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Canadian Sunset (Signoff Instrumental)

K.M. Richards said:
Who cares who did it? The fact is that it was a unique situation, which you summarized very well. It really doesn't matter if the newspaper got it wrong, and it's lost to history.

People often accuse me of not easily letting go of trivial sidebars in threads, but you take the trophy, Chimp.
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Finding out who sang that song is a monkey on his back!
 
WGOE in Richmond VA used to sign off with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans "Happy Trails to You" followed immediately by a raspberry.

Fifty plus years ago I worked at WDNC in Durham NC, starting as the 9p to 12m guy. (I had been there 2 years before the GM even knew my name and always referred to me as "the night man.") The last UPI state news summary moved on the wire at 8pm. I would record 5 minutes of state news, edit in the sign off script (..owned and operated by, etc) and the national anthem. When the midnight CBS news started, I would sign off the log, collect my things and put on my jacket. At the end of CBS, I would hit play on the Ampex and head out the door. I would be half way home before I would hear the transmitter engineer drop the carrier.
 
WMUL-33 in Huntington WV (then affiliated with Marshall University) used to sign off with "Summer Breeze" from Seals and Crofts, along with a photo montage, including one picture of The Huntington Advertiser left by someone's front door. This was early- to mid-1970s.

And while it wasn't a sign-off, but rather a sign-on, WKYT-27 in Lexington KY played an instrumental of Duane Eddy's "Because They're Young" before commencing daily programming, around the same time frame as WMUL. Go figure.
 
Some Canadian TV signoff BGMs I can think of:

CJOH Ottawa circa 1978 - an instrumental version of Maria Muldaur's "Midnight at the Oasis"
CBUT Vancouver circa 1979 - an instrumental version of "Someone to Watch Over Me"
CFRN Edmonton circa 1984 - an instrumental version of Drupi's "Vado Via"
CBC Nova Scotia late '80s/early '90s (and maybe earlier) - an instrumental of Anne Murray's "Snowbird"

CBWT Winnipeg in the '80s and early '90s (before CBC standardized the openings/closedowns for their O&O stations) went the smooth-jazz route, playing Lee Ritenour's "California Roll" at sign-on and Earl Klugh's "Crazy for You" at sign-off.
The CBUT, CFRN and CBWT sequences are all available on YouTube.
 
vchimpanzee said:
I like the Hugo Winterhalter version. I used to hear it many times on radio stations using satellite formats. It was a disappointment to hear the Andy Williams version instead. I know, how can Andy Williams ever be a disappointment.
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I don't care much for Andy Williams's version, either.

The instrumental by Hugo Winterhalter has been my favorite version since the first time I heard it on the radio (KABL, sometime in 2001).

kevtronics said:
I remember a station whose signoff number was "ground loop hum".
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I haven't heard that particular station, but I have heard "ground loop hum".

I can't say I care much for it though, because when I hear it, I feel stressed because it usually means something's wrong.

c
 
vchimpanzee said:
I found several songs that should have been in that list I sent you but weren't for some reason. I guess that will keep happening.
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Not a problem!

I'm always rediscovering songs that I've forgotten that should be in a playlist but isn't for whatever reason.

Tonight I dug through my boxes of 45s (many of which allegedly came from a defunct radio station back east somewhere; the rest I've collected myself from music shops and stuff), and I found all kinds of songs I forgot I actually had the records to that I had rediscovered on Youtube and such.

And then one I thought I had but apparently don't: The Hollies' "The Air That I Breathe."

Better fix that problem and get it on the proper vinyl!

c
 
alok said:
I do recall 1580 WPGC Morningside, MD (outside Washington, DC) , they were LOUD in Northern NJ at night just before their sign-off on 1580 AM . . . they would tell people that "If they had an FM radio they could keep "rockin" with WPGC-FM" . . . then the AM was gone. This was around 1967.
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I assume those AM daytimers that were simulcast with FM stations didn't make a big deal out of their sign-offs. After all, why put the FM listeners through non-entertainment elements just to inform the AM listeners? Legally, all a station must do to sign off is the legal I.D. Maybe some AM-FM combos had a cart that would run on the AM station only at sign off and maybe at sign on?
 
Gregg. said:
I assume those AM daytimers that were simulcast with FM stations didn't make a big deal out of their sign-offs. After all, why put the FM listeners through non-entertainment elements just to inform the AM listeners? Legally, all a station must do to sign off is the legal I.D. Maybe some AM-FM combos had a cart that would run on the AM station only at sign off and maybe at sign on?
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A lot of AMs do exactly that. The automated transmitter control software is programmed to play a MP3 with the legal ID which plays right before the sunset "plate off" command and then plays again at sunrise when the transmitter is turned on again.

But back in the days when FM was still working on parity with AM, the late Dave Hull used to make a five-minute long production out of signing off KGBS/1020 while continuing on KGBS-FM/97.1 ... they were really quite entertaining, and I used to tune in just to hear them.
 


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