TV Sign Off Collection - 1956 to 1975

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ความคิดเห็น • 363

  • @Radiotexas
    @Radiotexas ปีที่แล้ว +99

    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.

    • @gidzmobug2323
      @gidzmobug2323 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      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.

    • @batmandestroys1978
      @batmandestroys1978 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      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!

    • @robmclean4352
      @robmclean4352 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      @@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!

    • @ChristopherHagee
      @ChristopherHagee 14 วันที่ผ่านมา

      Well, starting in 1963, CBS O./O. stas. started doing 23 hr.-long bcst. days during wk.

  • @brandtfj
    @brandtfj ปีที่แล้ว +76

    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!

    • @coolworx
      @coolworx ปีที่แล้ว +10

      _They're Here...._

    • @jaceyarnett4441
      @jaceyarnett4441 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      I get spooky vibes from a lot of them! It's a weird feeling in the 21st century for the world to just shut down for the evening.

    • @KSparks80
      @KSparks80 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      When the broadcast turned to the snow, we always said the "ant races" were on. lol

    • @markfahley2152
      @markfahley2152 ปีที่แล้ว +8

      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

    • @Sailormac2
      @Sailormac2 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      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.

  • @ryanbarker5217
    @ryanbarker5217 ปีที่แล้ว +72

    it's hard to believe i was alive at a time when t.v. stations actually went off the air.

    • @sa3270
      @sa3270 ปีที่แล้ว +14

      And "technical difficulties" were common throughout the day.

    • @kaymuldoon3575
      @kaymuldoon3575 ปีที่แล้ว +10

      Yes, there was no such thing as 24 hour news or television back then.

    • @darwincity
      @darwincity 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      There are still some stations that have « down times ».

    • @Sailormac2
      @Sailormac2 26 วันที่ผ่านมา

      @@sa3270 Oh, yes. Many a time when computers have decided to get cranky in the workplace, I’ve recited, “We are experiencing technical difficulties, please stand by” and gotten a “WTF?” glance from younger colleagues.

  • @stephenr3910
    @stephenr3910 ปีที่แล้ว +60

    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.

    • @BlackAndWhiteBand
      @BlackAndWhiteBand ปีที่แล้ว +13

      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.

    • @stephenr3910
      @stephenr3910 ปีที่แล้ว +7

      @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.

    • @ChristopherHagee
      @ChristopherHagee 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      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 affiliate, 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)

    • @stephenr3910
      @stephenr3910 9 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      @@ChristopherHagee I went to college in the Lehigh Valley and watched that channel sometimes.

  • @tommyboy5455
    @tommyboy5455 ปีที่แล้ว +43

    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.

    • @gidzmobug2323
      @gidzmobug2323 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      You must have lived close to the Canadian border.

    • @player4life11111
      @player4life11111 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      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.

    • @tommyboy5455
      @tommyboy5455 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@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.

    • @player4life11111
      @player4life11111 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      @@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.

    • @tommyboy5455
      @tommyboy5455 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      @@player4life11111 yes for sure. The fact we go 100mph 24/7 now makes very little sense. We are definitely not better or happier for it.

  • @jaceyarnett4441
    @jaceyarnett4441 ปีที่แล้ว +21

    I’m not from this generation, but some of them give me an eerie feeling but also calm. Anyone else feel this way and why?

    • @gunnoir
      @gunnoir ปีที่แล้ว +5

      @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.

    • @gregorydensford7185
      @gregorydensford7185 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      It was totally creepy, but I loved it.

    • @ostrich67
      @ostrich67 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

      Radio and TV broadcasters were trained to have a low, soothing voice. That sort of went away in the '90s as those old-school guys retired.

  • @embyquinn
    @embyquinn ปีที่แล้ว +46

    9:24 I love this guy. No frills, no details about megacycles or radio listening, just "Time for us all to say goodnight! To bed!"

    • @ELOVE4U
      @ELOVE4U ปีที่แล้ว +5

      😂😂😂😂😂 oh my God sound like he was tired too

    • @gidzmobug2323
      @gidzmobug2323 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      That was WNAC-TV (now known as WHDH-TV).

  • @santafe37s
    @santafe37s ปีที่แล้ว +25

    A shame these stations don't use the "seal of good practice" anymore.

    • @armorybrunotjr.3204
      @armorybrunotjr.3204 19 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

      That's because by 1982, the Television Code was phased out by Natonal Adssociation of Broadcasters.

  • @MrMenefrego1
    @MrMenefrego1 ปีที่แล้ว +43

    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.

    • @artiek1177
      @artiek1177 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      I remember that. It seemed so exiting that the station didn’t sign off that night.

  • @MikeS91712
    @MikeS91712 ปีที่แล้ว +32

    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
      @johnnyelectron ปีที่แล้ว +3

      And Gordon Ward had the "Venner-Ward Report" on WSPD-TV 13 in Toledo before it became WTVG.

    • @MikeS91712
      @MikeS91712 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      @@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

    • @TheBoysTopSecretisOrganization
      @TheBoysTopSecretisOrganization ปีที่แล้ว +1

      only in ohio

  • @1950Grendel
    @1950Grendel ปีที่แล้ว +27

    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.

    • @gidzmobug2323
      @gidzmobug2323 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      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.

    • @dalekapler4487
      @dalekapler4487 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      I've enjoyed it Great work

  • @bringyourownsnake980
    @bringyourownsnake980 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    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.

  • @radgaltunes399
    @radgaltunes399 ปีที่แล้ว +25

    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."

    • @TheEmeraldMenOfficial
      @TheEmeraldMenOfficial ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Where to? I feel like this would be near an RCAF base :)

    • @dragonmeddler2152
      @dragonmeddler2152 ปีที่แล้ว +6

      ...reached out my hand and touched the face of God.

    • @TheSonnyhorse
      @TheSonnyhorse ปีที่แล้ว +2

      I remember as well, in the Bay Area. Those sign offs gave me such a strange feeling...hard to explain.

    • @fmw63
      @fmw63 ปีที่แล้ว

      I remember this too in the DC area, I think into the 80’s!

    • @DQ-su6qf
      @DQ-su6qf ปีที่แล้ว

      In Los Angeles as well

  • @karlstuber6399
    @karlstuber6399 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    HBO would go off the air 30 minutes after I got home from work.1979, not sure how many years this went on.

    • @Sailormac2
      @Sailormac2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      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!

  • @saraphinn
    @saraphinn ปีที่แล้ว +9

    These DJs were fire, such professionalism, I so love them

  • @deathstrike
    @deathstrike 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    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.

  • @dragonmeddler2152
    @dragonmeddler2152 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    Our local TV station (WIBW-13) used to sign off with a reading of High Flight over airborne film of various USAF fighter and bomber aircraft.

    • @blackwingy
      @blackwingy ปีที่แล้ว +3

      So did one of our stations in Los Angeles in the 70s.

    • @davidchildress6432
      @davidchildress6432 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Fresno California had the bee

    • @notvalidcharacters
      @notvalidcharacters ปีที่แล้ว +1

      That says SO much about American values.

    • @dragonmeddler2152
      @dragonmeddler2152 ปีที่แล้ว

      @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.

    • @notvalidcharacters
      @notvalidcharacters ปีที่แล้ว

      @@dragonmeddler2152 Oh we were not. Be serious.

  • @emilyofjane
    @emilyofjane ปีที่แล้ว +19

    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?

    • @stephenr3910
      @stephenr3910 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      They had film of Airforce planes in formation during the national anthem. And landmarks like Mount Rushmore.

    • @WINDOWSFAN1998
      @WINDOWSFAN1998 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

      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.

  • @CONCERTMANchicago
    @CONCERTMANchicago ปีที่แล้ว +5

    _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.

  • @johnr5252
    @johnr5252 ปีที่แล้ว +12

    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.

  • @misskitty4296
    @misskitty4296 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    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

    • @alromeo17
      @alromeo17 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      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.

  • @NYNick49
    @NYNick49 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    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!!

    • @gidzmobug2323
      @gidzmobug2323 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      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.

  • @g.y.u3649
    @g.y.u3649 3 ปีที่แล้ว +20

    I remember these! I wish I could find the black and white ones played in the late 60s-early 70s in Minneapolis, MN.

  • @renitaparkhurst3636
    @renitaparkhurst3636 3 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Too many memories from my childhood and staying up late

  • @stephenr3910
    @stephenr3910 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    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."

  • @thewkovacs316
    @thewkovacs316 2 ปีที่แล้ว +15

    i still remember when stations would sign off
    god im old

    • @Thetrueking-gr2ss
      @Thetrueking-gr2ss 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      You're not alone. Same here

    • @petebradt
      @petebradt ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Thetrueking-gr2ss I'm ***69*** in two weeks.

    • @notvalidcharacters
      @notvalidcharacters ปีที่แล้ว +2

      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 ;)

    • @thewkovacs316
      @thewkovacs316 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@notvalidcharacters that's cool. i dont ever remember one station replacing another after sign off

  • @warlaker
    @warlaker ปีที่แล้ว +9

    "Public interest" and "responsibilities to the community" If only those were still so today, but all that is long gone.

  • @Sailormac2
    @Sailormac2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    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!”

    • @gidzmobug2323
      @gidzmobug2323 26 วันที่ผ่านมา +1

      KCET, the local PBS station, along with the USC band.

  • @charlesmandus574
    @charlesmandus574 2 ปีที่แล้ว +9

    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.

    • @LaptopLarry330
      @LaptopLarry330 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      WOR Channel 9, New York still showed episodes of “Speed Racer in the late-1970s and early-1980s.

    • @gidzmobug2323
      @gidzmobug2323 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      KSBC-TV used to run Speed Racer back in the 1970s. Telemundo owns the station (now known as KVEA-TV).

    • @SenileOtaku
      @SenileOtaku ปีที่แล้ว +2

      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.

    • @gidzmobug2323
      @gidzmobug2323 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@SenileOtaku I would not look at DVDs as "cheating" (I used to tape programs when VCRs were big). You simy get to watch the program on your schedule.

    • @ostrich67
      @ostrich67 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      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.

  • @moldyoldie7888
    @moldyoldie7888 2 ปีที่แล้ว +20

    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.

    • @1L6E6VHF
      @1L6E6VHF ปีที่แล้ว +2

      You forgot ads for snake oil, LOL

  • @fratzogmopars
    @fratzogmopars ปีที่แล้ว +4

    I guess the television code has gone out the window nowadays.

  • @morahleah613
    @morahleah613 3 ปีที่แล้ว +58

    I'm looking for one I sang on from Los Angeles in the 70s. It has the Pledge of Allegiance.

  • @kevinfitzmaurice4072
    @kevinfitzmaurice4072 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    48:22--The theme from the film "Goodbye, Columbus" was used for the KNBC-Los Angeles signoff.

    • @Sailormac2
      @Sailormac2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      And they had cool psychedelic graphics, too! Definitely one of the more distinctive sign offs!

  • @talon1706
    @talon1706 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    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
      @Dratchev241 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      it's 10PM do you know where your children are?

    • @TheJhn924
      @TheJhn924 ปีที่แล้ว

      WKBW channel 7... It's eleven O'clock. Do you know where your children are?

    • @davidchildress6432
      @davidchildress6432 ปีที่แล้ว

      Fresno California did the same thing

    • @Sailormac2
      @Sailormac2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@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!!!!”

    • @gidzmobug2323
      @gidzmobug2323 26 วันที่ผ่านมา

      Channel 11 here in LA (MetroMedia owned then) did that before the 10 pm news.

  • @armorybrunotjr.3204
    @armorybrunotjr.3204 3 ปีที่แล้ว +21

    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)

    • @dongabenski783
      @dongabenski783 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Gordon Ward later came to Toledo where he was co-anchor with Frank Venner on the Venner/Ward report on WSPD TV-13 for years.

    • @freedomanbar584
      @freedomanbar584 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      NBC,PBS,CBS,ABC,FOX

    • @RickinBaltimore
      @RickinBaltimore ปีที่แล้ว +2

      George Lewis of course in Baltimore was Captain Chesapeake

    • @armorybrunotjr.3204
      @armorybrunotjr.3204 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Bill Rice was the longtime announcer of various ABC news programs, such as "The ABC Evening News" and "World News Tonight".

    • @markasflood8196
      @markasflood8196 ปีที่แล้ว

      Do You Have Any Sign-Offs From The Local Hampton Roads VA Market?

  • @rosswarren436
    @rosswarren436 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    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.

  • @Hypatia52
    @Hypatia52 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    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.

  • @davidcouch6514
    @davidcouch6514 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    In the 50’s and 60’s the Miami Florida stations would stay on the air overnight Hurricane passing through.

  • @plunkervillerr1529
    @plunkervillerr1529 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    At 75 I remember this type of broadcasting in the New England area.

  • @blockcl
    @blockcl ปีที่แล้ว +3

    This is weirdly addictive.

  • @Staszu13
    @Staszu13 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    3:10 for WCAU that is John Facenda AKA Mr NFL Films

  • @mickflaire
    @mickflaire 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    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.

  • @radiomindchatter7994
    @radiomindchatter7994 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    The nights were different then..
    When the TV signed off..listened to the radio🌙

    • @sa3270
      @sa3270 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Or went to bed at a decent hour.

  • @followerofjulian1652
    @followerofjulian1652 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    1:01:55 Part of the first movement of Alan Hovhaness' Symphony No. 2, Op. 132, Mysterious Mountain. Remarkable that this music would be used!

  • @briancunningham3155
    @briancunningham3155 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    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.

    • @WINDOWSFAN1998
      @WINDOWSFAN1998 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

      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?

  • @clyde642006
    @clyde642006 หลายเดือนก่อน

    In Las Vegas in the 70s & early 80s channel 3 KVBC would play Simon & Garfunkel “Sounds of Silence” when they went off the air. 🎶

  • @MarkWhich
    @MarkWhich ปีที่แล้ว +8

    We slept very well back then, NO TV or any little technololgy gadget to keep us awake.

  • @nihilioellipsis
    @nihilioellipsis 8 วันที่ผ่านมา

    dozing off with the late late show on and then waking up to the snow

  • @fixman88
    @fixman88 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    47:10 Wait, a QSL card for a TV station? Wow.

  • @ciesaro
    @ciesaro ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Call me weird but as a kid seeing that NAB seal of approval used to scare the hell out of me

    • @notvalidcharacters
      @notvalidcharacters ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Actually that strikes me as a very healthy reaction. Your mendacity radar was functional.

    • @1950Grendel
      @1950Grendel ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Me, too. There was another of the "Town Crier" that looked like the Quaker Oats guy but with a frightened expression. That scared me, too.

    • @stephenr3910
      @stephenr3910 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      ​@1950Grendel I forgot about the Town Crier.

    • @cw9583
      @cw9583 4 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      The Civil Defense symbol used to scare me.

  • @PatGleeson123
    @PatGleeson123 2 ปีที่แล้ว +13

    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.

  • @luisreyes1963
    @luisreyes1963 3 ปีที่แล้ว +21

    Too bad you didn't get any vintage sign-offs from Chicago TV stations, especially from WGN-TV, WFLD or WSNS.

    • @syxepop
      @syxepop 3 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      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.

    • @tesfaystifanos3105
      @tesfaystifanos3105 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Wgn-tv 9

  • @roncaruso931
    @roncaruso931 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    The sign offs always had our National Anthem. The sign on always began with prayer. Not a bad idea to go back to that.

    • @santafe37s
      @santafe37s ปีที่แล้ว +1

      A shame we can't go back that way again.

    • @BobPagani
      @BobPagani ปีที่แล้ว

      Yes, we definitely need superstition shoved down our collective throat more.

    • @notvalidcharacters
      @notvalidcharacters ปีที่แล้ว

      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.

    • @roncaruso931
      @roncaruso931 ปีที่แล้ว

      @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.

    • @Surf456
      @Surf456 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@notvalidcharacters
      🇺🇸 🇺🇲 Yes! 🇺🇸 🇺🇲

  • @monaural2.988
    @monaural2.988 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    It’s AMAZING these exist at all. I wonder if any of the early morning farm reports of the 50s and 60s are anywhere?

  • @aaronlewis2486
    @aaronlewis2486 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    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.

  • @sushi_donut
    @sushi_donut ปีที่แล้ว +2

    This reminds me of Reviewbrah and VORW TheReportOfTheWeek 📻

  • @colettenasielski1533
    @colettenasielski1533 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    REALLY LOVE THIS

  • @tannarbuck7908
    @tannarbuck7908 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    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

    • @notvalidcharacters
      @notvalidcharacters ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Some radio stations signed off, some didn't.

  • @jerryhorn4697
    @jerryhorn4697 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    47:25: The announcer for WPGH, Channel 53 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, knowing this was the station's final day, sounds so depressed.

    • @LaptopLarry330
      @LaptopLarry330 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      WPGH Channel 53 did indeed return to the air, and are still broadcasting today.

    • @kurttoy5035
      @kurttoy5035 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

      I wonder who the voice was. The only announcer names from that incarnation of WPGH 1969-71 that I know of are Pat Fitzgerald and Mel Berman.

  • @patrickmulligan6004
    @patrickmulligan6004 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    love the sign off

    • @luisreyes1963
      @luisreyes1963 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Too bad nobody does it anymore. 😢

  • @JoanSmith-t7k
    @JoanSmith-t7k ปีที่แล้ว +1

    NO, in the 1960s and 70s we never had a Channel 3 ; BUT, I
    miss it, when the announcer used to say KNXT Ch 2, in
    Los Angeles ...😢

  • @ColetteNasielski-c3i
    @ColetteNasielski-c3i 26 วันที่ผ่านมา

    I remember WCAU when Gene Crane was there and still is

  • @kylebulger4240
    @kylebulger4240 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    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

  • @joeadams-iv9yb
    @joeadams-iv9yb ปีที่แล้ว +2

    One station i would listen to in Louisiana would go out with dixieland sung by Elvis Aaron Presley.

    • @littleprincess4417
      @littleprincess4417 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      That was KTBS-3. Not sure why they didn’t include the sign off from them, but they were expressly mentioned at the beginning.

    • @srb725
      @srb725 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@littleprincess4417It might be because of the Dixieland song.

    • @littleprincess4417
      @littleprincess4417 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Probably because of the idiots who want to totally destroy the southern heritage. @@srb725

  • @kurttoy5035
    @kurttoy5035 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    I would like to see, in addition to the WPGH sign-off, those from KDKA-2, WTAE-4, WIIC/WPXI-11, and WPTT-22, other Pittsburgh stations.

    • @brentonyancheck4861
      @brentonyancheck4861 ปีที่แล้ว

      Also WJAC, Johnstown/Altoona

    • @ostrich67
      @ostrich67 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      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.

  • @gidzmobug2323
    @gidzmobug2323 3 ปีที่แล้ว +10

    How did they think people would copy programs if VCRs were not around in the 1960s?
    Wow, WNAC has a super-short signoff (9:22)

    • @solinus7131
      @solinus7131 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      There were film video cameras then

    • @dylaninpieces2
      @dylaninpieces2 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @Adam Stabelli Also, Quadruplex tape machines.

    • @1L6E6VHF
      @1L6E6VHF 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      It was about 1970 that 1/2" inch open-reel monochrome video recorders became affordable to fans interested in them (about $1000 USD).

    • @1L6E6VHF
      @1L6E6VHF 2 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@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.

    • @notvalidcharacters
      @notvalidcharacters ปีที่แล้ว

      Kinescope?

  • @bernierecker
    @bernierecker ปีที่แล้ว +1

    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.

  • @stringercorrales6627
    @stringercorrales6627 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    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.

  • @jupiterinaries6150
    @jupiterinaries6150 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I always liked the one where that pilot is flying a plane .

  • @cpcva724
    @cpcva724 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    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.

  • @keithhyttinen8275
    @keithhyttinen8275 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Ours in Detroit had a speech by George Washington with something about leading "sheep to the slaughter" or something.

    • @notvalidcharacters
      @notvalidcharacters ปีที่แล้ว

      Now THAT would be singularly appropriate for a boob tube channel.

  • @eXtremeFX2010
    @eXtremeFX2010 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Amazing! People used to go to Bed and actually Sleep?

  • @gsnfan
    @gsnfan 3 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    20:30 Same sign off used for decades even after the call letters changed to WPVI in 1971.

    • @gidzmobug2323
      @gidzmobug2323 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      WABC's signoff has not changed much, either.

    • @Sailormac2
      @Sailormac2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      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.

  • @MJBYouTubeNetwork
    @MJBYouTubeNetwork 4 หลายเดือนก่อน

    KTWO Casper, Wyoming, the present day ABC Affiliate (K2) carried ALL THREE big networks? ABC, CBS *AND* NBC? Ha! That's amazing!

  • @ortizramon
    @ortizramon 3 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I'm surprised by the amount of airwave watts these station transmitter pump out.

  • @JHollowayNetwork
    @JHollowayNetwork ปีที่แล้ว +1

    What about the 1963 TV signoffs including the NYC stations? (WCBS, WNBC, WNEW, WABC, WOR and WPIX)

  • @samuelward1188
    @samuelward1188 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Tv must've been good back then and then when it would sign off at night because it wouldn't run as it does now I wish I was around to see that

  • @RedArwBus
    @RedArwBus ปีที่แล้ว +1

    KYW 3 IS NOW CBS 3 IN PHILADELPHIA

  • @jerryhorn4697
    @jerryhorn4697 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    48:08: The announcer for KBOI, Channel 2, in Boise, Idaho. Are you speaking from down inside the city's sewer?

  • @jerryhorn4697
    @jerryhorn4697 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    57:15: Washington has GROWpower??? Oh I'm laughing!!! Nowadays, Washington, D.C., has BLOWpower and WOEpower and NOpower!!!

  • @joshgalka9414
    @joshgalka9414 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Cool!

  • @anthonysmith1882
    @anthonysmith1882 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    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😳💀

  • @JTSunriseMusic
    @JTSunriseMusic 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    SuperCool

  • @Cooldude-bg1jn
    @Cooldude-bg1jn ปีที่แล้ว

    These sign offs helps me sleep

  • @JoanSmith-t7k
    @JoanSmith-t7k ปีที่แล้ว +2

    At 50:36, No, I don't remember that ...

  • @titanytofficial_
    @titanytofficial_ 3 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Cleveland looks so little. (KYW 3 1956)

    • @LaptopLarry330
      @LaptopLarry330 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Eventually, the TV station gave the KYW call letters to a Philadelphia TV station, and became WKYC.

    • @notvalidcharacters
      @notvalidcharacters ปีที่แล้ว

      @@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.

    • @titanytofficial_
      @titanytofficial_ ปีที่แล้ว

      @@notvalidcharacters I know

  • @happyhardcore4everr
    @happyhardcore4everr ปีที่แล้ว +2

    KYW 3 tv is now CBS in Philadelphia.

    • @LaptopLarry330
      @LaptopLarry330 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      Yes, and the Cleveland TV station has the call letters of WKYC.

  • @JoanSmith-t7k
    @JoanSmith-t7k ปีที่แล้ว +1

    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 !!!😮

  • @franktillman295
    @franktillman295 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    What about the Vietnam era National Anthem 🇺🇸🇺🇸

  • @axy56
    @axy56 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    How many sign off audio are found on website

  • @AmethystLeslie
    @AmethystLeslie ปีที่แล้ว +3

    1:09:33 Oh hey, I guess Channel 41 in NYC was always a Spanish-language channel judging from this person's accent.
    That's Univision.

  • @kelanjones7281
    @kelanjones7281 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I wish there was a WCBI sign off

  • @x60hz
    @x60hz 2 ปีที่แล้ว +29

    The obvious question here is how the hell did you get all of these???

    • @Thetrueking-gr2ss
      @Thetrueking-gr2ss 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

      My sentiments exactly

    • @chrisolson968
      @chrisolson968 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      He knows people.

    • @LaptopLarry330
      @LaptopLarry330 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      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.

    • @notvalidcharacters
      @notvalidcharacters ปีที่แล้ว

      @@LaptopLarry330 Judging by the horrible audio quality these didn't come from the stations, trust me.

    • @ChristopherSobieniak
      @ChristopherSobieniak ปีที่แล้ว +1

      ​@@notvalidcharactersI'm sure many of these are the usual "point a mike at the TV speaker" method anyone with a tape recorder could do.

  • @briane173
    @briane173 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I wanna know how a Cleveland TV station got to use the KYW call sign when every other station east of the Mississippi had to use a "W" in theirs.

    • @ostrich67
      @ostrich67 ปีที่แล้ว +2

      Other than KDKA that is. Probably they were assigned that before the rule was established.

    • @Dratchev241
      @Dratchev241 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      @@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.

    • @BobPagani
      @BobPagani ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Dratchev241 Multiple stations with the same call letters is a fairly recent phenomena.

    • @Dratchev241
      @Dratchev241 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@BobPagani not really. unless you could the 1940s/50s as fairly recent.

    • @BobPagani
      @BobPagani ปีที่แล้ว

      @@Dratchev241 I think it's more recent than that.

  • @sa3270
    @sa3270 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Mega-"cycles"?

  • @rpmcanada1971
    @rpmcanada1971 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    How to get rid of blinding white backgrounds (when Audio only)? Quite annoying. Black background and white writing is much better...

  • @kevins6114
    @kevins6114 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    When did KYW operate in Cleveland (and not in Philly)?

    • @jefflowe2377
      @jefflowe2377 ปีที่แล้ว

      KYW ( Group W ) in Philadelphia . same company .

    • @aprilbillingsley2835
      @aprilbillingsley2835 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      That’s correct

    • @LaptopLarry330
      @LaptopLarry330 ปีที่แล้ว

      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.

    • @notvalidcharacters
      @notvalidcharacters ปีที่แล้ว

      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.

  • @CowboysNo1Fan
    @CowboysNo1Fan 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    KTWO 2, affiliate of the Big Three back in 1965

    • @NelvanaFan1971
      @NelvanaFan1971 ปีที่แล้ว

      they were the only one in wyoming

  • @Thetrueking-gr2ss
    @Thetrueking-gr2ss 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Cool stuff

  • @thepathoforion
    @thepathoforion ปีที่แล้ว +1

    How about a video compilation of old test patterns?

    • @LaptopLarry330
      @LaptopLarry330 ปีที่แล้ว

      There are some videos of old test pattern cards available for viewing here on TH-cam.