TV SIGN-OFFS

[DanHostler1985]

Anyone miss television sign-offs like I do? I used to stay up all night just to watch these back when almost every station signed-off. For some reason I was always fascinated by them. Now all I see is crap informercials. Why don't they really do it anymore like they used to? The only stations that sign off are KTXA and KDFI and on Sunday night-Monday morning.

By the way if anyone has any sign-offs from the DFW area please do post them.

 

[stdjsb25]

Automation, improved technology, and the quest for more money have simply made the daily TV sign-off a thing of the past. That and the network offerings in the overnight hours. First came CBS' Nightwatch (later to be evolved into Up To the Minute), then NBC's Nightside, and finally ABC's World News Now.

Now, the networks offer mostly news (ABC and CBS), or entertainment (NBC, which started out with weekday repeats of Leno and Conan and weekend reruns of Saturday Night Live, Dateline, and Meet the Press, and has abandoned all but Leno reruns and the early Monday morning Meet the Press and Dateline repeats, and replaced it with Poker After Dark).

And you can also count the competition with Cable/Satellite.....ever since the first 24-hour services came around in the late 1970's-early 1980's, the sign-off has just become unnecessary on a daily basis.

 

[w9wi]

Why don't they really do it anymore like they used to?

At the station I was working for in Wisconsin in the early 1980s, we realized:

- We had to have an engineer overnight anyway, there was too much dubbing & other similar work that couldn't be done during the day when production was tying up the equipment.
- Electronic equipment is far more likely to fail when first turned on then while operating - so if we went off the air overnight, the transmitter was far more likely to break down at signon than at any other time. So if we never signed on (because we never signed off) there'd be fewer failures...

The major reason why not in the early 1980s was lack of programming - the networks weren't programming all night, and if you had to buy programming it was pretty expensive. Our CE solved the problem by building a "newsticker" to automatically type up the AP wire on a character generator. (some stations just put up a test pattern -- it is, after all, free<grin>)

 

[KPLEXCOMPLEX]

Ahh those days of the sign off. In San Antonio one station would sign off and suggest the night owls listen to their AM station until it was sold. "Father James Keller" with his "Thought for Today" (filmed in the late 40's and early 50's) was the final program,then the epic poem "High Flight" was read showing an old F102(?)"Strarfighter" flying and ascending to the heavens,this was follwed by what looked like a bourbon barrel ,but ti was the seal of good practice from the N.A.B. that the station followed( btw this was later ruled illegal in the 70's for some reason by the FCC)., The star spangled banner played, then it was off.

Now in the spring/summer I liked it because then I could receive stations from Houston, Ch.13, and 2. Corpus Christi Channel 3 and 10,Sometimes Austin ch.7. One time I received astation coming in fuzzy and some distortion in the audio,but it was Winston-Salem North Carolina! Our outside antenna was very tall BTW. The old zennith TV had a "fine tuner" on it and if you turned it a certain way you could hear KEEZ FM 97 in SA. or KITY at 92. It was great because we didn't have an fm radio in the house yet.

 

[stevezodiac]

Channel 8 in Dallas, used to have a beautiful sign-off. Lots of shots of the metroplex like SMU, both downtowns, etc. all shot on film. I don't know what the theme music was. I'm hoping someone has a copy and will upload it to YouTube. (Just checked, not there at this time)

 

[Smittian]

KIII in Corpus Christi had one of the coolest sign-offs ever. Back in the late 80's/early 90's, they signed off by showing various nighttime scenes of Corpus Christi, with plenty of Bayfront and and downtown shots while Journey's "City By the Bay" ("When the lights go down in the city......") played in the background

 

[DanHostler1985]

Journey's "City By the Bay" ("When the lights go down in the city......") played in the background

Curious here, how were they able to get the rights to play that on every sign off?

 

[KPLEXCOMPLEX]

Simple. Like a radio station they have a BMI..ASCAP License and can play it.

 

[MikeShannon914]

Channel 8 in Dallas, used to have a beautiful sign-off. Lots of shots of the metroplex like SMU, both downtowns, etc. all shot on film. I don't know what the theme music was. I'm hoping someone has a copy and will upload it to YouTube. (Just checked, not there at this time)

I have it, nice and clean copy, but I don't know a thing about uploading to YouTube. Besides, I'm still on dial-up, and it'd tie up the computer for 10 or 11 days trying to do that. Sorry!

 

[DanHostler1985]

Channel 8 in Dallas, used to have a beautiful sign-off. Lots of shots of the metroplex like SMU, both downtowns, etc. all shot on film. I don't know what the theme music was. I'm hoping someone has a copy and will upload it to YouTube. (Just checked, not there at this time)

I have it, nice and clean copy, but I don't know a thing about uploading to YouTube. Besides, I'm still on dial-up, and it'd tie up the computer for 10 or 11 days trying to do that. Sorry!

Mike is this on VHS? If so I think I can help with that...

 

[XTalker]

Because of increased cable penetration of the last 15 years, over the air TV stations had to remain "on the air" all night. What if you woke up to a blank screen - you'd change the channel - and who knows when you would come back.

KPLEXCOMPLEX is right - TV stations can play virtually any music they want to be cause of blanket licenses with ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC.

 

[newsmark]

Channel 8 in Dallas, used to have a beautiful sign-off. Lots of shots of the metroplex like SMU, both downtowns, etc. all shot on film.

If it's the one I'm thinking of, a shorter version also served as the 5 p.m. news open in the late 70s.

 

[stevezodiac]

[/quote]

I have it, nice and clean copy, but I don't know a thing about uploading to YouTube. Besides, I'm still on dial-up, and it'd tie up the computer for 10 or 11 days trying to do that. Sorry!
[/quote]

Mike, send it to me, I can and do upload to Youtube. I ordered those KNUS cd's from you a few months ago. I'll send it back unscathed. 8)

 

[grantchester]

Plex... you brought back a fond memory. I always loved seeing the KONO-TV 12 signoff, with the F-104 Starfighter, and the poem of High Flight, by John McGee... (Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth...)
Back in the early '80s, the promotion department told me to report to Laurie Auditorium to record a new version of the Star Spangled Banner, with the San Antonio Symphony. They gave me an old Wollensack with the crappy 'dynamic' mic it came with. I protested, to no avail. So I called Goombah, and he brought his Nakamichi with a stereo mic, and climbed up into the catwalk to hang the mic. Then, as backup, Chris Wallace suggested we take one of the GBC 3/4 inch video recorders. It also had two channels. We used a couple of 635's on mic stands, and got a spectacular recording, which was in beautiful balanced stereo. That's what we ended up using.
But it wasn't much longer til they started going all night, and the thing stopped playing.
BTW, I recall the NAB seal. I also recall a test pattern with an indian in headdress on it. And color-bars.
g

 

[KPLEXCOMPLEX]

I was gone from SA in the early 80's,but in the 60's and 70's KONO/KSAT TV had the Indian Head test pattern at 5:30am unitl 5:45a KTRK in Houston had the same. Our first color TV in 1968 was a Zennith,and that receiver was so sensitive. Ialready pointed out the skips,but during one time in the day,when Hurricane Buleah was aiming at Corpus,we received Ch.3 from Tampa Bay,Fla. with some fuzz of course along with some static,otherwise it was great.

 

[KTN Corp]

The big 3 VHF stations in Houston never seemed to sign off recently, only KUHT signs off at midnight (Sun/Mon). After watching scenes across America with America the Beautiful playing in the background, its always fun to see the transmitter go off-line and try to catch skip like actually getting WFAA for once. After it signed off, there were no distant signals. I looked around ch. 3-10 and nothing else appeared that night. I've gotten KTBC in the morning on one Sunday while flipping for breakfast programs, so I tried to catch it again at night.

The test pattern alternative seems to be interesting. The whistling hurts my ears but the picture is interesting. How come they use colorbars instead of this anymore: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmfTPVbmSE4?

 

[Ranger]

KPLEXCOMPLEX is right - TV stations can play virtually any music they want to be cause of blanket licenses with ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC.

That only applies to use in newscasts. All other uses are commercial and you must use either library music or license the music you want.

When I worked in a smaller market, it seems you could get away with using just about anything. In Dallas, you will get called on it.

 

[KPLEXCOMPLEX]

i'M GONNA dispute you Hal. According to RIAA as long as you have a legit license(BMI,ASCAP,etc) You have permission otherwise think of all the dance shows present and then. The stations couldn't pay royalities for every song ,even on network shows.

 

[bhayes1016]

The big 3 VHF stations in Houston never seemed to sign off recently, only KUHT signs off at midnight (Sun/Mon). After watching scenes across America with America the Beautiful playing in the background, its always fun to see the transmitter go off-line and try to catch skip like actually getting WFAA for once. After it signed off, there were no distant signals. I looked around ch. 3-10 and nothing else appeared that night. I've gotten KTBC in the morning on one Sunday while flipping for breakfast programs, so I tried to catch it again at night.

The test pattern alternative seems to be interesting. The whistling hurts my ears but the picture is interesting. How come they use colorbars instead of this anymore: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmfTPVbmSE4?

Channel 26 did the Sunday night sign-off up until they moved into their new studios several years ago.

 

[Ranger]

i'M GONNA dispute you Hal. According to RIAA as long as you have a legit license(BMI,ASCAP,etc) You have permission otherwise think of all the dance shows present and then. The stations couldn't pay royalities for every song ,even on network shows.

You can dispute all you want, but you would be incorrect. I work with music licenses for our station. Dance shows and the like I'm sure make special arrangements, seeing as how they are good publicity for the record companies. This is the way it works in television. The permission granted is for any project that is of a non-commercial nature. Even though news is a commercial venture, it's covered. Any promo is a commercial venture for the station. How many times have you seen on a network show when they mention that by playing a song, they have to pay? Most smaller and medium markets either buy music libraries or chance getting sued. The major markets usually have a combination of music libraries and custom music.