A very classy, if bare bones, sign-off. I watched the channel's final moments on that fateful Saturday morning in 1982.

P.S. "We now conclude telecasting for the day" was the final sentence of WNAC's sign-offs from at least the early 1960's to that final day.

7 Bulfinch Place to be exact! And thanks for this rare sign-off--great to also have the Army SSB on and in nice shape.

I have to wonder if WNAC's sign-off was pre-recorded in its last years of RKO stewardship, hence the last-ever words of WNAC being "We now conclude telecasting for the day."

It's interesting that on WNAC's final sign-off, their studios were at "the RKO General Building" - but the day they became WNEV, their studios were located at "7 Bullfinch Place."

For every door that closes...

Be glad to. A loop of a flag flying outside in the breeze (slow in some points, fast in others), with clouds surrounding the blue sky. From what I recall, the way it was produced was reminiscent of the technique 'PIX used for "The Yule Log" with the shot of the fireplace being looped (since 1970) every 6-1/2 minutes.

If I am correct on this, I read where most of the employees who worked for RKO/WNAC-TV were hired on to work with the new owner, New England Broadcasting, WNAV. The newspapers around the country made a big deal about this. I hope nobody with kids to raise didn't lose their job just because RKO lied to the Federal Government.

Thanks for this video. :D WNAC-TV ended its existence with no fanfare at all. Compare that to when WNEV-TV took over the next day, there was a bit more hoopla there.

I was curious on one other thing, which the vintage Boston TV buffs who frequent here may know: Whose mellifluous pipes were those that not only signed-off WNAC for the last time, but may have also been on hand to sign-on WNEV-TV for the first time a few hours later?

IIRC, Boston is one TV market that has the dubious distinction of having two stations with licenses revoked by the FCC. The original WHDH on channel 5 lost their license a decade prior to WNAC.

Actually, no more analog broadcast in USA in full-power stations and low-power stations were switch the analog tv in 2008-2009 for full power stations and 2015 for low power stations.

That's because in the mid-80's the restriction on how long commercials can be was lifted, thus the half hour "paid commercials" were born

P.S. Compared with here, the Army "SSB" recording was played by 'PIX about 1% lower in pitch. But again, the whole film consisted of a looped solitary shot of a flag flying outside.

I think his first name is Lars. He was a longtime Channel 7 booth announcer. I remember hearing his voice from the early 1970s, at least, through the late 1980s.

Seemed rather simple, although someone may have had an interesting time filming whatever length of raw footage on those film cameras and then having to edit the film, reduce and increase the frames per second thereby speeding up and slowing down the film respectively. And the weather had to be a factor as well.

March 19, 1990.

WNAC-TV/Channel 7 did not "move" to Rhode Island. A Providence station appropriated the call letters of the former RKO General station in Boston.

The same thing happened to RKO's one TV and two radio stations here in Los Angeles.

First was the change in calls from WNEV to WHDH, around 1990. Then in 1995 came the switch in network affiliation from CBS to NBC.

@shitepokeschist As of 2003, anyway, Leif was residing on Cape Cod. His son Gregg is a broadcaster at WBZ-AM.

Actually, there was one other RKO-owned station that was network-affiliated: WHBQ-TV in Memphis, TN.

No test patterns -- but perhaps a WNEV-TV sign-on.

I found from another poster who put up something else, that the announcer in question was Leif Jensen - who's also the father of Gregg Jensen, a former 1010 WINS (New York) news anchor who, I.I.N.M., later went back to Boston radio.

I would love to see a WNEV sign-on, among other things!

Unless I'm mistaken, in the last years as WNAC-TV, Channel 7's sign-off was pre-recorded. (As, apparently, was the WNEV-TV sign-off as of 1986, judging from the two clips from 'MSTS1' with the same recording of Leif Jensen's sign-off script.)

Oh yeah, forgot about that one. That's the station that reunited as sister stations with WWOR under Fox ownership in 2001.

I wasn't alive in 1982, did WNAC let folks know this would be the final signoff or did it just end like that, "the end of our broadcast day."

Interesting, the change in calls from WNEV to WHDH came 18 years to the day after Channel 5, the FCC having yanked the Boston Herald-Traveler's license for the original WHDH-TV, signed on for the first time as Boston Broadcasters-owned WCVB-TV.

WOW! 21,793 VIEWS!

1989, I believe.

I don't think it was so much a case of speeding up and slowing down as it was what the wind gusts were, or if the winds were "calm." (Each weather variant as described was represented - but not the rain, of course.) I would've known if it were slowed down, especially with film. This may well have been practice for producing "The Yule Log" . . . being as I haven't heard of any other station using WPIX' variation . . .

RKO's other stations were indy stations that were adult oriented. So I'm curious, did RKO preempt the CBS Saturday morning cartoons to match the format of the sister stations?

True . . . WNBC, KHQ, WMAL/WJLA, WETA, WFMJ, KLCS (with some alterations), WNAC (later WNEV, now WHDH) - the list grows . . . let me know if I left some stations out, that played the U.S. Army "SSB" (WPIX's and KTHI/KVLY's homemade films set to that same music notwithstanding).

The WRKO buliding would be Bulfinch place, I believe right?

wm, you mean to say that WPIX did an in-house version set to the Army SSB music? What did the visuals consist of if you can recall.

March, 1990.

Curious if you have any videos from the late '70's or early '80's of test patterns from any of the Boston stations. And let me second NEPatriot's comments about the Army Band "SSB."

@johnissoevil WNAC showed CBS's Saturday morning lineup, with only occasional preemptions. In fact, in the '70s, I remember fewer preemptions of CBS's schedule on WNAC than of NBC's on WBZ or of ABC's on WCVB.

Gregg Jensen is on WBZ-AM, and is possibly the most annoying anchor on American radio today.