WFLD Channel 32 - "Station Sign-Off, ‘Limbo’ & Sign-On" (1983)

[@enfrahg]

The fact that the tiles behind the logo look like a dirty bathroom floor really captures that Chicago feeling.

[@hf6150]

No, no - those are graph paper squares. From an era when using them as a background on TV graphics was a cool fad.

[@lancebunner6401]

Yea those tiles on the floor look like it came from a bathroom behind the channel 32 logo

[@wmbrown6]

You can thank the RCA TK-27 film chains (and RCA TP-7A slide projector) in part for that look. Didn't they use TP-66 projectors to show old films and film-based TV show repeats?

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

​@@wmbrown6I'm sure.

[@geo386]

I find that watching this harkens back to days before cable bastardized some stations or removed them. In addition I hope to one day visit Chicago and visit this museum. Intros, promos and station bumpers always interest me. Chicago seems to have quite a rich history and impact on television. I like WFLD as they showed Svengoolie and his unique brand of humor.

[@FuzzyMemoriesTV]

This museum does not have a physical presence. You are already visiting it. :-)

[@cameronfranklin984]

To those who are wondering here today, let me tell you that WFLD TV has since become a FOX affiliated station in the city of Chicago, IL, thus going by FOX 32, by the way. And yes, the affiliated network in question owns and operates the station along with a host of other stations in cities and towns like Seattle, WA, Houston, TX, Tampa Bay, FL and even New York, NY.

[@johnissoevil]

Less than a year after Metromedia bought the station from the then-dying Field Communications. Good to see that the national anthem sequence from the Field days which was also used on former sister WKBS, carried over for a time, and combining that with the Metromedia sign off/sign on spiel

[@timharper73]

Awesome find! I noticed from watching this sequence that ATB still replaced the original Sierra Club SSB music that used to be on the nature footage accompanying the clip. My guess is that ATB must've debuted when the change to Metromedia happened unless you happen to find sign-offs from 1981 or 1982 that dispels my guess. Thank you again for posting!

[@singinglawnchair]

Music during that Late Late Double Feature title is "Superstar Fanfare" by Keith Mansfield.

[@FuzzyMemoriesTV]

Thanks for the ID!

[@kargaroc386]

Specifically the A variant (Also known as "Edit 4")

[@525Lines]

About a dozen years ago, ABC in Chicago on very early Saturday mornings, started showing weird old black and white movies, which I assumed was a callback to these days and a better alternative to infomercials.

[@jackdemus7890]

They ran those for decades...it ended a few years ago, when a new GM was hired. I'm glad I recorded many of them.

[@525Lines]

@@jackdemus7890 Pretty obscure stuff. A really early Jimmy Stewart film was one of them.

[@jackdemus7890]

@@525Lines yes...most of them never came out on home video. I do know Ted Turner runs some, but not all of them. I really like the Kay Kaiser and Wheeler/Woolsey films. Lucky Devils is another good one, about Hollywood stunt men.

[@525Lines]

@@jackdemus7890 And they probably never made it to any of the movie packages available to TV stations.

[@jackdemus7890]

@@525Lines Right...I think they were all owned by Balaban/Katz, which used to own WLS. My guess would be that all ABC affiliates had access to these.

[@ventilator98]

GREAT, memories! Special memories!

[@ScoopNemeth]

This sign-off sequence for a television station resembles a computer reboot, where the station temporarily ceased broadcasting for either half an hour or one hour before resuming transmission.

[@CrowTRobot-ni7zu]

Interesting that as late as 1983, WFLD was still using the EIA colour bars.

[@NEPatriot]

I note Jim Barton said "Metromedia, Incorporated" instead of "WFLD-TV incorporated" as said in later sign-offs up until Fox took over. Nearly like that of sister station WNEW-TV (now WNYW). This has to be early into Metromedia taking over from Field.

[@timharper73]

I'm guessing the "WFLD TV Incorporated" script started in 1984 as Fuzzy has a sign-off from that very year where it is mentioned.

[@kresblain]

Not only that, it looks as though they've adapted the same script that was also in use at the other Metromedia O&Os at the time.

[@wmbrown6]

@@kresblain - As most famously at WNEW-TV in New York, as read by "Metromedia Man" himself, Tom Gregory. (Who had a story about as harrowing as WGN's Merri Dee; one night in the late 1960's when leaving 205 East 67th after his shift was over, he was viciously mugged and slashed in the face to such an extent that he had to have 200 stitches; having done some on-camera work up to that point, from then on his duties were strictly and solely off-camera V/O work.)

[@feverspell]

Does anyone know what music is playing during the Thought For Today? It's beautiful.

[@redmanr5522]

WFLD TV hasn't signed off anymore in 31 years, last time that happened was summer 1993. it's now Sunday June 16, 2024. 6/16/24.

[@mistermet-coolguyandfriend8745]

i got the 69th view on one video and now the 69th comment on this... what In all seriousness, I love seeing what stations did when they closed down (myself being too young to have experienced one)

[@ir10031981]

the national anthem was played in that key until December 1989. It switched to a different key from January 1990 to August? 1993.

[@MrIveyIsBonkers]

The only thing more baffling than keeping your transmitter on all night is recording someone's transmitter being up all night!

[@lancebunner6401]

Looks like after the color bars they put up the channel 32 wfld logo while they're signed off for the night

[@Launchpad05]

Yeah, let's throw in a heavy handed alcohol PSA before a kids show. That's a good idea. (Said non one ever!)

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

You be surprised how often such PSA's were seen early in the mornings like that before a kids show!

[@kargaroc386]

I recall trying to average all of the logo frames together (so 141629 frames of more-or-less the same image) to average out the noise but it crashed the program lol

[@lucascdesigner]

one thing i find interesting is, after the colorbar, the station logo appears, and you can hear voices from hte background, like if it was encripted video. that is pretty interesting

[@JohnHolton]

Be honest: how many of you actually sat through the hour-plus of the Metromedia-era 32 slide?

[@wmbrown6]

When? Back then, or now? Doesn't the quality of the slide bear some resemblance to an RCA TK-28 film chain?

[@singinglawnchair]

Also did they use a picture of the bathroom tile floor at the WFLD studios as the background for that slide?

[@hf6150]

Why should I, when KZbin is offering me a 12-hour "coral reef aquarium"? :-)

[@DickVanWrinkle]

Me probably… used to watch night owl too

[@Musicradio77Network]

1:32:32 is the intro to “Romper Room & Friends” as it was usually ran on WOR-TV (channel 9) in NYC back in the 1980’s. In addition to the sign-offs and sign-ons, they used the WFLD-TV slide from the Field era since it was owned by Metromedia, the same company that owned WNEW-TV (channel 5) in NYC. And also, the final moments of “Flirtation Walk” from 1934 at 0:00. The full movie is available on DVD in the Warner Archive.

[@timripley3396]

That Romper Room & Friends open was also seen in Canada, where CTV aired the show nationally, its version was produced at CKCO Kitchener, Ontario.

[@Musicradio77Network]

Tim Ripley Yep! “Romper Room” went nationally syndicated during the latter part of the 1980’s. The local NYC version as seen on WOR-TV as seen here, and this was from 1980, which was before “Romper Room” went national. WFLD-TV at the time never ran “Romper Room” back in 1980 which was during the Field era. WOR-TV only ran the show. kzbin.info/www/bejne/h3XZlYZ9oLNjl7c And here is the WOR-TV airing of “Romper Room”. If you pay close attention, the intro kept the same theme song, and the animated sequence was slightly altered, and the title was simply “Romper Room” instead of “Romper Room & Friends”. Here is the full episode for your enjoyment. kzbin.info/www/bejne/n3KqfoukocSqrpo

[@artsuplou]

Spoiler Alert! Channel 32 wakes back up at 1:26:47.

[@RustyMuck]

The plastering of the MetroMedia logo for WFLD on the Late Late Double Feature open/close is pretty nifty. (Compare with the version with the Field-era logo in kzbin.info/www/bejne/jXbCZJ-jr7xnbLs)

[@oscarflores1980]

10/16 I turned 3 in that year.

[@feverspell]

I turned 1 that June. Getting old sucks, huh? LOL

[@bornwisedistruction]

I was about 6 and i remember sitting up late watching this lolz man im old xD

[@JohnHolton]

I was 27...

[@timharper73]

I was 10 years old when this aired.

[@jackdemus7890]

When did WFLD run the "My Kind Of Town" film before sign-off? I have never found a recording of it.

[@MrSamer83]

Man, I was like a month old at that time. Lol

[@joshgalka9414]

Cool!

[@hf6150]

Don't know what movie that is at the start - but it's clearly from an era when NRA had nothing to do with guns. :-)

[@gregsells8549]

That NRA was part of the New Deal.

[@luisreyes1963]

National Recovery Act.

[@steviebauer386]

no test pattern or statc??

[@timharper73]

Well there was a few minutes of bars/tone after ATB played...interesting decision by master control to just leave the i.d. slide up for this long instead of cutting off the carrier or leaving up the TP. Then again, WFLD usually signed off much earlier than this recording showed.

[@DanTheMan1985ful]

Not all radio and television stations would sign-off the same way. Some would just be a Test Pattern with the station's logo a 1 kHz sine wave. Some would be plain static. Some would be just a black screen with a transparent logo on it. But here's what I didn't know. When ever the station went off the air the engineers at the transmitter sites were conducting a regularly scheduled maintenance on their transmitters. So whenever we tuned to that channel and saw nothing but static, that means they turned off the carrier so that they can perform maintenance.

[@davidlincolnbrooks]

Haha... and hour of "limbo". Andy Warhol would've loved this.

[@erickpaolod.santos3719]

It looks like the Same ABS CBN test card and still idents followed by Sign on and Philippine national anthem (Lupang Hinirang)

[@sillygoose635]

okay?

[@thelballyt]

4:46 crap