THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 20, 1994 TAG: 9406180028
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
DATELINE: 940620 LENGTH: Medium
Here are some travel tips: Pack your walking shoes; take a bus from the airport instead of paying a cabbie; be careful what you buy from street vendors; and check out New York City's newest tourist attraction.
{REST} It's NBC News' $15-million broadcast complex and street-level studio at Rockefeller Center. Starting with the ``Today'' show this morning at 7, NBC News will do more than a dozen hours of programming from behind glass walls every week.
The people working in the studios will be able to see what is happening at the corner of 49th Street and Rockefeller Plaza. At the same time, the people on that street corner will be able to see Bryant Gumble and Katie Couric doing what they do from 7 to 9 a.m. Monday through Friday.
The NBC crews will be separated from the great outdoors by two glass panels, including one designed to repel bullets like Superman's chest.
Are Couric and the others worried about being distracted by the faces outside the glass?
``Most of us are pretty good at tuning things out when we need to,'' said Couric.
It will be a slight distraction at worst, said Gumble.
``We've been out in the middle of crowds countless times when we've taken the show on the road. It will be exciting to be doing what we do in front of people as opposed to being alone in front of a camera.''
It's not like this hasn't been done before.
Starting in 1952, ``Today'' was beamed to NBC affiliates for six years from a street-level studio in the RCA Exhibition Hall.
That's when easy-going Dave Garroway was the host, Jack Lescoulie was his sidekick and Frank Blair read the news. At that time, it was difficult to tell who was more interesting to the people who stood on the sidewalk to watch ``Today'' unfold - Garroway or J. Fred Muggs, the chimp.
It was a bold stroke in programming in 1952 when Sylvester L. ``Pat'' Weaver, NBC vice president, launched ``Today.'' Until that time, broadcasters doubted that Americans hurrying to school or their jobs had time to stop and watch a TV show at 7 a.m. TV Guide called the move ``courageous'' programming.
Back then, who in TV could have imagined early-morning news on all three networks and around-the-clock news on cable plus a channel dispensing nothing but business news all day long?
``Pat Weaver's vision, to broadcast from street level, and to bring the program closer to the people, was a good idea back then, and it's a good idea now,'' said Steve Friedman, executive producer of ``Today.''
The weekday ``Today'' will originate from the new broadcast center with three floors in it, and so will the weekend ``Today,'' with co-hosts Mike Scheider and Jackie Nespral.
Couric and co-host Tom Brokaw will do ``Now'' from the same location.
Brokaw was working for a TV station in Omaha 30 years ago when he visited Manhattan with his wife just for the chance to stand outside the widow and see Garroway and the gang do ``Today.'' He remembers flashing this sign on camera: ``Watch Tom Brokaw in Omaha.''
It's 30 years later, and Brokaw, who is Mr. NBC News, will soon be doing his show from the other side of the glass at Rockefeller Center.
Call it destiny.
The network is so proud of the new studios that it decided to show off the digs in prime time. Tuesday night at 8, it will be ``Today at Night'' followed by a two-hour special on health-care reform.
It takes a lot of guts for a TV network to focus its cameras on the New York City street people of the 1990s. Some of the sights on the sidewalks up there would scare the pants off J. Fred Muggs.
by CNB