I’m still catching up on all the stuff I missed while I was occupied elsewhere.
So, what about that analog switch off?
Again, I missed it, but there was a nice touch with WFTV-Channel 9’s signoff. Included with the current WFTV logo was a version of the station’s first logo — the cattail 9 that was the moniker of WLOF-TV. The cat, whose tail formed the station’s channel number, was the symbol of WLOF when it signed on the air — with an analog signal — on Feb. 1, 1958. There were several versions of the cat, including a kitten for launch, a sort of tough tom cat that appears in the station logo at the top left, and the more cute, cartoon cat featured in WFTV’s signoff.
Eyewitness News anchor Bob Opshal gave a brief history of the station before the analog signal was pulled for good, and the TV screen when to “snow.”
Take a look at the video (the actual sign-off begins around the 2:20 mark of the video):