i came across this article i wrote for a fanzine in 1985 called EAGLE HILL SENTINAL. the articles about my days at working at a tv station that was showing syndicated reruns of DARK SHADOWS. i started working there in october of 1981. WOW THAT WAS 25 YEARS AGO! DAVID NAHMOD suggested i share this story with you all. i will delete some information that has been posted here a thousand times like the explanation of kinescopes. here goes.......
In october of 1981 i was pleased to be hired as a videotape operator at W.W.A.C. TV 53 in atlantic city, new jersey. atlantic city had never before had its own tv station. so i took a gamble(lol),left a similiar job i had at a tv station in scranton, pa and headed for the casino city. just before i started my new job, i read in the newspaper that the station had been on the air since july of 1981 and has been showing one of my favorite programs, DARK SHADOWS every weekday from 5-6pm, two episodes a day. needless to say i was very anxious to start!
October 13th,1981: i reported to work. i met the master control operator and quickly discovered that he too was a DS fan. before i knew it 5pm was coming and one of my 1st tasks was to prepare DS (SYNDICATED) episode #111 and #112 for broadcast. i did so with pleasure! the show ran smoothly but the tapes were worn. worldvision only made one set of tapes and back then the one set of dubs went from station to station when the series was 1st syndicated in the mid 70s and this was the same set of tapes.
November, 1981: the program director announced that DS would have to be cut back to one episode a day. this was done because it was feared that the station was running out of episodes too quickly. worldvision had not yet decided it they would release any more episodes after syndicated episode#260. soon after switching to 1 episode a day, we discovered that by pure coincidence, we were showing the episodes on the exact same month and day that they were originally broadcast in 1967!
April, 1982: i noticed that syndicated episode #260 would soon be shown. i also noticed that the show was becoming very popular with everyone at the station as well with everyone in atlantic city! one day someone observed that several kids, who usually hang out at a nearby 7-11 store, would all disappear at around 5pm. the store manager explained that they all went home to watch DARK SHADOWS!
April 12th,1982: i report to work and saw a brand new tape. it was DS syndicated episode #261. the episode had not been broadcast on any u.s. station since its abc broadcast in 1968! i could not resist treating myself to a preview! the station soon became the first to show more than 260 episodes! the master control operator and i would preview every episode as soon as it would arrive at the station. one night we were puzzled by an 1897 episode that was placed in between the 1968 episodes! we could not figure out why this was done. we thought worldvision did it as a joke because the episode (pansy faye arrives)mentions atlantic city several times! later it was revealed as just a numbering mix up and just another coincidence! tried to tell the station manager that this episode is out of order and maybe it shouldnt be shown but he didnt listen and ordered it to be shown as is. showing it did prove that the show was popular because of the numerous phone calls the station received about the mixed up episode.
June 21st, 1982: the bad news came when the station manager announced that due to financial problems, the station was going "off the air" that night at 7pm! sadly, we broadcast(just one week shy of DS 16th birthday)syndicated episode #303(vicki tries to tell sam her dream)and soon after, tv53 was history!
i went back to pa and later moved to los angeles. thought i would never see the show again but i was so wrong, the show never died. it was shown for 3yrs on new jersey network and a local station in orange county showed it and of course sci-fi and then vhs and now dvd. hope you enjoyed this old article.
