Show of hands, please. How many are old enough to remember

[Bunny]

when television went off the air every night? Around midnight - 1:00 AM, they'd play the Star Spangled Banner, and then the station would go off the air until the next morning?

Good times, good times.

[Red State Rebel]

1. Meee!!!!!

Wow have times changed....

[bertha katzenengel]

2. Yep.

It was earlier than that, as I remember. And the snow scared me. To this day I get a little nervous when there's snow on the TV.

[Bunny]

7. Yeah, it was kind of ominous, wasn't it?

[bertha katzenengel]

22. Still freaks me. But not as much as the "technical difficulties" panel.

Oh, man, I always thought the TV was going to blow up. On local channel 11, KTTV (back then anyway), they'd play an elevator version of "What the World Needs Now" and the sign they put up was black with stark white block letters and it just freaked me out. :scared:

[deutsey]

24. I remember once when there was "technical difficulties"

the announcer said "Please stand by." I got up and went over and stood by the TV. I thought the announcer was going to give me instructions on how to fix the technical difficulties.

Gullible, indeed, I was. :-)

[bertha katzenengel]

45. LOL

:bounce:

[rockymountaindem]

57. Did you grow up in Colorado Springs?

That's our local CBS affiliate.

[Suziq]

3. I Remember . . . .

You just knew you were up too late when the stations went off the air.

After the Star Spangled Banner, the station would start the ear piercing buzz.

Oops - my age is showing!




:hippie:

[CO Liberal]

4. Me!!!

I also remember when all they showed in the afternoons were 15-minute soap operas and old movies. And Joe Franklin talk shows.

[johnnie]

5. I remember

I remember having only 3 stations to choose from until my father got a UHF receiver to attach to the television.
Ahh good times..LOL

[displacedtexan]

6. Moi!

I remember when they told us to keep our windows & doors open so the picture could come in.

[ConcernedCanuk]

8. Ummm - was "God Save the Queen" up here . . .

.
.
.

and we got a fancy looking dart-board sort of test pattern before the "snow" . . .

I dunno the colors though - we didn't HAVE tv 'till I was 11 -

upgraded to COLOR when I was 15 - wow!

and we were only allowed 2 shows a week -

yes

A WEEK

guess that's why I learned how to read

oh

the shows?

The Ed Sullivan Show

and Bonanza

[MrScorpio]

9. I do

Ah the good old days

[tnlefty]

10. I do.

My kids have a difficult time believing that the tv stations actually went off the air.

[Liberal Veteran]

11. And then "Test Patterns"...

LOL

[tinfoilinfor2005]

36. along with the test patterns, there was a large Indian head

with a big feather headdress.

[Aristus]

38. I remember that one!

I liked it better than the "rainbow" test pattern! :-)

[mindfulNJ]

12. I was alive then

..but too young to be up that late:) I DO remember being really upset when the president gave a speech because he was on EVERY channnel! Thank God it isn't like that now and I can watch HGTV when * is on! :D

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

13. Yes, but no anthem here in Brazil

At morning, about half an hour before going live, they showed the colored (shades of gray for me) stripe pattern and played music. Good music. I'd leave the TV on because of the music. I called that the "esperador" (waiter).

Then - cartoons! (yep, every day)

[Jamastiene]

14. And the ant races and snow storms afterwards

were way less obnoxious than infomercials.

[ima_sinnic]

15. I remember when an electrician had to come to hook up your TV

[napi21]

16. They also ran "High Flight"

"High Flight"

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr.


I remember always getting chills when I heard it.

[Bunny]

I remember that!

That WAS cool!

[shirlden]

17. Shucks, yes!

My first memory of television was when one of the folks on our street were the first to get one of those things. It had a round screen about the size of a luncheon plate. On Saturday night about 20 neighbors would try to gather round and watch "rassling" on that little screen. Wasn't much else on in those days. Snow and blackouts were major problems. My neighborhood was below middle class, but not quite poor, and it took many years for TV to replace radio and the local paper.

[napi21]

21. We had a similar exp. at our house.

I was pretty little...about 5 or 6 I think. Our first TV had a 10" screen, but it was the same shape as the later models, and the box it was in was HUGH! It measured about 30" square!!! Dad put it at the end of a long kitchen, and all our relatives would come once a week to watch Silver Top wrestling, as if they were in a theater.

I do remember seeing Howdy Doody every day after school, and the only network I recall from that early was Dumont.

[Freebird12004]

18. Me ...

:hide: now I just have to avoid the sales pitches

[purji]

19. I remember

I was young enough to be pretty impressed with my self when I out lasted the TV.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

20. Me! Me!

And I remember when a TV had to "warm up" before it came on, like booting a computer.

Then when you turned it off, there was a white spot left glowing in the middle of the screen for several minutes.

[deutsey]

23. Me

I remember staying up on Saturday nights when I was a kid in the '70s watching "Creature Feature" or "Ghost Host" on the independent local stations...they were campy monster movie shows like "Count Floyd" on SCTV used to parody, especially "Creature Feature", the host of which (Count Gore DeVol), became a local legend (the guy who played the Count has a Web site, even though his show finally went off the air in the '80s: http://www.countgore.com/).

Anyway, I'd watch these shows until about 1 am, and then would get really freaked out by the five-minute FBI Most Wanted public service announcements, where they'd show a wanted poster of a fugitive and give the details about the crime the person was wanted for. Sitting there in the dark quiet living room, that PSA scared me much more than the cheesy monster movie did. Then the stations would sign off and I'd go to sleep imagining the fugitive skulking around our apartment.

And then I'd do it all over again the following Saturday.

[comsymp]

25. More terrific childhood memories!

We also had one channel of the 3 we got (4 if you count PBS) which played scary movies on Friday nights, all night long. Shock Theatre, IIRC.

[smbolisnch]

26. Yep, I do....

[TheCentepedeShoes]

27. Back in the early 70's

I fell asleep on the sofa watching Saturday Night Live. The station signs off after the show, but not quite all the way. About 10 minutes after SNL ended and the SSB is played this seemingly disembodied voice (coming from the TV) asks "You did remember to turn off your TV, didn't you?"
Woke me up, I jumped off the sofa and like to had a heart attack.

[Bunny]

28. OMG! That's freaky!

I've never heard of that. Wow!

[tjwmason]

29. Right up to the late '90s in the U.K.

B.B.C.1 would go the God Save the Queen (rather than the Star Spangled Banner). Then they started B.B.C. News24 which plays on B.B.C.1 during the night.

[Richardo]

30. Me!

:hi: All THREE networks signed off!

[Bunny]

35. What prompted me to think of this was the study that showed that

people these days are too tired to have sex. I think it's because there is too much other stuff to do. Back in the day, once the TV signed off for the night, what else was left?

:hi:

[Richardo]

49. Headaches?

:)

[jswordy]

31. I DO! Hell, I remember when...

HBO was the ONLY movie channel, and it was fuzz unless the exact time of a movie arrived. Then the movie would play, and then HBO would go back to snow again until the next showtime.

(I lived in the first community in the U.S. to be wired for cable TV.)

We would turn on the TV with the sound turned down and make popcorn and whatever to get ready, then watch trailers of movies coming up once the picture came on, then watch the show. Just like at a theater. Then the screen would go to snow.

WOW! It was something SPECIAL back then!

[GalleryGod]

43. You bet it was! How about ESPN withOUT commercials!?

Gawd! I'm old!?:blush:

[jswordy]

46. Sigh...I can rant ad nauseum on why we have to PAY for TV with commercials

I mean, that is soooo lame!

And now the "movie channels" are pretty much just like racier versions of the networks. I don't even subscribe to them anymore. A waste of my money.

Actually, cable and network are both bleeding market share to the medium we are using right now!

[trof]

32. Our local AM radio station still does.

WHEP broadcasts 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Mainly big band, old standards, ballads.
And the ever popular Trading Post, twice daily.

They sign off with the Jimmy Buffett version of Stars Fell On Alabama, one of my favorites.

[SW FL Dem]

33. I do - after the Star Spangled Banner you'd get the

test pattern and then snow.

[ZenLefty]

34. Yup.

Then you would get bars on your TV and it would play a loud annoying tone until you got off the couch and turned it off.

Then there were the late night commercials "It's 11:00. Do you know where your children are?"

:o

[Left Is Write]

37. Yes, our local stations did that when I was a kid.

[lpbk2713]

39. Before they signed off there was always a "devotional" message

given by some fella with a cheesy smile.

[peekaloo]

40. with a backdrop of clouds.....LOL!

[GalleryGod]

41. Yoo-HOO! Over here! And the Station made an annoncement...

about the "end of broadcasting for the day,etc.":popcorn:

[DinahMoeHum]

42. Hand raised. It used to be that way for radio, too.

"...from Reckless Barney to the sign-off prayer..."

- Joni Mitchell "You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio"


:bounce:

[BurtWorm]

44. I do.

:cry:

[Rambis]

47. yep

I remember when we got this new fangeled thing called Cable television were you got like 60 channels I could't believe that.

[ProfessorGAC]

48. Me! I Remember

The old test pattern with that bombsight look, that had the Sioux Chief at about 3 o'clock on the pattern. Didn't even have colorbars back then, since hardly anyone had color TV, and if one did, there were only a handful of shows broadcasting in color.

The Professor

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

50. I remember... and I'm not all that old..

turning 26 next week.

[Spacemom]

51. I remember

I also remember when staying up late to watch Johnny Carson was a big deal to me. :D

[Hissyspit]

52. I do. Also, Alaska in the mid-70s, got the network shows 3 MONTHS later.

They had to fly tapes up to the Alaska stations. Cable was already being introduced in the lower 48, and yet we got the NETWORK shows MONTHS later.

[Bullwinkle925]

53. Yuppers - sure do!

[mondo joe]

54. Yes yes! I do!!!

And it was so so sad.

[Theres-a]

55. yep.And there was no remote,either.

[Cooley Hurd]

56. Don't forget the test patterns...

beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

[dr.strangelove]

58. WPIX played an instrumental God Bless America.

I remember it well. The static that followed would wake me up when I fell asleep watching TV. Remember Static on the TV. There was a time when the screen did not turn all blue or green when there was not a signal.