Repros of Local TV Station Color Test Patterns - 1960's-1980's (Amended)

[NOTE: The colors may appear different on browsers set to Flash 10 and later, than on browsers set to Flash 9 and earlier.]

An amended set of reproductions of numerous color test patterns used by local TV stations across the country (and Puerto Rico) from the 1960's through the 1980's, with a few additional TP repros that are shown here for the first time. Unlike the blank TP repros of my other video(s), these also strive for the "look" of TP's as reproduced on film chains/slide scanners and positioned on light tables, complete with particular calibrations, fading, etc. Dissolves between individual repros are approximated from transitions from one slide to another as seen from the 1950's into the '80's on WCBS-TV (Channel 2) in New York, with transitions between two patterns from the same station simulating the switches from one title card to the next on several Thames TV programs (notably "The Benny Hill Show") up to 1972. The order of these patterns are grouped by channel number and by DMA ranking (for example, a New York station on channel 7 would come before one from Chicago, which comes before one from San Francisco, and so on). The appearances of these patterns (and typesetting layouts thereof) have been largely confirmed from magazine articles, numerous DX websites, and other YouTube clips; plus input from other YouTube users (including 'MSTS1'). All rights are acknowledged.

The TP's, in order please (DMA rankings from 2011-2012):
- South Dakota Public TV (KUSD 2 Vermillion) (DMA #113 - Sioux Falls [Mitchell])
- KYW 3 Philadelphia (DMA #4)
- WKYC 3 Cleveland (DMA #18)
- WNBC 4 New York (x2) (DMA #1)
- WBZ 4 Boston (DMA #7)
- WRC 4 Washington, DC (DMA #8)
- WHBF 4 Rock Island, IL (DMA #100 - Davenport/Rock Island/Moline)
- WAPA 4 San Juan, PR (no DMA listing)
- WTTG 5 Washington, DC (x2) (DMA #8)
- WABC 7 New York (x2) (DMA #1)
- WLS 7 Chicago (DMA #3)
- KGO 7 San Francisco (DMA #6)
- WNAC/WNEV 7 Boston (DMA #7)
- WKBW 7 Buffalo, NY (DMA #51)
- KAET 8 Phoenix, AZ (DMA #12)
- WJW/WJKW 8 Cleveland (DMA #18)
- WOR 9 New York (DMA #1)
- WMUR 9 Manchester, NH (DMA #7 - Boston [Manchester])
- WMVS 10 Milwaukee, WI (DMA #34)
- WGEM 10 Quincy, IL (DMA #171)
- WPIX 11 New York (DMA #1)
- WNDT 13 Newark, NJ (DMA #1 - New York)
- WQED 13 Pittsburgh (DMA #23)
- WJZ 13 Baltimore, MD (DMA #27)
- WOUB 20 Athens, OH (DMA #32 - Columbus, OH)
- WVAH 23 Charleston/Huntington, WV (DMA #65)
- WCGV 24 Milwaukee, WI (DMA #34)
- WSMW 27 Worcester, MA (DMA #7 - Boston [Manchester])
- WTTE 28 Columbus, OH (DMA #32)
- WYTV 33 Youngstown, OH (DMA #110)
- WMVT 36 Milwaukee, WI (DMA #34)
- WSBK 38 Boston (DMA #7)
- WICZ 40 Binghamton, NY (DMA #157)
- WOUC 44 Cambridge, OH (x2) (DMA #32 - Columbus, OH)
- WKBS 48 Burlington, NJ/Philadelphia (DMA #4)
- WTVE 51 Reading, PA (DMA #4 - Philadelphia)
- WNJT 52 Trenton, NJ (DMA #4 - Philadelphia)
- WLVI 56 Cambridge/Boston (DMA #7)
- WTVS 56 Detroit (DMA #11)

Music: "Cobb's Blues" by The Blues Smashers (from the Blue Collar Picture "Lefty-Right") (written by Eddie Curran and Peter Jarvis). (P) & © William Brown Productions.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Color
• TV
• Test
• Patterns
• Vintage
• Classic
• Repros
• Reproductions
• 1960s
• 1970s
• 1980s

[wmbrown6]

@stupidrubbish - It's possible some U.S. stations may've used the 525-line TCJ for internal use (i.e. not broadcast over the air), but it's also possible Mexico or Japan or other NTSC stations would've also used it for similar reasons and purposes. But some of these U.S. patterns were used abroad (besides the Puerto Rico example, YSR-TV in El Salvador also used the TP variant as used by WLVI, WTTG, WSMW etc.).

[stupidrubbish]

@wmbrown6 I don't know about Test Card F, but a 525 line version of Test Card J (the digital version of Test Card F) was produced. I wonder if it was ever shown in the US?

[wmbrown6]

@stupidrubbish - Boy, you must've missed out. I can say with certainty that a few U.S. TV stations used the Marconi Resolution Chart No. 1 (albeit with a clumsy attempt to cover up the "EEV" [English Electric Valve Co. Ltd.] logo); I'm still wondering if any U.S. stations used your country's Test Card F. I know that, unlike TCF whose slides were double-layered (monochrome and color), U.S. color TP slides were all color, thus the greyscale discolored as the colors faded.

[stupidrubbish]

There is something utterly fascinating for me about these, particularly as we never had a similar pattern in the UK. Thanks for taking the considerable time and trouble to reproduce these - I know how much work it must have been and the results are breathtaking.