News
of The Order of the Iron Test Pattern
2001
Iron Test Pattern Meeting in Las Vegas
Assembling again in
Las Vegas, the Order of The Iron Test Pattern will honor "technical
survivors" in the television industry. Details of the party,
to be held Tuesday night, April 24th in the Itelco-USA booth after
the NAB exhibits close, can be found by clicking the NAB EXHIBITS
tab of the home page. Be sure to read the details, RSVP as requested,
and get your late pass for admission to the hall.
1999
Survivors of the Year Awards
Las Vegas, Nevada---
April 11, 2000 ----The Order of the Iron Test Pattern, an organization
formed to recognize �technical survivors� in the television industry,
announced winners for 1999 in an awards ceremony this evening in
the Itelco booth at NAB 2000.
�It is important to
note that the Order of the Iron Test Pattern honors tenacity, not
technical advancement,� stated Howard McClure, Chairman of The Order
of the Iron Test Pattern. �Admittedly, in some cases � like keeping
a VTR running for a million hours � tenacity and technical achievement
sort of go hand in hand. But our focus is really on endurance and
longevity.�
Members of this august
body consist of veterans who have toiled in any technical capacity
in the television industry for at least 15 years. At 15 years the
�Officer� rank is achieved; candidates with 25 years of service
become "Commanders" with all rights and privileges of
the office (virtually none); at 32 years, Commanders become eligible
for promotion to "Brigadier." The next, still to be titled
rank, will be added at 64 and 128 years in the industry.
For being the oldest
engineer (85) still earning a living in the television industry
and having done so for the longest time (55 years), Brigadier John
H. Battison, PE was presented the Crusty Engineer Award.
Starting in experimental television with KMBC (1945) and development
work with Dr. Peter Goldmark, John has worn most of the engineer
hats in the industry. After several years with ABC, he built the
first TV station in Calgary Canada; purchased KAVE AM in Carlsbad
NM and built KAVE TV 6; went to UK as director of engineering, Associated
REdiffusion, first UK commercial station; returned to US to found
the Society of Broadcast Engineers; retired as director of Engineering,
Ohio State University TV and radio stations. John continues his
career as a consulting engineer based in Ohio.
The Iron Desk Award
went to Brigadier Joseph Barath for keeping the same position as
television engineer for the Johnson Space Center Television Systems
for over 34 years while being employed successively by 5 different
organizations. Every time NASA changed prime contractors for management
of systems which included television, Joe and his desk were hired
by the new contractor. He is still working in the same job ----proving
that survival has become an art form.
When Dr. Byron St. Clair
earned his PHD in Physics he must have calculated how many gigawatts
of power one would need to blanket the world with the maximum number
of television signals carrying the maximum number of commercials.
He must have concluded that low power transmitters make the most
sense and after 43 years of a colorful career in low power television,
he survives ---- grinning. The Rusty Doc Award went to Brigadier
Byron St. Clair!
For collecting 70 ancient,
broadcast television cameras, repairing, operating and storing them
in his personal museum, Brigadier Chuck Pharis received the Rust
Collector Award. Although it may appear that his secret to surviving 33 years
in the television industry may be his hobby, Chuck has led a �serene�
life as a Senior Video Engineer with ABC TV Network in Hollywood.
He has worked on every type of show and spent many years with Wide
World of Sports. He currently works on a Soap Opera called Port
Charles and was involved with Monday night Football as Senior Video
Engineer on the Panasonic 720P HDTV Truck. No pressure. That�s what
does it.
Created just prior to
the 1979 NAB convention the Order of the Iron Test Pattern has filled
a real need for television�s technical slaves --- recognition for
their contributions.
The first annual meeting
during NAB 1980 honored the longest suffers of the lot and started
a tradition that was scheduled to last 5 years, or forever, whichever
came first. For some reason, this is the 20th anniversary
of the first NAB meeting and it is presently sponsored by Itelco-USA,
Inc.
Historical
Awards and Records
Note: All affiliations
shown below were true at the time the awards were presented. We
haven't the slightest idea of where most of winners are today, but
would certainly like to find out!
Survival Award
1980: Bill Kelley was with WNEW-TV, New York for 33 years
and held the record for the longest time with a single TV station.
Survival Award
1980: Adron Miller was with RCA Burbank for 33 years and
held the record for the longest time with a single television industry
manufacturer.
Oldest Working
Engineer 1981: Bill McCord, Ohio Educational Broadcasting
Network Commission, won a 3 foot high hour glass for being the oldest
engineer at the party who was still working full time. He was 66
then.
Iron Frog Award
1981: John Boor of EON, Seattle, got the award for job
hopping. He had been with 90 stations, 77 of which went on the air
(many outside the US) under his direction. Most were in the Armed
Forces Network, so he really didn't have that many different paycheck
writers. He won , but in today's world it'll be the number of employers
that counts.
Iron Bailing
Wire Trophy 1981: Given to OptiMedia Systems of Clifton,
N.J. for the oldest piece of equipment still in use. Their entry
was a Foto-Video Laboratories vacuum tube waveform monitor. It was
purchased in 1957 from an advertising agency so they didn't really
know its true age. It was serial number 111 if anyone can supply
more accurate information.
Iron Tower Award
(Senior Division) 1982: E. Dennis White, retired at the
time, from KYTV, Springfield MO, had climbed a 290 footer when he
was 72 years of age. His old team-mates at the station paid his
way to Dallas to receive this award. We multiplied the height of
the tower times his age squared so the existing record for the senior
division is 914.9 K foot years squared.
Iron Tower Award
(Jr. Division) 1982: Jack A. Olson, WWUP-TV, Cadillac,
MI, when age 46 climbed an 1126 foot tower for a record of 1.23
Mega-foot years squared. We considered changing the rules to allow
for cubing the age ( to make certain that Dennis won) but decided
against it. This is the reason for two different awards. Age 55
is the cut-over date in case you can challenge either division..
Iron Heart Award
1982: Charlie Wilson, KDFW-TV, Dallas won it for suffering
the most embarrassing physical damage in the line of duty. Broken
bones or being killed did not count unless everyone laughed while
it happened. He was knocked end-over-end by Drew Pearson during
a Dallas Cowboy game. Charlie was working the parabolic mike on
the sidelines and didn't see the play coming.
Iron Lady Award
1983: Barbara McKenna Ramaley, KOMO-TV, Seattle. Barbara
won the award for being the lady engineer with the longest time
in the industry. She started in television in 1953, but had been
chief engineer in radio before that. Her first-class radio telephone
license is dated 1946.
Iron Center
Conductor Award 1983: This award was given to Caywood Cooley,
consultant, for his time in the CATV industry. Caywood was the first
field engineer sent to the first Jerrold CATV system in Lansford,
PA. They used individual channel, apartment house amplifiers mounted
on telephone poles to re-amplify the signals on their way into town.
Iron Vidicon
Award 1983: F. Dan Meadows, Sierra Scientific, Mountain
View, CA was given this award for being the longest user of the
Vidicon tube in the closed circuit television industry.
Iron Fist Award
1983: This went to Isaac S. Blonder, Chairman of the Board,
Blonder Tongue Labs, Old Bridge, NJ for being the rustiest executive
officer in the industry having helmed BT since 1950.
Iron Wombat
Award and the Iron Kangaroo Award 1983: These were given
to engineers in the Australian chapter of the Order. I am still
not sure what a Wombat might be, but it was given to the person
who was farthest from his job. The Iron Kangaroo was for the engineer
who was the best job hopper. It was quite a party in the 729 Club
(television) in Sidney where your Marshal was feted with enough
Australian beer to make it difficult to remember one's own name.
If any of you 125 members in Australia can remember their names,
please send them to me for the official record book.
Gold Plated
Commander's Awards 1982: Pete Wood, past president of the
Society of Television Engineers, accepted this award for 50 years
in the industry for Harry Lubke, who started with Philo T. Farnsworth
in 1929. That's a Pioneer!
Another award was given
to Loyd Sigmon who started with the Boston Short Wave and Television
Laboratories in 1932. He served as Executive V.P., Golden West Broadcasters,
and in spite of his technical contribution is most remembered for
his "SigAlerts," since Los Angeles traffic jams are named
for his radio advisory innovation.
In 1986 Ed Dervishian
was also made a Gold Plated Commander just before
he retired from Motorola Communication and Electronics. He celebrated
his 70th birthday that same year and totaled 51 years of active
employment (started with scanning discs in 1935). He was Dr. Lee
de Forest's personal assistant and de Forest's patent #2,452,203
was Ed's construction project with him.
And the award of awards,
Albert Leon's Print Communicator award was presented
in April 1988 at our ninth annual meeting during NAB. This unique
statue of Sisyphus rolling a rock to the top of the hill, only to
have it roll down again so that he could role it back up for eternity
was a suitable award for the print media who support our industry.
Al actually won the award in 1987, but had to wait until 1988 to
collect it because he went so far as to have a heart transplant
in order to stay in the industry. He just celebrated the 10th anniversary
of his new heart, has been appointed to the esteemed rank of Sage
and serves as a member of the Order of The Iron Test Pattern's Council
of Sages. We'll take nominations for this award, but how do you
top a heart transplant?
The Rusty
VTR Award 1997: Jim Therrell and the video engineers at
the National Geographic Society for keeping video tape players alive
and operating for over one million hours.
Special Survivor
Award 1997: Ike Blonder and Ben Tongue for 100 years
of service in Television (50 years each).
Iron Anchor
Award 1997: After his over 50 years of survival
in television, John Klindworth sailed his 104 foot yacht,
the SeaQuell around the world.
Ironmaster Award
1997: An award for the most "Firsts" in Television
was presented to Paul Yacich, for claiming more "Firsts"
than any other engineer in the industry.
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