Adrian
Snow
Whiz Kid
and Engineering Whiz
|
Video
and maintenance engineer Adrian Snow worked for WTVT and WFLA during his 30
years in Tampa Bay's television industry.
He was witness to the evolution of television from
black and white to color and beyond. |
Adrian Snow was introduced to
electronics by his father, a ham radio enthusiast with an elaborate setup in their Tampa
home. When WSUN brought television
to the Tampa Bay area in 1953, the
Snow family was one of the first to get their own receiver.
Displaying an aptitude for tinkering, Adrian began working on fixing
television receivers and radios. "I got a second-hand 10 inch Crosley TV with a 30 foot
antenna and tower for $50," recalls the veteran engineer.
"Keeping that Crosley running is how I learned to fix TVs." The enterprising youngster earned some cash by installing UHF
antennas in the neighborhood to allow reception of Channel 38, which was the
lone bay area station for almost two years. Television became a passion for the
teen tinkerer. "The programs that impressed me
the most were the ones on Channel 38," says Snow. "They carried shows
from all four networks, and the first time we saw Liberace, Ed Sullivan, and
Milton Berle were from kinescopes because there was no coaxial cable linking
Florida to the networks in New York, at least until a few months after Channel
38 went on the air. When Channel 8
came on, life got wonderful…and then 13…and we really had TV in the Tampa
Bay area."