Uploaded April 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
John Christopher Burns almost single-handedly created the network-quality "on-air look" of WTBS. This is incredible in and of itself; it was a massive amount of top quality on-air image material: promotion, Sports, special projects, original programs, presentations, NewsWatch, "Coming Up Nexts" - basically everything that made WTBS look so good, and so unique being all video-produced. On-air items were refreshed constantly.
Yet while almost single-handedly keeping up the airlook of WTBS, John somehow managed to put both CNN and CNN2 on the air, producing most of their image material and promotion, the initial show opens, and so on. For a new network barely getting on the air, the stuff was great, but it wasn't the golden WTBS standard John was establishing upstairs. (CNN was literally in the basement, and WTBS on the main floor - "upstairs", "downstairs" - and absolute opposites in almost every respect.
This reel from 1982 comes from a 1" videotape copy from John's master, and it has been painstakingly restored, a bit at a time, over some years. Nothing is altered; however thousands of videotape dropouts have been repaired, along with numerous other technicals dealt with. One big deal is that this reel is now at 60fps as originally aired. Almost everything in the old NTSC format is presented at 30fps; this does not capture the "live" video look that originally aired, nor does it capture the smoothness of motion that originally aired at 60 fields-per-second. The only thing I can't replicate is how good these things looked on a real TUBE television. LCDs still fall short when I look at these things on a good Sony broadcast monitor of the time! We hope you enjoy this important portion of the history of Turner Broadcasting System.
John Christopher Burns almost single-handedly created the network-quality "on-air look" of WTBS. This is incredible in and of itself; it was a massive amount of top quality on-air image material: promotion, Sports, special projects, original programs, presentations, NewsWatch, "Coming Up Nexts" - basically everything that made WTBS look so good, and so unique being all video-produced. On-air items were refreshed constantly.
Yet while almost single-handedly keeping up the airlook of WTBS, John somehow managed to put both CNN and CNN2 on the air, producing most of their image material and promotion, the initial show opens, and so on. For a new network barely getting on the air, the stuff was great, but it wasn't the golden WTBS standard John was establishing upstairs. (CNN was literally in the basement, and WTBS on the main floor - "upstairs", "downstairs" - and absolute opposites in almost every respect.
This reel from 1982 comes from a 1" videotape copy from John's master, and it has been painstakingly restored, a bit at a time, over some years. Nothing is altered; however thousands of videotape dropouts have been repaired, along with numerous other technicals dealt with. One big deal is that this reel is now at 60fps as originally aired. Almost everything in the old NTSC format is presented at 30fps; this does not capture the "live" video look that originally aired, nor does it capture the smoothness of motion that originally aired at 60 fields-per-second. The only thing I can't replicate is how good these things looked on a real TUBE television. LCDs still fall short when I look at these things on a good Sony broadcast monitor of the time! We hope you enjoy this important portion of the history of Turner Broadcasting System.
