RCA TK-40 / TK-41 Television CameraRCA TK-40 / TK-41 Television Camera NOTE - We have a TK-41 here at themuseum but need all the power supplies and control apparatus -Can you help? Drop us a note a tDavid Breneman In the Pacific northwest relates a TK41 tale.Photo by David BrenemanThe fellow in the railroading costumeis KTNT kid's show host 'Brakeman Bill.' (I was there toseethe show with my Cub Scout troop.) I was going to take apicture of a TK-30 sitting in a corner with all the panelsopen, and he said, 'Don't waste a picture on that! Get thecolor cameras!' I can just imagine what the guys in thebooth did when they saw me standing in front of one takinga flash picture into the lens! Photoby David BrenemanOK, here's the story on the TK-41s.
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KTNT in Tacoma was the firstTV station opened in the Pacific Northwest after the constructionban was lifted. Prior to that, the only TV station north ofSan Francisco and west of Chicago was KING in Seattle. A friendof my parents, Max Bice, who was also an avid ham operator, wasthe station manager. He had friends at RCA, and they let himliterally go through the warehouse and pick out equipment thatwasn't due at its destination for months, and divert it to hisstation. So KTNT came on the air fairly quickly after the banlifted, as the northwest's CBS affiliate.As such, they had a pretty lucrative operation, and jumped intocolor pretty early in the game. But in 1958, BonnevilleBroadcasting's Seattle station, KIRO, got their TV license.As the long-standing CBS radio affiliate in Seattle, they wereable to yank the CBS affiliation from KTNT in nearby Tacoma.As a result, and as sort of a consolation prize, since the CBScoaxial cable to KIRO ran through KTNT's plant, and they got toair those CBS shows KIRO didn't want - usually a handful ofdaytime soaps and game shows.KTNT was left to live by their wits with syndicated shows andold movies, and some local daytime programming, like RomperRoom, the Don St. Thomas Show (a local hour of interviews andnews) and, as pictured, Brakeman Bill.
Like I said, Mr. Biceset up the tour for our Cub Scout troop, where I took thepictures (including the one attached).Later on, when I was in my early teens and showing an interestin broadcasting, I got to spend a few days at the station.Mr. Bice put me in the care of poor Mr. St Thomas, who had toanswer my barrage of questions while doing prep for his show.(By this time, the TK-41s had been replaced with TK-44s, andthe older cameras had been donated to the local voc schoolwhich broadcast many of the 'in classroom' educational showsin the days before PBS.) I'm sure Mr. Thomas was thrilledwhen, after his show, I showed an interest in the work of thefilm editors, and he left me in their care for a few hours.A lot of what they did was to screen 16mm prints of showslike 'The Beverly Hillbillies' and 'Dick Van Dyke' onMovieolas,and splice in commercials off the call sheets in the appropriatelocations.
The commercials were stored on 50' reels in hugefiling cabinets. After a commercial's run was over, it wasdumped. I was lucky enough to be there on culling day, so I camehome with about 4000' of commercials in two big boxes, and areal prize - in IB Technicolor print of the 'Laramie' NBCPeacock which they'd had to cut out of a program they boughtfrom NBC.Anyway, fast forward a few years.
I'm now about 18. KTNT wasbeing sold by its owner, the Tacoma News Tribune, due to an FCCruling that the same organization couldn't control radio andTV stations, and a newspaper, in the same city. I wrote for,and got, one of their station ID slides which I still have (thecall sign changed to KTVW with the new owners). I also askedabout a TK-30 which I'd seen a few years before sitting undera table in the lunch room. It was still there, I was told, butunfortunately is was on the inventory, so it had to stay. (Thenew owners later told me they wanted to keep it, 'Maybe forshooting titles or something.'
) However, did I know that theold TK-41s were being surplussed by the Voc school becausethey'd received a huge government grant to become a publicbroadcasting powerhouse and were putting in all new plant andequipment? (This empire-building venture lasted 1-1/2 years;they're now the local Fox affiliate.)So, I high-tailed it down to KCPQ, the public station, where Italked to their chief engineer. Did I know that only on ofthe cameras worked? Fine, I'll have one for parts. Did I knowthat each camera needed a rack full of equipment? Yes, I wantthat, too. So he said he'd talk to the board ofhonchos who make such decisions, and get back to me.
Two weekslater, he called me. 'I'm sorry,' he said, 'But since we'reapublic station, they didn't want to give the equipment to aprivate party. I had to call around to every other 'charitycase' broadcaster in three states to see if any of them wantedthe equipment. They all said no, but they still won't let megive you the camera. I'm really sorry.'
Here's the tragedy:Less than a year later, I ran into an acquaintance who wastaking the 3rd class radiophone course at the Voc school. Iasked him if he knew what had happened to those TK-41s.
They gave the good one to the first year students toplay around with, and some idiot wired the power supply wrong,and blew out every cap in the camera! It caught fire!' Theyended up stripping them both down, and gave the optics anddichroic filters to the photo lab, and junked the rest.This was about 1977 or 78. I really appreciate the attemptthat the station manager made to save them by giving them tome, but in the end, bureaucracy and the 'public broadcastingmindset' destroyed them. I encountered the same thing when Itried to rescue an Ampex VR-1000 from the public station inSeattle at about the same time. They'd rather scrap it thangive it to me because a was 'A private entity' and not partof their Muppet clique. I'm sure it ended up on the scrapheap, too.Everyday we rescue items yousee on these pages!What do you have hiding in a closet or garage?What could you add to the museum displays or the library?PLEASE CONTACT US!DONATE!
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