WCBS-TV Sign-Off and Sign-On 1977 Complete

[LandondeeL]

6:05 Uh-oh!  Somebody there was asleep at the switch!

[albear972]

The dude at 1:40 has a good Ron Burgundy look going.

[moxie96]

This was on my local network for cbs being channel 5 in san francisco. Surprised I remember this stuff from at nearly not even born yet. i guess it stayed the same long enough for me to remember.

[zjc92]

Know what I want to see before I go to sleep? Holocaust poem.

[dyinglikeflies]

@zjc92 Funny! (And I don't compliment much).

[happymundo]

Wow the old sign off, now everything has to be a frekin 24 hour info.

[MrBassplayer3]

Memories of watching Late Night Channel 2 on the local cable system (in Western NY State).... WCBS would be shown after one of the other NYC stations carried on the system signed off for the evening...

[lisamaria1972]

WOW!! I remember these!!!!!

[CreoleCW]

For the record, WCBS' tone here was a perfect "G".

[columbusmozart]

@CreoleCW

Closer to Ab, actually.

[TheRetro64]

@columbusmozart Actually the WCBS tone was an A natural.

[valentineshoney]

*sigh*

[valentineshoney]

*sigh*

[303Gregg]

How funny that the station will sign back on at 6:05am. Little did they know then that 2, 4, 5, 7, 11, and 41 would all have morning newscasts starting between 4:30 and 5am.

I always wondered why the Program Director couldn't find movies to fill up the overnight hours so that the station wouldn't have to sign off but could be 24 hours. Or why not fill out the time with a 30 min. old sitcom or a 15 min. Davey & Goliath?

[TSMontana]

@303Gregg Goes to show you how much society has changed. It doesn't value "rest" as much as it used to. Now, everything is 24 hours a day...even the busiest city on the entire planet took time to rest back then.

[fromthesidelines]

Pat Connell is the staff announcer here.

[chriskvideochallenge]

And it's under the testcards/teletext section in TVArk. Sorry I forgot to mention that.

[Tuberboy104]

Do you remember hearing the b&w WCBS TV Test Pattern at one time sound like the low F key of 349.5 Hz. tone?

[chriskvideochallenge]

@Tuberboy104 I don't really remember hearing it to be frank with you. But I only really heard talk of it. I might have heard it, as it may have played occasionally after I was born, which is 1982. Even then I believe WCBS did not always go off the air every day, because of CBS News Nightwatch premeiring that same year, which meant that you saw that show during the overnight hours, hence no sign out or test graphic. It would be cool to hear the low F key 349.5 Hz. tone indeed.

[Tuberboy104]

Ok. Though there must be those who once worked at WCBS TV back in the early 1970's in the engineering dept. who might remember the sound of the F key to the b&w WCBS TV Test Pattern. Only if there was someone out there who has an old video clip of Ch 2 off the air before 1977.

[chriskvideochallenge]

HEY GUESS WHAT!!! I found on the TVArk site, a WCBS Test Graphic with a buzz in the key of not "F", but rather "D", a high pitched "D", in the whereabouts of 1175 Hz., from all the way back in 1968 apparently. Amazing. Now I'd want to find that 349.5 Hz. "F" key tone test graphic of WCBS's.

[Tuberboy104]

Interesting, because I have also been trying to look all over the internet for a video clip of Ch 2 WCBS TV off the air showing that b&w Test Pattern accompanied by the 349.5 Hz key tone.

Until last Fall, the oldest video clip of Ch 2 off the air was from 1977 showing the Test Pattern with a 395 Hz tone.

[Tuberboy104]

Amazing! I do recall Ch 5 WNEW TV for awhile using a tone similar to 1175 Hz back in the 1970's with the color bar.

[wmbrown6]

@chriskvideochallenge - I actually measured that high-pitched 'D' tone to be more along the lines of 1170 Hz. But you're close. WCBS, at the period here (1977), had their tone around 398 Hz.

[RyanCunningham100]

WCBS still broadcasts on Channel 2. I think you'd love those old family portraits, but they have a big “2” on them to identify WCBS.

[msnbc87]

yeah but now in Digital and HD

[tomovox]

I love those slides they created for the station- like viewing old family slides on a projector-except with a nice big "2" included!

[70sman4ever]

They should bring this back this kind of program makes people aware of acting like decent people man! Long live the 70s!

[donm631]

I am so having flashbacks of my father asleep on the couch with the TV on. It would always be on channel 2. I would sometimes wake up and watch the National Anthem. Thanks for the memories.

[usaisnojoke]

That (Seal of Good Practice) at 5:29 would not be on any TV today. Most of television programming anymore today would never make any "good standard" policy since most of it is junk now anyways.

[TheWestCoastBias]

Why would a Rabbi from Los Angeles would do a spirital message for a NY TV station? Makes no sense.

[donjabroni]

Because his message not only applies to people of LA but also NY and pretty much anywhere really.

[wmbrown6]

@TheWestCoastBias - CBS O&O's had a "pool" arrangement where each of their stations would contribute a sermonette that would run on the rest. Another instance was in 1978 when WBBM-TV in Chicago (which called their sermonettes "Meditation") ran a film piece from a rabbi in Philadelphia. Sermonettes from St. Louis priests or rabbis were also aired.

This L.A.-based sermonette originally aired on KNXT (now KCBS-TV) and doubtless was also run on WBBM, WCAU and KMOX.

[TornadoMan86]

At 6:23, notice how quick the soldier moves while guarding the Tomb of the Unknowns, almost like he is on wheels.

[BriSchwa82]

Eventhough the loud voices and test pattern scared the hell out of me, I miss the old and simple days of television.

[buzzy07405]

Because it was early in the morning. WCBS would sign off for about 10 to 20 minutes, then would come back on the air.

[chocolate45689]

why did it say good morning at 5:55

[cappy2009]

because of the hour of the sign off which was 4 or 4:30 a.m.

[wmbrown6]

@cappy2009 - For most stations at that time. However, WCBS signed off that 1977 morning just prior to 6 A.M. - their "down time" (where the nearly 400 Hz audio tone was heard in tandem with the test pattern) was only a tad above 6 minutes in actuality. Small wonder that staff announcers (in this case, Pat Connell) handled both sign-offs and sign-ons on the same (calendar) day.