Do You Remember When TV Stations Signed Off And Signed On?

[FromEquestria2LA]

Hi, all. Here's something I remember: TV and radio stations signed off and signed on the air (or, in those in Commonwealth countries, closed down and started up, respectively.)

I remember. One example of such:

Surely, I can't be the only one who remembers when TV stations didn't broadcast 24/7!

 

[Ronald Zeeman]

I do in the sixties.

 

[Mary Terry]

Yes, I do remember. I'm old. Here in the US, the stations (I think there were only three of them at the time) signed off with a version of the The Star Spangled Banner anthem, followed by "snow" on the screen. (As in the Poltergeist movie? "They're here...!") That was back in the days of rabbit ear antennae on top of the TV, no remote control, and usually black & white pictures. I don't miss those days!

 

[oregano]

As late as the 1980s the local TV stations in Sacramento and even a couple in San Francisco would sign off at the end of the day. By the end of the decade the sign offs were limited to once a week, on Sunday nights.

The point was to check out the transmitting equipment to make sure that no components were about to fail. This was when microchips and other integrated component systems were considered toys and the Heavy Lifting was done with vacuum tubes. A single transmitter could fill an entire building the size of a small house, maybe around 600 square feet. The transmitter was a rat nest of capacitors, resistors, coils, and of course the tubes themselves, most of which were gigantic and sheathed in thick steel.

Technicians had to physically climb into the foreboding looking mess and use their Simpson multimeters to physically test every single component to make sure it was testing within spec. The job was fairly dangerous, especially around ultra-high-value capacitors that could hold a lethal amount of DC voltage long after the circuit was turned off. The techs carried what was known as "chicken sticks" to drain the caps before testing them so the multimeter didn't explode like a grenade.

Gradually the reign of vacuum tubes and of carbon resistors and wax paper (and primitive aluminum) capacitors came to an end. Today, everything is computerized. Transmitters consist of dozens of modules that are "hot swappable" and monitored by computers. When the computer says a module is bad, a single tech drives out with the replacement, swaps them, then heads back.

In the old days several DOZEN techs with Simpson 260 meters would crawl around a transmitter for HOURS every single night, then once a week, trying to see if anything was about to blow. If they missed something, the viewing public would suddenly see their favorite program replaced with a "PLEASE STAND BY" message that could last for quite a while.

This was a regular occurrence when I was a little kid in the 70s. My mom had to explain to me that the message did NOT mean that I had to physically stand next to the TV until the show resumed, or that doing so would make it return quicker.

 

[oregano]

I see that Youtube is now forcing people to watch 3 minute long ads from churches and such that are impossible to skip through/close in order to watch what you want to watch. To get to the clip I was forced to sit through a 3 minute ad from the LDS Church. The skip button was grayed out. I couldn't close the tab/browser. I had to force a shutdown to get rid of the preaching, and never did get to watch the video. Die Google!

 

[Magna]

Yes. I remember this. Back then we had only four TV channels in total with one of them being Public Television. That means we only had a total of three Network TV stations, period. ABC, CBS and NBC. That's it.

 

[Au Naturel]

Oh yeah! Complete with the Star Spangled banner. In the late 60s, some of the stations started staying on 24 hours on the weekends. Remember watching Phil Silvers at 3 am.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Sure. it was in the era of Your Show of Shows, Ernie Kovacs, and the Mickey Mouse Club . . . . and vacuum tube TV sets.

 

[VictorR]

Yes! One of the bonuses of staying up to 1 AM or whatever was the sign-off video

 

[Tom]

I remember seeing it referenced but surprisingly don't remember seeing it myself, even though I clearly watched in the old days. I wonder if growing up in and around NYC was a factor. One of it's names is The City that Never Sleeps.

 

[Fino]

I'm 29 and am not familiar with this phenomenon.

 

[Misery]

I see that Youtube is now forcing people to watch 3 minute long ads from churches and such that are impossible to skip through/close in order to watch what you want to watch. To get to the clip I was forced to sit through a 3 minute ad from the LDS Church. The skip button was grayed out. I couldn't close the tab/browser. I had to force a shutdown to get rid of the preaching, and never did get to watch the video. Die Google!

AdBlock. Seriously.

Not only can it utterly destroy all of Youtube's terrible ads,

but it will destroy ads everywhere. EVERYWHERE.

I dont see any, when I use the Net. At all. Anywhere.

Everyone should be using it. Youtube in particular is nigh-unusable without it.

 

[Misery]

And on the note of the topic here, I mostly just remember when TV wasnt a waste of perfectly good electrons and stuff. These days it's basically just a fountain of dumb. WITH long and frequent (and idiotic) commercials and no tools available to tell them to take a hike.

I switched entirely to using Youtube for watching stuff, never looked back.

 

[FreeDiver]

And on the note of the topic here, I mostly just remember when TV wasnt a waste of perfectly good electrons and stuff. These days it's basically just a fountain of dumb. WITH long and frequent (and idiotic) commercials and no tools available to tell them to take a hike.

I switched entirely to using Youtube for watching stuff, never looked back.

IDK: I wonder if TV from the past has gotin old with me as well. Don't get me started with newer TV shows, All of that stuff is garbage from hell. At least to me, it is. Anyways, getting back on the subject of older TV. I find myself getting bored with TV shows that I once liked back when I was younger. I wonder if TV in general gets more boring as you get older, or is it the internet that has become the new TV for me?

 

[Misery]

IDK: I wonder if TV from the past has gotin old with me as well. Don't get me started with newer TV shows, All of that stuff is garbage from hell. At least to me, it is. Anyways, getting back on the subject of older TV. I find myself getting bored with TV shows that I once liked back when I was younger. I wonder if TV in general gets more boring as you get older, or is it the internet that has become the new TV for me?

Could be that last bit.

I dont go back to older TV shows as much either. But that's because I've found too much good stuff on Youtube that would never, ever have shown up on TV even in its best times.

When anyone can make and post anything, creativity can shine. But even at the best of times that was never even remotely the case with TV.

 

[Shamar]

And on the note of the topic here, I mostly just remember when TV wasnt a waste of perfectly good electrons and stuff. These days it's basically just a fountain of dumb. WITH long and frequent (and idiotic) commercials and no tools available to tell them to take a hike.

I switched entirely to using Youtube for watching stuff, never looked back.

Agree. TV today is the originality of a xerox combined with the humor of a road accident and the maturity of a kindergarten at toy time.
And all of you forgot about the test pattern. It was mostly for the benefit of the watcher to adjust the TV set, but almost nobody knew what it meant, how to interpret it, or what adjustments were needed to improve the picture. I learned in middle school when I joined the ham radio club, but my parents would never let me adjust things.

 

[Suzette]

Oh yes! And Walter Cronkite. "And that's the way it was!"

 

[Crossbreed]

Here in the US, the stations (I think there were only three of them at the time) signed off with a version of the The Star Spangled Banner anthem,...

On a related note, movies that played in Navy base theaters were preceded by the national anthem.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

And on the note of the topic here, I mostly just remember when TV wasnt a waste of perfectly good electrons and stuff. These days it's basically just a fountain of dumb. WITH long and frequent (and idiotic) commercials and no tools available to tell them to take a hike.

I switched entirely to using Youtube for watching stuff, never looked back.

I recently saw some old episodes of Omnibus. The content of the shows did not assume people are stupid and it was refreshing to see presenters like Leonard Bernstein provide an understanding of Jazz to Beethoven without talking down to the audience. Comparatively, we are drowning in dreck.

 

[watersprite]

I don’t have a television. When growing up my parents called them idiot boxes. I agree with this though not with much else my parents said.

@Gerald Wilgus I choose not to drown in dreck thanks anyway