Test pattern?

[W.B.]

Originally Posted by W.B.

As I'd noted in earlier posts, the color circular test pattern design (first unveiled in 1965) originally had two variations, coded by region as per the order of a diagonal black/white wedge at the bottom of the outer lower right quadrant. TP's with this layout:



were for stations east of the Mississippi with 'W' calls; five stations were confirmed to use it - KYW Channel 3 and WIBF (later WTAF and now WTXF) Channel 29 in Philadelphia, PA; WCMC (now WMGM) Channel 40 in Wildwood, NJ; WFLD Channel 32 in Chicago, IL; and WNDT (now WNET) Channel 13 in Newark, NJ / New York City (the last actually confirmed to be color). And as laid out here:



was for west of the Mississippi with 'K' calls. Only one station, to date, has been confirmed to use it, and then with a B&W print: KAET (Channel 8) in Phoenix, AZ.

My question is, how many "old-timers" on this forum remember either layout, and who else would've used either prior to the wedges at bottom right being eliminated? Certainly those stations weren't the only ones . . . ?

Turns out that the second one in order on this post was the earliest known variant. One other TV station is confirmed to have used it: KYW-TV itself, during its last full year (1964) in Cleveland while Westinghouse Broadcasting (Group W) owned the station.


And the other zigzag wedge dated at the earliest to 1965:

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by W.B.

Turns out that the second one in order on this post was the earliest known variant. One other TV station is confirmed to have used it: KYW-TV itself, during its last full year (1964) in Cleveland while Westinghouse Broadcasting (Group W) owned the station.


And the other zigzag wedge dated at the earliest to 1965:

Cleveland's NBC affiliate, WKYC-TV on channel 3, used a test pattern similar to this one when the station was an NBC O&O in the '60s-early '70s, showing the NBC "snake" logo in the lower right corner; the station may have kept the same test pattern, with few if any modifications, until it went to 24-hour operations. The call sign and channel number were in the top left corner of the test pattern; however, to the best of my knowledge, the black and white wedge was never used, even after the station was sold from NBC to a local company in the mid-'70s.

[W.B.]

The first of those early TP's (with the zig-zag black/white wedge at bottom right) was also used (albeit represented in B&W) by WBOC-TV in Salisbury, MD.

By the mid-1970's, WKYC switched to electronic color bars, and NBC didn't unload it until the mid-'80's.