Newsday (Nassau Edition) from Hempstead, New York • 109

it a 1 At far left engineer! scotch ns the first signal goes out over the air far WSNL-TV at 8:28 AM At left the first thorn: Cartoon-character Johnny Quest 1 News day Photos by Bob Luckey Joyce Keller of Syossat is shown last week during one of the endless dry runs for her show Trim and SlimJ loon pilot overshot a landing site and cut off the -hotair power But the show true to Ch 67s abU- ity to soar over adversity will go on Unlike the dramatic ups and downs that have enriched the day-to-day experiences of the problems remain down-to-earth Thor range can be sensed when you walk into his office The president and general manager is eating ham on roU and sipping a cup of coffee aa he presides over a series of conferences Polinger a 46-year-old builder and overseer of many broadcasting facilities in the past is cool and confident Near a TV set carrying the Ch 67 test pattern are a few outdoor antennas and there quietly resides one of Ch 678 biggest challenges Unlike the big-city VHF (very high frequency) stations Ch 67 is a UHF (ultra high frequency) station Some viewers within 15 to 20 mites of the studio may pick up its signal with simple indoor UHF loop antennas But the real trick is to persuade Long Islanders to install outdoor antennas coating Polinger said $10 to $15 and up The conversion of Long Islanders to the ways of UHF may take a while In the meantime Ch 67 already is capable of reaching about 100000 cable TV homes that need any 'converting A nice starting' bonus but the focus is else- where on what is regarded as a Long Island video void a vacuum Ch 67 is determined to fill with its own live talent arid programming that is heavy on the Long Island angle Watching it all come together it looks like a rerun of TVs infancy Unlike most TV stations -Ch 67 plans to go on the air live most of the time an approach that can produce greater immediacy and spontaneity In a world used to the safety pre-taping however it can also cause some anx- iety One staffer recently was heard to lament: the 1950s Yes and no all new very live and extremely untested But a lot of experience around All of the station's executives are old TV hands And much of the talent is seasoned Gory Gunter news director and anchorman for the station's 10-man news team was recruited from an NBC-TV affiliate in Yoimgstown Ohio Sports Director Jack Laflin who spent four years doing college football play by play for CBS Radio has been in the business a long time And there are the eonae with interesting pedigrees like Carol Schaotman A weekly Wednesday night hostess on As "Long Island show the is the daughter of Barham Walters and producer Lee Guber co-owner of a string of Music Fairs including Westbury Jason Roberts another night time host is less of a luminary mother was driving along the Long Island Expressway one day and noticed that a TV station was being he said "She told me about it I came in and applied for the Other unlikely stars indude George McCaskey who came in to join the news staff They decided he looked more like a sea captain and now' he is Capt Ahab host of an afternoon children's show A man of formidable proportions he caused a few problems for Chip Cleary scenic and lighting designer "We had been counting on a smaller Capt Cleary and had built a dinghy When we saw -McCaskey we turned it into a Recent rehearsals required some other exercises in ingenuity Oren Palenik hosting "The Nassau Suffolk spent an hour interviewing nonexistent guests Nicola Zanghi who has a cooking show made an omelet by breaking pieces of styrofoam into a non-existent pan Tomorrow at 11 AM Zanghi starts breaking eggs for real It should be interesting to see what kind of omelet he and the rest of the staff at Ch 67 are goin gto come up with II Wayne Wicks of Central Islipof -WSNL-TVs technical staff adjusts TV tape equipment York to replace Then looking wistful ha said: a real challenge coordinating this Actually Run to Nowhere was one of the seemingly more frivolous foul ups It -was Edwin Karl vice president in charge of engineering who had to face a crisis that might be described as of ooast-to-ooast proportions It happened last Tuesday when a mystery hum turned up on a piece of major equipment "The Ch 67s soap opera was taping a segment about an insidious effort to keep Samantha Fairchild from buying a house in Oyster Bay Then the insidious hum intruded itself on the sound system and go away Calls went out to the manufacturer of the balky troublemaker bringing help from California The as it is called was killed and world prevailed BiM dm doing triple duty reporter cameraman and producer of TV specials is still smiling and uninjured But reoently he came down hard in a hot-air balloon crash landing after a two-hour ride from the Old Beftpage Restoration Village His coverage came to an abrupt end when his bal- 67 put its test pattern on the air Out there in Orange Conn Melvin Shlarik sea delimited He wrote a letter to the station saying that its signal was coming in clearer than same at the local stations near lan "Send me a copy of your program guide so I can see what land of shows be he wrote Often caughtthe test pattern too raved about Its clarity and asked the station when things would start moving Nowaday's TV critic Marvin Kit-man called- the pattern and An auspicious beginning for a skeleton staff that roomed to be trying to become an instant CBS And last week like the rest of the staff Richard Martinez looked pleased tired and a little hit is need of encouragement In charge of the station's film aqd tape Ubrary he stood beneath towering shelves that held mites of entertainment almost everything unfortunately except part two of ramie: Run to fR was ogpond to be sent up here foam a she-tlcn in Bristol Term but we never got Marti-said "HI be getting a master copy Cram New tn --v iw.