Sign-Offs

[notalkallstatic]

I was wondering if anyone has or knows where I can find online, the sign-offs, and sign-ons for: WYOU (including WDAU), WBRE, and WNEP. I did find a site that has some sign-offs, but they are mainly for southeastern US. Pretty good site though here is the link if you want to check it out… http://www.jawtoons.com/sign-offs/index.htmlDoes anyone remember the sign-offs and ons? If so, what did they contain?Thanks!

 

[yonkstur]

"This is the pioneer television station in Wilkes Barre, WBRE TV signing off. Our stufdios and offices are located at 62 South Franklin Street in downtown Wilkes Barre. We will resume programming at _______ tomorrow morning. WBRE TV is owned and operated by _________________________________ (Baltimore family). Now, our National Anthem". As best I can remember, that was the script. They had this funky German type polka (actually it was a semi light classical piece) as a music background. Up until Rt. 81 buying WNAK, you could hear the song on that station in its rotation. There is a story, an urban legend, if you will, that once during the daytime Jeapordy with Art Flemming in the 1960s, the Musical Daily Double was this piece of music. And the contestant supoosedly blurted out, "What is the WBRE signoff song?" It might not be true, but jeez it oughta be. I don't remember WNEP's except for that girl with the umbrella logo. WDAU usually was the last to sign off because they ran "The Late Show" at 1:30AM. The big eye was the logo. But no logo could beat the smiling, politically incorrect Indian with the feather sticking out of his butt which WBRE TV had for years. Looking forward to accessing the sign off site. Yonkstur

 

[PhilGalasso]

They had this funky German type polka (actually it was a semi light classical piece) as a music background. Up until Rt. 81 buying WNAK, you could hear the song on that station in its rotation.

That song was from the "Peer Gynt Suite" and it is a piece of light classical music. I remember the WBRE-TV sign-off from 35 years ago, when I attended college in Allentown. WBRE-TV had a decent signal on an indoor antenna in my dormitory room.Nowadays, most TV stations stay on 24 hours a day, so you would rarely see the sign-off videos. Color bars have replaced the old "Indian head" test pattern widely used in the 1950s and 1960s.

 

[ThomasCarten]

And, as I used to tell my broadcasting classes, almost every one of those sign-offs were flat-out illegal. Callsign, city of license, "plate-off" switch. None of this rambling, "assigned carrier frequency by FCC, blah blah, now our National Anthem."Of course, you're never going to get pinched for running the N.A. after the legal i.d.The public tv station in Bridgeport CT had a real neat s/o. They'd run through all the usual blather as the sun set on the screen and, just before it disappeared, you'd see the i.d. Then the screen went blank.

 

[ThomasCarten]

I wish I could find the copy I used for the sign-off of a station I was at out in the midwest. It included things like, "Now it's time for us to turn our radio off and go to sleep ... We run pi-R-square megahertz of power on 146.01 horizontal and 146.61 vertical ... We are now shutting down so the engineers can dust the transistors ..." Then I gave the legal i.d. and hit the plate switch. I've probably got it around here somewhere. I figure anything goes as long as you do the legal at the end.

 

[PaulBWalkerJr]

(whoosh) "WQMA"....."I'm Dave Daniels here to tell you that this now concludes the broadcast day for AM 1520 WQMA in Marks, Mississippi. WQMA is owned by Jason Konarz and operates on an assigned frequnecy of Fifteen Hundred Twenty Kilohertz with an effective radiated power of 250 Watts from Sunrise to Sunset only as authorized and licensed by the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, DC. WQMA has studios, offices and transmission facilities located 1/4 mile west of the Marks, Mississppi town line. We welcome your comments or comments by phone, mail or online. Our mailing address is 1820 West Marks Road, Marks Mississippi 38646. Our phone number is 662 326 3555 and our website is at www.q1520radio.com. On behalf of WQMA Owner and General Manager Jason Konarz, Sales & promotions Director Donna Konarz, Deacon and Sister McCall, Deacon James Figgs, I'm Paul Walker thanking you for listneing and we invite you to tune in bright an early tomorrow morning at sunrise for another great day of programming on The Delta's Oldies Channel, AM 1520 WQMA Marks, Mississppi. Good Night, God Bless America, The Troops Serving Overseas......" into National Anthem sung by Whitney Houston..................This was pre-recorded as a 4 1/2 minute file which ran automatically at sunset each night, but every now and then I'd do it live just for shits and giggles. Oh, I used bed music for the message. What did I use? The Price Is Right with Bob Barker theme music looped once (since it's only 1 mintue and 5 seconds long)

 

[ThomasCarten]

For a while, when I worked at an AM, I used to announce at 10:00 pm that we are now switching from kilohertz to meters. Please contact the station if you experience any change in your reception. Thank you.

 

[ColorRadio]

146.01./146.61 MHz are the 2 meter ham radio repeater frequencies. They are not commercial frequencies.

 

[Radiodeity]

For a while, when I worked at an AM, I used to announce at 10:00 pm that we are now switching from kilohertz to meters. Please contact the station if you experience any change in your reception. Thank you.

Now that is a good one! I would have had to change my drawers had I heard it live back then...

Great gag... ;D

I did an April Fool announcement once that ran all day about just installing a new AM stereo transmission system where you could use two AM radios tuning one slightly higher on the left and the other slightly lower for the right. I lightly reverbed the announcement about left and then slightly phase shifted the announcement about the right. Sounded totally believable though but we never got any feedback about it... But at least we all got a good chuckle out of it...

Almost as believable as the Reverse Cold Cathode Ether Sucker for Talk Programmers... but that's a story for another time.

 

[ThomasCarten]

Color...

146.01./146.61 MHz are the 2 meter ham radio repeater frequencies. They are not commercial frequencies.

Nooooo kidding. That was part of the gag, same with the pi-R-square megahertz of power.