Shortest and Longest S/on and S/off routines?

[Stanislav]

(Third of three sign-on/sign-off related threads.....)

Over the years, in my travels, I noticed some stations seemed to take their sign-on and sign-off routines more seriously than others. I've seen some that seemed to throw everything they could into the mix, and spent a good 15-20 minutes signing-off, while I remember once seeing a station (don't ask me which one) whose entire s/off routine consisted of 5 seconds of an ID slide, a bare-bones announcement ("Station WXXX-TV now ends its broadcast day. Good night."), and kill the transmitter.

What are some stations you recall that had unusually long and cluttered routines, or ones that had a no-nonsense, "cut to the chase" approach?

 

[radiorob2.0]

Once in a blue moon you would find a station sign on/off containing an older logo. WKYT Lexington's sign-off package in the early 80's utilized a logo from ten years earlier.

 

[Smittian]

KZTV in Corpus Christi back in the 70's used to go thru about 10 minutes of commercials/PSAs then have a "Prayer for Tomorrow" which was the Lord's Prayer sung by some choir at a really slow pace while showing shots of churches around Corpus Christi. Followed up by a sign-off message. No National Anthem or it would be drawn out even longer.

Also in CC, KEDT, the PBS station would take about 15 minutes to list the name of every single donor to the station.


In Austin, KTBC's sign off went something like this........"This is KTBC-TV siging off. Good Night" followed by snow

 

[wbhist]

After WCBS-TV in New York began going 24/7 in 1982 with the premiere of CBS News Nightwatch, they still signed off for about a half hour (average) on weekends (like they had every day since 1963) . . . but their sign-ons and -offs each became a one-sentence deal (on sign-on: "WCBS-TV now brings you the start of a new broadcast day"). This was in contrast to the six or so minute routine after the end of "The Late Late Show" that was prevalent before then (a PSA, followed by "Give Us This Day," the sign-off, and the CBS "SSB" with shots of various Washington, DC landmarks and an arrangement of the national anthem that I could not pin to any branch of the military).

One of the more convoluted sign-off sequences had to be with KNBC in Los Angeles. Their sign-offs were in two parts: First, the NBC logo, followed by an announcement about NBC's programs taped for airing in the West Coast time zone; a slide with "The programs broadcast by this station . . . " copyright disclaimer notice, and the TV Code emblem. After a "Let Us Pray" sermonette and a film with "The Navy Hymn," Los Angelenos were treated to the station I.D., transmitter info and good nights (I've only heard three of the four announcers on staff at KNBC as of 1980-81 do sign-offs, don't know about Don Stanley), followed by a homemade film set to The Mormon Tabernacle Choir's "America, The Beautiful."

 

[anotherguyTN]

At midnight WLJT PBS 11 in Lexington, TN goes through a list of major donors that takes somewhere around 5 minutes, and then runs a message that they are ending their broadcast day with the technical information and station address. However they don't actually sign off, but contiune programming overnight. I take it that they probably have some sort of similar message in the morning even though they didn't actually sign off.

 

[RicoGregg]

After WCBS-TV in New York began going 24/7 in 1982 with the premiere of CBS News Nightwatch, they still signed off for about a half hour (average) on weekends (like they had every day since 1963) . . . but their sign-ons and -offs each became a one-sentence deal (on sign-on: "WCBS-TV now brings you the start of a new broadcast day"). This was in contrast to the six or so minute routine after the end of "The Late Late Show" that was prevalent before then (a PSA, followed by "Give Us This Day," the sign-off, and the CBS "SSB" with shots of various Washington, DC landmarks and an arrangement of the national anthem that I could not pin to any branch of the military).

One of the more convoluted sign-off sequences had to be with KNBC in Los Angeles. Their sign-offs were in two parts: First, the NBC logo, followed by an announcement about NBC's programs taped for airing in the West Coast time zone; a slide with "The programs broadcast by this station . . . " copyright disclaimer notice, and the TV Code emblem. After a "Let Us Pray" sermonette and a film with "The Navy Hymn," Los Angelenos were treated to the station I.D., transmitter info and good nights (I've only heard three of the four announcers on staff at KNBC as of 1980-81 do sign-offs, don't know about Don Stanley), followed by a homemade film set to The Mormon Tabernacle Choir's "America, The Beautiful."

KNBC also would show pictures of the staff announcers at sign off. I remember Don Stanley, who may or may not have been known by his real name, Donald Rickles, obviously not the comic. My memory is not sure if Donald Rickles changed to Donald Stanley or not. There was also Peggy Taylor. I always thought that would be a cool gig to get in broadcasting.

 

[Stanislav]

At midnight WLJT PBS 11 in Lexington, TN goes through a list of major donors that takes somewhere around 5 minutes, and then runs a message that they are ending their broadcast day with the technical information and station address. However they don't actually sign off, but contiune programming overnight. I take it that they probably have some sort of similar message in the morning even though they didn't actually sign off.

Question: is that what you see over the air, or on a cable system? Because some PBS stations will sign-off on OTA at Midnight or whatever, but continue to feed programming all night directly to the cable companies. (WMFE here in Orlando does that.) The announcement may be just for the benefit of OTA viewers.

 

[rwells2265]

The NBC station in Memphis, WMC-TV 5, used to have a featurette just prior to signoff, "Crimestoppers." It was very old-school, using slides and voiceover by longtime personality Dick Hawley. He read the description of the 'criminal of the day' (for lack of a better phrase) as a profile shot appeared on-screen. Then he'd continue, "If you know of this person's whereabouts, call the Memphis Police, local police or the FBI" - over a visual with those words, which looked like a '60s-vintage slide.

When I saw that (mid '80s), it struck me how dark and ominous Hawley sounded in that feature and wondered about preteen kids up late at night while their parents either asleep or out late. Could he be .... prowling around in the neighborhood? In our backyard??

Of course, it didn't faze me because I was watching it in a college dorm! :-/

--Russell

 

[firepoint525]

Channel 6 in Paducah used to sign off by playing "My Old Kentucky Home" and then playing "The Star-Spangled Banner." Interesting, since their signal reaches into four states, and they often received mail from two more.

What pissed me off about channel 6 is that they would sign off on weeknights at 12:30 a.m. without airing Later with Bob Costas, but yet they would tape-delay Saturday Night Live by an hour for close to 20 years!

 

[anotherguyTN]

At midnight WLJT PBS 11 in Lexington, TN goes through a list of major donors that takes somewhere around 5 minutes, and then runs a message that they are ending their broadcast day with the technical information and station address. However they don't actually sign off, but contiune programming overnight. I take it that they probably have some sort of similar message in the morning even though they didn't actually sign off.

Question: is that what you see over the air, or on a cable system? Because some PBS stations will sign-off on OTA at Midnight or whatever, but continue to feed programming all night directly to the cable companies. (WMFE here in Orlando does that.) The announcement may be just for the benefit of OTA viewers.

It was over cable. I'll admit I haven't watched them OTA in a while so I don't know if they sign off or not.

 

[wbhist]

KNBC also would show pictures of the staff announcers at sign off. I remember Don Stanley, who may or may not have been known by his real name, Donald Rickles, obviously not the comic. My memory is not sure if Donald Rickles changed to Donald Stanley or not. There was also Peggy Taylor. I always thought that would be a cool gig to get in broadcasting.

The other announcer at KNBC was the late Victor Bozeman (d. 1986), only one of two African-Americans (that I know of) who were staff announcers at NBC. (The other: New York-based Fred Facey.)

But Don Stanley and Donald Rickles were two completely different announcers. Mr. Stanley's birth name was Donald Stanley Uglum; Mr. Rickles' was Donald Newton Rickles. (As opposed to the full name of the comic, Donald Jay Rickles.) Mr. Stanley first joined NBC's West Coast staff in 1946; Mr. Rickles, in 1950. Mr. Rickles died of a heart attack in 1985; Mr. Stanley remained with the network to about 1992. His run was about as long as some of the New York staffers (Don Pardo, Howard Reig, Wayne Howell, etc.)

What's more, of those announcers whose pictures were shown at the end of the sign-off newscast, the only ones I've seen were of Mr. Rickles and Mr. Bozeman. When Ms. Taylor was at the mic, they ended with the slide of the NewsCenter 4 logo as in use then, just as on the beginning, not showing her pic at all.

Anyway, here are some primers to the differences between Mr. Rickles and Mr. Stanley, courtesy YouTube:
- Don Stanley (from NBC Saturday Night at the Movies open, 12/23/72, the night "Climb an Angry Mountain" was shown): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8iUttTm1wk
- Donald Rickles (from Sept. 27, 1981 sign-off newscast of KNBC): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q2jaeHFJwI
Listen very closely, and you'll notice some differences.

 

[jc]

I remember DXing WDAM-TV 7 (NBC) Laurel/Hattiesburg, MS and there was only the ID and the area that it serves while the NBC logo and WDAM-TV 7 underneath that and Laurel Hattiesburg underneath that with the logo rotating toward the screen until it was straight while the announcer said WDAM TV 7 Laurel Hattiesburg and then they played the Am High America SSB although for some reason they cut the beginning with the plane taking off. To my knowledge they do this to this day as they still sign off every night

 

[dxnemo78]

KTVO Ch. 3 Kirksville, MO-Ottumwa, IA had the most unusual one I remember. It was neither long nor short, just the requisite licensing & power statistics, then the SSB. The unusual part was the very end, when thry cut to a (presumably) live shot of an engineer walking towards a large lever apparatus marked "KTVO MAIN DISCONNECT" and pulling it, with snow ensuing in about 5 seconds. They stopped showing that well before they went 24/7, but on a station anniversary show they had a staffer talking to the engineer about it, and he said something about how that wasn't really how they shut the station off for the night. I found that mildly disappointing, for some reason :

I DX'ed KWWL Ch. 7 Waterloo, IA a few times, and they had what I considered a cool version of the SSB, a synthisiser arrangement with graphics somewhat like those animation montages on Monty Python, but with American landmarks of course. Probably state of the art at that time.

 

[azumanga]

KTVO Ch. 3 Kirksville, MO-Ottumwa, IA had the most unusual one I remember... The unusual part was the very end, when thry cut to a (presumably) live shot of an engineer walking towards a large lever apparatus marked "KTVO MAIN DISCONNECT" and pulling it, with snow ensuing in about 5 seconds.

I heard someone mention that Detroit's WXON (now WMYD) had a similar close to their sign-off -- following the SSB, there was a film of a hand grabbing an electrical plug; one he pulled the plug, the picture turns to snow.

 

[anotherguyTN]

At midnight WLJT PBS 11 in Lexington, TN goes through a list of major donors that takes somewhere around 5 minutes, and then runs a message that they are ending their broadcast day with the technical information and station address. However they don't actually sign off, but contiune programming overnight. I take it that they probably have some sort of similar message in the morning even though they didn't actually sign off.

Question: is that what you see over the air, or on a cable system? Because some PBS stations will sign-off on OTA at Midnight or whatever, but continue to feed programming all night directly to the cable companies. (WMFE here in Orlando does that.) The announcement may be just for the benefit of OTA viewers.

It was over cable. I'll admit I haven't watched them OTA in a while so I don't know if they sign off or not.

I was finally able to set up my digital TV converter box with a good indoor antenna, and found out that WLJT does actually still sign off overnight and stays on overnight on cable. (Charter at least)

 

[crainbebo]

One that comes to my head is KSNW in Wichita, KS. Since the 80s, they have been signing off with just this:

"At this time, KSNW Wichita, KSNC Great Bend, KSNG Garden City and KSNK McCook now conclude their broadcast day.", over a KSNW/KSNG/KSNC/KSNK station ID, then right to color bars like ...THAT!

KCBS in Los Angeles did a sign off with LA video clips (beach, kites, children, etc.) which lasted about 30 seconds, then it went off the air. This would be in the 1980s.

WSTM in Syracuse, NY refused to do an SSB video, cutting to color bars after about a one minute, fifteen second sign off annoncement. This would be in the late 1980s.

-crainbebo

 

[mleach]

Martinsburg, West Virginia's WYVN channel 60 ( now WWPX more/less out of Washington DC )...during their FOX years I can remember when they would sign off by first doing the "crimestoppers" thing usually with somebody from a local sheriff's department. Monday for West Virginia, Tuesday/Maryland, Wednesday/Virginia, Thursday/Pennsylvania and Friday was for the town of Martinsburg. Weekends? WYVN would skip it.

Then WYVN would play John Denver's Take Me Home Country Roads with video of various scenes around West Virginia and then the logo with a VO guy saying "this concludes the broadcast day of WVYN FOX 60/Martinsburg, Hagerstown (MD), Winchester (VA) and Chambersburg (PA)."..and then the color bars...with the audio comimg from WKMZ-FM 97.5 ( then the local CHR station )...then after about 30 minutes...off the air they go.