Beep at top of the hour on WBZ disappeared

[Doug Drown]

CBC Radio One has been broadcasting a national time check every day at 1:00
PM ET for the past 78 years.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/the-beginning-of-the-long-dash-indicates-75-years-of-official-time-on-cbc-1.2823599

Also, WTIC, despite the recent ownership change, is still maintaining its
long tradition of playing a stylized, tonal version of the first four notes
of Beethoven's Fifth at the top of the hour.

As for the "transfer" of the WTIC-TV call letters to Hartford's Channel 61,
that's a long story spelled out in detail on Wikipedia.  WTIC AM-FM
and the *original
*WTIC-TV (now WFSB) parted ways in 1973 when Travelers Insurance sold the
stations to separate owners.

-Doug

On Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 10:56 PM, A Joseph Ross <joe@attorneyross.com>
wrote:

> I remember hearing delays in the days before digital systems.  Back in the
> days when I used to listen to the BBC World Service on shortwave, I
> sometimes tuned from one BBC frequency to another and found a delay from
> one to the other.  I assumed that it had something to do with some signals
> coming directly from the vicinity of London and some came from relays at
> some other location, maybe Sackville, NB or some British-ruled island in
> the Caribbean.
>
>
>
> On 9/26/2018 1:08 AM, Garrett Wollman wrote:
>
>> <<On Tue, 25 Sep 2018 23:38:38 -0400, A Joseph Ross <joe@attorneyross.com>
>> said:
>>
>> I think this may have been the last station to have that beep on the
>>> hour.
>>>
>> It's difficult to do with all of the digital delays in broadcasting
>> systems these days, particularly when you consider how many listeners
>> are coming in via streaming or HD simulcasts.  Even 15 years ago,
>> actually getting these time signals into the air chain on the dot was
>> a huge hassle to the stations that still used them, for little
>> discernable benefit.
>>
>> If you're a young person and you even have a watch, it's probably an
>> Apple Watch or a Fitbit and gets its time automatically from your
>> phone.  Most young people I know don't wear watches.  Your phone gets
>> its time from the cellular network and should keep better time than
>> any watch.
>>
>> -GAWollman
>>
>>
>>
> --
> A. Joseph Ross, J.D. · 1340 Centre Street, Suite 103 · Newton, MA 02459
> 617.367.0468 · Fax:617.507.7856 · http://www.attorneyross.com
>