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.

[@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).

[@stevenwalsh7705]

Now owned by Hearst

[@ChrisHadleyWriter]

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

[@LamarBerry2-hg3tr]

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.

[@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?

[@bustano008]

The sign off is the NASA space shuttle.

[@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

[@user-vk5ld5uf8l]

3:18