SCETV Remotes
Over the years SCETV operated a number of “Remote Trucks.” The biggest were large box trucks that required a commercial driver’s license to drive. They also required someone from the Studio Engineering Department to oversee the broadcast operations that used these trucks. Several of these remote broadcasts bring back special memories.
I was the Engineer In Charge (EIC) of several remotes for the March of Dimes Telethons in Charleston when the ABC affiliate there, WCIV-TV rented the SCETV remote truck for the production from The Gaillard Center. I didn’t have the required driver’s license but Johnny Gunther from our floor crew did. He would drive the truck and I’d follow in one of SCETV’s utility van. The truck was equipped with a two way radio and I had a hand held portable with me in the van.
While driving down I-26 we talked back and forth on the radio. I noticed a car rapidly approaching and radioed to Johnny to look out for the speeder who must be doing 85 MPH or better. Just when I keyed the microphone on the two-way, the speeder slammed on brakes and fell in behind me. I asked Johnny if he saw that and he said yes and that it was strange. After a couple of miles the speeder decided to make another run. As he passed me I transmitted to Johnny that he was coming again. By this time the speeder was in the lane besides me and I noticed that he had a radar detector on his dash and that the red light on the face of the device was on, and that when I released the microphone switch, it went off. I told Johnny that the guy had a radar detector and that I thought it was being triggered by our two-way transmissions. To make a long story short, we trolled that speeder all the way from I-95 to Summerville.
The hosts for the Charleston March of Dimes Telethons were the Hollywood power couple; former Miss America 1959 Mary Ann Mobley and her husband, TV Host Gary Collins who were a joy to work with. Gary had recently played an American astronaut involved in a UFO cover-up in the 1980 film Hangar 18. We had some fun talking about that movie. The thing that struck me the most was that after the first year, every time they came back, both Mary Ann and Gary remembered the names of everyone on the crew. They never arrived or left without a firm handshake from Gary and a hug from Mary Ann! Wow, I hugged a former Miss America.
But the story gets better. The third year I was there, Mary Ann was suffering from a flare up of her chronic Crohn’s Disease and was unable to make the trip. Before the show, Gary came to me and asked if we had a phone patch available. We did not, and now that the statute of limitations has passed, I can tell you that I knew a way of jury-rigging a phone to get it on the air. So I ran an extension of the phone in the truck to the stage for Gary and wired the phone to an input to the audio board. Gary took out one of his business cards and wrote the number of Mary Ann’s private bedside phone on it and told me not to give the number to anyone else. Once the show began, I called Mary Ann in Los Angeles and before I could explain, she said I’ve been waiting for your call, Rick. She remembered! Wow!
I signaled the director that we were ready and Mary Ann was able to greet the audience in the theater and over the TV and tell them that she wished she was there. I think I kept Gary’s card with Mary Ann’s private number in my wallet for the next ten years.
The next year 1984,, the engineering shop, with Gene Simmons taking the lead, built a smaller remote truck in a 26 foot long GMC Motorhome. I think it was a 1978 model, the last year it was produced. That year, I was given the option of working on the new truck for the March of Dimes Marathon in Columbia while someone else in the shop made the trip to Charleston. The GMC did not require a commercial driver’s license so I drove the unit to the new Columbia Mall for the Columbia ABC affiliate, WOLO-TV. I fully expected to park the truck outside and pull the camera cables to Center Court, but when I arrived, the mall had opened up the special extensions of the entrance closest to Center Court and I was invited to drive the GMC into the mall itself. At 26 feet long, I had to drive very slowly and carefully with many turns and backups to get safely past the columns, escalators and storefronts to park behind the curtains that were set up on one side of Center Court. Easy Peasey and I could sleep at home instead of a motel room that weekend.
One last set of SCETV remotes that I had the pleasure of working were the Governor’s Carolighting Ceremonies on the Sunday after Thanksgiving that I had previously worked for WIS-TV and Radio, the latter taking a Marti audio feed from the SCETV truck. Now, for a couple of years, I was the EIC of the truck providing the feed to WIS-TV and Radio. We rented a satellite truck and bounced the signal back to SCETV through one of the geostationary satellites over the equator. The signal to WIS-TV was via a feed to the microwave transmitter on one of their news trucks, the feed to Radio was via the same Marti that I used when I was on the other side of the signal. I appreciated the symmetry of all that.
I was born in a great Radio Town; Jacksonville Florida. So it was only natural that I joined WUSC (AM at the time) in my first semester 1963. I went on to a career in commercial radio and television in Columbia, WCOS AM & FM, WIS-TV, WIS Radio, SCETV and PBS. I'm retired now, giving back since 2010 to the station that started my career, WUSC-FM. If you did the math you will know that I celebrated the 60th anniversary of my first radio show ever in November 2023.