"Disclaimers" on early videotaped broadcasts?

[Stanislav]

Doing some reading lately about the introduction of videotape. I'm curious -- when tape was first being used in a limited fashion during the late 50's, did stations or networks ever regularly issue a disclaimer of sorts (on-screen or before/after the program) that what viewers were seeing was not "live?" I wonder because between the general unfamiliarity of viewers with the technology and the fact that it visually virtually indistinguishable from a live broadcast, there may well have been misunderstanding or confusion at times.

I know that eventually local stations started adding the generalized disclaimer at s/off that "some programs seen on W***-TV may be pre-recorded for broadcast at their regularly scheduled time." Or the alternate phrase "mechanically reproduced" which I always thought was a bit "off" (it made it sound like they were turning stuff out on a lathe or something....). :

 

[wbhist]

In fact, it was in the late 1950's that such language began being used on sign-offs (i.e. "Part of today's programming was pre-recorded and on film"). Furthermore, the earliest local newscast that I know of to have a disclaimer (that's still around) was the final WCBS-TV local newscast in 1965 to be anchored by Robert Trout, before he passed the baton on to Jim Jensen. At the end of the newscast, was the "Portions of this broadcast were pre-recorded" disclaimer that would be in the announcer's script for the next two decades (albeit with the "pre-" part taken out by the 1970's).

What I'm interested in is when copyright disclaimers began to be incorporated into sign-offs (e.g. "Reproduction, in part or in whole, of today's broadcast day is expressly prohibited without the prior written permission of W***-TV"). The earliest I've heard of those were in 1963-64.

 

[Stanislav]

I guess the point I was making is that while most people can tell the difference between live and film, tape looks almost as crisp as a live broadcast, so especially in the early days they might have made specific disclaimers regarding a broadcast that was taped? Especially when it came to news or actuality type shows?

 

[mleach]

What I'm interested in is when copyright disclaimers began to be incorporated into sign-offs (e.g. "Reproduction, in part or in whole, of today's broadcast day is expressly prohibited without the prior written permission of W***-TV"). The earliest I've heard of those were in 1963-64.

Not sure about the earliest but Hagerstown, Maryland's WHAG-TV 25 ran such a disclamer at their sign-off as late as 1988 !!! I believe it went something like "..and reproduction or videotaping of programming that airs on WHAG-TV is prohibited without the prior written permission of WHAG..for more info you can contact "John Doe" ( I don't remember the name ) at 301 ***-**** during regular business hours..."

of course by 1988..many of families had VCRs..wonder how many Hagerstown families actually contacted WHAG-TV to get the ok? My guess...nobody did !!

 

[oldiesfan6479]

Even though a station had to do a "mech rep" announcement
only once a day (IIRC), KOOL-TV Phoenix would, well into the
1970s or maybe even later, mech rep prior to each program
that wasn't local live or network live. Being in the Mountain
time zone, a lot of net was delayed, some only by one hour,
which resulted in this very common ID audio (over slide):

"KOOL-TV channel 10 Phoenix, on tape"

Ahead of a syndicated rerun, local movie, or the very annoying
occasion where a CBS show was airing from a horrible 16mm
reduction print:

"KOOL-TV channel 10 Phoenix, on film"

By the early 1980s, either someone convinced Tom Chauncey to
modify this, or it was after he sold the station, as the individual
mech reps were gone but a "recorded earlier" font was slapped
over the beginning of any topical program (network news for
example). At one point in time the fonts were individually modified
to show the actual time it was recorded ("recorded at 4:00pm"--
i.e., second feed--for Cronkite/Gunga Dan in the summer).

 

[LABreeze]

I know this sounds a bit off-topic, but does anyone remember when local stations replayed either the 10pm or 11pm news late at night always show a disclaimer prior to it that says this (and I'm using KLTV Tyler as an example):

"To benefit those who did not have the opportunity to see late news, we at KLTV will now provide a replay of the 10pm news."

or

"The following program, East Texas News, is videotaped for playback at this time."

I'm sure that this practice started about late 1978 or 1979. But I remember something to that nature that may have done this earlier than this.

 

[KeithE4]

Even though a station had to do a "mech rep" announcement
only once a day (IIRC), KOOL-TV Phoenix would, well into the
1970s or maybe even later, mech rep prior to each program
that wasn't local live or network live. Being in the Mountain
time zone, a lot of net was delayed, some only by one hour,
which resulted in this very common ID audio (over slide):

"KOOL-TV channel 10 Phoenix, on tape"

The entire ID went: "Blessed is the nation who's God is the Lord. KOOL-TV Channel 10 Phoenix, on tape." (or "on film"). They ran it at least through the mid '70s.

 

[Stanislav]

Even though a station had to do a "mech rep" announcement
only once a day (IIRC), KOOL-TV Phoenix would, well into the
1970s or maybe even later, mech rep prior to each program
that wasn't local live or network live. Being in the Mountain
time zone, a lot of net was delayed, some only by one hour,
which resulted in this very common ID audio (over slide):

"KOOL-TV channel 10 Phoenix, on tape"

The entire ID went: "Blessed is the nation who's God is the Lord. KOOL-TV Channel 10 Phoenix, on tape." (or "on film"). They ran it at least through the mid '70s.

??? Huh? What's with the Biblical quotation? That's exactly the same quote (from the Psalms, I believe) that TBN used to use on some local affiliate IDs back in the 80's/early 90's (they may still, but I wouldn't know as I never watch that circus). To use that on a commercial basically non-religious station is odd, to say the least. Wasn't Gene Autry one of the owners back then? I know he used to do some appearances in churches and such, but he never struck me as some sort of mega-Christian who would have branded his secular TV station with scriptural quotations.

 

[KeithE4]

The entire ID went: "Blessed is the nation who's God is the Lord. KOOL-TV Channel 10 Phoenix, on tape." (or "on film"). They ran it at least through the mid '70s.

??? Huh? What's with the Biblical quotation? That's exactly the same quote (from the Psalms, I believe) that TBN used to use on some local affiliate IDs back in the 80's/early 90's (they may still, but I wouldn't know as I never watch that circus). To use that on a commercial basically non-religious station is odd, to say the least. Wasn't Gene Autry one of the owners back then? I know he used to do some appearances in churches and such, but he never struck me as some sort of mega-Christian who would have branded his secular TV station with scriptural quotations.

I should have mentioned that the ID slide was a large American flag with the call letters, channel, and COL at the bottom, IIRC. I can't find an image of it on the internet but I'm sure somebody has one archived somewhere.

And it worked in the Phoenix of the '60s & '70s. This was a pretty hard-core right-wing city back then.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

The entire ID went: "Blessed is the nation who's God is the Lord. KOOL-TV
Channel 10 Phoenix, on tape."

Which was used when extra time was available, such as out of local news
or syndication to the next program.

Between network shows there was only :03 allocated for the ID over and
above the :30 or :60 for spots, so the short-form (sans Biblical quote)
was used more often.

I should have mentioned that the ID slide was a large American flag with
the call letters, channel, and COL at the bottom, IIRC.

Speaking of IIRC-ing , the flag ID slide was the common one, when KOOL-TV
wanted to bless the nation, it was a slide depicting two hands praying, along
with the legal ID info below. Nicknamed "the hands ID."