Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1455123
18 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Spring 2022 Ric Rambles In my initial article, "Ric Rambles and Reflects," a few months ago, I belabored the story of my start in television at KTLA clos- ing with the possibility that I might be working on their Rose Parade broadcast for the fortieth time. Wow! What a cliffhanger. Well, I did it. Forty. More than half the parades televised by that historic seventy-five-year-old station. Not a record, but pretty good. In 1982, when I did my first, it was in mono and SD (Standard Definition). Actually, it was OD (Only Definition). Soon, the show was broadcast in stereo, and eventually in high defintion. My first parade was the initial one hosted by the iconic pair, Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards. Thirty-five years later, when Bob and Stephanie retired, Mark Steines and Leeza Gibbons stepped in and have done a terrific job ever since. As you can imagine, many things have changed over that amount of time, of course, there have been some constants. The parade still goes from left to right and the food at the Elks Club in Pasadena is … well, let's just say that the New Year's breakfast of powdered eggs and filet of Adidas is legendary. There are a couple of certainties about my career. One: It is com- ing to an end, "on the back nine" as my fellow '52 baby, Dennis Mays, reminds me, and Two: I've been very fortunate. David Velte, the iconic, hilarious, unique, beloved mixer, would have reminded me that we knew each other long before I changed my name (from Lucky Bastard). Believe me, I'm grateful for all I have seen and done, and the longevity has given me the gift of working with many wonderful people. The friends and mentors who are no longer with us are missed, but we continue to appre- ciate them with stories and memories. I was a little late getting started in television, nearly thirty years old when I began that run of consecutive parades. Over the years, I've worked on more than twenty Oscars, Emmys, Grammys, Jerry Lewis Telethons, Kennedy Center Honors, and the Dick Clark alphabet soup of ACMs and AMAs. Gotta love live television. My main excuse for the gaudy numbers is that I believe produc- tion departments often look at the previous crew list and go with that. Hey, it worked last year. Annual events such as award shows lend themselves to longevity in entertainment television. Over the years, many things have changed. WTTW, in Chicago, a leader in simulcasting (a stereo broadcast carried on an FM radio station that was in sync with the picture on the air), began transmitting music programs in stereo in 1984. That same year, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, on NBC, began broadcasting in stereo, although at first, that new format was only available in New York City. By the time I began working on award shows, in 1987, all the networks had joined the stereo party, although not all the programs. How many remember "In Stereo (where available)"? Eventually, more audio channels were added, the somewhat problematic 5.1, the more confusing 7.1, by Ric Teller 2022 KTLA Rose Parade A2 crew L-R: Craig Rovello, Greg Ferrara, Ric Teller, Ross Deane. Collectively, these four have worked on more than 120 Rose Parades.