A 300 mile journey: One of WGN’s original cameras back home

CHICAGO — As we continue to celebrate WGN’s 75th anniversary, we’re also celebrating a special delivery that arrived on Friday.

In the back of a van, far from it’s original studio home on Michigan Avenue, a piece of television history is once again finding the spotlight.

The camera just arrived at WGN after traveling 300 miles from Evansville, Indiana.

It had been at the home of Stephen Gibson, 72, who died last November.

Gibson spent his life in broadcasting, working as a radio DJ and then as a TV news reporter for Channel 25 in Evansville.

Along the way, he developed an appreciation for the history of broadcasting and collected memorabilia, like vintage microphones, reels and cameras.

His older brother Robert was cleaning out his home and found it.

It is believed to be one of the eight original RCA TK-10 black and white cameras used at the old Tribune Tower Studios on some of WGN’S very first programs.

So how did it end up in Gibson’s Indiana home, 300 miles from Chicago?

Gibson’s long-time friend, Max Armstrong, the well-known agriculture reporter for WGN Radio and TV, got it from a WGN engineer named Roy Cohen.

In 1983, Armstrong hauled it 300 miles and gave it to his buddy, Stephen Gibson, where it sat for the next 40 years until it found its way back home.