TELSTAR SATELLITE
TV PHOTOGRAPHER
Al at work in the studio at KOTA
Albert Breck was one of the TV photographers
participating in the first international
broadcast from Telstar 1, the world's first
communication satellite. Working for the
KOTA TV station in Rapid City, his assignment
was to photograph a herd of buffalo running
across the hills in Custer State Park. The
buffalo segment was shot in conjunction with
the Telstar broadcast of the Mormon Tabernacle
Choir's concert at Mount Rushmore. It was
a historic and significant achievement by
American scientists and technicians, and
Al was proud to have participated in it.
The Telstar satellite:
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The CEO at the Rapid City TV station was
William Turner. He has produced a video describing
the event.
His video includes the
original historic
broadcast which includes
the footage shot
by Al.
Here is Mr. Turner's YouTube video
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Al was the cameraman for the first broadcast
by the first communication satellite the
US put into space, TELSTAR 1, in 1962. His
job was to photograph a herd of buffalo in
Custer State Park, near Mt. Rushmore. When
an onlooker asked what he would do if no
buffalo were nearby, he replied "I'd
get a handful of buffalo nickels, toss 'em
in the air and shoot 'em as they fell."
After the broadcast he was often asked how
many buffalo
were in the herd, and he would
answer "437".
His listeners would
be amazed and
ask how did he know that. "Easy",
he'd reply,
"I just counted their feet
and divided
by four." This was typical of Al's sense of humor,
for which he was well known..
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Willliam Turner's letter to the crew after
the broadcast:
| Constructing the Telstar satellite
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Artist's rendition of Telstar in orbit
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