TFTP Signs-Off for the Week: Sign-Offs Through the Years - 1990 (WLBT/Jackson, MS)

Posted to YouTube by user 'jacky9br'
Length - 8:29

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

And throughout 2018, we are featuring "Sign-Offs Through the Years", as we go year-by-year with each successive week.

As we enter the 1990s in "Sign-Offs Through the Years", here is is a somewhat longer sign-off sequence from Jackson, Mississippi, NBC affiliate WLBT. It begins with a few promos: for "Saturday Night Live" (which was in its 15th anniversary season) featuring guest host Rob Lowe and Dana Carvey in full church-lady dress; for the NBC Sports presentation of The Players Championship golf tourney; and for local WLBT 3 News. These are followed by two PSAs, for a women's shelter called New Life for Women and for the Special Olympics.

A "Sanford & Son" promo slide precedes a very strange ownership/technical voiceover. After a title card with a personal dedication for the sign-off (something mischievous master control operators would sometimes slip in), a segment begins playing with special effects and the title "Purple Haze" with audio of the band Winger doing a cover of the Jimi Hendrix song of the same name. Midway through this clip, a brief ownership/technical voiceover is heard.

The sequence is capped off  by a very nice national anthem film that features local/regional images of Mississippi, including several shots of a rainbow-striped hot air balloon with the name of the state emblazoned on it.

TFTP Signs-Off for the Week: Sign-Offs Through the Years - 1986 (WKBW/Buffalo, NY)

Posted to YouTube by user 'Travis Doucette'
Length - 4:51

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

And throughout 2018, we are featuring "Sign-Offs Through the Years", as we go year-by-year with each successive week.

Buffalo, New York station WKBW has made a sign-off appearance before on TFTP, and like in that previous appearance, this 1986 sign-off from WKBW features not just the American national anthem but also the Canadian anthem, "O Canada!" This is the result of Buffalo being a border city where its TV stations reached probably just about as many Canadian viewers as American ones. The "O Canada!" film here (a different one than in the previously featured WKBW sign-off) consists almost entirely of views of Niagara Falls, highlighting that natural wonder's dual role as both a Canadian and American landmark.

The sign-off sequence starts with the last few seconds of a WKBW newscast (this being sign-off time, probably a re-broadcast of the station's late newscast from that night), followed by a PSA with a priest encouraging undocumented immigrants to apply for citizenship (following on 1986's amnesty legislation). The ownership/technical voiceover comes next, with part of it on the same slide of WKBW's transmitter tower seen in that earlier WKBW sign-off. The "O Canada!" film then plays, seguing directly into the "Star-Spangled Banner" film, which closes out the sign-off sequence.

TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Commercial Block from WLS/Chicago (Jun. 25, 1971)

Posted to YouTube by user 'pannoni4'
Length - 7:37

Every Wednesday, TFTP takes a break from regular programming to bring you a selection of classic commercials. We will return after these messages...

This block of 1971 commercials from Chicago station and ABC affiliate WLS includes ads for the Kleenex Americana collection (a special set of tissue boxes commemorating America), Cheetos (an animated ad with a mouse painting a billboard), Pepsi, Bravo floor wax ("brightest shine under the sun"), Raid mosquito coil, Rival "Ranch Partner" dog food, Wishbone Italian Rose salad dressing, Northern paper towels, Bactine, Wonder Bread ("how big do you want to be?"), Pop-r-corns snacks, Jewel supermarkets (big meat sale!), and Diet 7-Up.

There are also two local WLS items: a promo for "Howard Miller's Chicago", a talk show hosted by the local radio personality, and a voiceover PSA ("art treasures of the world at the Chicago Art Institute") on a slide of the WLS/Chicago logo.

TFTP Signs-Off for the Week: Sign-Offs Through the Years - 1984 (WJXT/Jacksonville, FL)

Posted to YouTube by user 'MicroJow'
Length - 6:06

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

And throughout 2018, we are featuring "Sign-Offs Through the Years", as we go year-by-year with each successive week.

Jacksonville, Florida, station WJXT is the source of this week's sign-off, from September of 1984. The sign-off sequence begins with a few local spots, first a promo for local coverage of Southeast Conference (SEC) college basketball, then a PSA for the Jewish National Fund, and finally a bumper slide promo for "Wheel of Fortune". These are followed by a fairly weird little film with mostly instrumental music against an image of ocean waves lapping the shore, but also with some spoken word poetry or inspirational verse. The ownership/technical voiceover follows this, on a slide of the WJXT logo, with the national anthem film (including the rare second verse) closing out the sign-off.

TFTP Signs-Off for the Week: Sign-Offs Through the Years - 1979 (WDIV/Detroit)

Posted to YouTube by user 'Retrontario'
Length - 7:10

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

And throughout 2018, we are featuring "Sign-Offs Through the Years", as we go year-by-year with each successive week.

This 1979 sign-off from Detroit station WDIV begins with the tail end of a segment (presumably public service in nature) called "Classroom". The NAB Television Code slide leads into PSAs for Tel-Law (a public service in Detroit for getting legal advice over the telephone) and the Detroit Institute of Arts, which are followed by a local promo for "First 4 Sports", the station's sports department. 

Next is an Editorial Reply in which the president of the Michigan Beer & Wine Wholesalers Association responds to a recent station editorial about a new bottle deposit proposal. (Fans of "Seinfeld" will now flashback to the episode centering on the Michigan bottle deposit scam.) Editorial replies like this were often seen on TV in this era, and one wonders if this one ever saw the light of day at any time other than right before sign-off.

The ownership/technical voiceover on a curious criss-cross weave "Goodnight" image precedes more PSAs, for the Michigan Heart Association and the Detroit Community Music School. Rabbi Dannel Schwartz then presents a religious segment. The very disco-looking "go 4 it" WDIV logo (with serious neon) appears for a final voiceover "good night" and the intro to the national anthem. The anthem film itself is a quick-cut montage of mostly still images, many of them very "seventies" in nature. The disco-logo returns for a few seconds before the signal cuts out.

TFTP Signs-Off for the Week: Sign-Offs Through the Years - 1977 (WLS/Chicago)

Posted to YouTube by user 'The Museum of Classic Chicago Television'
Length - 7:50

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

And throughout 2018, we are featuring "Sign-Offs Through the Years", as we go year-by-year with each successive week.

As we march into the late-1970s with "Sign-Offs Through the Years", here is a content-packed (and lengthy) sign-off from March 6, 1977, and station WLS in Chicago. It begins with the last few seconds and end credits of the 1961 movie "The Guns of Navarone" starring Gregory Peck. (Watch closely and see at least a couple instances of obvious pan-and-scan of this widescreen film.) This is followed by a couple of promos for upcoming movie broadcasts of "The Gambler" (1974) and "Bless the Beasts and Children" (1971).

A "Note of Interest" slide with voiceover of where to send public service announcements for the station, a long PSA for AARP featuring the late-in-life accomplishments of figures like Frank Lloyd Wright and Grandma Moses, and a station ID with a voiceover PSA for the United Negro College Fund precede a "Reflections" segment with a bible verse reading by Rev. John Ware--who emphasizes the concept of "Keep On Keepin' On" (remember, it was the seventies).

Finally, the national anthem film--with images of portraits of Founding Fathers--is played, preceded by a NAB Seal of Good Practice slide and followed by color bars.

TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Woodsy the Owl PSAs from the 1970s

Posted to YouTube by user 'Mike's Classic Commercials' (all three)
Length - 0:30 (top), 0:31 (middle), 1:01 (bottom)

Every Wednesday, TFTP takes a break from regular programming to bring you a selection of classic commercials. We will return after these messages...

"Give a Hoot! Don't Pollute!" was one of the battlecries of the anti-pollution movement of the 1970s, and this group of public service announcements (PSAs) featuring Woodsy the Owl was the frontline on which that battle was fought. Most PSAs from the 1970s look painfully cheesy and contrived to us now, but they generally did their job of raising awareness and suggesting courses of action for average people.

The three spots above (created by the Forest Service of the US Dept. of Agriculture) each enlist a group of kids to highlight an environmental problem--littering (in the top PSA), vandalism in wilderness areas (middle), and tree planting (bottom). Interestingly, in the bottom PSA Woodsy's voice is provided by a different actor than the other two (which of the two voices was the earlier one is not clear).

TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Commercial Block from CBS/ABC (Oct. 2, 1976)

Posted to YouTube by user 'Pannoni 9'
Length - 15:39

Every Wednesday, TFTP takes a break from regular programming to bring you a selection of classic commercials. We will return after these messages...

In addition to a selection of ads for dolls, cereal, and kid-oriented food, this Saturday morning commercial block from October 2, 1976, has specimens from two legends of 1970s children's TV: "In the News" from CBS and "Schoolhouse Rock" from ABC. The "In the News" segment featured is a profile of figure skater Dianne de Leeuw who had competed in that year's Winter Olympics; while the "Schoolhouse Rock" segment is perhaps the greatest and most well-known such segment today, "I'm Just a Bill".

Drawn from both CBS (from "Sylvester and Tweety") and ABC (from "Jabberjaw"), commercials in the block include ones for Kellogg's Raisin Bran and Sugar Pops, Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles cereal, Keebler fudge-covered cookies, two different varieties of baby dolls (Don't Cry Baby and Baby Alive), the somewhat obscure board game Worm Wrestle, the similarly-obscure play figures called Wannabees, and Nerf Classic Fighters airplanes.

The block also has a PSA for change of address postal forms (was this an important issue in the 1970s?), several bumpers for the "Sylvester and Tweety" and "Jabberjaw" programs the commercials were pulled from, and the end credits for both programs, both with voiceovers promoting other shows.