I am a native of Wilmington,and remember seeing this one. The people who originally put this together did a great job. WECT also had a memorable sign on/off around 73' or 74' Wish I could find the one from the late 60's, early 70's that had the military jets and a man reading a script (poem or speach?). Keep up the good work signoff12.
I grew up watching WECT, and I always thought that it was the very best station of all in Wilmington. Does anyone have any videos of WECT from the late 1970s to the early 1980s? I'd especially like to see some news opens during that time. Also, some video from WBTW from the early 1970s to 1985 would be good too!
I could only get WECT once in awhile when I lived in NC (now in FL), but they're definitely a great station for SE NC. They're owned by Raycom Media, which is, from what I read, trying to get a new NBC affiliate for Myrtle Beach on UHF analog 32. (Of course, next year all stations must be digital) WECT was very "folksy" esp. when the late Ken Murphy worked there so long...you just felt that he was talking to YOU not just "reading" the news. ;-)
The design itself (the "CBS test pattern") was late 1940's / early '50's, first used by WCBS-TV in New York (which continued to use it well into the early 1990's). WECT, from what I could tell, used this design at least as far back as when those call letters were first adopted around '58.
The guy that recorded this lived almost 200 miles from WECT. He was getting this at his home near Winston-Salem, a LONG way from Wilmington. Heck I've even gotten WECT once in awhile when I lived in Greensboro back in the 80's. Sometimes you can get stations far away that you can't usually get...even on a cheap set of "wabbit ears." ;-)
That is true. When I was a kid, we used to pick up Chicago and Cleveland stations in Detroit, off a simple Wal-Mart special outdoor antenna. If the weather was exceptionally perfect, we even got station from Pittsburgh and St. Louis. DX reception is a wonderful thing :-)
Wow...you've DX'ed better than me. I could never DX further than a station in an adjacent state from me, if even that far LOL. There have been those who have gotten DX from over a thousand miles away! Not me. :-(
The fact that this sign-off features James Brown's (RIP) "Living in America" adds more funkiness and pizazz to this sign-off. Wish sign-offs, however rare they are in this age of 24-hour broadcasting, more like this one.
I guess this sign off was from a Sunday Night as it was 12:45am.
dxtrfn80 3 years ago
I am a native of Wilmington,and remember seeing this one. The people who originally put this together did a great job. WECT also had a memorable sign on/off around 73' or 74' Wish I could find the one from the late 60's, early 70's that had the military jets and a man reading a script (poem or speach?). Keep up the good work signoff12.
v8foad 3 years ago
I remember I recved them one time when I was in Norfolk VA with Rabbit ears. And the signal came in quite good too. Impressive
PGMEagle 3 years ago
I grew up watching WECT, and I always thought that it was the very best station of all in Wilmington. Does anyone have any videos of WECT from the late 1970s to the early 1980s? I'd especially like to see some news opens during that time. Also, some video from WBTW from the early 1970s to 1985 would be good too!
appstaterebel 4 years ago
I could only get WECT once in awhile when I lived in NC (now in FL), but they're definitely a great station for SE NC. They're owned by Raycom Media, which is, from what I read, trying to get a new NBC affiliate for Myrtle Beach on UHF analog 32. (Of course, next year all stations must be digital) WECT was very "folksy" esp. when the late Ken Murphy worked there so long...you just felt that he was talking to YOU not just "reading" the news. ;-)
huggyface 4 years ago
Nice to see an old fashioned test pattern appear for a brief moment at 1:30. That must be from the 50s or something.
wb8976 4 years ago
The design itself (the "CBS test pattern") was late 1940's / early '50's, first used by WCBS-TV in New York (which continued to use it well into the early 1990's). WECT, from what I could tell, used this design at least as far back as when those call letters were first adopted around '58.
wmbrown6 4 years ago
This must have been off a bad set of rabbit ears.
SpecialTVOffer 4 years ago
The guy that recorded this lived almost 200 miles from WECT. He was getting this at his home near Winston-Salem, a LONG way from Wilmington. Heck I've even gotten WECT once in awhile when I lived in Greensboro back in the 80's. Sometimes you can get stations far away that you can't usually get...even on a cheap set of "wabbit ears." ;-)
huggyface 4 years ago
That is true. When I was a kid, we used to pick up Chicago and Cleveland stations in Detroit, off a simple Wal-Mart special outdoor antenna. If the weather was exceptionally perfect, we even got station from Pittsburgh and St. Louis. DX reception is a wonderful thing :-)
SpecialTVOffer 4 years ago
Wow...you've DX'ed better than me. I could never DX further than a station in an adjacent state from me, if even that far LOL. There have been those who have gotten DX from over a thousand miles away! Not me. :-(
huggyface 4 years ago
The fact that this sign-off features James Brown's (RIP) "Living in America" adds more funkiness and pizazz to this sign-off. Wish sign-offs, however rare they are in this age of 24-hour broadcasting, more like this one.
johnnysama 5 years ago
And the late Ken Murphy did the sign-off announcement...he worked as a news anchor for 40 years at WECT!
raedizzle2006 4 years ago
This is the best sign-off ever.
Siyahamba 5 years ago
Must have been on a sunday...
henrytvwhiz 5 years ago
R.I.P. James Brown "Living in America" (1933-2006)
Spock2 5 years ago
Puffy hair, Reebok high tops & really bad bermuda shorts. LOL, definitely a big 80s flashback with that sign off.
radamail 5 years ago
thanks to jawman1962
signoff12 5 years ago