Carolighting: A Broadcast Tradition!

It’s that time of year! Thanksgiving has passed and the way is clear for the long anticipated Christmas Season to take center stage. I love the sounds of the holidays. I never miss the Christmas Tree lightings in Rockefeller Center in New York and the National Tree in Washington on TV. The Rockefeller Broadcast never fails to have at least one of my favorite old time musical acts mixed in with all the young whippersnappers that I’ve never heard of. OMG, I hardly knew any of the acts in the Macy’s Parade this year.

Left: Carolighting Ceremony, Courtesy Experience Columbia SC The Christmas Tradition that stands out in my memory is the Governor’s Carolighting Ceremony on the State House Grounds here in Columbia. My first Christmas at WIS-TV in 1971, as the technician in charge of Master Control on that Sunday after Thanksgiving, my responsibility was to stand on the roof of Studio A, outside the door leading to the control room. The master control switcher operator was monitoring the ceremony as we broadcast it live. At the moment the State Christmas tree was lit, he would yell “Go!” and I’d throw the switch on the brick wall outside to light the Christmas Tree on the top of our 400’ tall downtown tower. Unlike the FAA tower lights, There was no automatic control on the Christmas Tree lights so each night as I’d go out on the roof to verify that the FAA tower lights were on I’d switch on the tree. It would stay on all night; the morning engineer would switch off the tree when he came in to start the broadcast day.

Left: The Tower Tree. Courtesy WIS Television To be sure, this was no little spruce tree with a string or two of lights strapped to the top of the tower. This was a big deal! This tree was a 75 foot tall light show cascading from the top of the tower in eight strings of light.

Little did I know it in 1971 but my involvement with the Carolighting Ceremony would last until 1985 through two changes in jobs. A couple of years later, I took over the responsibilities of the microwave operator; connecting the WIS-TV microwave to the SCETV remote truck so that we could get the feed from the Statehouse Grounds. In the late 70s, as Chief Engineer for WIS-Radio, I would haul the station’s MARTI unit to the truck and simulcast the audio feed that was on WIS-TV and SCETV on Radio 56. I thought that would end in 1979 when I moved to the engineering shop at SCETV. But there I was again with an even bigger role in the ceremony, the SCETV engineer in charge of the remote truck that we rented from Jefferson Productions for the ceremony. I was already very familiar with that truck because WIS-TV also rented it to carry the University of South Carolina Basketball games from the Coliseum. It was a good time to visit with my old friend Emerson Lawson who was the JP engineer on that truck. I even got to see the Emmy that he won as part of the NBC coverage of Lake Placid Olympics in 1980. My involvement in the Carolighting Ceremony ended when I moved from the broadcast engineering section of SCETV to take over their data processing operations. Despite the hard work those remotes were, those cool, crisp and mostly rainless nights still shine like stars in my memory.

In 1999 I was in New York City as part of the Television Crew for the last Firing Line debate show before William F. Buckley retired. I was no stranger to NYC and I must admit not a huge fan of the city. I’ve always been a city boy but for some reason, never enjoyed New York. That is, until that year, the first time I was in the City at Christmas time. The city was transformed into a magical place with all the store window displays. The evening before the taping of the show, several New York City Firemen who worked as grips on our crew when we were in town, took us to midtown and the Rockefeller Plaza. We passed the displays at Macy’s and Saks Fifth Avenue taking in all the magic that the season brought to the city. As we entered the Mall leading up to the iconic ice rink under the balcony where the Rockefeller tree stood, our view was lined with those angels with trumpets blowing triumphant notes over the Channel Gardens. The rink was full of skilled ice skaters twisting and turning to the music complete with many expert lifts.

Then there was the tree itself. There were so many lights and ornaments on the tree that one could barely see the branches underneath. Amazingly, there were no barricades (at least that year) that prevented us from actually walking up to the tree and feel the branches with our very own hands.

Back to Columbia and 2018, the decorations are going up all around the city. Some of the best are in the yards of friends and neighbors who are getting ready for the season. Christmas oldies are making their way into the playlists for all my radio shows, and they will not go completely away on Christmas Day. No cold turkey shutdown for me; a gentle wind down until New Years Day. Speaking of New Years, the tree here at the old homestead will not go up for a couple of weeks, but it will stay up until the Twelfth Day of Christmas, Epiphany, which is celebrated on January 6 in commemoration of the coming of the Magi. Just a note to everyone who says that the decorations have to be down by New Years, Christmas isn’t over yet! Oh MY!