Please Stand By (while your TV set warms up).

TV test pattern with the words 'please stand by'

I'd like to see a cable channel devoted to complete broadcast days, from which I could order up a date and network of my choice, 24 hours of it, and just let it play.

How cool would that be? A museum on the wall.

I'd like the same for radio, too. There's only one I'm aware of:

d(-_-)b Complete Radio Broadcast Day (September 21, 1939) >

Of course, a whole TV broadcast day from my childhood would contain six hours or so of test pattern, which followed the National Anthem and looked and sounded like this:

Alas, that sound has gone the way of twisted pair modems, phonograph needles touching down on vinyl, and the hum of vacuum tubes.

c0

A vintage TV with messed-up horizontal hold,
from Yesteryear Remembered >

Did you know you used to have to wait for a radio or TV to "warm up"?

True.

If you peeked through the cardboard grill on the back of a TV when turning it on, you would first see the vacuum tubes begin to glow, until, as they reached a steady bright orange, the picture tube gradually brightened into an image, catching up with the sound which was already playing.

Some sets occasionally struggled through snow or a rolling horizontal hold, which made it almost impossible to watch. Adjusting the antenna sometimes took care of the snow. And there was usually a knob on the back of the set to correct the scrolling picture (though the problem returned even if you never touched that knob again).

And after all the fuss, if you lived in a moderately large city, you had four channels to choose from.

[2014-05-17]

c0