1. Walter Tyler Balderson was an American television editor and video engineer, who participated in the advent of color television beginning in the early 1950s and later was one of the first editors to use videotape for instant replay on network television sports events.
Walter Tyler Balderson was born in Farmers Fork, near Montross, Virginia, on September 19,1926.
Walter Balderson began his broadcasting career in 1949, as an engineer with NBC owned-and-operated radio station WRC-AM in Washington, DC Desiring to be a part of the nascent television industry at the network level, he moved in 1950 to NBC's New York City headquarters studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza to work as an engineer and cameraman, spanning news, entertainment, and sports programming.
Walter Balderson later recalled that the gigantic RCA TK-40 and TK-41 color cameras required more than an hour to set up and were comparatively unstable, making frequent adjustment necessary to maintain correct registration of the red, green, and blue primary colors.
Walter Balderson engineered NBC's first electronically edited show, Kraft Music Hall.
Walter Balderson edited the popular quiz show Twenty One for its two-year run, which was later exposed as fixed during the quiz show scandals of the late 1950s.
Walter Balderson subsequently told a newspaper reporter that although he was video tape editor for the program's entire run, he "had no idea it was rigged".
Walter Balderson described producer Dan Enright standing next to him in the control room once becoming enraged when contestant Charles Van Doren missed an answer.
Only after the scandal was later revealed did Walter Balderson realize the true reason for Enright's anger.
Walter Balderson was one of the first editors to use videotape for instant replay in sports events televised by NBC in the early 1960s.
Walter Balderson died on July 29,2023, at the age of 96.
Walter Balderson was Emmy-nominated for his work on The Eternal Light, an acclaimed NBC Sunday morning religious program.