When did B/W broadcasts stop?

[andy]

...

[Steve Hoffman]

1966 for prime time, 1967 for daytime (soaps). By 1968 all of the network shows AND commercials were broadcast in color.

Hope this helps!

[Big Dave]

At the time all three networks were colorcasting, many ABC affiliates still had BW equipment. As I understand, some of those ABC stations could not colorcast until the early 70's.

[Celt]

Originally Posted by Big Dave

At the time all three networks were colorcasting, many ABC affiliates still had BW equipment. As I understand, some of those ABC stations could not colorcast until the early 70's.

Yup! I didn't see color from our local ABC and PBS stations until the late 60's!

[Whirled One]

Y'know, it occurs to me that nowadays, TV stations probably transmit a color signal constantly even when broadcasting old B&W shows. If so, would there even be a point to having a "color killer" circuit on a modern TV, except to supress color "snow" on unused channels..?

[andy]

...

[old_tv_nut]

The problem is not colored snow, but the unnecessary cross color (flickering colors) that occur on high-contrast fine black and white details (worse in non-comb-filter sets).

By the way, in the early color days, some stations put a color burst inside the left edge of the picture on B&W programs, and another burst just inside the right edge (the normal burst was not present, so the color was killed). By turning the horizontal hold on a color set, you could pull the H phasing over to where the left side burst went through the burst gate, opening up the color killer. Then if all was well, the right-side burst would appear as a vertical yellow-green stripe in the picture. On any reasonably wideband B&W set, you could see the subcarrier dot pattern in these stripes.

[bgadow]

I've seen bw film news footage (network) from the early 70s showing that not the entire newscast was in color. Certainly some stations did not have color cameras way up in the 70s & in some cases 80s. In a small market, or at a small public broadcaster or independent even in a big city, there probably wouldn't have been enough original programming eminating from that station to pay for color equipment. Forwarding the network programs in color would be a different matter. But I think the networks are what is important here.

[frenchy]

Since even today someone can broadcast a BW picture or show over a color signal, maybe some more questions to ask would be:
"what was the last major network affiliate to completely eliminate broadasting of a non-color-encoded signal?"
"what was the last low-budget local (non-major-network) channel, uhf or vhf, to broadcast a black and white only signal?
"what was the last major network television show that was produced in black and white?"

The thing about the news not being completely in color could just be a factor of when they had gotten rid of all their old black and white film cameras and switched to color film....then switched to color videotape.

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by frenchy

Since even today someone can broadcast a BW picture or show over a color signal, maybe some more questions to ask would be:
"what was the last major network affiliate to completely eliminate broadasting of a non-color-encoded signal?"
"what was the last low-budget local (non-major-network) channel, uhf or vhf, to broadcast a black and white only signal?
"what was the last major network television show that was produced in black and white?"

The thing about the news not being completely in color could just be a factor of when they had gotten rid of all their old black and white film cameras and switched to color film....then switched to color videotape.

I know here in Pittsburgh, we had/have a PBS station on Channel 16 that started broadcasting in the early 1960's in black and white and continued to do so well up past 1985, maybe even close to 1990. Somewhere between those dates, I can't remember if their tower blew down or maybe the transmitter died but they were off the air for a while and came back in color. I remember watching "Dr. Who" in black and white, the picture quality from the station reminds me a little of the old 405 line British standard.

[Steve D.]

Of course those early black & white pictures never really stopped. And are still being transmitted, and perhaps, received. Somewhere out there............................................. ............................




-Steve

[Telecolor 3007]

In U.S.A. you had b/w televsion in the '80's?

[Sandy G]

I used to read "Twilight Zone" magazine, & there was a story about the transmissions from the '50s that kept going...and going...and going. Bunch of "Foriegn Investors" showed up & wanted some more episodes of a '50s program...-Sandy G.

Am sure we've all heard of the stories of I Love Lucy having been transmitted into deep space.....but I wonder if there's a point in which the signal disperses. Whether due to distance or some form of interference. Any care to postulate?

Anthony

[Pete Deksnis]

Humm... Waytoowise or someone can fill me in on this, but electromagnetic radiation follows the square law: if you double the distance from the transmitter, the signal strength is not one-half, but one-quarter. Therefore, when you get far enough away, do you get down to the last photon? or maybe just keep dispersing the wavefront to the edge of the universe? One thing for sure, the 6BQ7A cascode RF amp in Steve D's CT-100 would have long since lost the signal!