Silliest TV Station Slogan

[bpatrick]

Here's another one....

WTOG Tampa St Pete used a jingle in the 70's that sung, "WTOG....as far as the eye can see!" They followed that with another jingle, "Look who's doing more, 44". Both were catchy little tunes that were etched in my brain.

I still remember WTOG's "as far as the eye can see" song, too.
There are just some things that don't exit the memory bank.

And in response to the poster talking about WSAV Savannah's
"On Your Side," I think that's a slogan stations buy from some
company that specializes in those things. The first one I remember
was "7 On Your Side" on WJLA Washington, DC. Where I live,
WRAL Raleigh-Durham uses "5 On Your Side" and WGHP Greensboro/
Winston-Salem/High Point has "8 On Your Side." (WJLA also used
"7 So Good To Turn To" back around 1982 and had a catchy jingle
that a couple other stations might have used as well.)

I don't know if it's still in business, but there used to be a company
out of San Diego called Peters Productions that came up with some
of these IDs; they're the ones who franchised "Alive," as in "11 Alive"
on WXIA Atlanta (and WPIX New York and WPXI Pittsburgh).

 

[hintomedia]

And in response to the poster talking about WSAV Savannah's
"On Your Side," I think that's a slogan stations buy from some
company that specializes in those things. The first one I remember
was "7 On Your Side" on WJLA Washington, DC. Where I live,
WRAL Raleigh-Durham uses "5 On Your Side" and WGHP Greensboro/
Winston-Salem/High Point has "8 On Your Side." (WJLA also used
"7 So Good To Turn To" back around 1982 and had a catchy jingle
that a couple other stations might have used as well.)

"People know News 7 is... so good to turn to!"

That jingle was done by Frank Gari, and was also used on Detroit's WXYZ (which changed the lyrics to say "Channel 7 Action News").

Speaking of "On Your Side", WJLA's still using it today. I also seem to remember KAMR/4 in Amarillo TX was using "On Air, Online, On Your Side" a few years ago, which I thought was rather lame. Judging from their website, it looks like they're back to just being "On Your Side" now...

 

[Frasier]

How about one station using another station's call letters in their news branding?

For most of the 1970s, WITN-TV 7 in Washington NC (not DC) called their news broadcasts "EyeWITNess News". Reasonably clever and easily remembered. The CBS
station in the same market, WNCT-TV 9, called their news broadcasts "Newscenter 9". Not quite as creative, but serviceable.

Coincidentally enough, WITN also ran a kiddie show back in the day called "WITNey The Hobo". Ecch.

 

[wcoleman]

WTOG Tampa St Pete used a jingle in the 70's that sung, "WTOG....as far as the eye can see!" They followed that with another jingle, "Look who's doing more, 44". Both were catchy little tunes that were etched in my brain.

If you want to re-live the "as far as the eye can see" from WTOG, have a look at this streaming media page.

 

[chuckydoll]

"Land of the 3" is indeed an early slogan of WFSB in Hartford. It was used in 1974 after the original WTIC-TV was sold and changed its call letters.

The Post-Newsweek stations emphasize Local in their IDs -- Local 10 in South Florida, Local 6 in central Florida, Local 4 in Detroit, Local 2 in Houston.

WRTV-6 shortens its handle to RTV6 on the air.

In the 1990s, CFPL/CKNX/CHWI in Southwestern Ontario called themselves "Your News Leader in Southwestern Ontario".

CFPL-10 and CKNX-8 began as privately owned CBC affiliates. CFPL and CKNX decided in 1987 to "disaffiliate" -- in other words, drop the CBC and go independent. Why did they emphasize news? WSVN-7 in Miami went heavy on news after losing its longtime NBC affiliation.

 

[bpatrick]

Here's an old one from around the early
to mid-'70s that I used to see in Broadcasting
magazine: WTAE had a drawing of a person holding
a cup of tea, and the caption read "Take TAE and see!"

And back closer to home: in the early '90s, just
before it switched from ABC to Fox, WGHP was
WGHPiedmont8. Its 6 PM news was called "The
Piedmont Evening News," which most news consultants
would probably say is not a good name because there
is no channel identification (at least prior to that they
were "Eyewitness News 8"). Nowadays they're "FOX8
News," so the channel-ID problem is moot. (Rival station
WXII/12 also had a channel-ID problem in the '70s when
its newscast was called "Triad Tonight." Nowadays they're
Newschannel 12.)

And how many of you have a local station that called or
calls itself "Your friend..."? WFBC/4 Greenville, SC, when
Multimedia sold it to Pulitzer in 1983, changed its calls
to WYFF, meaning "We're Your Friend Four." They've
dropped the slogan but kept the calls.

 

[Tim-In-Houston]

WRTV-6 shortens its handle to RTV6 on the air.

They recently dropped the RTV6 brand and are now "6 News" using a variation of WLS' graphics (with their old circle-6 logo). Quite nice if you ask me.

 

[Ultimajock]

WRTV-6 shortens its handle to RTV6 on the air.

...similar to WTMJ-TV/4 Milwaukee, who have been calling themselves "Today's TMJ4" for about 15 years now. Never made me think of WTMJ, it made me think of the temporomandibular joint. Sounded goofy then and still does...

 

[Apollo7979]

WRTV-6 shortens its handle to RTV6 on the air.

They recently dropped the RTV6 brand and are now "6 News" using a variation of WLS' graphics (with their old circle-6 logo). Quite nice if you ask me.

Actually, WRTV is only using the old circle 6 logo and the name "6 News" in news broadcasts. As far as I know, they're still using the RTV6 brand for the on-air bug outside of local news programs and to promote ABC and syndicated programming.

 

[Al Timiter]

This wasn't a silly slogan per se, but how it sometimes sounded if I was only passively watching/listening:

In Columbus OH, WSYX used (and may still use) "Six on your Side" which sometimes sounds like "Sex on you Side."

 

[formeraa]

Possibly "good lookin'" was a Gaylord thing, although
I don't remember it on KTVT in the late '70s. I do
remember that in the early '70s WBRC/6 Birmingham, AL,
then owned by Taft, identified itself as "Birmingham's
Good Looking Station."

I remember KSTW in Seattle, using "Good Looking 11, Getting Better Looking All The Time!". Wasn't in Dallas at the time.

I also remember the "11 News" branding at KTVK and KSTW during the early 90's. They were among the first stations to use "11 at 11" in Seattle and "11 on 11" in Dallas/Ft Worth. They were both branded "11 News". I was living in Dallas, but visiting Seattle (home) quite frequently. It was quite funny to see the exact same logos and branding. KSTW even had two anchors who were previously in Dallas!!

Then, there was KIRO News in Seattle going "Out of the Box" in the mid-90's. Don't you want your news "out of the box"???

Another silly slogan was KABB's "at 9 it's news, at 10 it's history!".

And another winner: "The 10 O'Clock News -- So you can get to bed by bedtime!"

 

[Gatorman]

WIAT, in its days as WBMG, used the slogan "Looking Better Than Ever!" during the mid-1980s. Too bad it's not better than WCFT. Or WJSU. Or WTTO...

 

[rwells2265]

WIAT, in its days as WBMG, used the slogan "Looking Better Than Ever!" during the mid-1980s. Too bad it's not better than WCFT. Or WJSU. Or WTTO...

When you consider WBMG (channel 42, Birmingham) back in the day, "Looking Better Than Ever!" wouldn't be too far from true.

They couldn't have looked any worse... ;D

--Russell

 

[bpatrick]

True, but they were certainly fun to watch.