Saturday, June 20, 2009

Three Analog Shutdowns-WOAC disappears next Wednesday..

This morning Id like to post how three of the more famed Television Stations in the US shut down their analog signals June 12..Unfortunately none are in Cleveland or NE Ohio, as none of the local stations thought it was important enough to put planning or thought into doing any retrospectives, or memories of their pasts, though 3, 5, and 8 all have very rich histories.



KDKA-TV 2, Pittsburgh-The logo above was used from 1963-1993



The last 10 minutes of KDKA analog..


Memories of KDKA through the years..going all the way back to WDTV Dumont-ending with the WDTV channel 3 logo..Then KDKA-TV's "nightlight" service



WLWT-5, Cincinnati
This logo may go back as far as the 1980's but am not sure..



From WLWT's YouTube Page..Bill Myers, station announcer for over 40 years, deliverrs the last sign-off..With pictures, logos and film for just over a minute..




WFAA-8, Dallas, Texas...This was used for a very long time, as far as I can tell..I had Dish Network in the 1990's for Dallas distant stations and they were using a form of this logo then..


Chief Meterologist of WFAA Pete Delkus hosts a brief retrospective clip and shows the WFAA sign-off from the mid 70's..

These were all very well done..It is sad that none of the NE Ohio stations chose to do anything similar..

Another brief note..




Canton's WOAC-TV 67 will be no more after Wednesday, June 24, 2009..New owners TCT Christian TV of Marion, Illinois are scheduled to finalize the station purchase on that date..apparently changing the channel to 47 and the call letters to WRLM..Ohio Media Watch will have more on this next week..

7 comments:

  1. I enjoyed the high flight,I have not sen that in a while.

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  2. As I write this, I am actually watching an analog Full-power broadcast. Actually, it's not a regular broadcast but apparently WKYC must have some kind of special permission to show a 24 hour instructional program on DTV conversions for analog sets. I wonder how long this will continue. One other thing, don't anyone forget that low-power stations, at least the ones around here,are still broadcasting in analogue. How long this will be allowed I have no idea.

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  3. WKYC was allowed to keep their analog going for what is called "nightlight" service..For those who still arent ready for digital...It will be up till no later than July 12 or thereabouts..There is one station in each US TV market doing this..

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  4. During the sign-off montage of KDKA-TV, one of the clips, seen around 6:58, was from a B&W newscast (circa 1965) anchored by Vic Miles. This was years before Mr. Miles became a reporter and weekend anchor at WCBS-TV (Channel 2) in New York, staying there for nearly a quarter-century (c.1971-95).

    As to the KDKA-TV test pattern seen around the 7:21 mark (with the then-current Westinghouse and "WBC" logos: Would anyone know if this design was employed for KYW-TV at any time during its 1956-65 sojourn in Cleveland?

    Also, there was an "Invalid parameters" notice when trying to play it, but fortunately, the clip in question can be played if you navigate towards it in the series of stills below.

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  5. wbhist:

    Considering that often as not, Westinghouse used the same style logos at their stations for the most part, I wouid guess KYW-Cleveland used the same Test Pattern. I was very young during Westinghouse's stay in Cleveland, though I remember the tail end of it..However, I never saw TV 3's sign-off Test Pattern during the 1964-65 period when I might have been watching (was probably asleep by that time of night).Would be interesting if anyone has a slide of something like that..

    All the videos play fine for me btw..

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  6. What I'd love to see is the different logos Channel 3 used during the first 5 to 10 years under it's second stint under NBC ownership. From what I can gather It looks to me as though Westinghouse changes logos quite a few times during its's stint in Cleveland. I can tell you one thing for sure; the last logo that 3 used under NBC ownership was absolutely the WORST logo I've ever seen any TV station use!

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  7. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f1/WKYC86.jpg

    Is that the one? I agree, that has to be the ugliest 3 I've ever seen. Ever. I also wasn't a fan of the plain "square 3" bug without the NBC logo. The current WKYC bug with the NBC logo to the right of the 3 is the best.

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