Comments on: Signing Off, Signing On, Test Patterns, and the Peacock

By: Jane Goodwin

Jane Goodwin — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 03:20:50 +0000

Those are really cool; thank you! Those signs and symbols are part of my childhood. I miss them; all-night TV isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

By: TXPAScot

TXPAScot — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 13:24:34 +0000

If you want some interesting videos of old TV sign-offs, permit me to recommend J. Alan Wall’s excellent web site, http://www.tv-signoffs.com. Some are mere quick “good-night”s, while others are quite elaborate productions. Still others are re-creations using old audio tracks from the 1950s.

By: Rich Rodriguez

Rich Rodriguez — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 08:09:05 +0000

Yeah, I was scared of the Indian Head test pattern as a little kid. The Indian looked so angry and mean with all those weird lines and circles and the loud test tone. I later learned he looked angry when he really wasn’t because the channel often ran a copy of a copy of the original and the fuzzy analog signal distorted it even further.

During the nationwide switch to digital TV last year, several stations said farewell to their analog signal with an old-school sign off, the national anthem, and the Indian Head test pattern one last time before violently cutting off the signal forever. It’s still freaky after all these years.

Down in San Diego, XETV/San Diego 6 still has a traditional early morning sign-on with the playing of the Mexican and U.S. national anthems. But that’s because as the call letters suggest, XETV is actually a Tijuana TV station broadcasting across the border to San Diego, and Mexican broadcast law requires all stations to play the Mexican anthem at the start and close of broadcast days, and the anthem of a guest nation immediately afterward (in this case the United States). XETV broadcasts 24/7 like everybody else but still has the sign-on at 5:00 or 6:00am each day.

I have a playlist of final analog TV signoffs from the digital TV transition at my YouTube page, http://www.youtube.com/richartrod.

By: Ashleigh Burroughs

Ashleigh Burroughs — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:40:20 +0000

Crusader Rabbit and Mighty Mouse came on in all their black and white splendor at 6am Saturday morning , just after Modern Farmer.

My rich uncle bought my grandmother a color television when my grandfather got sick (is there a trend here in your comments??) and Bonanza was never the same at home after that.

I wish I remembered when I first saw The Wizard of Oz….. I am old…
a/b

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:16:28 +0000

In the late 60′s and early 70′s I work as a part time
weekend DJ at a 5000 watt AM country music station. Every
Sunday night at 12 midnight I would sign the station
off and power down the old tube transmitter.
Now, stations stay on 24/7 because with modern solid
state equipment, there is less problems if they just
run all the time. TV stations were the same way.
Sad in a way, but somehow they call it progress.
Maybe? Maybe not?

By: DRKellogg

DRKellogg — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:05:14 +0000

We did not have a color TV until after I left home for college, in 1980. My parents were one of the last holdouts. My grandparents had a large console set that was color and it was AWFUL. My dad said that if that was what color looked like, he didn’t want it!

Also, where I lived in Indiana, we did not get public television. We got 3 channels through our antenna: 15 (CBS), 21 (ABC), & 33 (NBC). When I was about 11 yrs. old, we started getting an independent channel (55).

Although the neighbors had cable, my parents didn’t until 1985, when my dad became ill with cancer. Finally, they were able to receive channel 4 and public TV!

By: The Daughter

The Daughter — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:39:14 +0000

TV after midnight is no worse than internet after midnight. Not really any different at all for that matter. I like to sleep with the TV on low, just on the Weather Channel or Animal Planet so I don’t hear any outside noises.

By: bonnie

bonnie — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:35:28 +0000

Regarding NBC: My first music theory teacher used the musical mnemonic device of the notes between N and B to teach a major 6th. The first two notes from the theme from Love Story was a minor 6th. I have tried for years to forget this information to no avail!

By: Kathy_B

Kathy_B — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:06:26 +0000

We didn’t have color TV for a very long time. The black & white worked just fine, so there was no reason to replace it.

I knew that part of the Wizard of Oz was in color only because my mom told me. She had seen it at the theater as a little girl. Every year when we watched, she would tell us at what point the color started and when it reverted back to B&W.

Side note: A lady that used to work with us was in The Wizard of Oz. She was 7 years old at the tine. The casting directors went to local dance studios to cast children as “background munchkins.”

By: ricochet

ricochet — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:09:34 +0000

I remember the first show I saw in color (a football bowl game on New Year’s about 1961 or 2).

I remember moving to the South and finding out stores were closed on Sunday. Since I remember that, I guess they were open on Sunday on the West Coast.

I remember 4 channels” ABC, NBC, CBS and public tv.