When did Times Square New Year's broadcasts begin?

[Cincinnati Kid]

The "New Year's Eve All-Star Parade of Bands" on NBC Radio goes back to at least the late 1950's.  I first listened then.  Back then, most TV would sign off after 1 A.M. EST, but the coverage on NBC Radio lasted past 3 A.M. after California celebrated the new year.   I recorded several of those on reel-to-reel tape in the early 1960's.  It might be noted that the program would be called "Monitor's New Year's Eve All-Star Parade of Bands" when New Year's Eve came on a Saturday or Sunday when "Monitor" was heard.  Otherwise, when it was one of the other days, "Monitor" wasn't used in the title.

[ixnay]

I watched Carson's NYE (once) before I ever watched Lombardo's.  I'll talk about Johnny first, then Guy.

My then-recently-divorced mother and I watched Carson on KYW-3 Phila. at her girlfriend's in Chester, PA on NYE 1969 (welcoming 1970 - our way of saying goodbye to a "turbulent" decade [though not in our household, but how the '60s affected you and yours is a topic for OTA]).

It was my first televised NYE celebration.  I was 8 1/3 years old at the time.  We watched the ball descend towards the roof of what was by then the Allied Chemical tower (the former Times Tower, wrapped around by the "zipper") in TS.  When the ball reached the roof at exactly midnight, 1970 in the biggest font NBC had that could fit the screen flashed about 10 times.

(Speaking of Allied Chemical, I should point out that seeing that building's logo reminded me of the AC plant that literally straddled the border between Marcus Hook, PA and Claymont, DE, a landmark I'd passed every day the previous summer on the way to day camp at a Catholic boys school in Claymont.) 

But I digress.  Let's talk about Guy Lombardo...

My first look at Lombardo was on NYE 1970 (welcoming 1971).  IIRC ABC (which in Philly was WFIL-6, which wasn't WPVI yet) aired Guy that year and my mom and I watched it at the home of another girlfriend's, in another part of Chester (mom remarried in 1980).  When the ball reached the roof that year, animated bells, confetti, cocktails, "Happy New Year" graphics, and "1-9-7-1" (zooming out of the screen Warners/Looney Tune/Merrie Melodie style [using a metaphor someone on another thread used recently]), one digit at a time, filled the screen during "Auld Lang Syne".

IIRC Lombardo moved to CBS in 1971(welcoming 1972) and until CBS, to my disappointment, dropped the Royal Canadians entirely after the 1978 (welcoming 1979) version, the show from the Waldorf, which I've walked past, was an almost annual tradition in my household.  I guess after Guy died, the ratings went down exponentially. 

Didn't Ben Grauer, as the ball was dropping, review rapid-fire the events of the year about to expire?  I remember in the 1976 (welcoming 1977) telecast, he said something like "everyone's saying goodbye to 1976, the year of the bicentennial, the year of legionnaire's disease, [etc., etc.]".

ixnay

[enchano]

I just came back from the museum of television and radio in NYC and I viewed a a rare Tonight Show that was preserved on videotape from New Years Eve 1965 going into 1966. The  live show had the original commercials as well. Woody Allen was one of the guests. The show was in color but the cut away to Times Square was in black and white with Ben Grauer reporting on the scene. Grauer reported 700-800 thousand in Times Sqaure due to the abnormally high temps that night as it was over 50 degrees. This was the earliest video tape I ever saw of the ball drop. During the Tonight Show, Johnny cut to Grauer 3 times before the final cut away that showed the ball drop. When the New Year hit, instead of "1966" lit at the base of the flagpole, the whole side of the Allied Chemical Building facing Times Square lit up vertically from the top to the bottom. (where all of the LED screeens are today). The museum also has an NBC New Years eve broadcast 1961 going into 1962 on kinescope that featured the Xaviar Cugat orchestra live from the starlight room of the Waldorf , also with Ben Grauer reporting on the scene. The Times Square scenes look the same as Grauer reported from the marquee of the Astor Hotel. It was snowing that night and the ball came down in 30 seconds instead of the 11:59 mark. Both broadcasts did not feature super imposed clocks. The audience relied on Grauer's count as the ball dropped. And Grauer, as he did every year, reviewed the year's events in rapid fire succession..and the upcomming year as well. IN 61 it was the year of the Berlin Wall, the new adminstration..etc. Looking at going into '66 he said hello to '66 when the cabaret tax in NYC was to be lifted. The best New Years Eve I can rememember on TV was the the final Guy Lombardo broadcast of '76 going into '77. The countdown is on youtube and I liked how CBS had the flip clock with a 3 way split screen showing the ball, Guy Lombardo getting ready for the count down and the Waldorf as Ben Grauer described the scene . Then the Royal Canadians start a typmani roll at about the -20 seconds mark and Guy did a perfect countdown as the ball fell on 1977 and then we got all these pinball type graphics splashing across the screen.   

[ixnay]

What was the cabaret tax, enchano?

And speaking of taxes, Maryland's sales tax increase (from 5 to 6 percent) will take effect at midnight tonight.  Surely will add a winsom quality to the NYE celebration at Baltimore's Inner Harbor (which WJZ-13) will televise. 

Also, what is the standard practice for placing NYE in what year?  E.g. is today NYE 2007 or NYE 2008?  Has that standard ever been established?

ixnay

[sack]

Its New Years Eve, 2007.  Tomorrow will be New Years Day 2008.  Sound right?

[KML-224]

No! It's Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve 2008! Duh! (LOL)

[therealjm12]

I remember, what might have been my first New Years staying up late enough,  watching Johnny.   Buddy Hackett was a guest. Ed McMahon was doing a live spot for Budweiser.  Buddy came over and grabbed the Bud from Ed's hand and chugged it while Ed continued to read the copy.  It was so funny.  I got the feeling Buddy didn't need anymore beer before he drank that one.

[ixnay]

Its New Years Eve, 2007.  Tomorrow will be New Years Day 2008.  Sound right?

Dunno... 

ixnay

[KML-224]

The GOOD: Dick Clark seems to be getting better and it was great to see him on camera.
The BAD: Ryan Seacrest...but you knew that already. What makes him all high and mighty anyways?
The WHY-AM-I-NOT-SURPRISED?: Seacrest with Carrie Underwood (his connection to "American Idol"), Miley Cyrus (Disney's "Hanna Montana") and the Jonas Brothers (more Disney).

Gotta love corporate ownership and blatant cross-promoting! NOT!

On a side note, was ths the first time the ball drop was in High Defintion?

[anotherguy]

This isn't so much a comment on the broadcasts themselves as local coverage in my area. CBS carried reruns of Letterman and Ferguson. No surprise there because of the writer's strike. WREG in Memphis and WTVF in Nashville carried them in their normal times.

In this area most of the New Year's Eve Broadcasts are delayed by an hour, which to me is no big problem. On the stations I could receive either on cable or over the air WPTY ABC 24 in Memphis was the only one that actually carried New Year's Rockin' Eve live. WBBJ ABC 7 and WJKT Fox 16 in Jackson, TN both delayed their New Year's Eve broadcasts by an hour and replaced them with sitcom reruns that would have normally ran later in the night. The same thing was done with WHBQ Fox 13 and WMC NBC 5 in Memphis.

The stupidest thing that was done though was that WSMV NBC 4 in Nashville delayed NBC's broadcast with Carson Daly by an hour, but they replaced it with infomercials!    If that's all they had to run in the time they should have carried the broadcast live. I didn't particularly care about seeing the broadcast, but that was just plain stupid!