Now, let me clarify not to get mistaken. That is among very great poems. But how relevant is it to a station signing off?
Anyhow, the Star Spangled Banner playing next would be followed by the Indian head test pattern and a harsh, annoying screeching sound.
Now THAT one I have worked out. It’s like flashing lights off and on to nudge your firm out the door when it won’t leave. The shriek was instructing you to switch off the terrible TV and go to bed like normal people!
A few minutes later the screen would go still as the station turned off the transmitter’s power.
About 5:45 AM the next morning, the color bar test pattern will show. Every couple of minutes, one of our three stations would declare the colors using a recorded voice so you could use the fine tuning, tint, and hue adjustments on your color TV to match them as well as your imagination would allow. Everybody understands, after all, exactly what shade cyan is.
Anyhow, the broadcast day would start at about 5:57 with the playing of the National Anthem once more and some official-sounding announcements regarding power, frequency, and other technical data most certainly needed by the FCC.
Beginning Tomorrow in 1973, a show that would stretch signoff times by an hour for its NBC affiliates, Tom Snyder screwed things up for local stations. Other later-than-late shows soon followed, and some stations chose to run all night displaying old movies and such in the off hours.
Cable transformed everything; ESPN aired 24 hours of sports in 1979. Of course, some of the games included spelling bees, badminton, and the legendary Australian Rules Football, but station signoffs fell faster than they had ever been. Nowadays, a station signs off seldom.
The fact that we have 24/7 TV just helps to emphasize its significance in our life. Not much positive about that strikes me.
Of course, TNT may start signing off at midnight local time with a reading of High Flight. Hey, I believe rerun fans of Law & Order would survive.
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