TV Station Sign-Offs

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Has anybody else been fascinated by these?

I was obsessed with them as a child, and recently rediscovered them on YouTube. In fact, when I was about 7-8 years old, I would imitate the beeping during the test pattern and the static that followed whenever the Star-Spangled Banner (or America the Beautiful) was played.

The PBS affiliates seemed to be the most predictable, because it was always the MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour, Star Hustler (later Star Gazer), then the sign-off sequence.

I am. They are quite nice to watch, from a bygone era in TV when stations didn't broadcast 24/7 (today, those late night hours are mostly filled with paid programming).

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Not all affiliates still operate 24/7 in smaller US TV markets. For example, up in Cheyenne, WY (neighbouring market to my north), the FOX affiliate KLWY/27.1 still shows a slate with the station ID from around 1AM to 5AM during the nite.

(Its ABC subchannel 27.2 airs a shopping channel during those wee morning hours.)
I also see that quite a few UK terrestial channels show things like "High Street" in the middle of the nite, while others simply put up a "back at" slate.

People with the same interests as me!! ! Yay!! !
In Spain, the ones on the national TV station used to contain the programming roll for the following day, the Spanish anthem, and the test card with the sound coming from the radio.
I love the theme music in this one from 1994:
And I'm also fascinated by the 'You're watching Disney Channel' bumpers

Bumpers are great as well! I like the ones for Saturday morning kids' programming from the 80s and early 90s, the Fox Kids bumpers featuring Loafy the dog were the best!! !

I really enjoy TV sign offs, especially ones from the olden days. I tend to watch most of them on Youtube, but I also go on TV-Ark sometimes to watch some on there. I think that its fascinating, interesting and retro.

Another thing is TV continuities. I watch these a lot on Youtube and they are really great

I've seen quite a few "permanent" signoffs from the end of the analogue TV days in 2009 on YouTube...

I live in the Yakima-Tri-Cities market, which was one of the last markets where more than 1 station signed off every night. Both are now 24/7 (KIMA/CBS and KAPP/ABC).
Sign offs were really interesting throughout the U.S. and Canada. In the late 1970s, seeing the NAB "Seal of Good Practice" meant it was time for bed. Then it became an ID bumper, technical information and the National Anthem (with sometimes a sermon before the sign off message). Now it's just infomercials and the network overnight newscasts. Better to waste bandwidth than shut it off every night...$$$ for the station, even with one (or even zero) people watching.
If you look on YouTube, you'll find 1993 sign offs from KNDO and KAPP, both Yakima. No KIMA, unfortunately, but they went off the air around 12:30AM or 1AM weeknights. Instead of throwing up color bars or an ID bumper all night, they both cut the juice!
I enjoy viewing the various sign-off videos from throughout the country and Canada as well. Each station did something different to end their broadcast day.

Thanks for the nostalgia from WA state and the reminder of the "seal of good practise"...

I suspect that went away with the repeal of the "fairness doctrine".
Also a large number of higher-powered TV stations did cut the XMTR off when they weren't airing programming since klystron tubes were known to consume up to $150 an hour in electricity, especially on the UHF band where more ERP was needed to reach reasonable distances. Running in black could indeed run a station in the red.
As for "sign-on's", I recall one station I frequently watched as a kid used to begin their broadcast day with a video montage of the station facilities played over an instrumental of "Day By Day" from the musical "Godspell". I would later find out that particular track was performed by Franck Pourcel and his orchestra all the way from France. Sometimes if I were awake at 6AM, I'd turn on the TV just to hear the station announcer voice over "Welcome to another broadcast day of K---, etcetera", over this track I was finally able to add to my library decades later...

Even with my compromised hearing, I'm 99% certain this is the music the station used.

...Test post .

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...I remember late night programming before it became so universal , I remember CBS-owned stations having " The Late Show " (old movies) , and even " The Late Late Show " and " Late Late Late Show " ! There was a recreation of TLS's title card + music on YouTube .

_________________
Renal kidney failure, congestive heart failure, COPD. Can't really get up from a floor position unhelped anymore:-(.
One of the walking wounded ~ SMASHED DOWN by life and age, now prevented from even expressing myself! SOB.
" Oh, no! First you have to PROVE you deserve to go away to college! " ~ My mother, 1978 (the heyday of Andy Gibb and Player). I would still like to go.
My life destroyed by Thorazine and Mellaril - and rape - and the Psychiatric/Industrial Complex. SOB:-(! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!

Bringing this back: A sign-off from my local NBC station, KING-TV in Seattle, signing off in 1985.

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The Canadian Football League - What We're Made Of

Feel free to talk to me, if you wish.

Every day is a gift- cherish it!

"A true, true friend helps a friend in need."

I used to love watching TV sign offs. I especially loved PBS because they had a little Astronomy segment and I was obsessed with Astronomy as a kid. It was always a challenge staying up but if a channel was ready to shut down for the night I was there. I was weird browsing the channels at 3am to see almost every station in the test pattern as all the local stations usually signed off between 1-2am with maybe an extra hour on the weekends.

Now, every single channel broadcasts 24 hours a day so kids today won't know that thrill

Glad the topic of TV sign-offs was brought up.

My best guess is that the routines of TV sign-offs might be of interest regarding the Autism Spectrum; as TV sign-offs were relatively fixed rituals. TV sign-off times and channels were easily determined through the TV Guide schedules.

Most often, sign-offs pictured Air-Force jets flying in formation with a band playing 'The Star Spangled Banner' as audio; followed by the colored test patterns and the constant beeping audio.

A few times, I woke-up early enough to view TV sign-ons (a lot more mundane that the TV sign-offs).

I even once made a crayon drawing of a colored TV test pattern on medium thickness art paper about the size of.....a TV screen. I remember applying a ruler towards drawing the vertical color bars (and black, white, and gray vertical bars at the bottom third of the TV test pattern) in order to best reproduce an image of a test pattern.

I seem to remember tearing-up the drawing as "the novelty quickly wore-off" as I quickly felt that nothing beats seeing the original test pattern; that is a pattern only seen by viewers who (AHEM, occasionally myself) stayed awake late enough!