Some Betacam tapes, if played on a Digital Betacam with a Firewire connection that is exposed to a computer application capable of digitization could have the potential to be posted online (like Bill O’Reilly’s tirade closing out an early 1990s Inside Edition that was one of the first viral YouTube videos way back? :)) I love when this happens!
I call these “Insider Clips” typically video that’s shot with the newsroom gear that is shown for the staff, often for people who depart and years go by and it becomes public. I’ve seen this in other stations and on YouTube. While this was shot I was just a year old , inside jokes and jabs are easy to interpret and understand, because most newsrooms have the same challenges and advantages, and workloads.
Anyways, that intro aside, a producer for WGBH’s Ten O’ Clock News was leaving to another career opportunity, so the production team did a 13 minute tape. The production is low-fi in quality – even for 1988 standards, because they didn’t have much graphics outside the Chyron – if there was a Paintbox, it might’ve been for their national shows instead. In one example you see it start with very cheesy WGBH ID (the ones you normally see on the start of a PBS show) without “Boston Presents” it has “HELP” instead. Another soundbite chopped in was signature sounder for the funding spots for Nova at the time (in the frame where you see the tornado.) You can tell they were slapping a lot of things quickly, because the rest of the clips are the goodbyes from 3 1/2 minutes in. The sarcasm of David Boreri at that point in was hilarious.
Once upon a time when WGBH was based at 125 Western Avenue in the Allston neighborhood of Boston, the building was really interesting. I did get an opportunity to volunteer there in their last year at the location. I never got a chance to see the front of the building and the infamous WGBH neon logo lit up at the front door. I don’t think this moved to Brighton, and sadly the logo had changed last year.
I did go across the footbridge for the event I volunteered and again the building hadn’t changed much by 2006, but I do know a WGBH logo in blue color was placed on the front sides of the footbridge if you were passing by on Western Avenue by car. The size was similar to the one the sides of the building right before the front door.