WBZ-TV 4 Boston - SignOn-Off - Clips 1980's

[kyle1081]

The last group of stations I knew of that signed off at night was Mississippi Public Broadcasting...which signed off sunday night with the National Anthem. As far as I know they went 24/7 after the digital switch.

[kataisa3]

Back when TV was worth watching. Thanks for uploading these.

[USAbLaSt]

Wow... there's a trip through the wayback machine.

[pancakeman22]

Thanks for this video!!!!! I love the clips!!!!!!!

[sensi42069]

this brings back so many memories. Watching this puts me back in time for a moment. Thanks for sharing!

[brainman214]

Tell Me,What became of Westinghouse?Is it now CBS Corporation?Did WBZ get a new owner?I know in my local market the Channel 10 WBIR was either merged or sold to Gannet Company after they bought Multi-media,Inc.Thanks.Brainy

[GenerationYM]

I'll give you the synopsis:

Westinghouse merged with CBS shortly after Group "W" signed a deal to have all of its' stations (except KDKA and KPIX) switch to CBS around 1994-95.

By 1998, Westinghouse sold all of it's non-broadcasting units (electric items, nuclear facilites whatever) and rechristened itself as CBS Corporation.

That CBS Corporation was bought out by Viacom, only to be split up in late 2006.

That's it in a nutshell.

[nwest1140]

I bet the sign-on clips was at 6 AM.

[caseyg5]

Wasn't the first Ch 4 program on weekends "International Zone," the UN show?

[Punkghost21]

wow they showed movies early in the morning on a BROADCAST channel. now they only show them on weekends usually

[caseyg5]

No, "The Movies" in Boston was late night, probably Sunday. "The Summer of '42" was on that a lot.

[MSTS1]

He may have meant early morning-overnight.

WBZ ran 'The Movies' in '75 on weekend afternoons as well.

[smittykins]

WIXT in Syracuse(now WSYR)used it as well.

[micmac99]

I remember that exit title for "The Movies" on KPIX as a kid in the late '70s. Of course KPIX was a key Group W station in San Francisco affiliated with CBS.

[smittykins]

WIXT in Syracuse(now

[MSTS1]

WBZ-TV was running 'The Movies' at least as far back as spring 1975, and possibly before then.

I think I have an audio clip of it from that time- 4/75.

[caseyg5]

Yes, that's about right but I don't remember it much before then. I do remember WBZ going off the air Sunday nights with the British series "UFO" but probably later than 1975.

[aladdin1052]

@micmac99 KECH 22 (now KPXG TV) in Salem, OR. used this bumper in the early '80s

[Eaglejock1069]

Very interesting stuff...things I thought I would never see again. I don't remember BZ ever signing off, I always thought they were 24/7 from in or around 1978...I would assume these were from a weekend evening when they signed off for maintenence possibly?

[MSTS1]

That's a good point, and I'd forgotten that..

WBZ went off the air, probably for maintenance, for several hours on, I think, Sunday nights only (which technically would have been the wee-hours of Monday morning).

[caseyg5]

Yes, it was Sunday nights.

[mr2del]

Agreed!

[bostonmediaguy]

Nice. Thanks!

[acb06172005]

Very educational. ;)

[VaultMasterDBT]

I think the dates of these signoffs need a little revision, and I also think they are shown out of order. The first one with the darkened rooftop is definately from '85, but the second one with living room scene did not debut until early 1989 (when the italicized WBZ-TV 4 logo in the capsule was introduced). The third one, with the updated rooftop colors, was from '87.

[VaultMasterDBT]

I now have to revise this..the updated rooftop colors were early 1987 (although the slide was still used on an alternating basis from fall 1987 through 1988), and the capsule-shaped, italicized WBZ logo was from fall 1987 onward.

[wmbrown6]

I wonder - was the second test-pattern (at around the 2:05 mark) an old-style Xerox color copy of the pattern as shown around the 0:25 mark? Does look a bit like such in comparison to me. Also, it seems 'BZ was the second Boston station (after the first WNAC) to use the Army SSB.

[MSTS1]

It was always the same slide, but the transmission quality varied...

[wmbrown6]

The design, I agree, is the same - but I noticed a slight difference in which font was used for the "BOSTON, MASS." line - Eurostile Bold in the 0:25-mark sample, Helvetica Medium in the 2:05-mark sample. Incidentally, this was a color adaptation of a B&W pattern used by WBZ to the mid-1960's, which was a proto-"PC" monoscope T.P. (non-"Indian head").

[MSTS1]

WmBrown6

This could be possible, although I have many versions of some of these various TPs, and particularly with WSBK, the transmission quality, color-tint and image-distortion varies widely...

[wmbrown6]

Speaking of color/tint distortion, I figured that used color camera tubes would've been another factor, as well as slide use . . .

[MSTS1]

There is always the possibility that WBZ-TV had several slides of the same TP, with some variant text styles produced at different times, and used them at will. (I look for the dirt marks on the 35mm slides to compare the differences). This might explain the subtle differences you noticed.

I suspect the only ones who can confirm it are WBZ Engineers and Film-guys from that era.

I'd go to the source...

[wmbrown6]

I also noticed, WBZ's color scheme was similar to, yet different from, what sister station KYW-TV in Philadelphia had for its test pattern. But the same text layout was in force there, too.