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Last station to still use Indian Head TP?
- Thread starter crainbebo
- Start date
crainbebo said:
That's a great question. They all had them back in the 60s.
WOC-TV 6 (now KWQC) Davenport, IA (Quad Cities) had a sign-off ID message (with "Harmony" by the Ray Coniff Singers) during the early-to-mid 1980s that included the Indian Head TP, as this YouTube clip indicates. (One reply to this video indicated that this ID may have still been used until shortly after WOC changed calls to KWQC in fall 1986).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXXcObBjO0E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXXcObBjO0E
radioman148 said:
Some stations used a modified Indian Head, with a logo or call letters in place of the Indian (and the TP otherwise identical). I haven't seen a "straight" IHTP in ages, but I recall at least a couple of the GPTV (Georgia Public TV) stations continued to use such a modified TP (calls instead of Indian) well into the 80's. I specifically remember seeing it on 28 Columbus (WJSP) and maybe (?) on 15 Cochran (WDCO, which later moved to 29 and became WMUM). Oh, also 8 in Waycross (WXGA) was definitely still using their modified IHTP when I was in Jacksonville in the late 80's.
Remember the fake "Laughing Indian" TP SCTV used in its earliest years? (When they were still "channel 109" and they used the Spike Jones recording of "Dance of the Hours" for theme music?) ;D
Among those that replaced the Indian head on the top with call lettters, city and channel: One case that stands out to me is the former WFBM-TV (Ch. 6) in Indianapolis. Under these calls, the station had the usual lineup of fonts for such designs: Futura Bold for call letters, Futura Bold Condensed for city, and Futura Demi Bold for channel number. However, once the calls changed to WRTV in the 1970's, the same Indian head TP, on the top section, now used Helvetica in various weights for such info.
It also appears, based on the curved "CHANNEL" on such modified Indian head TP's, that RCA alternated between this design and another "lined" TP which also appeared to be made for monoscope applications, and a redrawing of which (only without the curved "CHANNEL" on the lower right hand side) can be seen here:
http://www.non-linearproductions.com/underground/Alt-Mono-TPv2.jpg
Some stations used both Indian head and alternate "lined" design, namely KRLD-TV (Ch. 4, now KDFW) in Dallas and the late WDAN-TV (Ch. 24) in Danville, IL (an ancestor to WICD, Ch. 15 in Champaign/Danville).
It also appears, based on the curved "CHANNEL" on such modified Indian head TP's, that RCA alternated between this design and another "lined" TP which also appeared to be made for monoscope applications, and a redrawing of which (only without the curved "CHANNEL" on the lower right hand side) can be seen here:
http://www.non-linearproductions.com/underground/Alt-Mono-TPv2.jpg
Some stations used both Indian head and alternate "lined" design, namely KRLD-TV (Ch. 4, now KDFW) in Dallas and the late WDAN-TV (Ch. 24) in Danville, IL (an ancestor to WICD, Ch. 15 in Champaign/Danville).
wbhist said:
Add one more to the list of former users of this type of test pattern. WGBX-TV (Channel 44, now DTV-43) in Boston used it, minus the "Indian Head" into the early 1970's. WGBX-TV was and still is the sister-station to WGBH-TV (Channel 2). At that time, Channel 44 was predominantly a simulcast of Channel 2 until the evening hours. In 1972, WGBX-TV had it's first power-increase to bring the signal more up to par with other UHF's in the market.
Since 44 was considered a secondary service at the time in the eyes of WGBH, the station shut down for several weeks to replace the antenna and amplifier system. When it returned to the air one early Saturday evening (with no prior warning) in '72, the test pattern was on for several hours. One thing that really surprised me when watching the testing that evening was that one of the engineers actually took a hexagonal nut (as on "nut and bolt") and placed it on the surface of the test pattern on the live feed. You could see the fingers of the engineer moving the nut on the surface. It stayed on that surface for months thereafter. Eventually, 'GBX would use a color bar test pattern or simply a ID slide for 30 minutes before programming. I believe that the old TP slide was made of glass and was backlit. So, the viewer would only see a shadow of the engineers fingers and the "nut". There were some very unusual tests done on 44 since the day they fired up in September, 1967. The station was equipped for color before WGBH (Channel 2) was. The "X" in WGBX's call-letters stood for "experimental". And that it was.
What is Indian Head TP? Never heard of that term before.
Dang yall, I was wondering that myself.
I didn't figure it was Toilet Paper though.
I was thinking about the cigar store Indian, and that made me think of Totem Pole.
I later figured out Test Pattern from the youtube links.
But where's the Indian head?
I didn't figure it was Toilet Paper though.
I was thinking about the cigar store Indian, and that made me think of Totem Pole.
I later figured out Test Pattern from the youtube links.
But where's the Indian head?
Here in St. Petersburg; it's been at least 20 years (probably longer) since any station used the Indian Head test pattern,(all stations have been 24/7 since then if not longer and no longer display a test pattern..
Interesting enough, the area's first television station WSUN (Why Stay Up North?), being on the Suncoast in the Sunshine City had the "head" of the SUN and Mr. Sun always had a smile and Mr. Sun was the test pattern.
Here's a link that gives a very brief history of WSUN and shows the test pattern.
http://jeff560.tripod.com/wsun_tv.html
btw- I I believe the last station here to use a test pattern was WUSF (University of South Florida) but they used the color bars as their test pattern, when they used to sign off late Sunday evenings for maintainance.
drt
Interesting enough, the area's first television station WSUN (Why Stay Up North?), being on the Suncoast in the Sunshine City had the "head" of the SUN and Mr. Sun always had a smile and Mr. Sun was the test pattern.
Here's a link that gives a very brief history of WSUN and shows the test pattern.
http://jeff560.tripod.com/wsun_tv.html
btw- I I believe the last station here to use a test pattern was WUSF (University of South Florida) but they used the color bars as their test pattern, when they used to sign off late Sunday evenings for maintainance.
drt
drt said:
I never knew what WSUN stood for. I always thought it had something to do with the sunshine state.
Yes, the "Sunshine City" was known to have the longest number of continuous days of sunshine. The Evening Independent (which the St. Pete Times killed off in November of 1986) had a "sunshine guarantee", that if the sun didn't shine the previous day then all street editions were free.
On those rare days (I think it averaged 2 or 3 times a year and at times went over a year) where there was no sunshine recorded at the "sunshine meter" at the s.w. corner of 1st Ave South and 4th St. South, then there were delivery trucks running all day constantly refilling the Independent's yellow news boxes. (not to be confused with the Miami Herald's yellow news boxes, also all over St. Petersburg in those days).
People with home delivery complained (to no avail) as to why they didn't get a discount or credit for those rare days without sunshine.
drt,
st.petersburg
btw- If the Evening Independent were still being published today; tomorrow's street editions would be free!! Very unusual weather for mid May; no sun just fog and mist/drizzle all day) Their paid circulation was 43,000 daily when they were killed off by their parent company, the St. Pete Times.
On those rare days (I think it averaged 2 or 3 times a year and at times went over a year) where there was no sunshine recorded at the "sunshine meter" at the s.w. corner of 1st Ave South and 4th St. South, then there were delivery trucks running all day constantly refilling the Independent's yellow news boxes. (not to be confused with the Miami Herald's yellow news boxes, also all over St. Petersburg in those days).
People with home delivery complained (to no avail) as to why they didn't get a discount or credit for those rare days without sunshine.
drt,
st.petersburg
btw- If the Evening Independent were still being published today; tomorrow's street editions would be free!! Very unusual weather for mid May; no sun just fog and mist/drizzle all day) Their paid circulation was 43,000 daily when they were killed off by their parent company, the St. Pete Times.
But where does the Indian head come in???
quadraphonic said:
quadraphonic said:
Given the joking and sarcasm we sometimes indulge in here, it can at times be hard to realize when someone is genuinely puzzled vs. just goofing around. So, if you genuinely don't understand the main topic of this thread, your assigned reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Head_test_card
drt said:
Kinda surprised that the two Denver papers hadn't taken this route..The Denver Post and the recently defunct Rocky Mountain News since according to the city of Denver..they get more sunshine than any other major American city ( of course Denver did leave out the fact that they do get snow..sometimes as late as June and as early as September). Now exactly how true that really is ( the sunshine part )..I have no idea.
mleach said:
Of course, all of these measures and yardsticks are based on there being some sunshine during some part of the day, not necessarily a totally sunny day from dawn to dusk. Most Florida locations probably get 300+ "sunshine" days a year, but a good many of those also feature some rain (often in the form of those daily summer t-storms) and overcast for at least part of the day.
Hahaha, well when I see "TP" I automatically think "toilet paper". TP was the polite term used until Archie Bunker broke the barrier mentioning "terlet paper".Stanislav said:I was about to post a Wikipedia link before I realized he was just being a smart-ass.... ;DKyDXIn said:TP? Why thats toilet paper, er test pattern!classictvfan said:
KyDXIn said:Hahaha, well when I see "TP" I automatically think "toilet paper". TP was the polite term used until Archie Bunker broke the barrier mentioning "terlet paper".Stanislav said:I was about to post a Wikipedia link before I realized he was just being a smart-ass.... ;DKyDXIn said:TP? Why thats toilet paper, er test pattern!classictvfan said:
In several decades of discussion of TV Geekery, I've always seen TP used to abbreviate "test pattern." Guess the acronym is no longer is widespread use. (Unlike the other "TP," which presumably still IS in widespread use...)
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