How Whitney Houston’s “One Moment in Time” Song Got On-Air in Time for the 1988 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremonies
Some of you may recall a movie called, “Broadcast News” that depicted the unimaginable things that go on behind-the-scenes despite what may result in what appears to be a flawless broadcast. I have my own version of this. In fact, I have many such stories.
Today’s story took place a few months after I started working on the Olympics in June of 1988. It was September 16th, just one day prior to the Seoul Olympics, and Whitney Houston’s “One Moment in Time” had been recently released and was gaining popularity. Someone planning the day one of the Olympic broadcast in Korea decided that her song would be the perfect theme song, secured the rights, and requested a broadcast-quality version of it to create a larger musical package. This would be needed for the opening ceremonies, just hours away. The only issue was that the only way in which to get a broadcast-quality version of her song to Seoul, Korea was to secure a copy and transmit it over satellite.
I was asked to handle this and immediately began determining how I would fulfill this request. To ground myself and get a sanity check. I counted on my fingers to calculate how much time I had to get this done.
As I recall, it was late in the afternoon, and it occurred to me that I needed to find a record store that had the CD in stock and do so before the stores in the area closed. I immediately looked up the number of a large record store on 9th Avenue that was about three and a half city blocks away. Fortunately, the store had two copies left. I remember feeling relieved that I did not have to look further or deal with taking a cab in what soon would be in rush-hour traffic. I explained to the gentleman on the phone that I would be getting there just before they closed and emphasized the importance of holding a copy for me, leveraging the fact that it was for NBC’s Olympic broadcast.
The next hurdle was to figure out how to get this done logistically. Any time technical support was needed, individual paperwork had to be typed in triplicate and if it was a rush order, it had to be hand delivered. An engineer would then need to be booked. In this case, two engineers needed to be booked as I needed to get the CD converted to one format, and then have that format converted to a second format that could be transmitted over satellite. Out of an abundance of caution, I asked someone how I would get this transmitted by satellite feed, and was told that I needed to complete two more forms to reserve a window on the New York to Burbank, CA satellite transmission, and then another form to reserve a window for the Burbank to the Seoul, Korea satellite. I realized how short the time frame was and how synchronized the sequence of events needed to be to pull this off. I also knew that preparing the paperwork correctly was key. If there were any errors in any of the technical specifications, this would result in failure. Given that I was only about 70 days into a highly technical role, I triple checked my forms and then ran them past someone more skilled than me to be sure that I calculated everything properly. After all, I needed to subtract three hours to factor in the three-hour time differential between New York and California in order to reserve a suitable satellite window. The only available window was fifteen minutes after the New York-to-Burbank transmission. I wondered whether the timing was too tight but determined that since the song was relatively short and the union billed in 15-minute increments, that I had a pad for a margin of error. This of course, was provided all the planets were in alignment.
I therefore ran these four forms to all the right areas, and after taking a breath, scurried to the elevator and out of the building, and began my trek in high heels. Due to a lot of rain that year, the streets were very beat up, and I recall that after running down 49th street between 6th Avenue and 7th Avenue and navigating around pedestrians to avoid them while trying to get to the store on time. I momentarily would stop to catch my breath. I was nearing the right block and saw that the store was within view. Victory appeared to be within reach, but not before I got my heal caught in a pothole partially filled with water — likely from a recent rain. I managed to free my now-mangled heel and ran across Broadway toward the record store. It was 10 minutes before closing. Panting, I made my way to the counter and paid for the CD. Now began the journey back which was a mirror image of my sprint to the store.
I entered the revolving door to the RCA Building which owned NBC for many years on 6th Avenue and remember hearing and feeling the “whoosh” as I emerged on the inside of the building. I rushed through the building to the elevators with about 11 minutes to spare.
I made my way to the audio booth to the first engineer who was assigned to do the first transfer. I recall that he was incredibly calm, cool and collected as I handed him the CD. With a cigarette in one hand, he broke the plastic seal with a nail on his other hand and pushed the CD into the console. I could not help remarking to myself how completely unflappable he was, and seemingly had no sense of urgency. In contrast, I was still physically recovering from my unplanned sprint and was completely stressed as I watched him operate the controls, wondering if he would get the music transferred in time. Moments later, he completed the transfer. Unphased and expressionless, he nonchalantly handed the transferred material and CD to me. I made my way down the hall to another edit bay to the second engineer. This was a bit quicker, and after transferring the song to a second format, I watched as he walked it over to the satellite transmission area. I stood by until the first transmission was completed and then went back up to the 26th floor. Minutes later, I received confirmation that Burbank had successfully transmitted the song to Korea. Mission accomplished!
This was just another day in the life of those in broadcast, and there were many more and often, even more challenging. How I did not have a nervous breakdown that day, I’ll never know.
