WCBS TV-2 NY Station Sign-Off 1977

There is nothing insomniacs want to hear more at 4 AM than "The Star Spangled Banner"...

Here's to the good old days before 24 hour broadcasting...

R.I.P., VHF/UHF...

WNEW-5 10 O'CLOCK NEWS OPENER FROM 1977

This is a real find! The classic opening of The 10 O' Clock News for WNEW-TV Channel 5 (currently WNYW Fox 5) serving the five boroughs of New York, New Jersey, and Southern Connecticut. Check out the funky, Lalo Schifrin-esque theme music that goes perefectly with the jump scenes of old school NYC back in the gloriously gritty 1970s.



Here's a bonus YouTube of two Channel 5 News Promos from 1981 as well:

WONDERAMA ON CHANNEL 5

We continue our tribute to the old school Channel 5 with a clip from Wonderama, the legendary children's show with Bob McAllister that aired in the 1970s back when 5 was called WNEW. Enjoy!

WNYW 'V' COMMERCIAL BREAK

Here is a commercial break from back when WNYW was still WNYW, before the devil Rupert Murdoch came in and took it over with his Fox Corporation. This is a break that aired back when Channel 5 was running the 'V' miniseries.

ANIMALYMPICS

Anyone who grew up with HBO back in the early 80s will remember this great animated feature Home Box played ad nauseum back in the day. Fun factoid about Animalympics: one of the animators who worked on it was Brad Bird, who went on to Disney/Pixar immortality by directing two of the Mouse House's latest cartoon classics: The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Enjoy!

WPIX Part II

More old school revelry from the old WPIX..

These are some blocks from the year 1979, including commercial breaks from the Bea Arthur Special and The Magic Garden.

Physical Graffiti Building on St. Mark's Place

St. Mark's Place has been given the gaudiest makeover this side of the new Pitchfork Media site, as the last ten years has seen the shuddering of such staples of the famous East Village street as Joe's CDs, Coney Island High and, most recently, Kim's Video, the three-floor monolith of music and film appreciation that has since been whittled down to a skimpy new location and an even skimpier CD collection and, apparently, no more vinyl. It's truly sad to see such an authority of music shopping in the New York City area, somewhere I have been to countless times over the last 15 years, get hobbled in such a drastic way.

This TV demo for a music-related travel show called Rock Junket, featuring a two-minute segment about the Physical Graffiti building on St. Marks, one of the last bastions of the original street, was filmed in 2007, when Kim's still stood in its original location neighboring Trash and Vaudeville. It's too bad this isn't made into a real show on the Travel Channel or something. I would watch it. -Ed.

Old Record World/TSS Commercials from the New Wave Era

Record World was a mall-chain record store popular in the New York/New Jersey area in the 70s and 80s. They had an amazing selection of everything from the hits of the day to obscure imports you couldn't get anywhere else. My uncle was a manager at the one in the old Mid Island Plaza (now the Broadway Mall) in Hicksville during the shop's heyday in the era of New Wave, just when mall culture was hitting its stride and Record World was the place where the cool, hip music kids hung out.

Record World, at least in the Tri-State area, continues to exist in some capacity, as FYE, neck and neck with J&R Music World as the last man standing in the commercial record store food chain in 2009. Record World was changed into The Wall sometime in the early 90s, which was then transformed into FYE within the last ten years. Some say it's only a matter of time before they become a victim of the recession, but as someone who visits their local FYE subsidiaries, Coconuts and CD World, in Totowa on a regular basis, those places are still hopping and their used CD selection rivals that of Vintage Vinyl, quite arguably.

In any case, enjoy these old commercials we dug up from FYE's glory days as Record World/TSS, which I personally feel grateful to have experienced firsthand as a young youth. The Yes one is great, gotta love the tomato squeeze at the beginning, there.
-Ed.