Gray Television stations to air national anthem

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://www.wibw.com/content/news/511041401.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/ente...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.de9a50947ffe

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Grey Television stations across the country, including three in Alabama, are set to revive the practice of ending the broadcast day by playing the national anthem.

Al.com reports news stations traditionally ended each day with the anthem until the switch to 24-hour broadcasts. The stations’ lineup will begin to feature the patriotic addition on June 18.

A video of the planned cap to the broadcast shows Reina Özbay, a 9-year-old singer from Florida, belting out the national anthem as landscapes flash across the screen and people of several ethnicities are shown near or holding U.S. flags. Also shown are armed military members, farms, wild horses, fireworks, a whale and what appears to a be a drone shot of a small-town church.

Starting June 18th on WOIO-TV Cleveland, Hawaii News Now in Honolulu and other Gray Owned stations.

Does this mean like after Late Night Programming from the respective networks Gray have Affiliations with? Or does this mean after the Gray produced local newscasts prior to airing late night programming from the networks and syndication in cities where Gray has a CW and Fox affiliation as the definition as the end of the broadcast day.

 

[drt]

WWSB - ABC7 Sarasota, FL will be doing this and although not related to Gray broadcasting in any way (that I’m aware of)......AM 640- WVLG- the Villages (owners listed at the Villages LLC) has been doing this for at least the last 10 years; at midnight every night, they play the National Anthem and then resume their 24/7 programming.

 

[crainbebo]

Just saying, I'd rather see the National Anthem, color bars, then poof - off the air! Of course, in today's day and age, 'NO SIGNAL' floating across the screen.

 

[Mr Tony]

Just saying, I'd rather see the National Anthem, color bars, then poof - off the air! Of course, in today's day and age, 'NO SIGNAL' floating across the screen.

Its done here in Mankato on newly owned Gray station KEYC (formerly owned by United Communications Corp until May 1st). At 1am the Fox subchannel plays the anthem then goes to weather maps with local wx radio audio. At 1:06am (after Last Man Standing) KEYC CBS has their sign off message, then the anthem, then the maps and **poof** transmitter turned off. Local cable (Charter & Consolidated) along with Dish and Directv have the maps overnight as they get a direct connection. In fact an engineer at KEYC mentions what they do when we chatted about the overnight programming
The MC op punches the weather graphics loop for video, WXK40 for audio, kills the carrier, and ends their shift. Four systems (DirecTV, Dish, Charter, Consolidated) - and anyone they might happen to provide second-generation feeds to - carry that programming throughout the night.

I know years ago (8 or 9 years ago) they use to have paid programs throughout the night for cable and satellite but again the OTA transmitter gets shut down nightly. One positive thing is when there is a national program that pre-empts syndicated shows (as is the case with womens world cup soccer on FOX) they just move that stuff to after their "normal" broadcast day. So as example Judge Judy, normally seen on FOX Mankato at 1 & 1:30pm is being shown tonight at 12:37 & 1:07 on KEYC CBS. Face the Truth moves from 2pm to 1am on FOX. Family Feud, shown normally at 3 & 3:30pm they are splitting up the shows. One at 1:37 on CBS and the other at 2am on FOX. This allows them to sign off at 2:30am. Whats nuts is tomorrow night due to having 2 games alot of syndicated programming is being shifted around so Thursday Night into Friday they sign off for 53 minutes. Last show ends at 3:37am and at 4:30 they sign back on. With national programming on FOX this weekend then the CBS station will take the syndicated programming so we dont have 6 hours of paid programs on "no CBS golf Sundays"

 

[crainbebo]

So it won't be anything different to KEYC, just a different National Anthem video. Here in Yakima, we were really late to going 24/7.
KAPP (ABC) went 24/7 last, around 2012. Prior, they were signing off every night. They pipe in MeTV on weekend early AMs which used to be off-air time.
KIMA (CBS) went 24/7 around 2011. The rest went 24/7 earlier, KYVE around 2002-03, KCYU around the mid '90s and KNDO around 1996.
With the sheer amount of infomercials and other junk overnight, too bad they all don't go off at night nowadays. I'd rather hear 'this concludes our broadcast day...good night!' at 1:00AM than 'the following is a paid program'.
There wasn't any backup programming for cable either in the '90s/'00s. When the local went off, cable viewers saw loud static.