WNAC-TV final sign-off 1982

[pancakeman22]

This channel died off, but it had its call letters used years later for Rhode Island viewers.

[looneytunes9000]

WOW! 21,793 VIEWS!

[shitepokeschist]

I believe the announcer was Leif Jensen. I'm sure he's passed on by now.

[VintageTelevision]

@shitepokeschist

As of 2003, anyway, Leif was residing on Cape Cod. His son Gregg is a broadcaster at WBZ-AM.

[RyanCunningham100]

What a blue colored/coloured sign off. Anyway, bye, WNAC!

[johnissoevil]

RKO's other stations were indy stations that were adult oriented. So I'm curious, did RKO preempt the CBS Saturday morning cartoons to match the format of the sister stations?

[wmbrown6]

Actually, there was one other RKO-owned station that was network-affiliated: WHBQ-TV in Memphis, TN.

[johnissoevil]

Oh yeah, forgot about that one. That's the station that reunited as sister stations with WWOR under Fox ownership in 2001.

[rockhopper10r]

@johnissoevil WNAC showed CBS's Saturday morning lineup, with only occasional preemptions. In fact, in the '70s, I remember fewer preemptions of CBS's schedule on WNAC than of NBC's on WBZ or of ABC's on WCVB.

[Brac1]

So - what, no announcement? No last words to say "Hey folks, we're not coming back?"

[wmbrown6]

Unless I'm mistaken, in the last years as WNAC-TV, Channel 7's sign-off was pre-recorded. (As, apparently, was the WNEV-TV sign-off as of 1986, judging from the two clips from 'MSTS1' with the same recording of Leif Jensen's sign-off script.)

[pooka5472]

I strongly doubt that they needed a final announcement, after all, it was pretty obvious that they had lost their battle with the FCC. I mean, it was all over the local and national media.

[Brac1]

Ahh I see. Must admit I wasn't in the boston area when they pulled the plug :-)

[titaniclady1]

God, that voice! UHOH...THEY'RE HERE!

[BigVideoFan88]

What year did WNEV become WHDH? Was that when it became an NBC station in the mid-'90s?

[VintageTelevision]

1989, I believe.

[VaultMasterDBT]

March 19, 1990.

[wmbrown6]

Interesting, the change in calls from WNEV to WHDH came 18 years to the day after Channel 5, the FCC having yanked the Boston Herald-Traveler's license for the original WHDH-TV, signed on for the first time as Boston Broadcasters-owned WCVB-TV.

[chyrongeek]

I believe it was strategically planned by NETV, after they bought WHDH radio. The call sign change happened shortly after the FCC gave clearance for NETV to buy the station.

[wmbrown6]

First was the change in calls from WNEV to WHDH, around 1990. Then in 1995 came the switch in network affiliation from CBS to NBC.

[VaultMasterDBT]

March, 1990.

[Nadav34]

Yes, digital systems will also do sign-offs.

[absentmindedprof]

The federal government, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to sell off the public airwaves to the telecom giants. Two hidef systems were considered initially. One that would have maintained the old analog system, the same way black and white signals are still broadcast with color signals currently, and one that would allow the old bandwidths to be sold off. Corporate greed won out over the interests of the people. So what else is new?

[K0CBS]

Well, yes and no. The bandwidth is not changing, it the way it's used. Let's take VHF channel 6 (82-88 MHz). It's the same group of frequencies used for both analog OR digital broadcast. It can't be used for both in the same local area. Now channels above channel 53 are being sold off to the telecom companies only because you need more power to cover the same area on those channels as a VHF station needs. Channel 66 need 5 million watts to cover the same ground as a Channel 6 at 100KW power.

[Punkghost21]

in 2009 analog television will be shut off. i heard that digital broadcast channels do sign offs. i wonder if its true or not

[K0CBS]

It will depend on who owns them.

[asnycnow15]

yea

depends on the ownership

of the station

[bigbear1963]

Thanks for posting this. When I would fall asleep watching tv, this would usually wake me up. If not, then the following bars and tone would!

[Danno010]

This is so weird I just had my mom tell me about how tv use to just stop at night. They never do that now theres always something on even at like 3am lol

[copyright1982]

That's because in the mid-80's the restriction on how long commercials can be was lifted, thus the half hour "paid commercials" were born

[sky1beam]

WNAC moved to Rhode Island

[VintageTelevision]

WNAC-TV/Channel 7 did not "move" to Rhode Island. A Providence station appropriated the call letters of the former RKO General station in Boston.

[sky1beam]

thats what i meant

[NewsOnDemand]

Interestingly, no "last words" from the RKO regime.

[wmbrown6]

I have to wonder if WNAC's sign-off was pre-recorded in its last years of RKO stewardship, hence the last-ever words of WNAC being "We now conclude telecasting for the day."

[wmbrown6]

P.S. "We now conclude telecasting for the day" was the final sentence of WNAC's sign-offs from at least the early 1960's to that final day.

[wmbrown6]

I was curious on one other thing, which the vintage Boston TV buffs who frequent here may know: Whose mellifluous pipes were those that not only signed-off WNAC for the last time, but may have also been on hand to sign-on WNEV-TV for the first time a few hours later?

[VintageTelevision]

I think his first name is Lars. He was a longtime Channel 7 booth announcer. I remember hearing his voice from the early 1970s, at least, through the late 1980s.

[wmbrown6]

I found from another poster who put up something else, that the announcer in question was Leif Jensen - who's also the father of Gregg Jensen, a former 1010 WINS (New York) news anchor who, I.I.N.M., later went back to Boston radio.

[swami1]

Gregg Jensen is on WBZ-AM, and is possibly the most annoying anchor on American radio today.

[AutisticPsycho]

I wasn't alive in 1982, did WNAC let folks know this would be the final signoff or did it just end like that, "the end of our broadcast day."

[eszettfromhell]

I doubt they wanted people to know why it was...

[wmbrown6]

Curious if you have any videos from the late '70's or early '80's of test patterns from any of the Boston stations. And let me second NEPatriot's comments about the Army Band "SSB."

[VintageTelevision]

No test patterns -- but perhaps a WNEV-TV sign-on.

[VaultMasterDBT]

I would love to see a WNEV sign-on, among other things!

[NEPatriot]

7 Bulfinch Place to be exact! And thanks for this rare sign-off--great to also have the Army SSB on and in nice shape.

[wmbrown6]

It's interesting that on WNAC's final sign-off, their studios were at "the RKO General Building" - but the day they became WNEV, their studios were located at "7 Bullfinch Place."

[Tuberboy104]

Wow, I remember WNBC TV Ch 4 in New York using this same US Army SSB for years when signing off and on the air!

[wmbrown6]

True . . . WNBC, KHQ, WMAL/WJLA, WETA, WFMJ, KLCS (with some alterations), WNAC (later WNEV, now WHDH) - the list grows . . . let me know if I left some stations out, that played the U.S. Army "SSB" (WPIX's and KTHI/KVLY's homemade films set to that same music notwithstanding).

[NEPatriot]

wm, you mean to say that WPIX did an in-house version set to the Army SSB music? What did the visuals consist of if you can recall.

[wmbrown6]

Be glad to. A loop of a flag flying outside in the breeze (slow in some points, fast in others), with clouds surrounding the blue sky. From what I recall, the way it was produced was reminiscent of the technique 'PIX used for "The Yule Log" with the shot of the fireplace being looped (since 1970) every 6-1/2 minutes.

[wmbrown6]

P.S. Compared with here, the Army "SSB" recording was played by 'PIX about 1% lower in pitch. But again, the whole film consisted of a looped solitary shot of a flag flying outside.

[NEPatriot]

Seemed rather simple, although someone may have had an interesting time filming whatever length of raw footage on those film cameras and then having to edit the film, reduce and increase the frames per second thereby speeding up and slowing down the film respectively. And the weather had to be a factor as well.

[wmbrown6]

I don't think it was so much a case of speeding up and slowing down as it was what the wind gusts were, or if the winds were "calm." (Each weather variant as described was represented - but not the rain, of course.) I would've known if it were slowed down, especially with film. This may well have been practice for producing "The Yule Log" . . . being as I haven't heard of any other station using WPIX' variation . . .

[AutisticPsycho]

The WRKO buliding would be Bulfinch place, I believe right?