Here's a big surprise! During the summer of 1976, the somewhat stodgy WGBH-TV Channel 2, the PBS affiliate in Boston would not sign-on until 1 or 2 in the afternoon. They would fire up the transmitter at exactly 30 minutes before airtime. For the first 5 minutes you would get 3/4 bars and tone. Then.... they would start playing some of the Top-40 hits of the day on the audio carrier over the 3/4 color bars for the next 20 or 25 minutes before they began regular programming. Imagine hearing "The Theme from Laverne and Shirley" (Make All Our Dreams Come True) by Cindi Grecco, "More, More, More" by The Andrea True Connection and "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" by Elton John and Kiki Dee. Not exactly PBS material. But, sure enough (and I saw this myself back then) it did happen. I'm sure the higher-ups at 'GBH eventually told whoever to "nix the Top 40" before sign-on (or else.....). Sure enough, by the fall, nothing but 3/4 bars and 400 Hz tone was all you get on Channel 2, 30 minutes before airtime. (sigh....... )
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Test Patterns with Music Instead of Tones
- Thread starter Stanislav
- Start date
FreddyE1977 said:
Frank Mills had "Music Box Dancer". I wonder if WTRF had played Floyd Kramer's "Last Date" instead? Then again it is a sad song so I may have my doubts. Some years back there was a small AM daytimer not far from me who after 40+ years thanks to a change of ownership had dumped country music in favor of Hispanic progamming. The last song they played before sunset ( sign-off ) was "Last Date" and during that song the mic was left ON and in the background one could her the cries of the employees, the final toasts, etc..and many of those employees had stayed with that station for 40 years including I believe their morning guy.
I actually shed some tears while listening to that broadcast...and I wasn't even a fan of theirs in the first place !!!
In the mid 70's AFN-TV, (West)Berlin, Germany would sign-on 30 minutes before the start of programming with mostly pop/rock tunes over color bars, but transmitting in black & white.
R
rickradio
Guest
In the mid-80s, somebody at KGO-TV would put Genesis' "Invisible Touch" album on under color bars in the middle of the night and just let it run.
...as was brilliantly used for comic effect in a scene in Diner set at WBAL-TV/11 Baltimore...The Dude said:
rickradio said:
An excellent album choice, in my opinion
I recall WWNY-TV-7, the CBS affiliate in Watertown, NY having country music over color bars overnight around 2001.
One station that I DXed (before I knew what that term meant) as a teenager growing up in Tennessee back in the 1980s was WSIL, channel 3, the ABC affiliate in Harrisburg, Illinois (straight path southeastward, with few hills to interfere--also got Paducah's WPSD and Cape Girardeau's KFVS quite often). I recall that, after its sign-off for the night, classical pieces could be heard over its test pattern.
This really struck me as a strange, given the fact that the station is located in a predominantly rural market, where few classical music fans usually live, and that a commercial station, rather than a PBS outlet (think of the duopolies of many of them with NPR stations), would do such a thing! My guess is that the station plugged into a free classical audio satellite feed, with royalties paid. And the music was heard for hours--I stayed up one night very late, wondering why the station never cut the carrier after about 15-20 minutes as per normal in those days. Obviously, the signal stayed on overnight, perhaps turned off only for the crew to do maintenance, say, around 3-4 a.m.
Then again, this was the same station, that, back in the 1960s and 1970s, did not run either local or network early evening newscasts, showing a children's program with cartoons ("Cactus Pete," IIRC) at 6 p.m., so perhaps this was par for the course. Anybody remember WSIL doing other unusual things like those mentioned?
This really struck me as a strange, given the fact that the station is located in a predominantly rural market, where few classical music fans usually live, and that a commercial station, rather than a PBS outlet (think of the duopolies of many of them with NPR stations), would do such a thing! My guess is that the station plugged into a free classical audio satellite feed, with royalties paid. And the music was heard for hours--I stayed up one night very late, wondering why the station never cut the carrier after about 15-20 minutes as per normal in those days. Obviously, the signal stayed on overnight, perhaps turned off only for the crew to do maintenance, say, around 3-4 a.m.
Then again, this was the same station, that, back in the 1960s and 1970s, did not run either local or network early evening newscasts, showing a children's program with cartoons ("Cactus Pete," IIRC) at 6 p.m., so perhaps this was par for the course. Anybody remember WSIL doing other unusual things like those mentioned?
RegularJoeRG said:
Hagerstown, Maryland's WHAG-TV NBC25 did the country music over color bars thing as well. In their case the audio came from local WYII-FM. For years I wondered why WHAG would pick them considering that the market already had a number of other country stations and the fact that WHAG themselves back in those days were tied in to two other radio stations ( WHAG-AM & WQCM-FM ). Some years back I heard that the decision for WYII was simply due to the fact that WYII was "stable". Thats true, they had pretty much the same staff for years and years and years and years.....
- Status