The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
Wide Wonderful World of Media - A Look Back At Television
Phillip Dampier:
The year 1979 brought some significant changes to WOR's on-air look. This was the sci-fi era, what with Star Wars and the technological leaps in special effects that came with the late 1970s. WOR started to adopt these new "cool" things starting with their image campaign. Underwhelming, "More for You" as a station signature only lasted about a year. Their music and new logo didn't really work that well either, with the channel number spinning on the screen like some Death Star.
But this look is probably recognizable to those who got cable TV in the late 1970s and very early 1980s, as it featured prominently in their daily programming.
By the way, as with WPIX, WOR just loved to fulfill their public service requirements with the FCC by airing Editorials and Replies to Editorials. Anyone who has seen WOR in the 1980s will recognize these things, and we'll have several examples to share later on.
Channel 9, like many stations across the country, succumbed to the scourge that was "Bowling for Dollars." This virus infected at least one station in just about every large city in the country (and if that didn't, the equally frightening "Dialing for Dollars" complete with host pulling names and numbers out of a fish bowel and then calling them up on a rotary dial phone, on the air, to ask them for today's "phrase that pays" or at least the name of the bad movie they were showing that morning, did.)
Bowling for Dollars featured washed up station talent (often the last sports reporter that retired from the evening news) presiding over televised bowling tournaments, often at lanes built right at the TV studio or area mall or bowling alley! Typically adults competed with adults, and a special kiddie tournament would also be held. Prizes usually amounted to the low hundreds of dollars, and it was about as compelling as watching any bowling tournament, only these were amateurs. Channel 9 stuck this television atrocity in early prime time! Most stations ran this loser Sunday mornings once a week.
WOR Editorial Close - Bowling For Dollars Promo - 1979
Uploaded by dampier
Phillip Dampier:
And now Joe Franklin will sell us paint. This is very typical of ads in the 1970s. An announcer in a suit holds up an extra large piece of cardboard and pitches the product. You got this with endless car dealer ads as well. And then Franklin says goodbye to his viewers for another night.
And that sign-off music is a real "treasure."
WOR Martin Paint Ad - Joe Franklin Show Close - 1976
Uploaded by dampier
Phillip Dampier:
We're jumping around a bit, but to illustrate some different traits of television of the 1970s, even in large cities.
First, as promised, another WOR-TV Editorial opening. Bet you can't wait to hear more about territorial limits for fishermen!
Second, most TV stations identified themselves every half hour with a slide. These days, you get a five second promotion for an upcoming show and in teeny tiny teensy tiny print, the station's callsign and location. Before the nineties, most stations were held to the FCC definition of running a "legal ID" at least every 30-60 minutes. Most stations had slides with the station logo, some image of something (news team, upcoming show, a giant channel number), and the station callsign and city of license. An announcer would come on and say something like "Channel 9 New York" or "WOR-TV New York." The same was true in most cities across the country.
WOR decided to do legal ID's for a time using some major art pieces being shown in a NY gallery! Artists were thrilled I'm sure.
Third, a lot of TV stations ran "news" first thing in the morning and the last thing at night before either signing off or going into an all-night movie marathon. But unlike today's news shows, back then, stations couldn't afford to light an entire studio and run a newscast (admittedly it took a lot more personnel back then than it does today). Instead, for 10-15 minutes, a station threw up a slide (yes a slide!) that simply said "News" and a studio announcer on a microphone would come on and read headlines and do the weather. Radio via TV I guess. Many stations had a slide saying "Weather" ready to go when the announcer got to the forecast. WOR-TV had the slideshow ready to go at night as well.
Remember folks, back in the 1970s you usually had three channels + PBS and if you were lucky, an independent station. That was it. So why go that extra mile.
WOR-TV Editorial Reply, Station ID, Late News - 1976
Uploaded by dampier
Phillip Dampier:
Ahhh, the test of the Emergency Broadcast System (now the Emergency Alert System). "This is a test. For the next 60 second this station will conduct a test of the Emergency Broadcast System... this is only a test." Then a horrible bleep for a minute..... Everyone remembers these, and the whole thing turned out to be a pointless waste of time and energy. During 9/11, not a single NY station ever activated the EBS/EAS system, and you'd think THAT would have triggered something. The truth is, for these kinds of alerts, we don't need this system - the media frenzy with wall to wall coverage would make them redundant. The only remaining value for these kinds of alerts is to deliver local weather warnings, potential health hazards, and missing kids under the Amber Alert system.
And a message or so back, I alluded to the death star number 9. Well, here it is in this station ID. Attack of the giant numeral nine. It was not pleasant.
In my introduction to WOR, I made mention the station loved to run movies, and loved to target an older audience. Here is an excellent example of that at work. Everyone who has seen WOR in the 1980s will recognize the opening to Movie 9, right down to the artistic renditions of Hollywood stars and easy listening music.
WOR-TV EBS Test, Station ID, and Movie 9 Open - 1979
Uploaded by dampier
Phillip Dampier:
By the beginning of 1980, WOR had changed the logo music and got a new slogan, ripping off Shakespeare: "As You Like It." The new music was less threatening than the last composition, and had some strings and, in a few versions, a strummed harp in the background.
Here is the station sign-on from 1980, with the decidedly low-tech "wipe" from the moving ID to a slide. Then, a quick cut in to a promo for Benny Hill, which they loved to run, and a somewhat neat way they drop the WOR logo into the promo, complete with sound effects.
But the star of this clip is 9 All Night, which WOR-TV broke up into "parts" which usually were individual movies. As I wrote in my earlier piece, what made superstations unique is that most of them stayed on the air 24 hours a day, while most stations in the rest of the country signed off at night. WOR usually ran movies all night long under the "9 All Night" premise. The opening for this was actually catchy, with a slower version of their ID and an electronic effect on someone's voice saying "Nine All Night" twice. You can see three buildings twinkled - the World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, and a third I don't recognize.
Too bad stations don't run anything beyond news and infomercials overnight anymore....
WOR New York - 1980 graphics promos
Uploaded by dampier
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version