Some Other Sign-Offs

[dxnemo78]

This is about some old radio station sign-offs, but since this board seems to get more traffic than Classic Radio, I thought I'd put it here. Hope that's OK....... ;D

KHMO-AM 1070 Hannibal, MO

In the 70's, they signed off at around 10:15 PM Mon-Sat, and at precisely 6:00 PM on Sunday. First a little pre-recorded inspirational message, then technical info and good night, then "America the Beautiful".

WTAD-AM 930 Quincy, IL

Signed off a little after 1:00 AM nightly. Announcer ID'd the station, then a little song that went something like "Today may not have been the day when all my dreams came true...." started. Halfway through the song, announcer says "This ends our broadcast day."
Then something like "La La Tommorow, La La Tommorow, Tommorow will be mine!" Kinda cheesy, but a good message I guess. After the song, announcer finished the stats, said goodnight, and I think the SSB closed it out.

Anybody else have certain ones they remember ???

 

[RobertAnthony]

Well, my local radio station, WGCH, prior to 1991, would sign-off every night at midnight. In the message it always said that the station was "owned and operated in the public interest by the Greenwich Broadcasting Corporation." After giving the other specs, came the SSB then the station makes room for then WTOP 1500 to come in. I would hear it after Bob McGonagle's People To People would end with him saying good night to callers as "What Are You Doing The Rest of Your Life" played underneath. It was an organ-based version of the standard. Now this was when I was a teen thinking about going into radio.


But the most unusual version of that sign-off came after the Saturday Night Rock Party from the mid to late 1980's. Well, you would hear an explosion, then a shout out of "The Saturday Night Rock Party" then the sign-off with an instrumental bridge from a Doors song (not Light My Fire, Hello, I Love You) used as the background for the announcement.


For sign-on, well it starts with the SSB, then the sign-on, which I remember one time was read live by then News Director Jim Thompson, then they would go to a religious message from The Christophers.


Well, they have been of course sold to Business Talk Radio, which is based in Stamford and has gone 24 hours. They also moved from their locally iconic 1490 Dayton Avenue studios to ones on Lewis Street in Greenwich. And for the most part is a low grade talk station with BTR and Lifestyle Talk Radio programs sprinkled in with some local ones as well as a huge 3-hour AM news program.


Sports include local high school sports, like Greenwich High football; and yes The Boston Red Sox; whom since going on WGCH in 2004 have been world champions twice! Now as a Yankees fan, that to me is an invasion of territory.

 

[Stanislav]

Sports include local high school sports, like Greenwich High football; and yes The Boston Red Sox; whom since going on WGCH in 2004 have been world champions twice! Now as a Yankees fan, that to me is an invasion of territory.

That is a bit intrusive -- I always though that the famed "dividing line" between Yankees and Red Sox fans was considerably east of there.

 

[fybush]

Sports include local high school sports, like Greenwich High football; and yes The Boston Red Sox; whom since going on WGCH in 2004 have been world champions twice! Now as a Yankees fan, that to me is an invasion of territory.

That is a bit intrusive -- I always though that the famed "dividing line" between Yankees and Red Sox fans was considerably east of there.

The borders are porous! I have one good friend who grew up in western Mass. and now lives in Providence who's a devout Yankees fan (and who depends on 790, a Yanks affiliate in "enemy territory," for his pinstripe fix), and another who's lived on Long Island his whole life, works in NYC radio, and is a devout Sox fan.

Way upstate here in Rochester, which is nominally Yankees territory, there are as many people wearing Sox gear to baseball games as there are people garbed in the apparel of that third-place team from the Bronx. The media have been a little slow to catch on to the trend, alas; the Yankees still get front-page play in the local rag's sports section, while the Sox usually get relegated to the briefs inside. And they wonder why I let my subscription lapse years ago...

Point is, the Providence station wouldn't be carrying Yankees games if they didn't have an audience for them, and WGCH wouldn't be carrying the Sox if they weren't making money from it.

 

[pqgeorge]

Sports include local high school sports, like Greenwich High football; and yes The Boston Red Sox; whom since going on WGCH in 2004 have been world champions twice! Now as a Yankees fan, that to me is an invasion of territory.

That is a bit intrusive -- I always though that the famed "dividing line" between Yankees and Red Sox fans was considerably east of there.

The borders are porous! I have one good friend who grew up in western Mass. and now lives in Providence who's a devout Yankees fan (and who depends on 790, a Yanks affiliate in "enemy territory," for his pinstripe fix), and another who's lived on Long Island his whole life, works in NYC radio, and is a devout Sox fan.

Way upstate here in Rochester, which is nominally Yankees territory, there are as many people wearing Sox gear to baseball games as there are people garbed in the apparel of that third-place team from the Bronx. The media have been a little slow to catch on to the trend, alas; the Yankees still get front-page play in the local rag's sports section, while the Sox usually get relegated to the briefs inside. And they wonder why I let my subscription lapse years ago...

Point is, the Providence station wouldn't be carrying Yankees games if they didn't have an audience for them, and WGCH wouldn't be carrying the Sox if they weren't making money from it.

You'd be very surprised how many BoSox fans that there are in the New York area. I recall watching WPIX's late lamented "Action News" back in the 1970's and early 1980's. Jeffrey Lyons well-known theatre critic is a fan of Sox, in spite of the other news people like Pat Harper, Steve Bosh and of course 'PIX's sportscaster the late Jerry Girard (a BIG Yankee fan) giving Lyons the "Bronx cheer" about his allegiance to the Sox. Well YOU know what they used to say.... "The Yankees are the best team MONEY CAN BUY" ...... of course all the money in the world isn't helping the Yankees that much THESE days. I hear that the Cubbies are doing quite well as of late. Wouldn't it be great to have a Red Sox/Cubs World Series this year? A win-win scenario. I love the Sox and I love the Cubs as well (our own lovable losers).