Amazing the power this video and music evoked in thousands of people who watched and listened to it as KRON went to bed each night. I recall seeing it first around 1980 and was mesmerized, as so many below attest, by the music and images. It always gave a special and peaceful, hopeful, yet somehow melancholic feeling while comforting as well. It still does. But in the wee pre dawn hours of one's youth, when the night was calm, still, quiet, this piece signaled for so many of us not only a day ending but a chapter of our lives, some ending, some beginning.
Many, many mornings for years, I would wake up to this after attempting to watch a movie, then falling asleep...It's amazing that, decades later, a television sign-off could evoke such placid memories...Thank you for the posting...
The BEST sign-off music and film . . . ever! The other great one was on KCBS radio with Ken Akerman. "Music Till Dawn" Damn, I miss this quality of entertainment.
I remember when Bay Area stations used to do this. One of the few stations the broadcast all night was"the Perfect 36?" I think it was the one that a local car dealership sponsored the overnight movies. They had the "price slasher" that was "hackin' and a hewin" car prices! When I got into broadcasting in the 90s, I worked the evening shift for a small radio station. Every night at 11pm I would play the sign off. It consisted of our station ID, location of transmitter and studio, wattage, FCC approval date, how to get in touch with management, and a thank you to our sponsors and listeners. It was voiced over by the station owner. Her son, a sometimes musician, played the smooth jazz background music. Then I would physically shut down the transmitter. The morning person had to be there early. They would reboot the transmitter, which took a little time. Most high-powered transmitters then still had tubes.
@manthony1956 I'd almost forgotten about Channel 36 and the All Night Movie-Go-Round! I think the car dealer was named Jay Brown, with his Lil Ol Guy the Price Slasher just a-hackin and a-hewin. Thanks for that memory!
Sometime before 1970, when I had the privilege of staying up later so that my mother could comb out my hair and put rollers in it before I went to bed; sometimes this came on at the end of their broadcast day. It seemed melancholy to me then and still does. Some music makes me feel that things will not always be as they are, so remember this moment. Like a snapshot in time, I can see that moment when I hear that music again.
I FOUND IT! This is such a lovely sign-off! I was 20 and working between college semesters at Oscar's Hamburgers in Berkeley and I'd come home late after closing at midnight and I'd watch the rest of the movie and this would come on afterwards. One of the loveliest, most beautiful sign-offs featuring the music of Gabriel Faure.
I used to stay up specifically to watch this. Never knew what the piece was until recently. I'm so glad someone recorded and posted this. Thank you, Gabriel Foret for composing Pavane, and thank you KRON for working with the Archdiocese etc al to compose this Meditations piece.
I am a native Californian from San Leandro and Oakland; California is CROAKING, and I JUST HATE THAT HAPPENING. Been a FAR WEST MICHIGANDER since 5/22/2004; I'm doing more than just fine. If anyone CARES, I WON OAKLAND UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT'S SPELLING CHAMPIONSHIP IN 1981 and 1983. Your video evoked some serious memories needing unleashment. As others've said, THANK YOU for posting this.
These were gentler times, I can't imagine seeing this on any station today, sadly. We have become coarse and vulgar. Thank for posting and reminding us there was a nicer world.
WOW...this goes to show you can find almost ANYTHING on RU-vid! LOL I was looking for cause the song had popped into my head, and decided to search just out of curiousity and here it is. I love this tune. And the video with it. For some reason it reminds me of when I was a child and used to go to Ocean Beach Amuesment Park in the 60's. In the 70's, I'd stay up late just to watch this video and listen to the music. Thanks for posting this cool tune.
This music and this video takes me back to happier times. On Friday nights I would stay up late to watch the Midnight Special and this, just to hear THIS music. Hearing it is like taking a bittersweet trip back in time. Today's generation, music and technology SUCKS.
Ummmm … Except that now you don't have to stay up until 3 a.m. to hear it. You can cue up Fauré's Pavane on RU-vid whenever you feel like it. That's progress of a sort, isn't it?
This was a better time, and better people. No folks walking around with their heads up their ass or their eyes glued to their cell phones. Thanks for posting this great TV sign-off music.
Thank you for uploading a piece of Bay Area history and an important piece of my personal history. 11:00 news - Saturday Night Live (when it was good) - SCTV - Weekend (Linda Ellerbee & Lloyd Dobbins) - Showtime at the Apollo - sign-off
Back in 1980 ~ 83, I use to work the sign-off shift at KNTV (San Jose's ABC affiliate station back then - now an NBC owned and operated). I would have TV handy, just to catch KRON's goodnight.
I recognize Yosemite’s Vernal and Nevada Falls in this film. There was a TV station in Vancouver, BC in 1970 that used to sign off with “Something” by the Beatles. I thought it was so cool.
Instead of TV signing off now, we now have pretty much all the channels 24 seven. Now late at night sometimes, you can catch a religious TV program on, or pre-paid programming. I actually do remember this growing up.
Kayanda Eddings right? I remember So Cal sign offs, including the rare ones for stations across the baha border, cause I lived within that area for 10 years outta my life. As for northern and central, only caught those when visiting the area.
That's correct, Nickfan001; from 2002, when KRON lost the NBC affiliation to KNTV, until 2006, KRON was an independent station. In the fall of 2006, however, they became the Bay Area affiliate for My Network TV.
does anyone remember the older version of the national anthem at sign off? as I recall, it featured the national guard, with a Huey flying West towards the Golden Gate bridge.
The KRON signoff is a comforting reminder of younger days. The squirrel eating always made me cry, because it “looked lonely.” Derrick W, I wrote a letter (yes, a letter!) to KRON in 1970, asking what the music was. I got a personal, typed letter back from KRON, telling me it was Faure’s Pavane. Those were simpler times. The little furnished apartment I rented for $135./month now rents for $1800./month! So glad to be able to see this again.
I liked the squirrel best, that's what I always remembered most and waited for in the song. I first saw this the first day I moved there in June 1974. I was staying at a SF condo near the Ferry Building, before we moved to a house in San Carlos. I don't think they always followed it with the Star Spangled Banner, though. or maybe a different version of it.
Still remember this one from my childhood. Glad somebody was able to find it, even in this admittedly dog-eared form. BTW, it bears more than a slight resemblance to the movie shown to the dying Edward G. Robinson character in "Soylent Green"!
KRON lost the NBC affiliation after some bitter back-and-forth over money and carrying the full NBC schedule. It went to MyNetwork in 2006. Details here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KRON-TV#Loss_of_NBC_affiliation_(1999%E2%80%932001)
I recognize this song. It's the "Pavone" by Gabriel Faure. In the year 2000, it was adapted for the song "Dream A Dream" by Charlotte Church & Billy Gillman. Wow! We know more about classical music than we think!
Yup, I remember this. After a late movie, I always looked forward to hearing this piece. I have Pavane on my Channel. Where the hell was Mt Sutro? Nevermind, I googled it....lol.
Stephen Nichols, it gave me a deja vu moment reading your comment just now. I was sitting my little Washington St apartment a few blocks away from SCU, watching the same thing you were watching, possibly at the same time. And now reading something like this over the Internet is a trip! Tempus fugit.
I agree with morykwas....I rmemeber this well and then I would change the channel and turn on the all night movies with Tom Labries from labrie's water bed wherehouse. Ugh! we are getting old
Or recorded on a different VCR. I recorded shows all the time on SLP and never had tracking problems. Never saw a drop in quality in the picture either.
Sometime in 1989 KRON went 24/7. KGO did the same thing except they continued to go off-air late Sunday nights for years, even after ABC World News debuted when KGO shoehorned the sign off period to come back on at 3 am for WNN.
