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June 11, 2006 This is WBTV, Charlotte, North Carolina, signing off Channel Three… In the age of infomercials, reruns and all-night news, the signoff has become an endangered species. WSPA TV, Channel Seven, Spartanburg, South Carolina, now concludes its telecasting day… It’s quite possible that young guns Max Burns and Jack Leiparz have never seen a signoff. This concludes another day of service by WRAL Television, Channel Five, in Raleigh, North Carolina… Grizzled curmudgeons Stan Grimes and Michael John McCrae are both probably old enough to remember signoffs in black and white. This is WCCB in Charlotte, North Carolina, signing off Channel Eighteen… And television expert-in-residence Patrick Hurley has probably written a few signoffs. WXII, TV-Twelve, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, High Point, now concludes its telecasting period for today… So what, exactly, is a signoff? For the television station, it marks the end of another day of news, game shows, soap operas, crime dramas, sitcoms and sporting events. For the viewer, it means that the next thing on the screen will be a test pattern, color bars, or, if the station cuts the carrier, snow. For me, the signoff was a bonding experience. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, my brothers and I would stay up late on weekend nights and watch every station in town sign off. The elements of the signoff were basically the same for all stations. An announcer with what I like to call the Voice of Wisdom—that omnipotent, fatherly voice that gives life to the medium—comes on and told you everything you ever wanted to know about the station, but were never going to ask. For example, you found out who owned the station, where the station was, where the transmitter was, and how much power they had to use to transmit the signal. If you were lucky, you got to see a slide of the Seal of Good Practice, which identified the station as a subscriber to the Television Code of the National Association of Broadcasters. And after all that, of course, was the coup de grace—the patriotic film that provided the rousing sendoff to La-La Land. Every station ran something a little different. Six nights a week, our CBS affiliate, WBTV, ran an instrumental version of The Star-Spangled Banner as Air Force footage flitted across the screen, starting with the Thunderbirds and ending with an Atlas missile launch. On the seventh night, a military choral sang The Mariner’s Hymn (Eternal Father, Strong to Save) as a naval vessel plowed through the sun-drenched sea. WCCB, at the time our independent station but now our Fox affiliate, featured a stirring rendition of the national anthem by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. And at one time, UNC-TV, the statewide network of PBS stations, ran the very popular Air Force-themed signoff with the national anthem played on a Moog synthesizer. I’m not the only person who has a love for the signoff. On Yahoo!, there are several groups devoted to discussing signoffs and uploading video and audio clips from signoffs around the world. A North Carolina man has made a number of signoffs from around the country available on his website, JawToons. And there’s YouTube.com, which features a number of signoff files to view. It’s been a long time since the TV stations in my area signed off. And I really miss the voice of the late Jim Patterson, who not only signed WBTV on in 1949, but signed it off every night when I was growing up, with the following closing: And now, we at WBTV bid you…good evening. ------------ About the author: Claxton Graham has written a number of articles for Useless Knowledge. He works as a business systems analyst. Email: scifiwriter8502@email.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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