December 31, 1999
Do you remember where you were on December 31, 1999? When the world was about to explode... or at least self-destruct? Most people were either safe at home watching TV, or out partying to celebrate whatever was going to happen, or working in various jobs to protect or support all that was going on. For me, every New Years I was doing something.
As a young man, it would be at a party. A few years later, it was playing bass as a member of a church's band during a New Years service. Years later, that band was now playing at high paying New Years Eve parties full of inebriated celebrants who 24 hours later wished they hadn't. In more recent years because of health issues, I've spent the evening watching special New Years church programs after the wife has gone to sleep. But this night was something different. Yes, it was still a party. But I was working at the party. And as it turned out, it was a very special party.
New Years fireworks over Tampa Bay
NBC News was going to follow the celebrations from around the world as the year switched from 1999 to 2000. They were welcoming in the new millennium... or so they thought, not realizing that they were a year off (the new decade and millennium always starts with the number 1, not 0) but that didn't change the fact that the world was celebrating a new year and a coming new millennium and there were massive parties all around the world as the timeline moved west. So NBC news anchorman Tom Brokaw was in New York's Time Square speaking with people via satellite from around the globe about what they thought about the situation where they were and what they thought was going to happen in the new millennium.
VHS video screen capture of Tom Brokaw in Times Square New York 12/31/99
NBC News was a regular client of mine so it wasn't that unusual to get a call to drive down to Palm Beach, Florida to cover a New Years story. By now, most people know who has a home there... a BIG home there called Mar-a-Lago. That's right. Today he's known as Mr. President but back then he was "The Donald". And since this was going to be such a big event, I decided to take the family with me. My wife and daughter bought new dresses and I dusted off the tux. We got there the day before to scout the giant circus tent Trump's New Years bash was going to be in and make sure we were totally set up and tested with no issues for the following night. These type of crews tend to be small so it was cameraman David, myself on sound, a field producer and a satellite truck engineer. We all met at the location, sought out a good place to do the two minute interview, and then to our hotel room for some rest. The next day, I drove around the Palm Beach area with my wife and youngest daughter, seeing the sights and grabbing lunch before making our way back to the hotel to get dressed and on to Trump's place.
Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida
This was only the second video job I've had to do in a full tuxedo and my wife and daughter were in classy evening dresses. We set up next to the large stage where the night's entertainment would soon begin, that being Gladys Knight and her band. It was quite something to see our crew all dressed in tuxes along with the 400 high end guests Trump had invited to welcome in the new year and the year change to 2000. Of course at this time, Donald Trump had not done a whole lot of television and no live feeds. He had done some interviews to tape and some appearances on day time TV but this would be his first live to the world satellite interview. And this was years prior to him becoming a reality TV star and President of the United States. We double, and then triple checked all of our equipment. The satellite truck had already established it's link to New York way in advance so that there would be no last minute problem. I had my mic lines with backups run to the director's chair where Mr. Trump would sit, and as was policy, opened a live mic so that New York could hear what was going on on set. Their "talk back" was also established. The way this was done is I plugged the lavalier microphone into a long cable that went to an input on my mic mixer. The mixer feed then went to the inputs that fed the truck which beamed my audio and the camera signals up to a satellite and back down to a dish at NBC studios in New York City. They, in return, sent an audio feed the same way back to me which would have Tom's voice in it so he could ask Trump questions during the two minute interview. Once those two feeds were verified by the sat truck op, I sat in the chair in front of the camera and said, "Hello New York, Rob here from Palm Beach. How do you hear?" and someone responded, "Hi there Rob, we got you loud and clear. Thanks." Policy on live shoots is to then leave that mic open so New York can "hear" what's happening on set. It's also policy for me to announce, "Mic is live" to the crew just so they don't "accidently" say something they didn't want heard. So we were now ready to rock and roll when we saw the entourage approach where we were.
Leading the way was multi-billionaire Donald Trump and his fiancé at the time Melania Knavs. There were also some people who were very much on their way toward extreme inebriation, including one very rich woman who mistook my daughter as a chair and tried to sit on her. The camera was set back in the darkness with bright lights over and around it as Trump came to our position so I was the only one he could actually see and I asked him to please have a seat. As he got comfortable I introduced myself, "Mr. Trump, I'm Rob, your sound man for the evening. The first thing I'd like to do is put a microphone on you. Would you prefer pins through your jacket or a clamp?" I don't usually ask that but I knew that the tux he had on would no doubt be very expensive and pins do leave small holes. He answered "a clamp" and I had it clamped to my own suit coat so I put the lav mic on his jacket at chest level, hiding the cable under the jacket's lapels.
I then moved around behind him and once again spoke to him: "Now Mr. Trump, I need to put on the device you will hear Mr. Brokaw through, on to you if I may." He said go ahead and I clipped on the little coiled tube that he would hear through, to the collar of his jacket on the back. As I brought up the ear piece, I decided I wasn't about to stick it in his ear myself so I said, "Now, here is the earpiece you'll hear through. Please go ahead and push it into your ear so that it's comfortable." He did so as I continued, "And down here by your right hand is a small box with a volume knob on it so that you may adjust the volume of the sound from New York yourself" as I guided his hand down to the metal box for the IFB he was now wearing.
Telex style earpiece everyone wears doing live TV broadcasts
I informed him that his mic was live and that the control room in New York could hear everything from there on out and would be coming online soon. As I stepped away to my equipment bag, I heard him say something like, "Yes.. hello.. I can hear you fine" as the producer in New York began to talk with him and I adjusted the volume on my mixer. As the network came out of a commercial break, the field producer, who was on her cell phone getting prompts, said "Stand by" as Brokaw introduced Donald Trump live to the watching world. Now the interview didn't really have a lot of substance to it except for three things: Trump was bullish on America; He was toying with the idea of running for President even back then; and that when a helicopter was over Tom's head, big Don could still hear him just fine. That last point was something I took pride in.
Donald Trump talking to NBC's Tom Brokaw live 12/31/1999
Anyway, we did find the food tables which were hidden in a service part of the tent, far away from the VIPs, and had our fill eating where the hired help ate. The other guests had to pay $2000.00 a plate. Gladys Knight came on and rocked the tent and we stayed and danced a bit until the family was ready to go back to the hotel. We slept in the next morning and then made the four hour drive back home. When I was asked how I spent New Years 1999, I have always told people that I spent it with Donald Trump at his house as his personally invited guest, welcoming in the new year and new millennium (almost). Well... I did.
If you missed it, here's the interview:
Donald Trump New Years 1999
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