Commercials on YouTube
July 5, 2022Like anyone else, I can easily get sucked into watching videos on YouTube. Of course, you’re well aware that YouTube likely has something for everyone – including commercials. I’m not talking about the current ads that interrupt your viewing if you’re not paying for a subscription to the site.
No, I’m talking about the hours worth of commercials people have recorded on VHS cassettes. You see kiddies, when we had VCRs back in the 1990s we actually had the ability to record programs from television. And if we didn’t make sure the tracking on the machine was “aligned” or whatever we weren’t successful at recording. We also had to get the directions out each time we would program the VCR ahead of time and make sure the TV was on the correct channel!
Over the last few years, people have been dumping their VHS cassettes onto YouTube with stuff a select few of us would really find interesting. Of course, even then I wonder if the few of us are really that interested. There are people who have posted collections of TV news openings from the earliest ones they could find to modern day. Some people have posted “historical” news broadcasts from decades ago…. and the “history” is more about who the anchors were that day, not necessarily the news itself. Then there are those who couldn’t give a rip about the programs… it’s all about the commercials!
Truth be told, I find all of these types of videos – IN MODERATION – fun in that they spark some pretty fun memories. Yet, they also show how much life I have lived since that time.
Long-time PBRTV reader, Joseph sent a message to me the other day with a link to one of these commercial videos. The commercial included a spot from 1989 featuring WSHH then morning hosts Jack Bogut and Hank Baughman and voiced by then-midday host, Dan Dunlap. Based on the July 4 date mentioned elsewhere in the video, this would have been just a few months prior to Wish dropping the beautiful music format for soft vocals which has slowly evolved into the soft rock format of today.
Take a look… (NOTE: I saved you the search through the first 4 1/2 minutes that I had to suffer through… including the commercial immediately proceeding this one for Summer’s Eve which will help the kiddies learn what “douche” is and why it is now an insult!)
For what it’s worth, Joseph was quick to admonish me upon my response to his message. “Years ago on Twitter, I asked you if WISH did any TV commercials before 1995 … and you said ‘no,'” he said. “Well, you were actually wrong. The WISH commercial I showed you last evening is from 1989. They didn’t mention the “Beautiful Music” format, but they did say you can get it on 99.7 on a digital tuner.”
Well Joseph, I’m afraid I don’t remember that conversation, but I can tell you that prior to 1995 “Wish 100” advertised on TV, just not heavily. If, however, I truly was wrong about that, then obviously you caught me during a lapse in memory (or even concern for such) which can happen when one lacks dopamine production like I do.
Thank you, Eric, for allowing me to show you interesting finds about Pittsburgh’s TV and Radio stations. I think the “WISH 100” ad was fun to watch, even though they didn’t mention the “beautiful music” format directly. It did, however, say the frequency that it was on, which is “99.7.” I think it was a shame that they didn’t advertise it on TV that much, considering the ratings were very high, sometimes being behind only KDKA Radio. Maybe the station had a billboard ad or two back in those days.
The irony. It was common to fast forward through the commercials. Now we want to go back and watch the commercials for the nostalgia.
Right?
Hey that’s Bryan Cranston in the Coffee Mate commercial.
When these commercials aired, WPGH would use the logo that they used whenever it was an independent station a few years earlier … and, they still said either “TV-53” or the call letters back then. They would start saying “FOX 53” not long after these promos aired.