The Classic "Bulls-Eye" Test Pattern

[Stanislav]

(I.e., like this one and all its many variations....)

What are some of the stations that continued to make at least occasional use of these types of (often black-and-white) TPs most recently?

Saw a lot through the 70s and into the early 80s, but I know of at least two (via observation) that persisted into at least the early 90s here in the South. One was WMAH-19 in Biloxi MS (and possibly, by extension, the whole Mississippi ETV Network, as they all used to use them back in the day), and the other WSAV-3 in Savannah. Both in glorious black-and-white, too.

From a former acquaintance's DX video, I know WCBS-2 used theirs at least into the late 80's and early 90's, and from discussions on this board, even much more recently. Do they still break it out once in a while?

How about RETMAs or Indian Heads? Or the old SMPTE chart? What is the most recent spotting of these classic TPs on the air? Did anyone use them into the 90's?

 

[YEKIMI]

I remember those old "bullseye" test patterens but when did they start using the vertical "color bars" that seem to be the norm these days?

 

[wbhist]

Electronic color bars had been around since the mid-1950's, right from the time of the FCC's approval of the NTSC color system. Alas, the shape of the bars changed markedly over the years. It was about the late 1960's that they assumed the shape of what would be characterized as EIA RS-189A; it was around the mid-to-late 1970's that the "SMPTE color bars" made their first appearance.

In terms of the shape of the bars as specified in SMPTE ECR 1-1978 and EG 1-1990, my favorite variation was via Tektronix TSG-170A/D and SPG-170A generators, with the 7x9 characters, 12 on one line in a box. This was most ubiquitous on many stations for many years starting in the 1980's.

But as for the old-style bullseye patterns, the variation as on that 1947 design (the so-called "NBC test pattern") has to be my personal favorite. I've seen about four color variations here, here, here and here. The first was from the mid-to-late 1960's; the second, a variation thereof in the '70's (lighter grey, more orangeish yellow and darker green); the third, used in the '80's; and the last, unique to WNBC-TV in New York, used (with three different logo variations) from 1975 to the late 1980's.

I've also noticed, in the three color bullseye test patterns, that they were predominantly used in stations east of the Mississippi, with "W" call letters. Only one "K" station is known to have used one of these variations, the first: KAET, Ch. 8 in Phoenix, AZ, as on here (except as in black-and-white). Would anyone know which "K" stations used any of the first three color test pattern variations? And besides these stations that I know of . . .
- 1960's variation: WFLD/Ch. 32, Chicago; WKYC-TV/Ch. 3, Cleveland, OH; WHBF-TV/Ch. 4, Rock Island, IL; WMUR-TV/Ch. 9, Manchester, NH; plus KAET
- 1970's variation: WSMV-TV/Ch. 27 (later WHLL, now WUNI), Worcester, MA; WOUB-TV/Ch. 20, Athens, OH/WOUC-TV/Ch. 44, Cambridge, OH (two typesetting variations); WLS-TV/Ch. 7, Chicago, IL (the famous "Sears Tower" pattern); WLVI-TV/Ch. 56, Cambridge/Boston, MA; WYTV/Ch. 33, Youngstown, OH
- 1980's variation: WABC-TV/Ch. 7, New York (two typesetting variations); WPIX/Ch. 11, New York; WSBK-TV/Ch. 38, Boston; WNEV-TV/Ch. 7 (formerly WNAC-TV, now WHDH), Boston; WTTE-TV/Ch. 28, Columbus, OH; WVAH-TV/Ch. 23 (now FOX 11), Charleston/Huntington, WV; WICZ/Ch. 40, Binghamton, NY; WCGV-TV/Ch. 24, Milwaukee, WI; plus the aforementioned WMAH
. . . which other stations would've used the respective variations?

 

[kirkiefan]

When I hear "bullseye" are you referring to the following?

WLW-T, 5 Cincinnati, WLW-D 2 Dayton and WLW-I 13 Indianapolis (all looking the same only differentiated by their respective channel number logos)

Variations:
WCET "Educational TV" 48 Cincinnati
WTTV 4 Bloomington,Indiana


The RETMA and Indian Head was seen on Dayton's WHIO-TV until 1965 when replaced by the original vertical color bars.

 

[wbhist]

When I hear "bullseye" are you referring to the following?

WLW-T, 5 Cincinnati, WLW-D 2 Dayton and WLW-I 13 Indianapolis (all looking the same only differentiated by their respective channel number logos)

Variations:
WCET "Educational TV" 48 Cincinnati
WTTV 4 Bloomington,Indiana


The RETMA and Indian Head was seen on Dayton's WHIO-TV until 1965 when replaced by the original vertical color bars.

The "bullseye" you mention was more meant for monoscope and/or telop (vs. 35mm slide) applications, a proto-"politically correct" alternative to the "Indian head"; the grayscale gradations were through finite lines rather than different shades of gray. Here is what the likes of WCET, WTTV, WGBH (Boston), WGN (Chicago), KSL (Salt Lake City), WMAL (now WJLA, Washington, DC), WSLS (Roanoke, VA) and other stations used, some even into the color era. This is the Crosley/Avco variation used by the aforementioned "WLW" stations.

Only one station I know of conjured up a color test pattern based on this type of design, and that was WBZ-TV (Ch. 4) in Boston, starting in the latter half of the 1960's.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

The RETMA and Indian Head was seen on Dayton's WHIO-TV until 1965 when replaced by the original vertical color bars.

WOC-6 (now KWQC-TV) Davenport, IA (NBC) was still using the old Indian Head test pattern at the end of their sign off message from the early-to-mid-1980s as posted below on YouTube (notice the change from the modern color bars to the old Indian Head at the 1:16 point in the film).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXXcObBjO0E