Sign-Offs

[jc]

Two of the three stations operated by Frank Spain, Inc in the Columbus/Tupelo/West Point market sign-off every night.  Well, not so much "sign-off" as "quit broadcasting."  WKDH-45-ABC ends programming at 1am after a repeat of "Entertainment Tonight."  I don't know if they run positioning statements or do the national anthem, but after "sign-off" they air a "live" image of WTVA's NWS doppler relay.  Same goes for WLOV-27-Fox, which "signs off" about an hour later than WKDH and broadcasts the same radar image.One would think that if they weren't going to power-down the tower they would just continue broadcasting ABC's overnight programming.  Kinda irks me, really.

I had seen in an online TV Guide that they sign off evey night. I always wondered how WKDH and WLOV signoff.  I would love to see signoffs of WKDH and WLOV.   Do they leave the radar image on all night?  Last I remember reading from my Yahoo signoff group was that WLOVs signoff was a voiceover and cut carrier (turn off the transmitter)

Nowadays, if/when TV stations sign off the air on late saturday or Sunday nights ONLY (the ones that are usually 24/7), they're doing so for transmitter maintenance.

Really?  How can they do can transmitter maintenance if they leave the Test Pattern on, as in the case of  the station in my area, WMAH TV-19 Biloxi Miss. Mississippi Public Broadcasting (MPB).   And they don't  say they are signing off for transmitter maintenance.  I tell you whats bad is the announcer that does the signoff still says Mississipi Educational Television Network! 

[Tim-In-Houston]

I had seen in an online TV Guide that they sign off evey night. I always wondered how WKDH and WLOV signoff.  I would love to see signoffs of WKDH and WLOV.   Do they leave the radar image on all night?  Last I remember reading from my Yahoo signoff group was that WLOVs signoff was a voiceover and cut carrier (turn off the transmitter)

Last time I was up early in the morning, they were running the radar relay on both stations.  WKDH begins regular broadcasting at 5:00am with "World News This Morning" I think WLOV starts about the same time.  I'll set my DirecTV+ to record the sign-offs and sign-ons on both and and post what I see in this thread.

[jc]

Last time I was up early in the morning, they were running the radar relay on both stations.  WKDH begins regular broadcasting at 5:00am with "World News This Morning" I think WLOV starts about the same time.  I'll set my DirecTV+ to record the sign-offs and sign-ons on both and and post what I see in this thread.

Great. Also if you can, can you convert them to files and send to My Yahoo signoff group, which if you haven't join already is http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/USTVSignoffs/.  Once you join you can click files and then add file and then put in your file informationIts just another place to discuss signoffs and also upload video and audio files of signoffs (Only if you don't have the video file) from stations all over the US, especially the ones that used to which is fewer and fewer it seems like and also since its so rare.I really enjoy this thread

[LowTideNumber6]

Three of the over-the-air stations in the Binghamton, NY market still sign off on weekends for a few hours. The CBS affiliate WBNG-12 runs a pre-taped announcment that they are signing off and will return to the air in the morning (they've been using the same recording for at least 15 years), followed by the National Anthem. I never watch ABC's late-night lineup, so I have no idea what WMGC-34 does, and as for WBGH-20 (NBC), I think they still do what they did when I worked Master Control there- just run the last set of breaks and sign off. No announcement or anything. All three run color bars and test pattern sound.

[jc]

as for WBGH-20 (NBC), I think they still do what they did when I worked Master Control there- just run the last set of breaks and sign off. No announcement or anything.

I didn't think they could do that.  I thought they have to Identifiy themselfs and say they are signing off or at least like WDAM TV-7 (NBC) laurel/Hattiesburg, MS, which I can pick up when good DX conditions are right using an ICOM-R3,  when they sign off every night they identifiy themselfs and give the location, no signoff is given, then the national anthem, then they turn off the transmitter.

[oldschooler1]

Earlier I said that when stations do sign off on weekends, it's for transmitter maintenance.Let me qualify that: USUALLY for transmitter maintenance. As for stations that show test patterns, but you believe their transmitter is powered down, quite nearly every TV station nowadays is connected to cable head-ends by fiber. So they send color bars to the cable company, while their tower (or "stick") is sending nothing.

[Stanislav]

As for stations that show test patterns, but you believe their transmitter is powered down, quite nearly every TV station nowadays is connected to cable head-ends by fiber. So they send color bars to the cable company, while their tower (or "stick") is sending nothing.

Or, in the case of some PBS stations (like my local), they s/off their broadcast signal from maybe Midnight-6 am, but send programming (usually just straight off PBS satellite with their logo/bug supered - no local breaks or IDs) to the cable folks.

[notalkallstatic]

When one of our station's transmitter was melting down (which it usually does every 2 years,) we keep program running and the commercials too, the only thing we do is shut down the transmitter. We usually run a crawl about an hour or two before we shut it down, to let people know, you might loose us. We must keep shows running for some cable companies that get us via fiber, and digital/hd. Dish Network, Direct TV, and most other cable companies in this area get us via off the air. I know this for a fact because when we do shut down the transmitter for more than 90 minutes, I start getting calls from their master controls (or whatever they call them.) The only time that I've been there, and had to take bars to air, is when one of our backup switcher blew, and nothing was going over the air except audio, so we had to reroute some stuff, but our picture looked crapy so we put bars and tones to set levels. This was during primetime on Thanksgiving of course, so our newsroom was bombarded with angry phone calls.

[jc]

Earlier I said that when stations do sign off on weekends, it's for transmitter maintenance.Let me qualify that: USUALLY for transmitter maintenance. As for stations that show test patterns, but you believe their transmitter is powered down, quite nearly every TV station nowadays is connected to cable head-ends by fiber. So they send color bars to the cable company, while their tower (or "stick") is sending nothing.

Well, my local PBS station also sends color bars to their over the air signal too.

[RobertAnthony]

The only TV stations that--well--if you can call it that--sign-off--would be WTIC Fox 61, WVIT NBC 30 (I think for like 15 minutes) and WTXX WB 20.  All just leave their logos up.