Today marks an odd milestone:  starting today I can’t pick up the phone, dial our competing station on James Street, and be greeted by “Good morning, WSTM Engineering... Gary Hartman.”  His desk sits empty today after fifty years.

When he started back in 1957, channel 3 was shoehorned into the Kemper building, a block from Hotel Syracuse.  Videotape had been invented the year before, but hadn’t come to Syracuse yet.  Color was still in the future, and stereo wasn’t even on the horizon.  Channel 9 – we were WNYS back when they were WSYR-TV – wouldn’t go on the air for another five years.  His career spanned generations of technology:  film was replaced by “portable” video cameras and recorders; tape gave way to computerized editing and playback.  From racks filled with tube-type gear to the newest miniature computer-driven systems, he has installed it, operated it, and kept it running.  Portable microwave... satellite transmission... digital high-definition broadcast.

For fifty years he has been ready, when the phone rings at home, to talk someone through solving an equipment problem.  Often he would hop in the car and hustle back to the station to fix whatever had failed.  Sometimes he would take me with him on these unplanned expeditions, and I would watch as he’d drive, his mind already churning through possibilities, narrowing down what the problem might be, and planning what he could do about it.  You see, Gary Hartman wasn’t just their engineer... he is also my Dad.

He would bring me along on radio remotes at Archbold Stadium – I was still in grade school – and he taught me the craft, mainly by example.  How to connect the mixer.  How to set up the shotgun microphone to pick up the band.  And most important:  if you have a cup of soda, keep it at a safe distance from where you’re working.  Warm soda attracts bees.

More than the skills particular to broadcast engineering, he taught me about work:  sometimes it can be difficult, but it’s rewarding, too.  Make a diligent effort to keep learning, and you will get to see and do fascinating things.  Work can be fun!

Today might begin his first day of retirement from channel 3... but he is still learning, and there remain fascinating things yet to be seen and done.

Congratulations, Dad!

-- Jeff