeah, Thursday brought out the best in some of us. But, in any case next day was a travel day off to another airport, highway, hotel, and then a stadium.  I think back on those times and I wonder how I did it for so many years. It
seemed so exciting. Now it is boring to me. I enjoy being home and seeing my wife for the first time, how thrilling. My grandchildren excite my senses; their innocence is so pure and beautiful.
      Please, one more time lets hear form you. By and large I think you are the most interesting people I have spent a portion of my life with, share it again with me.
Have a HEALTHY AND HAPPY NEW YEAR.
Tony C.

From Ted Perzeszty

Les,
   In photo #226, the guy with the white hat is Al Bressan

Best regards ----------------- Teddy

From Doris Reardon

Since we are coming up on the NFL championship games, one of which is within sight of my balcony (Raiders-Ravens), I thought I  would share this story with you.
   Back in the early 70s I was the first TD on the NFL Today, our producer was Bob Wussler, he was there for the first two years of the show.  While there, he was promoted to President CBS Sports, he then was promoted to President CBS Inc.!
   Bob was a very involved producer, he came to the control room on two occasions to get the new producer oriented (as the CBS president)!  During one show Bob whispered in my ear "get VT 22" which I did without question, he then looked at the director and then told me to roll VT 22.  I think I might be the only TD who ever took a cue from a network president,  Don't think I will forget it.  I glanced over at Mike McGrath--we had a good laugh.       BOB V

   By the way photo 226 looks like the great Al Bressan and maybe Mark Ganguzza .

Super Bowl Offerings

From Cal Marotta

It was a bitter cold week in Chicago. We were there for the NFL Championship game. I was the video man in the main game truck. All week long I HUMPED frame sync after frame sync into the truck and hooked them up. (six of them). There really was no place to store them so we placed them under the console , where usually our legs would be. It became very crowded. I had to sit a little sideways and I was wondering if I wouldn't get a cramp halfway through the game. We had eight cameras ,four for me and four for Joe Narsise, remember him? He was a late entry into the video position and I was worried about his ability to do the job. He being primarily the truck driver. I didn't complain because I knew it would hurt Joe and I liked him. I figured I could always reach over and give him a hand if he needed help.  Well there was no need to worry. The fog rolled in and the game was done by the NFL Today cameramen on the sidelines. The announcers went down to the field so they could at least see some of the players.  Well...during the game Joe ate a sandwich and had a smoke and I leaned back and relaxed because I was really tired from all the hauling I did .  When people asked me what I did during that game I told the truth.....NOTHING.

From Bob Vernum

Tony: just looking through some old photos, and came across the FIRST video replayer the Mactronix (see photo 247), it could record 30 seconds of video, but only play back still frames--no slo mo.  I traveled the 1966 football season with it; it (the Mactronix)  became a sensation,  after returning home I would get phone calls from other network people (including my brother at ABC) asking me what it was.  It is my understanding that Tony Verna is credited with the first "replay", an easel and a polaroid camera.  The Mactronix had a short life, I believe it was not used much after 1967-1968.   Just a bit of trivia         BOB V

Addition to above

Tony, the actual name of the "replay" machine was" MACTRONIX STOP ACTION".  Also, I  cannot confirm that Tony Verna was the originator of replay via polaroid camera, however I was on one game where we had the easel set up, Tony was the director and we did use the pix----one minute later! BOB V.

Further addition to above

[From Adrian:] Bob, you really got my attention with that. This project was a milestone in my career in Engineering. I was the project engineer, and the concept for the machine grew out of brainstorming between myself and Kurt Machhein, the Pres. of Machtronics, Inc., the company that developed and manufactured this machine. Kurt's company was quite small, no more than 15-20 people. Kurt and his principal development engineer, Fred Pfost, were alumni of the original Ampex team that developed the first successful quad VTR machine. The reason the Machtronics machine (you sure the product name was spelled Mactronix? -- It could have been, I'm not sure) did not become a commercial success is that Ampex decided to get into the act, were subsidized by an initial order from ABC and CBC, and developed a far superior product which was colorized and included slow motion. We were in the process of doing the same for the Machtronics, but Kurt just did not have the resources to match Ampex's efforts. Another bit of trivia, which very few remember, is that we got a colorized version of the Machtronics on the air a few days before ABC was able to debut the Ampex machine. We rushed to do this when tipped off by some week-ahead publicity put out by ABC.

From William/Patricia Berridge

Tony!   Yes, Bill sees Tom every month.  He keeps trying to get him to go to one of the luncheons,  but forget about it.  Bill''s eyes aren't good enough to write you himself so if you don't mind me doing it, I have lots of great stories to tell.  One of the earliest ones was when Bill first started and did the  Audio Boom.  He was doing the Steve Allen show and the guest were Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.  Bill didn't miss a cue.  He moved that boom from Edgar to Charlie until he realized everyone in the control room was laughing  hysterically.  "What's wrong?" Finally Sid Kaufman caught his breath long enough to tell him. "Red, the dummy doesn't talk!"  To this day, Sid reminds him the dummy doesn't talk.

Please continue sending in these stories, they are jewels.

From Anon

   SAYINGS FOR THE COMPUTER AGE

What boots up must come down.

Fax is stranger than fiction.

Don't byte off more than you can view.

The e-mail of the species is more deadly than the mail.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him
 to use the Net and he won't bother you for weeks.

From Tony Cucurullo

Scoundrels and Gentlemen

Before we get any further into the New Year, I want to correct an impression I may have imprinted in your thinking. I have always talked about the greatness of the people of the CBS family. This is true; they are indeed everything I wrote about them. But, as in every barrel of apples there are a few rotten ones.
I don't intend to make this a gripe session. I would like to tell you a story and let the chips fall where they may.
The system of supervision is very competitive. Getting assigned to the prime shows is a feather in anyone's cap. When a technician is tapped to become an E.I.C. (Engineer-In-Charge). his/her world changes. They now become a partner in the management of the company, and as such their allegiance is shifted towards the company policy, understandably, of course.  Some of them make the transition quite readily, because they are generally well educated people, and can adopt easily. How they are selected is not necessarily based on seniority, or talent; a lot of political consideration goes into the process of picking and choosing. And, too, having a Rabbi helps. This causes a lot of crullers to sneak in to those positions because of filial connections. And of course this diminishes the overall quality of the group.
If I say, Art Tinn, Marty Solomon, .......just these two. I don't have to go any further to name the others that are like them. They are true leaders, technically skilled at their jobs, and most of all very well liked and respected.  So much for smearing, and schmoosing The E.I.C's that short changed the crews on meal periods. Those that fill the water bottles with tap water and pretend it is filtered, and possibly pocketed the money they were supposed to buy the water with. The E.I.C.'s that sell the passes at games to fans, (Boston Garden). A President of sports, and also sports broadcaster that sold pins, and hats, thereby taking away some income from the techs. Bosses, that tried to convince the techs. to eat spoiled food (green eggs). Yuk! Bad apples, indeed. Nineteen seventy-seven, Atlantic City, 'The Miss America Pageant', and the last one that CBS covered. Filled with intrigue.
IBEW electricians, who also happen to be Atlantic City policemen, run Convention Hall.  That part is OK, because the electricians in Atlantic City don't get the national average wage. It is scaled down somewhat.
The gangster that runs the local there walks into Bob Hammer office which it set in a trailer and demands that all the electrical connections and cable pulls be made by his men.  Bob Hammer sends for me, as I was the leading union rep there at the time.  His opening remark to me was,"is your IBEW going to allow us to work according to the contract CBS agreed with." I asked to make some phone calls, and I would get back to him. I went out to talk to the lead union rep from their local. He told me, "his men do the work or there isn't going to be a show." And as a way of proving this he handed me a handful of cable ends, that he claimed his men found lying on the floor. I tried to reason with him, but he claimed jurisdiction over the work in that building. I tried to reach our local leaders who were in negotiations at the time. I received, "no help."  Bob, wanted an answer, I offered a deal, pay six of their men $25 dollars each and that should satisfy the situation. Bob, would have nothing to do with it. He wanted a confrontation to exist between the two locals. The gangster head,(and he really was a connected type) told me he would have me thrown into the Atlantic Ocean, if I insisted that they don't do the work.  I threatened him with an injunction, he said, "go ahead, get one, I will be on my boat and Judge Murphy won't be able to reach me until Monday morning."  I pleaded with Robert, and he acquiesced and gave in to the squeeze.
This scene was to be played out other times again, and again. Such as, Madison Square Garden, Forest Hills, etc.  All it took was a little grease.  And the scoundrels would be sated for a while.
Side story to this. My son and wife accompanied me to this remote. I knew Phyllis George from a previous ENG story I did with her. We became fast friends. I would always greet her with, "who, luvs-ya-da-mostest?" When I was assigned to pull a camera cable on the stage, (in tuxedo, of course) I left a note on Miss George's dressing table mirror. She came out to say, "hello." I introduced my seventeen-year-old son, Anthony to her. She immediately asked him if he would be a gofer back stage for the girls. Needless to say, he jumped at the chance. My wife went to a local haberdasher and purchased a new suit for him. He was thrilled with the assignment and at the end of the show he was invited to several of the parties. He will have that glorious memory for life.
"Yes, we have seen and survived, even though not all of the CBS family walked in shinning armor."     Tony C

From Tony Cucurullo

    It was the 1980's I was milling around in the company between ENG (news gathering/local and net, some sixty minutes, and an occasional documentary: one with Carol Martin won me an Emmy for directing/camerawork) I liked that, because I never did the same assignment twice. I had the best of all worlds.  When the weekend came around I was sent out on sports, if I was available.  But, then I got a call from the Captain Kangaroo Show; this was to be my most lucrative assignment of all time. I venture to say it was the most lucrative of any technician on any show anytime.
    In twelve weeks I earned $27000. That's right boys and girls. I had two young men with me and they earned almost as much. Our assignment was to tape different stories all over the country. Each story had to have a connection: they had to have some interest for children, or they had to be about young people.
    We covered stories about young magicians; a young boy that flew airplanes he was only thirteen, we drove out to Forest Hills to cover the tennis play of a teenager, Tracey Austin. Traveling to the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn, we did a story on Colonel Kite. He could aloft several kites at a time and make them dance in the sky, swirling and diving and twisting in all sorts of geometric patterns, delighting the eye. This crew then set out for Florida.  There we climbed in the lion's cage at Circus city, rode the outside raft on a platform to record the water ballet at Water World. All this we did on
overtime. The producer for the 'Captain' insisted that we forget the contract he was told to wrap this up in the twelve weeks. I informed him he would pay for every infraction of the contract with penalties. He agreed and we worked
our Asses off for him.  Along came an EIC of the studio type, and with out any conception of what time frame constrictions we worked under, he ordered us to stop because he saw the time sheets we submitted and said, "he refused to approve these time cards and was canceling them." I told him, "No pay no work." He replied, "You are fired." I said,"OK, I am on my way home, and he could arrange for the safety of his equipment, and the tapes we had." He screamed, "I couldn't do that, I had to send him the tapes we already shot". Well needless to say, I called the producer and repeated the story. He hung up the phone and told me to stand by; I said I had to catch a plane home I no longer was on the payroll. I knew I wasn't going to leave the equipment or the tapes but the poker hand dealt to me was a lock. I had permission and this jerk only had muscles the size of grapefruits and could break your hand every time he shook it.
    Within a half hour, I received a call at the hotel from a vice-president of CBS, he informed me that I had a job, I was to take care of the company property, and he would take care of all the payrolls involved.
    He kept his word. When we came home, and I appeared before Bob Hammer, his stammer turned into throat lock. But he paid. My crew and I did more stories and they were well received by the 'Captain and were used for years on replay.  The crew I had was two young men. Tom McCarthy, the son of one of my dearest friends, and a very good cameraman, and also new young employee named Fred Shimizu. This fellow took what ever I asked him to do and never complained.  He did the backpack audio. And, did audio editing on the seat of the truck, learning all this as we went along. We flew by the, "seat of our pants" improvising as we went along. We worked around the clock on most assignments, and through our meal periods. We did our own creative lighting, took risks at times, like when we went into the lions cage. The lion reached out and grabbed Tom's shirt, and ever so gently so as not to move the cameras, Fred, takes the paw of the lion and removes as if it were a child's hand he was holding.  And now for the finally to this most wonderful experience in my career. We were sent downtown New York to the Twin Towers to do a story about how the
tower windows are washed when it is needed. That day we had Jerry Sullivan along because of all the equipment we had to lug up to the roof. One hundred and ten stories high. That's three floors above the rent able space of the building. The crew had set up the equipment and we all thought we were going to cover the washing machine, and how it works. This King Kong of a machine rises out of the roof on an elevator similar the one used on aircraft carriers. It then traverses along to the edge on rails and tilts itself and goes over the side, and down the face of the building, washing, soaping and rinsing as it goes along on a computer driven program.  Well to our surprise the producer says to us he want us to follow the machine down the face of the building. I told him if in my opinion it was not safe we wouldn't do it. He said he would call up town and get another crew, and maybe use freelance people.  Tom, and Fed who had done all those impossible stunts, like water rafting in Pennsylvania, flying in a Blimp driven by a young boy. Hanging out the back of a truck to get moving vehicular shots. This was the limit. The producer started to leave to call; I told him I would do it. I had previous experience in copters, and did military things that are other stories. Well, I agreed, and they the building people have this maintenance bucket that can be lowered on a separate cable alongside the washing unit.  In order to enter this device you put on a safety belt and clasp it the bucket frame. Great if the bucket falls to the street this guarantees that you won't fall out, ha, ha. To Jerry Sullivan's credit he had to place one foot on the edge of the building and pass the camera and recorder to me. Tom held his belt for balance. When I stepped into this bucket, and accepted the equipment it shifted down about an additional eight inches…it felt like it was falling thirty stories. Well I worked out there for about a half hour.
When they pulled me up, and I came on to the roof, the manager of the building said, he was happy to see that the bucket worked. "It was the first time they used it."  I never had a high like that, I actually felt like I was floating. I at least can claim that I was the first cameraman to shot from the top and face of the tallest building in the city. And only King Kong and I went off the top.  Fred I hope still has that great work ethic as he did on that twelve week assignment. Tommy I know will be a boss sometime, he has that charisma. People like him easily. Me, I spent the money on my three kids and bills.

Tony C

From Harold Deppe

I have sent in a few Pictures of the Production Center in New York taken Years ago.  Is it possible for us to get a few Pictures of how the Production Center looks Today?  There are a few of us still interested in CBS. and would like to see
how it looks Today.  The Equipment etc., is anyone interested ?
P.S. I am sending a Picture of a Machine I took in Telecine at the Broadcast Center in New York In 1973 could this be the Machine Adrian was speaking about on the Jan 15 input to the Webb................Harold Deppe.

See photo 249
***From Adrian: In answer to your question, Harold, my guess would be that this was not a Machtronics machine, but rather one of the early Ampex disk machines. I'm basing this on the 1973 date, by which I believe all the Machtronics had been retired. Maybe if Bob Vernum continued to work with disk machines until then, he can identify it. Or maybe someone else can help us with an identification. I don't recall for sure the model numbers Ampex used for their disks (maybe something like HS-30?), and never had worked with any of them myself. By 1973 I had left the company as an employee, though was still consulting for CBS in other areas.

In response to Adrian's comments: I did not work on the Baltimore or Ggreen Bay games, if my memory serves me correctly they were pre-season games.
     When CBS decided to assign MU supervisors in the fall of 1966 (Hanford, Ambrosinni and Mitchel) it left the assignment of "stop action" to a video type why me? I don't know. Originally it was going to be Bob Hanfords role. I enjoyed doing it--lots of travel, I ended up the season in Green Bay "FRIGID".  One of the problems with the machine was temperature extremes, I was always extended the most co-operation from all of our tech's.
     It was really a relatively simple device to operate--sync, pgm video, and an input switcher; and if possible a cozy nook!
    The name of the VT Maintenance man who operated it on the first two assignments escapes me but he was relieved to see I was coming on board!
***From Adrian: Right, Bob, the Baltimore game had to be pre-season because it was an intra-squad game, and the Packer game in Milwaukee also had to be pre-season, because I'll never forget the date of that auto accident: August 19, 1965 -- the game must have been scheduled for Aug. 20 or 21. But, Bob, if you were assigned that same fall, it was 1965 instead of 1966, I'm sure of that. I can't recall the tech who was assigned to it in Baltimore, either.

Re: Stan Mitchell

[From Les} Normally I would not put the following email address on the site, but I feel Stan deserves this posting.

From Bob Vernum

Tony :Adrian is right about 1965 not 1966!
        Also on a very sad note, I consider Stan Mitchell one of the most talented people in CBS.  It is truly distressing to know that such a vital person must struggle with the effects of such a dibilitating event.  I lost contact with Stan after I  retired, I was happy to hear that they (Stan & Meg) were enjoying retirement.
  Yesterday I tried to contact her with the supplied hyperlink but it came back as an error.
  If you can post a corrected e-mail address it would be most appreciated.
thanks for all your efforts-BOB V

From Les Burkhardt

This morning, I opened my email and found the message from Bob Vernum and one from Tony Cucurullo which I will put into Italics and Post.  

For Bob,

the correct address for Stan Mitchell is:

From Romeo Quaranta

From Les Burkhardt

Have y'all had as much trouble in dealing with the Medical Insurance as I have.  What has happened to the ability we had to pick up a phone, dial like Pat Kinney's number and have an answer within a day's time, Generally less than a day.  I find I am dealing with 3 different Groups: Highmark, United Health Care and Human Resources (Inhumane is more like it)  They make statements that cannot be backed up and other misleading statements.  I had asked Human Resources for some personal information via the phone and the person said it could not be sent to me because of a phone request; but if I would send a letter or an email I could get the information.  I seem to read in the persons (probably a $5.00 per hour clerk)  response some type of security??  OK, But think about what they are asking and I cannot see any difference in the three types of  request as far as some type of security being  involved.  Or, is this just another dig at we retirees.  How many times have you been told that "the system is down"?  I can bet you a dollar to a donut that is just one of the stock answers the phone answerers are told to give.  Another is "Not to Worry" just go to the medical service and have them call this number and we will have everything straight by then!  Right! When they say "Not to Worry", START worrying.

I realize that the company has been purchased several times, but I also feel that the commitment of the original CBS should be recognized.  Do the present owners (Viacom I think) know that they probably would not exist if it were not for we retirees who helped create the CBS Television Division.  If my memory serves me correctly, Viacom was a spinnoff of CBS stock holdings.  Why do foreign companies and countries honor their elders while in the United States they just hope the elders will go away.

It would be interesting to hear others tales of woe with the various areas of retirement.  I'm sure I am not the only one who has been faced with these problems

From Cal Marotta

To: Tedpz

Ted I tried to send this to Les but I have the wrong address. Could you pass it on and give me his correct address?

Thanks,  Cal

I recently was examined and was told that I needed a hearing aid.  Before buying it I checked with the insurance company.  I was told we were insured and to go ahead and get it.  I did.  After sending my paper work in and waiting one month, I called and was told that they didn't understand why I didn't receive the money.  I had to re-submit my claim.  After waiting another month, I was told the same story and had to submit my claim again.  I did this two more times and then, stupid me, realized I was being "stonewalled". So I wrote a letter to:
STATE OF NEW YORK
INSURANCE DEPARTMENT
Agency Building One
Albany, NY 12257

The consumer service bureau # is 800-342-3736

I received a letter back stating that they would investigate. Two days later I received a check from the insurance co. for the full amount that was due to me with no explanation as to what it was for....end of story!!!

Cal

From Les

re: the first paragraph.  If you are having difficulty with my address in your address book, you can always go to the site's home page and click where it has webmaster and it should set up your email to my address.

re: failure to pay your claim in an expeditious manner (stonewalling).  I feel this is a problem that is getting to epidemic proportions.  The major employers are using filing services who really don't give a squat. They have no areas of gray in their operating procedure, and will give you any excuse just to get you off the phone.  Again they shade the truth, and have no loyalty to any organization.

From Bill Murtough

Recently the question came up about unionization in broadcasting.  I think that the answer was that CBS technical operations became unionized with the advent of television. Actually it started in 1937.

I was originally hired as an engineer at WHN in the fall of 1936 at age 20.  At that time, as I recall there was no unionization in the broadcast industry.  In the spring of 1937, due to a lay off, I got my FCC first class license and returned to Ohio and my job running the sound system at an amusement park (now Sea World).  Also I had a free lance job doing name dance band remotes from the Great Lakes Exposition.

Both jobs dried up on Labor Day so it was back to New York and WHN. By that time WHN engineering had signed up with American Communications Association (ACA). Five day, forty hour week, had become the norm. The ACA business manager was Harold Katan.  ACA was a shipboard radio operators union and was noted for having Communist ties. As I recall, Harold had been an engineer at KYW in Philadelphia.

William Paley, who was well known throughout his life for taking good care of his employees, had selected IBEW as a good union for his engineers. He transferred two engineers to each of his owned and operated stations to pave the way.

NBC formed it's own union, NABET. When the Blue network was sold to E. J. Noble ("Lifesavers"} NABET was still their union.

The last time I saw Harold Katan was at a CBS luncheon not long before he died. We sat together and he talked about his "unpopular" political connection in the early days.

It always amused me when management people "bashed" the union in later days, not knowing that it was Mr. Paley who put his engineers into it.  When my boss at KNX would start spouting off, I would ask him if he didn't like his job. He would immediately "clam up". He was originally a New York master control engineer in the old days. Broadcast life could be amusing if one had a sense of humor!

Bill Murtough