Regular news studio set designs on a local basis inspired by Dave Garroway

The Chicago School of Television is a creative television philosophy being rooted in its namesake; its purpose is to counter New York's theatrical/radio grandeur and Hollywood's cinematic glamour.

Such noted techniques involving television's Chicago School include walking personalities, addresses directly to viewers, fluid/moving camerawork and studio sets as three-dimensional/3D canvases.

When regular commercial television operations began in New York, many programs have incorporated theatrical proscenium or radio layouts, separating the stage from the audience area.

In other words, the early studio set designs used by many programs coming from the New York-centric television scene were like a cardboard box, but also two-dimensional/2D canvases.

Besides, New York-centric television also used fixed/static shots, together with loud talkers.

During the early post-war era, some television programs came from Chicago, where Dave Garroway served as a radio disc jockey on WMAQ-AM.

Using a microphone to convey his laid-back delivery, radio was Dave Garroway's early passion.

Snapping fingers circumvents applause for Dave Garroway's early radio programs on WMAQ-AM.

For his eponymous Garroway at Large program, Dave Garroway broke television's old traditions for a more casual approach, in which the reality of the studio was acknowledged.

Using one camera, Dave Garroway walked around large studios and simple abstract sets as he directly talked to guests and television viewers for his eponymous Garroway at Large program.

April 1949 is when Dave Garroway's Garroway at Large program started its run as a local program on WNBQ, before airing on a national basis on NBC, starting in June 1949.

Just over 2 years after NBC started Dave Garroway's eponymous Garroway at Large program, its rival CBS responded by launching See It Now with Edward R. Murrow in November.

Hear It Now, which served as a former weekly radio adaptation of the I Can Hear It Now spoken-word album series, is, in turn, the basis for Edward R. Murrow's See It Now (CBS).

The CBS Television control room at Studio 41 in Grand Central Terminal houses Edward R. Murrow's innovative and groundbreaking See It Now television program.

Dave Garroway's Garroway at Large (NBC) used moving cameras and unpainted studio walls, whereas Edward R. Murrow's See It Now (CBS) featured a control room with monitors.

Both Dave Garroway's Garroway at Large (NBC) and Edward R. Murrow's See It Now (CBS) rejected cardboard box-like sets and exposed real technical television production.

NBC also pioneered a new formula of television: early-morning television, which is being offered via Today (NBC), initially coming from the RCA Exhibition Hall.

Situated in the Rockefeller Centre complex, the RCA Exhibition Hall is based directly across from the iconic and famous headquarters of the Associated Press at 50 Rockefeller Plaza.

Contrasting to the iconic headquarters of the Associated Press, which represented print journalism, the RCA Exhibition Hall represented electronic media's fluid and transparent future.

Inside the RCA Exhibition Hall, parts of which were converted into the first Today (NBC) studio, was a newsroom/bullpen being adapted from the Associated Press at 50 Rockefeller Plaza.

Juxtaposing print journalism's industrial past, via the AP at 50 Rock, with electronic media's transparent future, via the RCA Exhibition Hall, the Today (NBC) bullpen was a television innovation.

Next to the Today (NBC) bullpen at the RCA Exhibition Hall was a desk, based behind a backdrop with clocks and television monitors.

Besides, Today (NBC) featured pedestrians on the street looking through the glass windows of the RCA Exhibition Hall to watch this program.

Plus, teletypes that came from the Associated Press (AP), United Press (UP) and the International News Service (INS) were used inside the Today (NBC) newsroom/bullpen at the RCA Exhibition Hall.

The on-screen ticker being adapted from the wire services in the Today (NBC) newsroom/bullpen at the RCA Exhibition Hall, featuring a clock display being adapted from clocks, was used.

Due to technical difficulties and having lacked viewer traction, this on-screen ticker being adapted from wire feeds for Today (NBC) was dropped after just a few months.

Undoing the past, Today (NBC) under Dave Garroway births modern broadcast design elements.

Some of the innovations surrounding the RCA Exhibition Hall for Today (NBC) under Dave Garroway include a newsroom/bullpen, a street-side studio, a news ticker and a clock display.

This borderless room, located at the RCA Exhibition Hall for Today (NBC) under Dave Garroway, was made in-house by NBC's engineering units and RCA's corporate exhibition teams.

With the RCA Exhibition Hall as its first base, Today (NBC) doubled down on the Chicago Style being honed at Dave Garroway's eponymous Garroway at Large program.

Likewise, with Dave Garroway at the helm for Today (NBC), the RCA Exhibition Hall bridged the gap between the Chicago Style, the AP newsroom/bullpen and the See It Now control room.

For Today (NBC), under Dave Garroway, the RCA Exhibition Hall mixed Chicago's creativity with the industrial newsroom/bullpen (AP) and the technical network news nerve centre (CBS).

The early-1950's US presidential election, the second one being held during the Cold War period, was likewise the first to offer television coverage on a massive and multi-faceted level.

For the early-1950's US presidential election, the newly-completed microwave/coaxial system via the American Telephone & Telegraph Company solved the issues of the past televised ones.

Chicago, in which Dave Garroway pioneered a casual television style being brought to New York, also hosted the political conventions in the early-1950's at the International Amphitheatre.

For the Republican National Convention in this early-1950's era, it was the first to be presented live on television on a national level.

Whereas past conventions, including the 1948 gatherings, were simply being televised all over the East Coast, Chicago's political conventions in the early-1950's were televised nationwide.

Using the air conditioning process being installed at the International Amphitheatre, Chicago's political conventions, held in the early-1950's, were the first to do so.

Just before Chicago's major political conventions in the early-1950's era, summer political conventions notoriously suffered heat in venues without A/C, making citizens sweaty.

However, the addition of the A/C process and the American Telephone & Telegraph Company's coaxial television uplink for Chicago's early-1950's political conventions helped modernize these rituals.

For these early-1950's political rituals, held at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, the major US television networks erected makeshift broadcast booths inside the convention halls.

The television service with the most notice to cover Chicago's political conventions in this early-1950's period was CBS, which brought Walter Cronkite to national prominence.

Echoing Dave Garroway taking Chicago's techniques with him to New York for Today (NBC) upon its launch in the early-1950's, the Chicago political conventions led to the New York election nights.

Similar to the newsroom/bullpen being adapted from the print field by Today (NBC) for television, the major US television networks used this print-style trend for their early-1950's elections.

For Walter Cronkite, he put this newsroom/bullpen, adapted from his former United Press service, on television's political map, but also on the map of the windowless TV studio structure, via CBS.

Plus, this nationally-televised coverage of the early-1950's US presidential election was the first to be driven by computers.

One of the computers being utilized for this nationally-televised early-1950's US presidential election coverage was the UNIVAC I from Remington Rand.

Standing for the Universal Automatic Computer I, the UNIVAC I was innovative in that it was the first American-made general-purpose commercial electronic digital computer.

Magnetic tape was for mass storage and mercury delay lines for memory, both for the UNIVAC I.

With the real UNIVAC 1 iteration being deemed too heavy to carry from Philadelphia to New York, its mock-up prop was installed at CBS' unified Studios 41/42 in New York's Grand Central Terminal.

For this mock-up UNIVAC I prop, it featured blinking Christmas tree lights to create a futuristic visual effect for CBS' nationally-televised early-1950's US presidential election coverage.

NBC adapted the newsroom/bullpen from the print scene for television under Dave Garroway.

CBS adapted this newsroom/bullpen element from NBC as a studio set feature being placed in a usual structure without street-side windows for TV journalism under Walter Cronkite.

In the early-1950's, CBS Television innovated the newsroom/bullpen trend for televised election night coverage, in the mid-1960's with an evening news twist, and in March 1973 with a local twist.

For Search/Probe (1972-1973), the Probe Control Centre is a fictional room based on NASA's Mission Control Centre.

What describes the Probe Control Centre for Search/Probe (1972-1973) is the fact that it uses a similar monitor matrix to the real-life NASA Mission Control Centre.

Designing the Probe Control Centre for Search/Probe (1972-1973) is Fred Harpman.

The Probe Control Centre, which Fred Harpman had created for Search/Probe (1972-1973), is a direct inspiration for his television design for its network NBC called the NewsCentre.

Also inspiring Fred Harpman's NewsCentre studio design, in addition to Search/Probe (1972-1973), are Fantastic Voyage and Star Trek, both of which premiered in 1966.

Using architectural geometry, angled desks and glass partitions, Fred Harpman's NewsCentre set design endures a contrast with traditional 2D cardboard box-like ones.

Besides, the NewsCentre design by Fred Harpman features NASA-like banks of active video feeds/data monitors.

In addition, mezzanine/stairs also add to Fred Harpman's NewsCentre design.

Rooted in Hollywood's science fiction genre, Fred Harpman's high-tech and cinematic NewsCentre set design was made to have a working newsroom feel.

Plus, Fred Harpman's high-tech and cinematic NewsCentre studio design mirrored the boundless room inside the RCA Exhibition Hall for Today (NBC) under Dave Garroway.

Fred Harpman's NewsCentre is also based on Edward R. Murrow's See It Now (CBS) control room.

December 12, 1973 is when WNBC-TV announced that its own movie block called Movie 4 would be cancelled on April 26, 1974 as part of its plans for a 2-hour newscast called NewsCentre 4.

April 29, 1974 is when NewsCentre 4 on WNBC-TV made its debut.

So successful was the NewsCentre philosophy, in branding, visuals and design, which WNBC-TV had originated, that NBC's other owned-and-operated television stations began using this one.

NBC commissioned modular clones of its NewsCentre design by Fred Harpman.

Ever since the NewsCentre studio set design that Fred Harpman had created for NBC, which began on April 29, 1974, television news studio set designs have been split into 2 camps.

One camp for television news studio designs has tradtional cardboard box-like designs.

For CBS, besides these box-like designs, this traditional television news design camp also features the print-style newsroom/bullpen for television.

Incidentally, this CBS newsroom/bullpen being used for television mirrored the borderless room being based inside the RCA Exhibition Hall for Today (NBC) under Dave Garroway.

As for NBC, its NewsCentre camp has a more modern, futuristic, cinematic and dynamic style than the cardboard box-like ones and the print-style CBS television newsroom/bullpen.

Just before the News Hour, BCTV had not fared well since its 1960 inception.

Instead, television viewers in British Columbia got to watch the early-evening newscasts south of the world's longest unguarded border, especially the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.

KIRO-TV, KTNT (now KSTW) and KVOS-TV, all of which were CBS stations serving Seattle and the Puget Sound, aired the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.

Concentrating on KIRO-TV, it carried the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite in its entirety from September 1962 until March 6, 1981.

Briefly, KTNT shared the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite with KIRO-TV from April 1962 to September 1962.

As for KVOS-TV, it partly aired the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite until around 1980. 

During its first 5 years, from mid-November 1948 until early-March 1953, KING-TV had a television monopoly in the Pacific Northwest.

KING-TV, the first television station in the Pacific Northwest upon its November 1948 inception, was named after the radio station, in turn, the basis for its owner King Broadcasting Company.

See It Now with Edward R. Murrow was seen on CBS over KING-TV; this was a fitting manner, since Edward R. Murrow graduated from Washington State University in 1930.

In the late-1960's era, under the efforts of both Ray Peters and Cameron Bell, BCTV decided to launch Canada's first ever hour-long newscast called the News Hour.

Just 7 years later, in 1975, BCTV introduced a unique concept in television news studio set design, one that would synthesize 2 camps together.

For BCTV, it had the NBC camp - the print-style newsroom/bullpen being used by Today (NBC) at the RCA Exhibition Hall under Dave Garroway.

One of the noted Today (NBC) viewers was Ray Peters, who led BCTV.

Likewise, BCTV had the CBS camp - Edward R. Murrow's See It Now control room.

Incidentally, Edward R. Murrow's See It Now program is CBS' answer to Dave Garroway's eponymous Garroway at Large program on NBC.

Upon its June 1, 1980 launch, CNN used its BCTV-inspired hybrid newsroom-control room studio set design, which serves as the DNA for 24-hour television news.

BCTV, incidentally, juxtaposed CBS (bullpen, Robert Wussler, Daniel Schorr, Bernard Shaw and Sam Zelman) with NBC (NewsCentre, Mary Alice Williams and Jim Kitchell), all used by CNN.