Remember TV Sign-offs?
Pittsburgh:It's not a very common thing to see a TV station sign-off anymore. That's why this little gem is so appealing.
That's former KQV Announcer Henry DaBecco giving the tech specs, address and telling you to listen to 1250 WTAE Radio and Sara Lockard through the night.
One YouTube Commenter remarked that after Pittsburgh's Channel 4 would sign off, he would, as a DXer pick up WRC-TV out of Washington, DC.
Enjoy.
Readers’ Forum
Speaking of sign on and sign off’s I’d be curious to know what Indian tribe the native American belongs to that was on the test pattern we used to see when stations signed on “back in the day?” (I would guess Clarke would have the answer to this one!)
Trefdawg - April 10, 2008 at 8:19 pm
My favorite was always the WQED “Monty Python” sign off. I would always turn it on just to hear the “Always look on the bright side of life”. I couldnl’t go to bed back in the day without it.
DJ - April 10, 2008 at 11:22 pm
When I first started at WQLN in 1997, the TV side was still signing off at 1am. The narration was by the late Paul Brown followed by the Canadian and American national anthems. We signed back on at 5:30am with the same procedure. I recall visiting Pittsburgh and saw that very Monty Python anthem but it was on WQEX at the time I saw it in ’92. I definitely got a huge laugh out of that one.
Tom Lavery (URL) - April 11, 2008 at 10:37 am
There is a great site for sign-offs from all over the country..
http://tv-signoffs.com/
This site has audio TV signoffs from as far back as the late 1950’s, as well as video sign-offs from the 70’s to 2000’s..I recommend it highly
Tim Lones (URL) - April 12, 2008 at 12:51 am
Many years ago, I visited the WTNH-8 transmitter on a hilltop near New Haven, CT when they were still signing off. The xmtr supervisor was another ham, so I asked him if he had considered mounting a 2 meter antenna 20 or 30 feet up on the tower to see how well he could “get out.”
“Thirty feet, hell!” he responded, “I load up the big stick!” – meaning that after the TV signoff, he disconnected the TV xmtr output from the transmission line up to the antenna system at the top of the tower and replaced it with the output of his little Gon-Set transceiver!
He “worked” a ham in Brooklyn, NY (about 75 air miles distant), who was very surprised to hear someone in Hamden, CT (before repeaters came into vogue).
“How much power are you running up there?”
“15 watts.”
“That’s all? How high do you have it off the ground?”
“Oh, about 900 feet!”
“TV station, huh?”
“Yep!”
Bill Davies - April 12, 2008 at 07:59 am
When I lived in Kane and Ridgway for a couple of years, I used to stay up through the wee hours of Friday night/Saturday morning and watch Buffalo’s WKBW (channel 7) sign off. That station, too, also played the U.S. and Canadian national anthems when it signed off. Thanks, Tom, for the memory.
Rick - April 17, 2008 at 11:33 pm
I remember the day when most TV stations signed off and some radio station too. IIRC, I think one Sunday night a month, even KDKA radio signed off for transmitter maintenance. I always liked the sign-off video from WTAE above with the F-16 in flight, I think WPTT, the first callsign for channel 22 used the same video. I think the only 24 hour TV station was KDKA-TV but back in the day here in Pittsburgh, you did have a market for people who are up at night because of the steel mills and factories we had here.
BTW, I’m that TV DX’er (NowhereMan1966) on YouTube that received WRC-TV out of DC, my friend and I hooked the rabbit ears from at 1959 Philco to my 1982 Zenith 25” console back in the late 1980’s, when WTAE signed off, we received the DC station fairly well. Today, I’m using the same rabbit ears for my HDTV to NTSC converter box and the Zenith is still in service.
Chuck Mandus - April 22, 2008 at 11:58 am
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Orion (URL) - June 30, 2008 at 02:19 am
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