Let's talk about them!

Questions :

1) What is a signoff ???
2) Name yours ?
3) Clear Enough ?

I think PBS (Well, my local PBS affiliate) still signs off around midnight on Sunday.

um i think he might mean spin off like the The Jeffersons where a spin off of all in the family empity nest golden girls etc

No, I meant TV signoffs, as in "This concludes our broadcast day".

I miss those sign-offs :(

Aaaah, those...
I only see the occasional "Error" or "Please wait" but whenever a channel is done for the day (here), you get the "Amazing Discoveries"-like programs.
Over here some public channels have it.

The TV signoff's is where TV stations signed off the air during the overnight hours for such a long time. They played the National Anthem, for example the WW2-related films from Fox Movietone News back in the 1940's where they were singing the "Star-Spangled Banner". I posted three films courtesy of Internet Archive. The one with Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians and the one with Robert Merrill, a longtime Yankees performer and the technicolor 1940's SSB with words on the bottom of the screen. Those three are great finds and it was so hard to watch on numerous TV signoff's. I posted these three on Retrojunk because the commercials from the 1970's section under PSA's where it was all related to signoff's. If you're on the Internet Archive, I would like you to see it again. If it shows up on Retrojunk, will see.

Fred Waring & the Pennsylvanians - SSB (1942)
Robert Merrill - SSB (1944)
National Anthem (1940)

Here are three station signoff's like WNYW-TV and WUHF-TV. WUHF-TV only has signon's:

WNYW-TV Sign-Off
WUHF-TV Sign-On
WUHF-TV Sign-On #2

Or you should check Jaw-Man's TV Sign Off Page.

http://www.jawtoons.com/sign-offs

Very few stations have sign-offs in my town anymore. I cant remember the
last time I saw the national anthem played for one. Our local PBS station does a little thing where they tell you the specs of their brodcast tower and they show a montage of images from around the region. After that they go black.

I don't really remember any. I usually just watched Nickelodeon straight through the day, anyhow. :lol:

With the miracle of infomercials, downtime on network TV channels is a thing of the past.

Those infomercials made lots of money by scamming people with products that doesn't work.

My local PBS station does that, too, but on Sunday late nights (as explained in my previous post), showing montages of the Grand Canyon. After that, it shows the famous "rainbow screen" up till Monday morning.

I used to get freaked out as a kid when I used to see the sign-offs come on. For some reason, they scared me when I was little.

Did they scare anyone else when they were a kid?

They scare me a bit, even today. Maybe it's because of the announcer's voice?

TV sign-offs are interesting

too bad most stations are 24/7 nowadays. Sign-offs feel like a good end to a broadcast.

the almighty classic sign-off:

"This.....is CNN!"

"I'm Walter Cronkite.....And that's the way it was!"

everytime I hear that Walter Cronkite, I always think of Jim Carrey in "Bruce Almighty" when he was trying to pick an anchor sign-off in front of a mirror. :lol:

Hi. I'm new to this forum and a real fan of signoffs. What scared me about signoffs is stations turning off the transmitter (or cutting carrier) after the National Anthem as was in the case of the local ABC station (WLOX-TV 13 Biloxi, Gulfport, and Pascagoula, MS) and the local PBS stations WMAH-TV 19 - same location. The PBS station in New Orleans (WYES-TV 12) also did that but after a brief period of black. First there would be static audio then nothing then static video. WMAH still signs off every Sunday Night but they leave the test pattern on. What also scared me was WLOX's sign off where a moon would come up in the left corner of the screen and WLOX-TV 13 Biloxi, Gulfport, and MS in the right corner. This was in the 80s and after a devotional. In the 90s there was a devotional and then the moon and WLOX TV etc, at the bottom. Later in the 90s they sometimes they would alternate between that and a moon showing in a picture frame with a tree and surrounded by a gray background with WLOX-TV 13, etc at the bottom.

I rmember every National Anthem used by stations in my area.

These channel numbers is where I get them on the cable company.

3 - WLOX - America The Beautiful (in the early and mid 80s they used a different National Anthem and one time used Am High America and then the signoff which I thought was strange. It had a big 13 and small WLOX TV, etc on the bottom with a sunset background.

In the 90s they would eventuallyalternate between America The Beautiful and a National Anthem that ends with closeups of the sunset (its not the and with the helicopter flying around and National Anthem played on piano)

4 - WWL (CBS) New Orleans - Mormon SSB. In the 90s they didn't use on when they signed off for maintenance work.

5 - WKRG (CBS) Mobile AL/Pensacola, FL - Synthesized SSB (With Mt Rushmore and astronaunt at the end and zooming to the stars) In the 90s they used the Blue Angels Squadron one.

6 - WDSU (NBC) New Orleans - They would alternate between the one that begins with a rocket taking off and landing at the end and then the flag and the one with a guitar being played and building towards an orchestra at the end.

7 - WMAH - Flag Evolution SSB. They play it still but only on Sunday Nights. They are on Ch. 11

8 - WVUE (ABC, now Fox) New Orleans - They played a SSB with the helicopter flying around and being played on a piano.

9 - WGNO (Ind, WB, now ABC) New Orleans - They played local scenery with Pachelbell's Canon being played.

10 - WXXV (Fox) Gulfport - They played a SSB that I can't remember but they did the signoff while the National Anthem which is rude. Later they played the one with closeups of the sunset at the end like WLOX

12 - WYES ( PBS) New Orleans - They played the same Synthesized SSB that WKRG played. In the 90s they played on with local scenery at night and then the Am High America SSB

I'm sorry this very long but this shows you the interest I really have in signoffs

BTW, speaking of which I have a yahoo group devoted to this same topic. Feel free to discuss and post your audio and video signoffs of TV stations and cable stations here!

http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/USTVSignoffs/

"Stay Classy!" :wink:

Growing up in Southern CA, I became hooked on sign-offs and sign-ons in 1984. KCOP and KABC both showed the Moog SSB that jc described . Also, KABC showed the inspirational High Flight film before the SSB. FOr years after I thougth about the Moog SSB and when someone mentioned it last year, I wanted to see it again and this year, I found a tape by accident that had a KABC sign off with High Flight and the Moog SSB films. KCOP, unfortunately, switched films and showed a different National Anthem film involving the US Navy. I donated copies of these to JawMan's website and the Moog SSB I have had some glitches due to the original owner's equipment. I am praying that I find a BETTER copy of it and have it posted and put on DVD, which I plan to do with my tapes I call, RetroMedia.

KHJ had a great montage set to the late Ray Charles' soulful rendition of America the Beautiful and KTTV had the Los Angeles Police Band performing the SSB at the old Metromedia Square. I am still on the hunt for these two sign offs.