KYW time tones gone?

[Miguelito]

I rarely listen to KYW anymore (apparently, I'm not exactly alone in that) but I tuned in a few minutes ago. Have they done away with the time tone at the top & bottom of the hours?

 

[ixnay]

I rarely listen to KYW anymore (apparently, I'm not exactly alone in that) but I tuned in a few minutes ago. Have they done away with the time tone at the top & bottom of the hours?

I heard the tone at 12 noon today.

ixnay

 

[Steve Green NEPA]

While not especially germane to the thread (and I only had one radio handy, anyway) I just checked WTIC 1080 Hartford at their 4AM TOH. Sure enough, in the middle of a spot went off that Beethoven's 5th time tone that they have used for decades.

The firehouse about a mile south toots off their siren every day at noon. For a year it had been going off at high 11:58. So I guess they've changed the battery or the rodent.

If I'm awake at 4:30 or 5, I'll check out KYW.

 

[Gregg.]

It's interesting that the all-news stations that had been CBS-owned eliminated the tone at :30 past the hour years ago. I suppose WCBS and other stations figured it didn't want to force the anchors to back-time twice per hour to meet a tone. The top-of-the-hour tone is part of the network news, so that one is still there. The anchors must back-time to meet that tone.

At one time, WCBS used four tones at the top of the hour, three soft and the final tone louder, to help you set your clocks or watches. A few times per day, there was even a message with a deep voice telling us "Set your clock to WCBS. Four tones will follow. The final loudest tone marks the exact time. gong, gong, gong, GONG." I think that got eliminated back in the 1980s. The four-gong, top of the hour tone was gone, along with the :30 single tone. And in reality, the tones today on KYW, WINS and WCBS are not exact, due to the time lag for HD Radio.

Westinghouse-owned KYW and WINS kept their :30 tone. They were not owned by CBS until the 1990s, so they didn't eliminate the :30 tones along with the other CBS all-news stations.

How about the other former Westinghouse all-news station, WBZ Boston? It's not quite the same, since it only went all-news in the early 2000s, not back in the 1960s like WINS, KYW and KFWB Los Angeles. WBZ has a top of the hour tone but the anchors often ignore it. If they meet it, great. If not, no big deal. They might be finishing the end-of-the-hour weather and the tone sounds while they are still reading the forecast. They simply finish the weather and hit the sounder to introduce the new hour when they're ready. I'm not sure if WBZ kept or eliminated the :30 tone.

 

[CTListener]

While not especially germane to the thread (and I only had one radio handy, anyway) I just checked WTIC 1080 Hartford at their 4AM TOH. Sure enough, in the middle of a spot went off that Beethoven's 5th time tone that they have used for decades.

Since WW2, I believe, since that snippet of the Fifth corresponds to the Morse for "V" as in "Victory." The BBC originated it, and it was played -- on a kettle drum -- as an interval signal for some of its shortwave transmissions well into the '80s, maybe longer. To get back on topic, sort of, the BBC World Service's TOH time indicator is also decades old: a series of six "pips," with the sixth and longest of them falling on the exact second.

 

[HGN2001]

If you want the correct time, tune in WWV, Fort Collins, CO. on short wave. If they had a slogan it should be, "All the time, all the time!"