# Broadcast day signal off **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 13, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcast-day-signal-off/743033 "2016-01-13T14:38:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcast-day-signal-off/743033/21 "2016-01-13T22:09:59Z")
“High Flight” was on every channel in Los Angeles back in the day. I don’t remember what came on before “Romper Room” or “Captain Kangaroo.” I was usually too busy chasing the dog or scarfing down breakfast. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcast-day-signal-off/743033/22 "2016-01-13T23:04:28Z")
Some stations here go off the air and all you see on the screen are the color bars. I kind of miss the sermonette, I have terrible insomnia, sometimes doze off watching Three’s Company and waking up to it, too. Not the same. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcast-day-signal-off/743033/23 "2016-01-13T23:17:14Z")
In New York in the '50s they had the jets for signoff - and then “The Modern Farmer” first thing in the morning before (silent) Farmer Gray cartoons. Who they thought they were appealing to, besides a few truck farmers out on Long Island, I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcast-day-signal-off/743033/24 "2016-01-13T23:54:49Z")
On a related note, back in the 1970s stations used to “Experience Operating Difficulties” and ask me to “Please Stand By” pretty often, and in the NYC area, stations often played “Age of Aquarius” until the transmission problem was resolved. Anyone else remember that? ---
**Author:** ![HelenGawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a88e4f/32.png) [@HelenGawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HelenGawn)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcast-day-signal-off/743033/25 "2016-01-14T17:05:22Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > On a related note, back in the 1970s stations used to “Experience Operating Difficulties” and ask me to “Please Stand By” pretty often, and in the NYC area, stations often played “Age of Aquarius” until the transmission problem was resolved. Anyone else remember that? “Age of Aquarius”? What an odd choice. I remember cartoon cards reading, “It’s not us, it’s not you, it’s them.” It really worried me who they were. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcast-day-signal-off/743033/26 "2016-01-14T18:27:58Z")
I remember one of the stations in the San Francisco area did; I want to say KRON (which was an NBC affiliate at the time). IIRC, KTVU would just have a “ending its broadcasting day” announcement, and KGO would have a five-minute audio-only news report over a static screen. Most of the stations went to static overnight; the only test pattern I remember (and it didn’t have any faces on it; [it looked a lot like this](http://www.bealecorner.com/trv900/respat/eia1956-small.jpg)) was for the local PBS station. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcast-day-signal-off/743033/27 "2016-01-14T18:39:42Z")
I remember it on some stations growing up in Alabama. (Birmingham and Huntsville stations.) ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcast-day-signal-off/743033/28 "2016-01-14T18:42:40Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Not far. Practically neighbors. Channel 6 sent a news crew to Punxy every Groundhog Day. 🙂 Heh. One year in the early 1980s, I got hired by the local Chief of Police to take some photographs of the honor guard the PD was supplying the groundhog that year. Groundhog Day was still almost entirely a local event in those days and attracted no tourists and very few local spectators. The weather was pretty miserable that year and the whole “crowd” on Gobbler’s Knob consisted of the Groundhog Club, the honor guard, the WJAC Johnstown film crew, and a few photographers. That evening, footage of The Great Event was on all the tv stations, so I know they were running channel 6’s footage with their own commentary. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2016, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcast-day-signal-off/743033/29 "2016-01-14T18:55:58Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > In New York in the '50s they had the jets for signoff - and then “The Modern Farmer” first thing in the morning before (silent) Farmer Gray cartoons. > Who they thought they were appealing to, besides a few truck farmers out on Long Island, I don’t know. As someone living out on Long Island (across the street from a potato farm), I can say it didn’t appeal to us. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/broadcast-day-signal-off/743033.md?page=1)