I have made this video for your viewing pleasure. Not everything from this time will be included though. I hope you enjoy it, tell me what you think, and thank you for watching.
One of the reasons early TV stations signed off around midnight was because the transmitter engineers needed time to replace tubes and re-adjust the transmitters! Those early monsters needed a lot of care! In fact, many stations had sleeping quarters for the engineers as they lived at the remote transmitter sites.
Perhaps the stations had a large engineering staff. You can't expect someone to live away from their families for months at a time without repercussions.
TV stations signed off around midnight since there was a belief at the time, that nobody listened or watched overnight viewing, including the television sets were not well made at the time,! These television sets, which include both valve and transistor televisions produced serious heat, which some televisions, would catch fire, when they were left on for a considerable length of time or malfunctioned!
@@batmandestroys1978 When TV stations signed off in the old USSR, the announcers literally told viewers to turn off/unplug their TVs; this was because the sets were so poorly made that they were a fire risk!
I remember...after the star spangled banner, the station just pulled the plug, and you had "snow" it was like the world ended...it gave me goose bumps!
I worked at the Radio Station at Kansas State..I had to open the station early and warm up the equipment before going on the air with my Sat. And Sunday jazz shows
Falling asleep in front of the TV back then was . . . an experience. If you didn’t get woken up by the white noise, you got a REAL rude awakening around dawn when the test patterns kicked in with their associated BEEEEEEEPs.
I used to wake up around 6:30 AM as a kid and watch the station come on the air. National anthem, morning prayer, lots of PSA's. And information about the towers and megahertz. And the license and seal of good practice.
I'm 52 and I can still remember doing the exact same thing all the way into the early 80s. Mostly the syndicated channels in the Providence/Boston area would sign on around 5:30AM and it was exciting in a weird way. Kids today have no idea.
@BlackAndWhiteBand when my father was shaving upstairs with his electric razor, the picture would get static lines. I would sit there eating cereal and watching the test pattern with the monotone sound.
In late-1970s/early-1980s l'd occasionally watch WCAU-TV (Ch. 10), Phila., Penna., usually during wee small hrs., Sat. morning while it was still originally CBS-TV Network, as well as CBS O./O. sta. for "sign-off" in its entirety (comprising, N.A.B. Television Code disclaimer-sta. "sign-off" announcement 1960s-produced "Star-Spangled Banner" (U.S. 🇺🇸 National Anthem) film clip-"sign-off" sta. I.D.-closedown
I miss when the channels all signed off at night. We live almost on the border with Canada, when we were kids the local stations played the US National Anthem then the Canadian Anthem at the end of the day. Seemed like much simpler easier times.
Those times were different. TV and radio on the border always had the best of both worlds. Even here in L.A. before the digital tv era, television signals from Tijuana would be seen here.
@@player4life11111 I still live near the Canadian Border we get 2 TV channels and multiple radio. But yeah definitely different times back then hearing both National Anthems just after midnight.
@@tommyboy5455 Those are extremely precious and priceless memories of another time! When TV signed off for the night, it was definitely time to go to bed. The world today is a different place, even in the way the TV and Radio are played.
@jaceyarnett4441 You're absolutely right Jaycey, I was a kid in the 60's and a teenager in the 70's I always thought these sign offs were creepy and foreboding, and yes there somewhat comforting, I even remember when certain radio stations would go off air also.
There was simply no television broadcasting after midnight when I was a kid in the '60s-'70s, but Oh, how we looked forward to The Jerry Lewis MD Telethon! During the telethon, we were treated to seemingly endless hours of great entertainment 24/7. During primetime, there were truly great TV programs to watch, just very brief hours of actual viewing time.
I grew up in the NYC metro area in the 1950's. My mom was a night owl and sometimes let me stay up in the summer till the broadcast day was over. I had forgotten that they suggested you turn to radio after TV was done; mot of the stations there were owned by newspaper and multimedia companies, and radio was still bigger than TV in the early 50's.
KABC-TV was redirecting people to their AM station. After several years, they also added the FM side. This was when ABC owned all three. Now Disney owns the TV station, Cumulus Media has the station, and Merulo Media has the FM station.
The very first signoff in this collection was from KYW Cleveland and was done by Gordon Ward. He spent most of his career at WTOL 11 in Toledo and married his wife on a live broadcast in 1962. Died in 2022.
@@johnnyelectron I remember WTVG being WSPD but his time there was a bit before my memory. I remember Frank Venner as well. WSPD still exists as 1370AM/ 92.9FM
Oh, God, I remember when we first got cable in the late ‘70s, HBO wouldn’t even sign on until about 5 pm! Before they started programming they’d run a reel of promos designed for cable companies to record and insert into other channels. In the summer, I always made sure I’d turn on the TV in time to see those promos. It gave you that feeling of seeing something you weren’t supposed to be seeing!
Local station would sign off with a stirring rendition of The National Anthem, followed by "High Flight" recited over a montage of jet planes doing loops and zooms. I still remember parts of that poem. "Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth and danced the sky on laughter's silvered wings."
Today's mature adults lived during the only couple of generations that will know the joy of being a kid that partied so hard they closed the tv station.
That's what I loved about the old station sign-offs, they used terms like "Telecast" and "Kilocycles". Now it's digital broadcast and Kilohertz/Megahertz/Gigahertz. Your viewing pleasure in b&w and 240p color and "Technicolor". Now 1080p/4K/8K HD. But few sign-offs due to multiple broadcasting sites, satellite feeds, and 24hr round the clock. Good times in the Pre HD era. Pleasant voices, the National Anthem, and quality assurance.
My grandpa always tells me about how when he was a kid, television would start with Howdy Doody, followed by local and national news, and ended with the national anthem. I’ve always wanted to find a recording of it just so I could experience what it was like, you know?
My mom said that when she is a child (70s) in Portugal, RTP ended it's broadcasting with the sign-off announcement, national anthem and the test pattern which it is 8pm after the evening news. It went black and white then in Portugal until 1980.
I remember one from a NYC channel. It showed a skyline of apartment buildings with lights on in the windows, that one by one turned off while a very simple tic tocky song played. I always remember that. Probably late 60’s, very early 70’s. B&W
That was WCBS-TV Channel 2 in New York City. That was not the sign-off. The apartment lights graphic was the bookend of The Late Show movie, after the 11:00 news. Lights went on as the movie began, lights went off when it concluded. The song was an alternate take of Leroy Anderson's "The Syncopated Clock". WCBS (and the 4 other CBS O&O stations) began using that Late Show intro/outro in 1951 and continued using it well into the '70's.
Amazing stuff!! I am struck by the fact that several stations were independent, and not owned by a larger corporate entity. I don't think this is true today. Thanks for this great post!!
It does seem as though the list of independents is getting shorter. We only had three networks back then, and no UHF. NOW we have at least five networks, and digital channels. Ownership groups get larger and larger. We even have a cable company owning an entire network.
@notvalidcharacters It was during the height of the Cold War during which years two RB-47 recon aircraft, based at our nearby Air Force base were shot down by the USSR (Russia). Yeah, these were our American values then. We were at war.
_I'm Immediately compelled to vote thumbs up. And haven't even watched video yet._ *That's how confident I am, already knowing will thoroughly enjoy this.* Only going by title and subject matter.
I remember watching an early morning show called "Reading Without Letters." It had a priest giving lessons to the camera to teach literacy using pictures that looked like letters. My father told me, "Don't watch this anymore. It's beneath you."
Suggestion for all of society; shutdown everything from midnight to 6 am every day. That includes the internet. Force everyone to take a break and focus on something else.
I think it was Channel 2 in Buffalo New York That signed off with " Do you know where your children are?" When going off the air. Back in the late 60's,early 70's.
@@Dratchev241 OH GOD, Channel 5 in New York used to do that and I found it creepy as hell. I always half-expected it to be followed by, “WE DO! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!”
I remember that signoff from WPGH-TV, 53 in Pittsburgh back in 1971 when I was 5 ywars old. WE just got our first color TV and our first UHF-TV, WPGH-TV showed Speed Racer and when it went off the air, I remember crying when Speed Racer was gone.
From back in the day when we had to wait for episodes (and be sure to be at the TV when it was on). I'd almost consider it cheating to just buy the DVDs, but I'm too busy to be waiting around for it anymore. Besides, these days I can watch the proper original versions of "Mach GoGoGo" including the ones that weren't dubbed for the US market.
47:24 WPGH signed off and went dark on August 16th 1971 due to financial and technical problems. This was the announcement for that. They didn't sign back on until 1974.
Thanks for putting up this video. Looks like a lot of work went into it. "...for your viewing pleasure"? Nah. To entertain, inform, and educate. Well done.
The winner here is the marching band spelling out the station’s name and then playing the National Anthem. I can just hear the station manager saying, “Hey, if we have to do this sign-off thing, we’re gonna do it with STYLE!”
Many channels in NC in the 1960s used to sign on with a color & contrast chart (not just electronically generated color bars which came later). We only had a Black & White TV, but I would adjust it to be able to barely see detail in the next to the darkest swatch. That way I knew the contrast and brightness were "perfect". LOL. I was only 10, but it was something to do and have fun with.
I'm still trying to find the sign-off film made specially for KGSC Channel 36 in San Jose, California, USA that was a quasi-religeous cartoon with the 1968 Bill Medley (Righteous Bros.) song "Peace, Brother, Peace", as the soundtrack. I believe it was produced and used in 1970 as KGSC's end of broadcast day sign-off. The reason I termed it as quasi-religious is because I vaguely remember animated images of doves & stained glass windows like the kind found in churches, and maybe there were images of crosses too.
Staff announcers of interest: Gordon Ward, KYW-TV, Cleveland (1956) Clark Smith, WLWC, Columbus,OH(1956) Royal Parker, WAAM,Baltimore (1957) Jerry Damon,WRCA-TV,New York City (1958) Don Dowd,WABC-TV,New York City (1958) Lou Steele,WNEW-TV,New York City (1959) Jerry Roberts, WNTA-TV, New York City (1960) Bob Waldrop,WNBC-TV,New York City (1960) Bill Rice,WABC-TV,New York City (1964) Matt Thomas,WNBC-TV,New York City (1964) John Henning,WGBH,Boston (1964) Tom Gregory,WNEW-TV, New York City (1964) Gregg Oliver,WTOP-TV,Washington (1964) Robert Jeannette,WGBH,Boston (1970) Bill Barry,KTLA,Los Angeles (1972) Jack Byrd,WETA,Washington (1972) Mac McGarry,WRC-TV,Washington (1973?) George Lewis,WBFF-TV,Baltimore (1975) Jack Downing,WBOC-TV,Salisbury,MD. (1975)
I remember watching these as a kid...a very sickly kid. I've always lived in either Oregon or Washington, so any station starting in W is "exotic" to me. I do remember when living in E. WA. that the strongest station was from NBC in Spokane signed off after 1:30 with the technical info and the peacock, and some signalling that I never understood, then going to static which always seemed spooky, for some reason. By '67, they started at 6am with the Pledge of Allegiance and the morning news and farm report on the Chicago commodities market.
Wasn't that long ago. I remember TVDXing Miami Ch 2 WPBT (from Vermont) one night, and when they signed off the signal was replaced by WBRZ-TV in Baton Rouge, 1400 mile skip. I know from where I lived that that was right around 1991. Come to think of it I was signing my own FM station off the air each weeknight at that same time -- using something like the scripts here but I would riff on them: "WKXE operates with 3000 watts of power, a few of them even in stereo". And some nights I had music left over so I just stayed on the air past midnight with bonus radio. Nobody ever caught me ;)
Boy, TV signing-on in the morning here in Ireland would have been inconceivable. TV didn't even exist until the late 50's / early 60's. Even then in the south it didn't sign-on until early evening. It wasn't until the 90's that TV signed-on regularly in the morning.
I was born in New York City in 1956, and quite vividly remember the star-spangled banner at or about midnight. Sometimes my Dad and I would go fishing in Moriches Bay in Long Island in the wee hours of the morning. As we were getting ready for our drive, I would sometimes click on the television set, and see what was on. In those days, TV sets had tubes in them and they took a few moments to warm up. You would finally see a white dot in the center of the screen, then the scrambled picture lines, and then the actual picture which you sometime had to fix the picture from skipping! I saw that all of the stations CBS, NBC, ABC as well as WPIX, WOR, WNEW and PBS either had the snow, or a still pattern with the station call letters or with a native American with a steady high tone.
Well you're right! I was born in 2012 in Portugal, but since I was 8/9 years old I found out the first time that I found an US Sign-off with the national anthem recorded in 1977, WCBS. I know all of the TVs in America signing off without clips or PSA/National Anthem/American Orchestra clips. And by the way, you «heard» the National anthem before the static at midnight. Is that from you heard the US anthem from WCBS? Or WBAF-TV in Baton Rouge?
Normally that would be the gig for The Museum of Classic Chicago Television ( the link to their webpage is giving me "security problems", so you should find it through their YT account ). They're considered the curators for Chicagoland broadcasting.
My dad told me how the T.V. Would sign off every night and you weren’t able to watch it like you can now all night long I wondered if at least the radio stayed on so you could still be entertained or entertain a party and this video answered that yes it did
KYW in Cleveland and WRCV in Philadelphia switched call letter and on air talent. WRCV in Philadelphia changed its call letters to KYW while KYW in Cleveland changed its call letters to WKYC. WKYC is still the NBC affiliate in Cleveland while KYW is now the CBS O&O station in Philadelphia.
When did tv closedowns in the USA end and 24/7 broadcasting begin? All I know was that the UK stopped doing closedowns and national anthems in November 1997 when the BBC News station was launched
Back when in the middle of the night there was truly nothing to watch on tv. There was one station in my area (south-eastern VA ) that didnt sign on until 530 pm. WYAH was founded by Pat Robertson from the 700 Club. For years he ran the station on a shoestring budget. Not sure what time they signed off. It's now WGNT a CW affiliate.
@@solinus7131 There were home movie cameras that were affordable for home movies by 1940. You had to mail your film to Kodak, who processed your movie, and sent it back to you.
47:24 WPGH signed off and went dark on August 16th 1971 due to financial and technical problems. This was the announcement for that. They didn't sign back on until 1974.
in 1956 i was not born yet but 1975 and so on i was just kids back then thos tv sign off the air that reilly old that would be time went my mom and my dad word kids back than.
I think tv stations should sign off instead of airing horrible talk shows and infomercials all night. Except Comet TV and H&I. They know what they’re doing at night.
Channel 6 had a very elaborate signoff video at one point featuring news anchor Jim Gardner narrating: “This is Philadelphia! City of Liberty!” (Cue city scenes, inevitable shots of the William Penn statue and Liberty Bell, etc.) I saw it not too long ago, either somewhere online or during the tribute Channel 6 did when Jim Gardner retired.
Oh yes, let's go back to a poem about war and bombs and rockets and flag fetishism that never even bothers to mention a country's name, what could possibly go wrong with that.
@notvalidcharacters Go eat a marshmallow. That out national anthem. Your probably a liberal who voted for feeble Biden. If not, then your a millennial who has a brain like mush.
A lot of television stations maintain some audio transcriptions of a handful of programs that are deemed important to the history of the TV station. The poster did a lot of work contacting TV stations and state broadcasting museums to get these sign-off calls, and the poster sometimes got access to some video tape recordings of some sign-offs, particularly from the 1970s and 1980s, when home videocassette recorders became available to the general public.
NO, you didn't show it, Ch. 52 while it was still in English, before it became Telemundo; I used to watch it signing off, at 7:30 P.M. It even had its own theme song, I recorded the theme song on my 1950s tape recorder so I wouldn't forget it, it turned out, I didn't have to record it because I memo - rized it over 50 years ago !!!😮
Interesting that WFIL had a superpower facility- more than 100kW on the VHF low band. Did they get a waiver for the superpower operation, perhaps because they had to make up for the short tower?
Inasmuch as we're talking about the maximum peak output on USA Channel 6, the maximum power allowed was 100kw peak power - the same power fields applied to ALL of the VHF-low band. TV stations on Channels 7 through 13 had that limit with 316,000 watts. UHF stations had a limit of 5,000,000 watts. Stations did not need to use the maximum power, though the majority of stations did use the maximum.
As a kid I’d would get to stay up as late as wanted to or until the stations went off the air now after the national anthem the stations would scare you to death by showing you the latest FBI wanted person sweet dreams😳💀
@@ostrich67 correct assigned before the rule its also how a lot of the plain states have W calls. if I am not mistaken KYW call was originally issued to Chicago. also the tv station actual callsign is KYW-TV KDKA call is also KDKA-TV the non -FM -TV is for the AM station. another odd thing with callsigns you can have say WABZ in buffalo while WABZ-FM in Indianapolis and WABZ-TV in Atlanta.
@@notvalidcharacters Carter's DOJ filed an antitrust action against the National Association of Broadcasters. Long story short, there was a consent decree after the legal action.
@@titanytofficial_ No. Larry's wrong. Again. NBC and Westinghouse had traded Philadelphia/Cleveland stations 1956. The KYW callsign moved from Philly to Cleveland. Nine years later FCC ruled that that trade had to be undone, and the KYW callsign returned to Philly, where it's literally on the air right now, radio and television. When I was a wee tyke our Channel 3 TV and our AM 1060 were called WRCV; when I got to be a young teen they changed to KYW. They're still KYW now.
KYW operated in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1950s and to the mid-1960s, when they gave the call letters to a Philadelphia TV station, and then took up the call letters of WKYC, which is still in use at the present day.
Actually KYW started in Chicago 1921, moved to Philly 1934, Nineteen years later it launched its TV station having bought WPTZ from Philco. Three years later Westinghouse and NBC worked a trade where KYW and WPTZ would move from Philly to Cleveland and NBC's WTAM (radio) and WNBK (TV) would move in the reverse direction. The traded stations assumed the callsigns WRCV in Philly and KYW in Cleveland. They simply swapped licenses and renamed the stations. But nine years later after much legal wrangling FCC ordered that the trade could not stand and had to be reversed; at that point (1965) WRCV-TV in Philly Ch 3 became KYW, as did the radio station.
