Classic Video Thread (pre-2008)

[MikePulse 318]

Columbus, Midland, now Atlanta.

 

[PBC5NewsUnova 65]

That's Orlando actually.

Oh, Sorry. I get confused by the Univision stations of Orlando and Tampa since their call signs are similar.

[onthesea 292]

From Portugal: TVI's evening news excerpt from September 1996, airing in 16:9 widescreen!

[SoFloTVClassics 972]

Oh, Sorry. I get confused by the Univision stations of Orlando and Tampa since their call signs are similar.

 

XD

 

[TheRolyPoly 2413]

 

Here's a news open of WVEN 26, a Univision station in Orlando, FL (Home of Disney World) featuring news open graphics used exclusively for Entravision owned stations. It only lasted for a year before they switched to the standardized 2001-2006 Univision news graphics.

 

Fifteen years later, its on Channel 43.

 

XD

 

 

Fifteen years later, its on Channel 50.

[SoFloTVClassics 972]

Now as for telemundo central florida?

[Samantha 2895]

There are color bars. And then there are extremely rare color bars, worthy of a post here.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjVbW29VvGg

 

You're probably asking, "What in the world is this?" It dates to March 9, 1994 and comes from a key chapter in the development of HDTV standards.

 

In 1994 and 1995, the Queen City was king for high-definition television. PBS conducted HD testing for the Grand Alliance DTV system (which became ATSC A/53, the core of the ATSC 1.0 standard).

 

A VHF and UHF transmitter were mounted on the old WPCQ-TV tower, which had been vacated when channel 36 carried out a signal upgrade in the late 80s. The two stations were WWHD channel 6 (10 kW in analog and 3.16 kW DTV) and WUHD on channel 53 (500 kW analog, 158 kW DTV). It is worth noting those are peak analog powers and the averages were quite low (page 12). Much like the WJW/31 ATSC 3.0 tests in Cleveland with ATSC 1.0, the Charlotte tests also included periodic analog transmissions to provide comparison.

 

Channel 6 did not do much testing, with the reason being cable ingress. Ironically, WCNC was on channel 6. When WWHD was operating, it created signal interference for cable subscribers, so its activity was curtailed.

 

While looking through old issues of the VHF-UHF Digest, I found a DX report, and then a picture, of WUHD. I had never heard of either of these stations, but the fact I wrote about it at the time is the reason why the uploader put this up!

 

This was what Eric Voytko of McLean, Virginia, experienced on July 31, 1995:

 

The strangest DX experience ever. From 7 to 9 as received only weak signal, a full colorbar with no logo and no audio. Shortly after 9, a film starting with a man pasting signs on a wall, looked like a cheezy video done in the studio; cut to a 747 in flight for 1 minute; cut to well produced commercial of beautiful people dining at posh eatery, interspersed with some persons changing in a locker room and featuring a naked man! All the while with audio of WFAE 90.7 FM in Charlotte and A.M. Jazz! At 9:06 back to grey scale TP then off again. At 9:15 a distorted picture with terrible audio sounds (like a jackhammer) as if the X-mitter was acting up, gone for good after two minutes of this. Except for the nudity, it is similar to the HDTV tests WRC-4 did a while back on channel 38 in Washington.

 

Eric managed to get a hold of WUHD's chief engineer, who promised to do more station IDs before tests ended in September. Eric ended up getting more than an hour of IDs on tape. The next year, the Photo News column of DX pictures featured what, until today, was the only pictorial evidence of the Charlotte HD tests:

 

 

Later that fall, ATSC A/53 was released, and the FCC adopted it the next year.

 

So I wrote my post in 2015, and in August 2016, someone came by and asked for more information, saying they had two minutes of WUHD's color bars on tape from 1994. (In fact, this was at the start of the test period. WUHD had just taken the callsign two weeks prior, having originally been assigned WAHA. The WWHD calls given to the VHF had previously been given to two earlier test facilities in Washington, on channel 58 in 1986 and channel 59 in 1988.)

 

He finally showed up with the video today.

[Ntropolis 596]

There are color bars. And then there are extremely rare color bars, worthy of a post here.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjVbW29VvGg

 

You're probably asking, "What in the world is this?" It dates to March 9, 1994 and comes from a key chapter in the development of HDTV standards.

 

In 1994 and 1995, the Queen City was king for high-definition television. PBS conducted HD testing for the Grand Alliance DTV system (which became ATSC A/53, the core of the ATSC 1.0 standard).

 

A VHF and UHF transmitter were mounted on the old WPCQ-TV tower, which had been vacated when channel 36 carried out a signal upgrade in the late 80s. The two stations were WWHD channel 6 (10 kW in analog and 3.16 kW DTV) and WUHD on channel 53 (500 kW analog, 158 kW DTV). It is worth noting those are peak analog powers and the averages were quite low (page 12). Much like the WJW/31 tests in Cleveland, the Charlotte tests also included periodic analog transmissions to provide comparison.

 

Channel 6 did not do much testing, with the reason being cable ingress. Ironically, WCNC was on channel 6. When WWHD was operating, it created signal interference for cable subscribers, so its activity was curtailed.

 

While looking through old issues of the VHF-UHF Digest, I found a DX report, and then a picture, of WUHD. I had never heard of either of these stations, but the fact I wrote about it at the time is the reason why the uploader put this up!

 

This was what Eric Voytko of McLean, Virginia, experienced on July 31, 1995:

 

 

 

Eric managed to get a hold of WUHD's chief engineer, who promised to do more station IDs before tests ended in September. Eric ended up getting more than an hour of IDs on tape. The next year, the Photo News column of DX pictures featured what, until today, was the only pictorial evidence of the Charlotte HD tests:

 

 

Later that fall, ATSC A/53 was released, and the FCC adopted it the next year.

 

So I wrote my post in 2015, and in August 2016, someone came by and asked for more information, saying they had two minutes of WUHD's color bars on tape from 1994. (In fact, this was at the start of the test period. WUHD had just taken the callsign two weeks prior, having originally been assigned WAHA. The WWHD calls given to the VHF had previously been given to two earlier test facilities in Washington, on channel 58 in 1986 and channel 59 in 1988.)

 

Further solidifies why NC is “First in Flight, First in Digital TV!” (in addition to WRAL-HD, Wilmington the first market to go all-digital, and now WRAL-EX)

[SoFloTVClassics 972]

KTLA 1960 Film presentation

 

[SoFloTVClassics 972]

KAPP TV 1979 News Tease.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFkiNcvVFK0

[Samantha 2895]

Some short WBRC clips from December 1989:

 

[PBC5NewsUnova 65]

Some highlights in this video include news stories from WSNS, KMEX (I think it's the same as the one I shared sometime ago, but with better audio), KUVN and KCEC. Circa 1996.

 

 

Speaking of WSNS...here's a news open that's unique to this station from around 1999-2000.

[SoFloTVClassics 972]

Speaking of this youtube user has some interesting news opens, and segments.

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/SJPublicRelations

[Info Junkie 1286]

A look at KSTP’s weekend news in 1990. Includes Stan Turner and a young Scott Chapin (as in his first years VO’ing WSVN young).

[onthesea 292]

José Rodrigues dos Santos closes RTP1's evening news on Tuesday, March 19, 2002 (Father's Day in Portugal), as we see him from a giant screen installed atop the roof of RTP's old building in Lisbon.

It reminded me of NBC Nightly News and Times Square.

[onthesea 292]

José Rodrigues dos Santos closes RTP1's evening news on Tuesday, March 19, 2002 (Father's Day in Portugal), as we see him from a giant screen installed atop the roof of RTP's old building in Lisbon.

It reminded me of NBC Nightly News and Times Square.

From the same channel, but in 2003, a morning news opener and closing segment with a bit of its theme.

[Samantha 2895]

Some more rarities...

 

[SoFloTVClassics 972]

Thought you might like this.

 

 

 

 

[Info Junkie 1286]

As for the May 1986 commercials, that’s a young Doug Paul voicing the Volkswagen commercial at 0:42 (I believe it’s him.) Also WBAL later became one of the first stations to use “Great News” a few months later in 1986, definitely by October:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dBiZy04SkU

 

Also, going back to KSTP, here’s them from 2003:

[SoFloTVClassics 972]

[WWUpdate 1292]

From Germany, ZDF's 9:45 p.m. news with coverage of the Gulf War, 1991:

 

[Info Junkie 1286]

A WNYT interview from 1993:

 

Going on the 1993 opens Jim posted back in December, the top story in Albany on April 30, 1993 was a stand-off in Fort Ann, NY, by a guy named Patrick Penders. I say this because, the criminal himself was related to my dad. Penders later died in 2010.

[onthesea 292]

From Germany, ZDF's 9:45 p.m. news with coverage of the Gulf War, 1991:

 

I always liked that "disco" version of the Heute Journal theme.

[SoFloTVClassics 972]

A WNYT interview from 1993:

 

Going on the 1993 opens Jim posted back in December, the top story in Albany on April 30, 1993 was a stand-off in Fort Ann, NY, by a guy named Patrick Penders. I say this because, the criminal himself was related to my dad. Penders later died in 2010.

 

Shocking.

[WWUpdate 1292]

I always liked that "disco" version of the Heute Journal theme.

 

The late-night edition, Heute Nacht, used a jazzy version of the theme:

 

 

The top story of this 1995 newscast? A U.S. government shutdown.