KDKA Channel 2 Pittsburgh, PA - Last Analog Transmission

[briwolfe1]

Now that my friends is a classy operation!



[Polybun]

you know the sad truth is, the sation probably caught hell from their affiliate for doing this. oh well, nice work folks.

[newstarcadefan]

@Polybun Probably, though, most of the times the guys in New York and LA have to back off just a little bit. Aside, I grew up watching TV2 in Farrell, PA with a good antenna...this is a great send-off. Though they DO need to bring back the late night movies instead of the paid commercials, I missed those.

[soupnazi45]

The same night Analog died in Pittsburgh, the Penguins won the Stanley Cup :)

[videonut33]

A good sign-off to a "Group W" station like TV2 to do that in 09.

[jeffwa2121]

For all those years that Bill Burns signed off with Good Night., Good Luck and Good News tomorrow.....

how nice of KDKA of end the final seconds of analog with those famous words.

Sure do miss Bill and Patti.

[soupnazi45]

David Letterman isn't funny

[FutureNewsAnchor]

@soupnazi45 Yeah, he should have retired years ago.

[soupnazi45]

@FutureNewsAnchor I'm with coco!

[JesseL85719]

@soupnazi45 YES HE IS

[Fragglevision]

What show are they advertising at 3:01 before it cuts to the High Flight video?

[aladdin1052]

@Fragglevision "Nurse Jackie" on Showtime.

[FragglevisionReturns]

@aladdin1052 Thanks! :)

[paladin313]

If I have my history right, KDKA was the first ever radio station in the history of America to go on the air with regular broadcasting, and then switch over to TV later with ever one else. What a moment this must have been if I have my history right.

[buckeyedej]

For the record (see previous comment): KDKA (AM/FM/TV) is one of three K calls east of the Mississippi, and they're all in Pennsylvania -- the other two are KQV Pittsburgh (AM) and KYW Philadelphia (AM/TV).

[compwiz878]

kdka is the only k call lettered station on the east coast

[nura78]

@compwiz878 There's a KYW in Philadelphia on channel 3 i believe. it's a CBS affiliate also.

[briwolfe1]

Actually, a bit sad watching this. Its a part of our past that's gone forever. It recalls the days when you had on TV in the house. The whole family would gather and watch the same thing together. Classy montage KDKA.

[raymieX]

It's cool how this track goes back in time - the "faux CBS2" era...Hometown Advantage...Eyewitness News...Evening Magazine...the 70s...further back...black and white...The World Tonight...and whoa...WDTV? One of the best. Big, big applause to KDKA-TV.

[petey8887]

I'm so proud to be a Pittsburgher.

[infomercialtime]

the biggest thing i miss about analog tv is the loss of the use of my tv band audio radio. can't listen to the tv news on the way to work anymore. very cool sign off by kdka.

[ddavenport]

Neat!

[Alex1322006]

Very Classy!!

[gladfan1989]

This was the proper way to say goodbye to an era that will be fondly remembered. Other stations did news broadcasts, some just did nothing. KDKA should be commended for doing their goodbye to analog the right way. Classy video.

[PittNick95]

So that blue screen was all that showed up on the annalog signal after 11:59:30?

[TeensAreNotChildren]

No.

The analog station switched-off, and showed white static. However this guy's recording replaced the static with a blank screen.

Go atch some of the other videos and you'll see the white static.

[HomeoftheGoodGuys]

"High Flight" was made by the US Air Force, and it was a fixture for KDKA for years. KABC-TV in Los Angeles usually ran the same film along with the moog synthesized rendition of the National Anthem used during the station sign-off back in the late 70's and early 80's. Great to see the Air Force's "High Flight" film back once again one last time in its original form.

[FurryFighter20X66]

That was a good final last broadcast.

[rd2mms]

This made me cry... =(

[swamphox]

really cool vid...the dumont tv network is a long forgotten but important piece of tv history

[argeets]

KDKA has always been the class of Pittsburgh TV. Thanks for the memories.

[bluorangefyre]

Very classy of KDKA to do that. And very cool to prominently display their first affiliation as a DuMont O&O.

[ffemtdisp]

At 11:59:23 you hear Bill Burns' famous sign off "Good night, good luck and good news tomorrow" I had a tear in my eye...nicely done! what a way to go out...

[ProgMetalLover]

Wow... reminds me of signoffs from yesteryear - when people actually cared about quality! Shame that TV stations would rather air informercials instead of quality programming. Kudos for dusting the old Air Force film!

[johnissoevil]

From watching longtime Group W/CBS Corporation sister (and former NBC affiliate) KYW, they reached back into their past as well with the test pattern used when they first signed on many years ago.

[wmbrown6]

Also note, around point 6:58 (+11:58:53:00), a young Vic Miles, years before he became a reporter and weekend anchor at WCBS-TV in New York.

Interesting to see the 1950's KD' test pattern. Did they have other designs besides that and the 1949 WDTV TP? (Such as what was used by KYW in Philly after the late 1960's.)

[kcthatsawinner]

That was nice of KD with this. Most people who watched TV 2 never seen this High Flight video, because KD was 24/7 since the mid 80s. KD's signoff began with 2009 and ended with the TP of WDTV from 1/11/49 (1st day of broadcasting.) It was nice of KD to sign off like that, even though I did not see it live!

[kenbob331]

Probably the best analog sign off out of any station in the country. Grew up watching this station whenever I would go back and see my relatives. Leave it to KDKA to do something like this.

[TiberiousNeruda]

@kenbob331 Absolutely. I thought WLWT had one of the best, but this one blows it straight out of the water.

NTSC brought into our homes the joys of man walking on the moon, and the fall of the Soviet Union, sorrows such as the Challenger disaster, and even the depths of human cruelty immortalized in the JFK assassination or the 9/11 attacks.

It deserved far better than a party over its demise, a shot news blurb, or the unceremonious dumping it got in most locations. Kudos to KDKA. Pure class.

[harleykman]

The Philadelphia stations did their shutdowns at 12:15 during their Noon News broadcasts.

I thought that was a very good way to say "goodbye" and "hello" at the same time, with various retrospective broadcasts.

[sshabitatvideos]

A historic and classic broadcast entity shuts down their analog operation in a very classy way!...Kudos KDKA!

[harleykman]

David Letterman makes jokes about 14-year-old girls getting sexed by 33-year-old men.

Actually he claims the joke was about the 18-year-old, but that's still a sexist comment that belittles women as things, not people

Letterman is not "classy" in any sense of the word.

[sshabitatvideos]

I was referring to KDKA, not Letterman. I do agree with you regarding Letterman. But again, I was talking about the non-network portion with the AF planes only and the historical footage of KDKA's braodcast legacy; NOT Letterman.

[sshabitatvideos]

A classic broadcast entity making a classy exit from analog!...Well done KDKA!

We did not enjoy as good a sendoff here in Boston. The NBC affiliate went off the air without any fanfare...Except Conan O'Brien did a funny bit just minutes before the shut-off regarding the final minutes of analog...very funny.

[wmbrown6]

At least KDKA used two of the actual test patterns they had over their long history (including one as WDTV-3/DuMont). On the other hand, WCBS-TV in New York, for their analogue sign-off, had an "imitation" test pattern before the analogue transmitter was deactivated.

[sshabitatvideos]

A very classy way to shut down their NTSC transmission!...kudos to KDKA!..... In Boston there was nothing like that at KDKA...The NBC affiliate just pulled the plug. At least Conan did a funny bit on The Tonight Show a few moments before the kill giving himself and everyone in the band a phone to answer the calls from their elderly parents when the signal dropped...Very funny!..

[tvlistingman]

RIP Bill and Patty Burns and Ray Tannehill

[jtdavies3]

Before TV was on 24 hours a day, KDKA used to sign off with the video of the pilot and jet with the voiceover of the poem High Flight.

This video brought back a memory I didn't know I had.

[NowhereMan1966]

I think KDKA was mostly 24 hours even when it first started as WDTV, although they might have shut down occasionally to perform transmitter maintenance. They had an all night move program called "Swing Shift THeater" since Pittsburgh was a mill town and people who came home at night could watch something on TV back in the day.

[Mrtraveler01]

Wow that was beautiful. Leave it to KDKA to do something classy like that for the digital transition.

[petey8887]

Thanks so much for uploading this! This montage was wonderful. KDKA did a great job. Not sure if you noticed, but WTAE and WPXI just went straight to snow at midnight and didn't acknowledge the transition at all!

[signoff12]

they forgot the penguins winning the stanley cup from yesterday!!

[luvencl]

Very well done!! Thanks..

Just uploaded on of our local WPTV showing how they converted..