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WTIC-TV-61, 1984 Sign On

I am going to check with Arnold Chase to see if I can put more of that up.

I forgot all about the "We're all yours" jingle. It was good to hear it again. Most TV now does not have jingles, its all just generic force fed television.
 
Anybody have the sign off with the church bells and the images of Ella Grasso? That was very memorable! I also noticed how they proudly proclaimed to be Connecticut's only locally-owned TV station! :)
 
Interesting in the initial video that Bob Steele mentioned signing on and off with that version of the anthem to keep the late Governor's legacy alive.

Mind you, stations don't sign on and off in this age of digital television, but you'd think Tribune (the current owners) would at least run a truncated version every morning at 5 AM before that Shepherd's Chapel show.
 
I remember that! I also remember catching the station about 2 weeks before the official sign-on. Back in those days, I had a Radio Shack block converter that would take the entire cable band between the VHF bands and the band just after and including, the VHFhi frequencies and dump it on the UHF band (I think I still have that thing somewhere). Anyway, when 61 first tested, I started getting ingression where converted CATV 27 would be. I pulled the cable off the TV and there it was (not a big deal, the fine tune knob on the converter would move the frequencies +/- at least 5 channels). The first thing I noticed was the sound quality, they were playing music and the audio was so much better then all the other stations on the air at the time.

Does anyone else remember the blooper during the sign-on party where Eddie Arnold said the call-letters wrong? I'm sure someone must have that somewhere.
 
>Does anyone else remember the blooper during the sign-on party where Eddie Albert said the call-letters wrong?

I have the full show because a friend found the tape in his cellar. I'm not going to post the blooper because it was at the end of the show and Eddie Albert didn't have a chance to correct himself or laugh at his mistake.

A Channel 61 staffer a few months later told me that Eddie Albert made the mistake because his original presentation had the original WETG calls in it.

WTIC-TV did the tests for almost two weeks prior to sign-on with something like a slide, music in stereo, and requests asking people to call in with reception reports. I called in to say I was watching with a roof antenna from my home in North Haven. They twice asked me to compare their signal with Channel 3's. The signals were equal.
 
I also seem to remember an early promo in their first year, saying something to the effect of "Hello Connecticut, Massachusetts and southern Vermont! You're watching WTIC-TV, channel 61!".

On a side note, whatever happened to the lead male and female announcers you heard constantly on the station in those first couple years? The guy had the bellowing voice, similar to Bob Tracy, the current voice of the Fox 61 News At Ten.
 
Bill1820 said:
Hopefully someone has studio copy in stereo.
Click to expand...
For the Fox 61 Gala Sign On (which was broadcast in Stereo) they had the audio reversed with sounds for the left speaker coming out of the right speaker, and sounds for the right speaker coming out of the left.

Arnold to this day is still upset that he messed that one up, although I don't think anyone noticed it but him. :)
 
I remember before they signed on they were playing the "Kids Incorporated" promo over and over again.

Like a dummy I sat there and watched it again and again and again. :D
 
KML-224 said:
I also seem to remember an early promo in their first year, saying something to the effect of "Hello Connecticut, Massachusetts and southern Vermont! You're watching WTIC-TV, channel 61!".

On a side note, whatever happened to the lead male and female announcers you heard constantly on the station in those first couple years? The guy had the bellowing voice, similar to Bob Tracy, the current voice of the Fox 61 News At Ten.
Click to expand...

Are they still the most powerfull UHF station in the US?
 
No. I think what they should've said was that they were the most powerful station in New England to that time (5 million watts visual ERP). Isn't WCTX-TV (MY) channel 59 of New Haven 5 million watts visual ERP as well?
 
If I remember correctly, they held the title of most powerful in the US for a short time as 5 megawatts was the new maximum allowable limit at the time (I think, I'm not 100% sure of that) and not long afterward other stations either were able to raise power to 5 megawatts or signed on new at that level, they were just first. Also, wasn't the maximum allowable limit increased at some point to 5.5 megawatts or higher? Someone wish to clarify?
 
I once heard about a station in Springfield, MO that listed their visual ERP as 5,100,000 watts. Possibly the FOX affiliate in that market?
 
I remember talking to my Dad, who lives near Hartford, when Channel 61 went on the air. He said, "I thought Channel 3 was WTIC". Even though Channel 3's call letters changed from WTIC-TV to WFSB over ten years earlier, he was not aware of that and he was probably not alone. It's amazing how much the average viewer is not aware of things that are obvious to us here.

It's hard to believe that channel 61 has been on the air for almost half the time that channel 3 has been on the air.

Paul
 
PaulRAnderson said:
I remember talking to my Dad, who lives near Hartford, when Channel 61 went on the air. He said, "I thought Channel 3 was WTIC". Even though Channel 3's call letters changed from WTIC-TV to WFSB over ten years earlier, he was not aware of that and he was probably not alone. It's amazing how much the average viewer is not aware of things that are obvious to us here.
Click to expand...

It's a situation akin to what may be happening in Detroit, where the WWJ calls were originally on Channel 4 (now WDIV). When Channel 62 was purchased by CBS in the wake of losing Channel 2 to Fox (WJBK), they put the WWJ calls on Channel 62. I recall reading a survey that took place, either before the call switch or afterward, polling Detroit residents "when you think WWJ, what channel do you think of" or "what channel do you go to for WWJ".
 
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