Signing On and Signing Off

We now have 24-7 access to entertainment and news via the Internet, television, and radio (including satellite radio). But, of course, it wasn’t always that way. Before I was born, there was a time without television, radio, motion pictures, and the Internet. It’s true!

As a child, I remember where we were fortunate to have four television stations to choose from (ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS) and none of them were on the air for 24 hours. The stations would sign off the air at the end of the day’s programming and then sign back on the air to resume their regularly scheduled programming. It wasn’t unheard of for some radio stations to do the same thing. And the Internet wasn’t around in its currently accessible form, as it was limited to those in academia and in the military.

In time, I remember when I could watch WTCG-TV/SuperStation WTBS late on weekends or holidays. I remember when CNN came into being and brought us a world of 24-hour news. I also remember that in a time before our local television stations were staying on 24-7, that one of our Wilmington, North Carolina television stations stayed on all night for a Halloween film festival of old classic monster movies. Good times.

I imagine that today’s young people (much younger than me anyway) haven’t seen a television station sign on or off the air or heard a radio station do the same outside of perhaps a small station like a college or university radio station. They probably never heard the national anthem being played before a television station signed off, seen SMPTE color bars (see picture above), or found a channel with nothing but static filling the screen. For that matter they probably don’t have much experience with black-and-white televisions, “rabbit ear” antennas, or analog technology. They probably didn’t get asked by their parents to get up and change the channel. Oh, how times have changed.

I remember getting HBO or Home Box Office during a trial period. Wow! It was so cool! Now we could see movies without having to go to the movie theater. But HBO didn’t stay on 24-7 like it does now. It would come on in the afternoon and close down for the night just like a real theater. And HBO also offered sporting events and special programs like comedy or music concerts. I remember watching the play Vanities starring Meredith Baxter Birney, Annette O’Toole, and Shelley Hack on HBO. Great play, by the way.

Here is an example of an HBO sign-on (link below). Before HBO would sign back on the air you could see a scrolling message with channel information.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=afcyu0cAF18

Here are two examples of early HBO sign-offs (links below). After the sign-off, you were going to need a VCR to enjoy a movie unless your local television station didn’t sign off for the night for some reason. My mom actually rented a VCR for the first time for my birthday in 1985, as I recall. I had some friends over to watch Purple Rain and Uncommon Valor. I don’t know how many times we rewound and watched a naked Apollonia Kotero purify herself in the waters of what were later to be tragically revealed as NOT being Lake Minnetonka. Suffice it to say, it was more than a couple times. Hey, you couldn’t do that with HBO. 😉

If you are feeling patriotic, you can even check out this playing of the national anthem (link below) that was typical of such notices indicating that the day’s programming had come to an end.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnchea6LHN0