TFTP Signs-Off for the Week: Station Sign-Off from WXON/Detroit (Summer 1986)

Each Friday afternoon, TFTP signs-off for the week by featuring a classic station sign-off segment for your enjoyment and to bid a farewell until Monday...

Posted to YouTube by user 'Ej H'

TFTP signs-off this week--just like last week--with a station sign-off that features a song other than "The Star-Spangled Banner" (which is in most station sign-offs). This 1986 sign-off segment from independent station WXON in Detroit has as its sign-off song "My Country 'Tis of Thee" with stylized animated visuals highlighting colonial imagery (and apparently created by the Mormon church).

TFTP Signs-Off for the Week: Station Sign-Off from WCPX/Orlando (March 1986)

Posted to YouTube by user 'WREYtube'

TV stations used to sign-off at night (usually at sometime between midnight and 1:00 am) and remain dark in the overnight hours until signing on again the following morning (usually sometime in the 5:00 am hour). Each Friday afternoon here at TFTP, we feature a station sign-off to mark the end of our blogging and posting for the week.

This mid-1980s sign-off from Orlando CBS affiliate WCPX (now WKMG) has as its centerpiece the main element of almost all station sign-offs: a film of the U.S. national anthem, "The Star-Spangled Banner". This is follwed (again, as most station sign-offs were) by a voiceover announcer stating the call letters, frequency (channel number), transmitting power and transmitter location, and mailing address of the station. Once this is completed, the signal changes to static--until morning!