KOVR 13 Sacramento last analog commercial break and shut-down

Here's the very end of KOVR-13's analog broadcast on June 12th 2009- newscasters doing meaningless chit-chatting while someone cuts to a shot at the transmitter site. Then we have the last ever commercial break, final commercial being for Gottshalks going-out-of-business sale. The station goes off the air with live video of the transmitter's meters going down, audio signal goes out before the video does. Newscaster Sam Shane mistakenly tells us that the transmitter is in Walnut Creek- it's actually in Walnut GROVE, about 100 miles difference.

KOVR started in 1955 (I think) as an ABC affiliate, and was the first station in the area to start broadcasting in stereo in 1985. (The neighboring San Francisco market wasn't nearly as fast; it took ABC-owned KGO channel 7 until *1987* to get stereo!) In 1995 they lost their ABC affiliation to KXTV channel 10, which was a CBS affiliate but wanted to switch to ABC since they had better ratings at the time, so KOVR got stuck with CBS. Then in 1998, network TV slit its own throat when CBS started keeping their logo onscreen during all their shows, and ABC followed soon afterwards- this resulted in KOVR spending more time broadcasting the CBS logo than KXTV ever did, and likewise for KXTV with ABC's logo. I pretty much stopped watching TV after that; I think KOVR's HD digital station went on the air around 1998, but with the CBS logo on the screen I wasn't interested in seeing that in higher resolution. CBS ended up buying KOVR and moving it together with channel 31 (which got stereo a couple weeks after KOVR did), which was a UPN and now a CW station which Viacom had already bought a couple years prior.

Since the purchase they have been known as "CBS13", and thankfully did not use a bug on syndicated shows, but as you can see here they put an annoying logo onscreen during their newscasts, which started rotating every 15 seconds and then got an animated shine put on it.

Despite TV sucking beyond belief during its final 10 years, I felt I had to preserve as much of the end of analog TV as I could. Sorry it took me a while to upload this, but I've been busy with going back to school (I did however watch the entire last day of analog broadcasting) and had to pick this up from my parents' house- I had them record it on their DVD recorder from a roof antenna which has always gotten perfect reception of the local stations; I live in an apartment and just have an indoor antenna so the reception here wasn't as good. There is a slight problem with the sound which seems to have been at the station's end- notice what happens whenever someone says a word with the "S" sound in it. Quite annoying when watching on a Pro-Logic system as it leaked to the rear channels whenever that happened.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• KOVR
• analog TV
• analog shutdown
• sign-off
• Walnut Grove
• 6/12/09
• Black Oak Casino
• Raging Waters
• Cal Expo
• Verizon Wireless
• Empiretoday.com
• Empire Carpets
• Sam Shane

[carmenlee87]

What abouth the people who did not have a digtal box. lol.

[eyeh8nbc]

Not like there's anything worth watching on the digital channel....

[djthereplay]

Allow me to answer that for ya,

carmenlee87 !,

The People who are watching TV via antenna beyond prior to this time on

June 12th, 2009 who don't have a digital box, well, They have lost the TV Station's Signal now which means that they are going to be seeing A SNOW COVERED SCREEN 24/7 365. Now. The only option they have NOW for Recieving any kind of entertainment, Or Recieving Any News Broadcasts is By Radio.

~ Dwight

[eyeh8nbc]

There are still a few low-power TV stations on the air- in Sacramento we have channel 8 which has international programming including Russian, Vietnamese and Indian, and channel 23 which has the Home Shopping Network. Neither are in stereo but have pretty good reception, there's a few other stations that don't come in too well- all are either Spanish or religious networks.

[eyeh8nbc]

@eyeh8nbc Channel 8 went to digital last month- now all we have left is channel 23! I should buy stuff from the Home Shopping Network just to make sure it stays on the air! Channel 45 (a Jesus station) is still on too, but that still doesn't come in too well.

[Amar7605]

@southparkgtaca It does feel erie with that fuzz coming up.

[0814ma]

CBS started keeping its logo "bug" on-screen during newscasts (but not during 60 Minutes) in 1991. For a few months, the network used a ghastly white bug before switching to the transparent bug in November.

In September 1993, CBS began showing the bug for five seconds at the end of every commercial break. Full-time logo display began on January 9, 1998.

From at least 1996 to early January 1998, Miami's WFOR (CBS) displayed its logo full-time during all network shows, as did WTVJ (NBC).

[siva992]

i love the pinata ad. hilarious!

[PortPowerKS]

And Sam got it wrong live, referred to it as Walnut Creek, not Grove.. Ah well.. I will miss not being able to pick up KICU 36 and other Bay Area channels here in South Sacramento like I used to.. Vaya Con Dios, analog TV..

[southparkgtaca]

Oh, and the guys name is Sam Shane.

Seriously, the new cast is better. lol

CBS 13 is now the most modern looking and easiest to watch local channel to me. :)