Basic TV Technology

Robert Lee Hartwig was born and raised in a small northern California farming town. At the age of 13, his parents bought an 8mm movie camera. He spent the next couple of years fooling around with animation and teaching himself simple film editing. He spent his teenage summers on the family farm. He attended Chico State University where, quite by accident, he got involved in the college radio station. While involved in college radio, he served as Business Manager of the station and was appointed to be the student manager of the station. At the same time, the school was developing a Mass Communications Degree program, which he transferred to as soon as the program opened. While in school, he worked at both AM and FM radio stations as an on-air announcer. He still worked summers on the farm because the 80 - 100 hour weeks made a lot more money for him. He was a member of the first graduating class in Mass Communications from Chico State where the faculty awarded him the Leadership Merit Award upon graduation.


He went to San Diego State University for his Master's Degree in Radio and Television. Coming from a rural background, living in a city the size of San Diego drove him nuts. The culture shock was the greatest challenge to completing the MA. While working on the MA, he also worked for the San Diego Area Instructional Television Authority, was a Television Specialist for the Adult Division of the San Diego Community College District, worked as a photographer on a special project for the San Diego Community College Association, and taught a night class in TV Production for the Adult Division of the San Diego Community College District. This teaching experience gave him the teaching bug. He was granted his MA in December of 1973.

He moved back to northern California and got a part-time teaching job in the Mass Communications Department at Butte Community College in Oroville, CA. While at Butte he also produced and directed video programs for t