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'Sign-off' (or, in British/Irish/New Zealand English, 'closedown') is the sequence of operations involved when a radio or television station shuts down its transmitters and goes off the air for a predetermined period (most frequently, during the overnight hours).
In the case of television stations, this usually entails the making of an announcement to inform the viewer that the station is about to go off-air, the playing, in many cases, of the appropriate national anthem(s), the displaying of a test pattern, and/or the cutting of the carrier signal (after which the viewer, the transmitter having being turned off, sees only static). It is the reverse process to a broadcast sign-on.
The practice varies from country to country, and from station to station. Most frequently, the sign-off happens at some time between midnight and 01.30.
These days, sign-offs are rare in developed countries, as many now feature 24-hour networks that air content at all hours of the day and night. However, they still occur at some television stations (mostly low power and UHF stations) in the United States during the weekend or routine transmitter maintenance which requires a sign-off (for HDTV as of late, for instance), and more often in Canada.
Some stations that sign off over-the-air continue to feed local cable companies programming via a fiber optic direct line to the cable company during the time of sign-off; usually this consists of either the station's regular schedule, or an unadulterated network feed of the network's overnight programming without local advertising, such as the case of WKTV.

Contents

North America

Examples of United States television sign-off messages

United Kingdom

Australia

New Zealand

The Philippines

Radio

External links

North America

In the United States and Canada, stations generally list the following details about a station:

★ An announcement about the upcoming signoff.

★ Technical information, such as the callsign, transmitter power, translators used, transmitter locations and STL links.

★ Ownership of the station.

★ Contact information – such as street and mailing addresses, telephone number and Web site address.

★ List of related organizations.

★ A disclaimer that station programming was taped, aired live, or originated from a television network. Some stations also air another disclaimer that programs are for personal use only (previously only at time of viewing; this has been appended with the spread of VHS and DVR devices), and businesses cannot profit from showing them by applying a cover charge for viewing.

★ A commitment to quality (or perhaps, a slogan). Prior to the early 1980s, this was generally in the form of the National Association of Broadcasters' ''Seal of Good Practice''.

★ The time when the station is scheduled to sign-on the following day, before a "good night"-type message.

★ The send off (which usually includes a montage of video clips and/or photos played over the national anthem or another patriotic piece), followed sometimes by a special signal, usually a series of DTMF tones, to shut off any remote transmitters, before switching to a test pattern (or static for stations that cut off the signal).
At some stations, a weather forecast and/or a pre-taped inspirational message (also known as a "sermonette") precedes the sign-off sequence.
In the past, many television stations also precede the sign-off or sermonette with a newscast. Until the early 1980s, it generally consisted of an announcer reading the news headlines, plus sports scores and a weather forecast, over a slide identifying it as a newscast; some stations also presented a brief, on-camera newscast, either pre-recorded with the 10PM or 11PM news team, or live with another anchor. Starting in the 1980s, many stations replaced this brief newscast with a taped replay of the 10PM or 11PM newscast.
According to FCC regulations, however, stations are only required to merely identify themselves before leaving the air. This means stations are to announce their calls, city of license and channel number. Many stations did most or all of the above as a common courtesy.
In many instances today, signing off a station does not mean physically shutting off the transmission source. Often, a test pattern will appear or a "live scan" of the station's weather radar will remain on during the off-air hours. In the latter instance, the audio of a local radio station or instrumental music usually often plays in the over the audio.
A few stations that still sign off either each night or at some point each week include KAPP, KVEW, KLEW, KSNW (and its satellites), WKTV, WWNY, WMFE, WWTI, WTOL-TV, KX Television (all 4 stations), KSMQ, WQPT, WHBF, KLKN, KCAU, WOI-TV, KEYC, KEVN, KNBN, KGIN-TV, KHAS, KNOP, WOAY, KVRR (and its satellites), KVLY-TV, KXJB, ABC West (all stations), KSL-TV, KCRG-TV, WJFW-TV, WTKR, WMBD-TV, WFRV-TV, WMSN-TV, WBKP-TV, WLRN-TV, WDAM-TV, KQDS-TV, KUTV, KCOY, KHSL-TV, KRCR-TV, KNVN, KXLY-TV, KREM-TV, KIRO-TV and WTTV(only on Mondays).

Examples of United States television sign-off messages

★ WUSA, Washington DC: First featured the poem High Flight read to music and an F-15 doing aerial acrobatics. One or more other commercials would follow, and another sign-off commercial featured the song Meditation played as ocean shore scenes are shown. The WUSA sign-off script was read, and an animated tribute to American history starting with Jamestown and ending with the lunar landings would finally play.

★ KIRO-TV First, a sign off announcent followed by a SSB film of the Cascades and Washingtonians at work.

★ Maryland Public Television: The Star-Spangled Banner sung as sailors are preparing the U.S. Navy ship U.S.S. Constellation in Annapolis harbor, followed by a reading of a sign-off script.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, closedowns took place frequently during the daytime, and sometimes only for a few hours at a time. This was due largely to a Government-imposed restriction on daytime broadcasting hours, but also in part budgetary constrictions. The relaxation of these rules meant that afternoon closedowns ceased on ITV in October 1972. The BBC took rather longer to abandon the practice, as they did not commence a full daytime service until the autumn of 1986.
A full night-time closedown sequence on British television would typically contain information about the following day's schedule, perhaps a local weather forecast and/or a news update, possibly a Public Information Film and finally a look at the station clock.
On BBC One, this led straight into a rendition of the National Anthem God Save the Queen, played out over the ident. The ITV regions mostly played the National Anthem over scenes of the Royal Family, although Wales and West of England region HTV played both the Welsh and British national anthems (with scenes of the flag changing to indicate the end of one and the start of the other). ATV, Central's predecessor, used a version of the National Anthem played on a church organ over the station clock, eschewing the traditional band arrangements used by other broadcasters.
Some stations didn't use a National Anthem at all: the London, Midlands, Scottish/English Border, Yorkshire & North-West regions (Thames Television, Central Independent Television, Border Television, Yorkshire Television & Granada Television respectively) Thames chose to play popular or instrumental music over their clock, Granada played their station theme over the clock, then a minute into the music, they would fade to the Granada ident, Border and Yorkshire simply "faded out" to black and in Central's case a "Good Night" caption over the station theme.
Westward Television and their successors, Television South West also used the Shipping Forecast as part of the closedown sequence, and occasionally, just before the transmitter was switched off, they liked to show short clips of ''Loeki'', a cartoon lion whose adventures had bookended the advert breaks on Dutch television since the early Seventies.
Two popular items in British culture were inspired by the early years of television; firstly, the phrase "Don't forget to switch off your television set", a warning typically spoken by the station announcer which took place over a blank screen, often after several seconds of dead air, prior to the transmitter being switched off; and secondly the "little white dot", a phosphor trace which lingered on the screen as the power faded, diminishing in size until it became invisible.
The ITV regions gradually switched to 24-hour television between 1986 and 1988, under a directive issued by the Independent Broadcasting Authority. Yorkshire Television was first to go round the clock, showing programmes from the satellite station Music Box, and the other regions followed suit. The last of these was Border Television. Some overnight programming slots were filled with teletext information pages including ''Jobfinder'', which some regions adopted and others didn't, and, since 1998, ''ITV Nightscreen''. The temporary suspension of ITV1's overnight gaming shows in March 2007 forced ITV1 to schedule ''Nightscreen'' in continuous blocks of up to almost three hours until the start of the ''ITV Morning News''.
Channel 4 (who, at launch in 1982, were usually closed for around sixteen hours a day) began its round-the-clock service on 6 January 1997, after a year of gradually expanding its overnight hours.
BBC One's last closedown took place on 8 November 1997. BBC News 24 has filled the early hours since but in recent years the time available for News 24 has been increasingly curtailed by programmes from the ''Sign Zone''.
This means BBC Two is the last national British terrestrial channel to still sign off at night, but only during times of the year (or times of the week) when BBC Learning Zone is off the air. This currently includes the Christmas holiday and Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights. Pages from Ceefax fill the gap in broadcasting hours. As of March 2007, there has been a trend for BBC Two to expand its overnight hours during weekends, sometimes to as late as 5:05am, leading to speculation that BBC Two's closedowns may soon be consigned to history.
S4C, the Welsh-language channel, is the only UK terrestrial channel which continues to close down regularly (though generally only for around 90 minutes between approximately 4:30 and 6.00 in the early morning). For some 10 minutes after closedown and 10 minutes before start-up, a series of still "slides" are presented with traditional music. The slides include TV listings and information, competitions, etc. This service has no official name but is commonly known as ''S4C Closedown Screen''.
Recently S4C has been broadcsting just a test tone.

Australia

On Sydney's Seven Network affiliate, ATN-7, a sign-off in the 1960s would include a music video send-off ("My City of Sydney" sung by Tommy Leonetti) featuring sights of Australia residents at work and play followed by a short cartoon of a mother kangaroo putting her joey to bed, played over an abridged version of "Advance Australia Fair". The bed was made from parts of the ATN-7 logo (The letters "ATN" were unfolded into a bed, the word "TELEVISION" became the mattress, and the "7" became a blanket). The sign-off is viewable on YouTube here.
The same affiliate's sign-off in the 1980s featured a cartoon music video sendoff featuring cartoon nudity and sights of Australia played over ''Good Night'' by The Beatles, the kangaroo clip played over a brief programming announcement, followed by a music video of a band playing an abridged version of "Advance Australia Fair", then a test pattern. This sign-off is viewable here. ATN-7 went 24/7 sometime in the late 80's, putting an end to this infamous sign-off sequence.

New Zealand

In New Zealand, from 1981, Television New Zealand's Television One played a cartoon known as the ''Goodnight Kiwi'', showing a kiwi closing up shop for the night, putting the milk bottle out, riding an elevator to the top of the transmitter, and going to bed in a satellite dish. An alternate version shown on the second channel, TV2 (formerly South Pacific Television) showed the kiwi shutting the camera. It was popular with children, particularly Television One's animation. The Television One version, posted on YouTube by Television New Zealand, can be seen here.
In October 1994, TVNZ began 24-hour broadcasting, marking the disappearance of the Goodnight Kiwi from New Zealand television screens.

The Philippines

In the Philippines, some cable stations don't operate 24 hours a day, mostly are owned by ABS-CBN such as CinemaOne Global and Lifestyle Network, and is replaced with an advertisement showing the product, "a reason to go to sleep" and the time when the network will go back on air.

Radio

While most radio stations operate 24/7, a few AM stations permitted for daytime operation only in North America and some rural FM stations will often sign off. Radio signoffs are generally more simple in nature. A standard sign off protocol for radio includes:

★ A identification of the station (required as with T.V. by the FCC)

★ An announcement of the upcoming signoff.

★ Ownership of the station

★ Transmitter power and other license conditions (such as AM daytime operation only)

★ Studio and transmitter location.

★ The time in which the station will return to the air

★ A "good night"-type message

★ National Anthem (not as widely used as Television)

★
★ During World War II, a recording of ''God Bless America'' was often played.
As with television, radio stations that sign off are only required to announce their calls, frequency and city of license -- all other items are optional.
In the UK, BBC Radio 4 does "closedown" in a sense. While they do not produce any original programming during their "Off-air" hours, audio from the BBC World Service is provided.

External links

★ TV-Ark

★ mire.project - Street art work about test patterns