Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521715
14 PRODUCTION SOUND & VIDEO – Summer 2024 star wrestling live at KHAS TV in Hastings, Nebraska. My adopted grandmother, Nellie Fergus, was a fan and decided the family should go. We cheered and booed the antics of Jack Pesek, Mad Dog Vachon, Haystack Muldoon, and the incomparable Verne Gagne. As I think about it now, in some ways, the tools I brought to the job were beneficial. My musical background was helpful in that I knew how instruments made sound and how to capture it, although I had questions about how to mic uilleann pipes. Golden West College had a recording studio and when I finished classes there, I knew a bit about signal flow, patching a studio, editing audio tape, and operating some of the basic gear. Not ready for primetime, but certainly a reasonable start. Additionally, I could drive a forklift, a skill learned from my days working at an NC+ corn processing plant in Nebraska. There are still places that offer formal education in television, and many online resources have become available. Not long ago, I down- loaded Shure's Wireless Workbench 7, a free software for RF spectrum management, and much more, then watched several tutorials giving me a basic overview of usage. But to Hector's point, my on-the-job education from the amazing and generous engineers at KTLA afforded me a great beginning to this unex- pected career. I will always be grateful to them. In case you didn't know. Casey Weiss, Local 695 Director of Education and Training, manages a wide variety of interesting programs. Check the calendar on our website to see what is available. https://www.local695.com/education-training/ At KTLA, we had complete interchangeability within the engi- neering unit. You could do audio, camera, video, tape, TD, or any of the various engineering jobs to keep the station on the air. A great idea in theory, until one Saturday morning when I was scheduled to be in Master Control. By that time, much of the station was automated, but my shift included a UCLA bas- ketball game scheduled to be received on the Scientific Atlanta dish that was sitting in the parking lot. As was the procedure, I checked the satellite order, in those days it was on paper, moved the dish to the correct position, and dialed up the assigned tran- sponder. A while before the game, bars and an identifier were supposed to appear. It didn't. Thirty minutes out … nothing. Fifteen minutes … still nothing. At that point, I telephoned Hector Highton (those of you who knew him can imagine how much I was looking forward to that conversation). He informed me that the transponder number had been changed and I should have received updated paperwork. We agreed that I should have received the new information. I didn't. He gave me the updated details and I accessed the correct transponder. The proper signal appeared with minutes to spare. Go Bruins. Neither rain, nor sleet, nor hail, nor close lightning strikes, nor really close lightning strikes, could keep us from putting mics on the banjos, dobros, guitars, mandolins, and more banjos at the 50th Telluride Bluegrass Festival. Autographs circa 1961, borrowed from the author's private collection Lightning science: Whenever lightning strikes, it heats the air to nearly fifty thousand degrees. The rapid expan- sion of the heated air produces a sonic boom that we hear as thunder. The explosion blasts apart the oxygen O2 molecules. As the air cools, the oxygen atoms get paired back up, but some groups of three form into ozone which has a very distinct odor, reminiscent of the #19 sandwich at Langer's Deli. Ahhh, the smell of lighting. The Festival job is not a sprint, it's more of a marathon. We presented thirty-two performances in the four show days and although it is a bluegrass festival, quite an interesting variety of musical styles are offered. Each day, the music begins by 10:30 a.m. (although we often rehearse an act or three before that) and ends near midnight. The Festival is a very well-attended music event, not a television show, there are no cameras or production trucks involved. Each performance is a full measure running an hour or more, sometimes quite a lot more. The terrific audio crew gathers from New York, Colorado, Chicago, Baltimore, and Los Angeles, members of Locals 1, 22, 100, and 695. Thanks to Skip Kent for inviting me to be part of this won- derful event multiple times. The covered outdoor stage in Town Park gives performers (and crew) a breathtaking view of the surrounding mountains. Yes, the days are long, but the music is terrific, and the crew is a special group. Like any 50-year-old event, traditions have been established and are honored to the best of our ability. This year, we were treated to Chris Thile, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, The Peter Rowan Band, who decided to add drums just a few minutes before their set began. Microphone digression: Dear music mixers, the music A2's would like you to know that our bottom snare mic of choice for live events is a Sennheiser e604. It attaches well, does not require a mic stand, and once in place, will not move about or flip over. Thank you. Performances from Nickel Creek, Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Punch Brothers, Emmylou Harris, Robert Plant, and Alison Krauss, and many more added to the fun.