WDSU sign off 1989

From the summer of 1989, here is a sign off from WDSU, the NBC affiliate of New Orleans and oldest station in Louisiana, as the station still apparently signed off on weekends. This also occurred approximately six months before Cosmos Broadcasting sold the station to Pulitzer in the midst of ownership swaps that all of the then-Big Three affiliated New Orleans TV stations faced in the late 1980s with WWL going from Loyola to Rampart Broadcasting the next year and WVUE going from Gaylord to Burnham. All copyrights acknowledged. Includes:
1) Time to Care PSA
2) Commercial for Ringling Brothers/Barnum and Bailey Circus at the Superdome
3) Commercial for Assur-Net
4) Bumper for Breakfast Edition
5) Station ID
6) Final Thought with John Vaughn
7) Technical information
8) National Anthem featuring a Space Shuttle take off and landing
9) Several minutes of static

[@RolloSmokes]

Glorious, authentic channel 6 in analog, with hash, static and all. Ahh, the good ol' days.

[@ChrisHadleyWriter]

And as with every Channel 6 in America, you could hear it on the radio at 87.7 FM before analog broadcasting ended.

[@1thetvzone]

@@ChrisHadleyWriter Facts!

[@davidmatthewvinotjr8396]

My best guess is that 6 was going off air for weekly maintenance. Most stations were either starting to be 24/7, or were (in the case of WDSU) only going off air on certain days of the week for “maintenance” periods. I’m 100% sure that WDSU was at least 24 hours on weekdays, that’s why I think this aired overnight Sunday into Monday morning, Or possibly overnight Saturday into Sunday morning, my bet is on the former. I just can’t see why TV6 would have still signed off every day into the early 1990s, given that New Orleans is/was a major metro market (okay, upper middle sized market, but still).

[@ChrisHadleyWriter]

WDSU, WVUE and WGNO signed off every Sunday night during this period. I think WNOL did too - all because of weekly transmitter maintenance, and (according to some comments made by station officials in the Times-Picayune when a reader asked about why WWL was the only 24/7 station on Sundays) because overnights weren't the ideal time to run quality programming, such as all-night movies.

[@ChrisHadleyWriter]

This had to be from late June-early July 1989 per the Ringling Bros. circus ad, and probably aired late Sunday-early Monday morning since that's when WDSU typically signed off back then. I used to have a copy of NBC's broadcast of game 7 of the 1997 World Series (Indians-Marlins) and left the tape running after the game. They signed off that night, too, but the SSB was different (the one WJXT in Jacksonville used in the '80s with an acoustic guitar first playing the anthem before growing to a full orchestral arrangement).

[@ChrisHadleyWriter]

WVUE also signed off on weekends, but WWL stayed on 24/7.

[@LamarBerry2]

That's right. Back then,we would just tune to WWL,which was still on the the air 24/7. We still do that today

[@lesliemiros6743]

WYES TV too

[@bustano008]

WDSU-TV did sign off the air.

[@stevenwalsh7705]

Now owned by Hearst

[@bustano008]

The sign off is the NASA space shuttle.

[@AdrianBush049]

@jacky9br do you have a Full Newscast From NBC Affiliate In Hattiesburg, MS (WDAM) in the Early of 2000 Either January or February Yes or no?

[@17z483]

WDSU opening 2009

[@bustano008]

Final Thoughts is The Joy of Life with John Vaughn.

[@eascec8374]

I wonder what in the world is behind the static at 5:14.

[@jareddicarlo7816]

Sounds like leakage from a local radio station

[@stantheman8609]

Based on a Shazam and a double check of the lyrics..."Make It Last Forever" by Keith Sweat which was released the prior year; the song was about to go into the first verse at this point if you listen carefully. I was only almost 3 then, so I'm not exactly familiar with the radio scene in New Orleans at the time (my grandfather who lived in Kenner then was starting to be afflicted by Alzheimer's). But it wouldn't shock me if it were on either WYLD, Q93 or even B97 or another station in the market programming R&B, CHR or "quiet storm" at the time. Also would be curious to know how far late this was on the weekend...if it were Sunday morning, I know for one Siskel & Ebert aired on WDSU right after SNL and then a movie or reruns, so it would have to be around 2:30 am or so. If it were late Sunday, then very likely around 1:30 or 2am.

[@ChrisHadleyWriter]

@@stantheman8609 It was late Sundays that they signed off. I don't remember them ever going off the air overnight Sunday mornings.

[@JoshuaGalka]

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