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Sign Offs - No More

T

Tynosaur

I miss radio and tv station sign-offs. Back in the '50's and '60's and even into the '70's the majority of broadcasting stations were not 24-hour operations. There were lots of radio stations that were known as "day-timers", which meant they began their broadcast day at local sunrise and stopped broadcasting or "signed-off" at local sunset. Many still do, but the majority now run 24/7. TV stations usually signed on at 5 or 6am, local time, and off at midnight.

It took a good deal of legal work to extend hours of operation through the FCC, but the possibility of increased revenues, combined with the fact that staying on the air 24/7 didn't really cost much more caused the change to full-time operations. It didn't hurt that people who were listening to your station the night before stayed with you when they woke up the next morning. They hadn't left you for another station that was on longer than you were.

That aside, my purpose here is to share a couple of memories regarding "sign-offs" I've heard and been a part of. My first memories go back to TV in the early '50's, when stations didn't sign-on till midday or later due to the lack of product. You'd turn on your TV and see the familiar circle with dashes in it and some numbers and that face of an Indian chief in profile, complete with headdress. This was before the days of color bars on your screen.

Most broadcast stations used the "Star-Spangled Banner" as a sign-on/off aid...but some didn't. When I worked at WRBC in Jackson, MS in 1968-69, we used Duane Eddy's famed "Rebel Rouser" for sign-on/off music. After all, WRBC stood for Rebel Broadcasting Company! Some TV stations in the '60's used a chorus singing "The Lord's Prayer" while the video showed a full shot, outdoors, of an Indian chief, also in full headdress and buckskins, "signing" "The Lord's Prayer". It was very effective. The best sign-off I ever saw was the one used by KATV, Channel 7, in Little Rock/Pine Bluff back in 1965 or 6. They had just built a tremendous tower to hang their antenna from and were proud of it. It was 1200 to 1500 feet tall or some such number. They had the idea of putting a camera in a helicopter and lifting off near the tower and going straight up until they were above the tower, shooting all the way. Then they had the gumption to put the 4th movement of Dimitri Shostakovitch's 5th Symphony behind it. If you're not familiar with it, you should try to hear it. It builds and builds to a triumphant climax that is terrific. The combination of video and audio in that sign-off was magnificient.

In the early '70's here in Memphis, when WREC-TV (now WREG-TV) signed off, they would put up a slide of a nighttime view of Memphis and play an audio cut by WREC-AM's "Nightsounds" host, Al Kenngott, which said something like, "Not quite ready to retire, then enjoy "Nightsounds" on WREC radio right now with me, Al Kenngott."

I remember in about 1980 getting a call from a production guy at a new radio station that was about to sign on in Memphis. He was desperately seeking a copy of "The Star-Spangled Banner". "My boss says we can't sign on this station until we get one!", he told me. I sent him a tape and they signed on the next morning. They went dark a few years later, so no harm, no foul so far as helping out the competition, I suppose.
 
Back in the 70s, when I was a kid, I used to DX TV stations. I saw many a sign-on, or off, and certainly my share of interesting test patterns.

By far, the best sign-off (other than watching my locals sign-off during a big opening) belonged to WHAS-TV (11) in Louisville – a nice catch, btw, from Pascagoula. They signed off with “My Old Kentucky Home” with picturesque shots of horses, hills, and the like – what filmmakers call “shots of nothing.” Very nice.

For test patterns, though, you can’t beat the Cubans. Cuba didn’t have TV until late afternoons. So, the TV stations would run what was commonly known as the “Palm Tree Pattern,” a B/W slide with basic test pattern stuff, a palm tree, and the word “Cuba.” I saw it a million times, most often on channel 2. Typically, the audio was Radio Reloj, the Cuban news and time station some may still hear at night.

I do have a couple of pictures of Memphis TV, taken from the Coast. I have one of a very nice slide – snow-free – from WHBQ-TV in my collection somewhere (taken after my local in Biloxi had signed off). I just don’t know where that little file box is!

DE
 
The first station I worked at, WBAQ-FM, In Greenville, MS, used to (wouldn't be surprised if it still does) sign on with "Dixie" and sign off with Jim Nabors singing "The Lord's Prayer". KNOE-TV in Monroe, LA, also signed off with "Dixie", following the more traditional "Star Spangled Banner". WJDX-FM, the hippie station in Jackson, used Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner" for their sign offs.
Perhaps the most elaborate sign off I recall was that of Mississippi ETV. They ran an "SSB" rendition with an additional minor-key middle 8 bars, and a visual depiction of American history from Jamestown thru the planting of the flag on the moon.
 
I used to love Channel 5's sign off. The steamboat, Jack Eaton reading the final news while they showed that real old film of engineers splicing tape, 5 minutes of TV Chapel, Dick Hawley telling us that WMC is "first to care, first to serve."

Then they would have the most wanted by the FBI segment, where they would show a picture of a fugitive and tell you to contact the FBI or any Memphis Police officer if you saw this person. When I was a little kid, this was both scary and fascinating. I thought for sure I had just seen the person in Big Star or Kroger. There was one woman who they showed for years.
 
Back in the mid 80's channel 3 would go off the air at 2 am i think, anyhow me and a friend of mine had done some acid. We sat there and laughed at the screen for hours, I do not know why we thought it was so funny , the blotter i guess, lol ... I had forgotten about that night until i read this thread
 
Allan
Remember when WREC would sign off for maintentance at Midnight on Sunday's? When we went off, Radio Havana would boom into town on 600. I always joked with Bill that we needed to stay on and promote that we were keeping those commies out of the South...
Dan S.
 
When I was just a young sprout down in Pascagoula, that 600 would be near-local quality nightly (and also nearly listenable groundwave during the day across the Gulf).

At one time, I think it was that transmitter that switched to Radio Moscow for a time. Very odd driving around town listening to Radio Moscow on the car radio!

DE
 
WHBQ also used to sign off for maintenance overnight Sundays following Father Don's "talk it out" show. That was before I started there... by that point, the final weekend shift was 9PM sunday to 6AM monday, and I did my share of those.
But one time back when they did sign off, I came up from Jackson, MS to visit with Rick Tarrant (he was "Rick Collins" on the air at Q) one sunday night. While the station was off the air, he let me sit in the control room chair, crack the mike, and say those "hallowed" calls. I almost wet myself!
 
Reminds me of the bad old days of WZXR-Great American Country, the Drake-Chenault automated format I ran back in the mid-70's in the Peabody basement. Mike Edwards will remember this. The Schaeffer 903 System we used with paper tape fed instructions to a teletype machine was prone to lose its memory quite often.

We were running 2-48 cart InstaCart racks with 4 reels and 2 big time-check carts. We put commercials on carts in the InstaCart racks, naturally, as well as weather and news carts...and the sign-on cart. Where would one put the sign-on cart in a 96 cart array? Why in slot #1 of course. What would happen when the Schaeffer forgot its name?

IT WOULD AUTOMATICALLY GO TO THE #1 CART SLOT AND PLAY IT, of course. There were weeks early on before we got a handle on the danged thing that I'm sure The Star-Spangled Banner made our Top Ten List!
 
Yeah, I remember those WMCT signoffs with reading of the FBI Most Wanted List. As a kid, I also found it scary and I've never forgotten it! Wasn't it Channel 5 that displayed the "It's 11 o'clock - do you you know where your children are?" scene nightly? (I think the time was 11 - I could be off on that). Also, at sign on in the 60's I remember WMCT playing "Dixie". For some strange reason, as an elementary age kid I found it interesting to get up very early on Sat mornings before cartoons to watch TV stations come on the air. "Davey and Goliath" started someone's broadcast day on Saturdays.

To add slightly to the topic, I recall favorite Ch 5 station identifications that were very cool = they were the ones of the steamboat paddling on the river, turning, and blowing the deep "wooo wooo" One played some sort of a banjo tune and the other one used an excerpt from Pure Prairie League's "Country Song."

Do you suppose these ID's still exist in Channel 5's library?
 
AlbumOldies said:
To add slightly to the topic, I recall favorite Ch 5 station identifications that were very cool = they were the ones of the steamboat paddling on the river, turning, and blowing the deep "wooo wooo" One played some sort of a banjo tune and the other one used an excerpt from Pure Prairie League's "Country Song."

Do you suppose these ID's still exist in Channel 5's library?
Click to expand...

Yes, they do...or did as late as 1997. There may have been some lost in the 1977 fire, but a lot are still around.
 
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