Chip

Is PIX airing your fifth hour this year or are they airing the original footage from Gracie Mansion during the first hour then ending with your fourth hour on the Classic Yule Log?

I want the program to air exactly like it did for the 50th Anniversary in 2016 (as shown below). That's what I am currently working on.

The problem is my engineer who produced this presentation, Steve Hutnikoff, is on vacation; so I have to try and get it worked out with other staff.

Chip,

If I remember correctly, last year they did the same thing using the 1966 footage for 1 hour.  Then they did the 1970 footage, but started with the first hour of music and did the 3 consecutive hours after that.  So they left out your 5th hour.

It won't matter too much to me being I can't watch in this year being I don't have Dish Network anymore and Comcast/Xfinity doesn't give us WPIX.  Not sure if I will watch it via the WPIX ROKU app or on their Facebook feed or what being I can't DVR it to watch it again and again.

This will be the first broadcast I will have missed in all the years they aired on TV

Though I do have the previous broadcasts from 2001 - 2018, it would be nice to have this years broadcast too.  Yes, technically it is the same program, but to actually watch it each year means so much more to me, as I am sure it does to you and many other members who grew up with The WPIX Yule Log.

No, that's not correct, Susan. This is the first time since 2016 that WPIX is airing 5 straight hours of the Yule Log back-to-back. In 2017 and 2018 the original '66 footage (with the 1st hour of the soundtrack) was shown on Christmas Eve night (in 2017) and then on Christmas Day night (in 2018).

By airing five consecutive hours straight, WPIX had the opportunity this year to air the entire soundtrack; but instead were planning to air the '66 footage (with the 1st hour of the soundtrack), followed by 4 hours of the '70 classic footage with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd hours of the original soundtrack, followed by and ending with my new 4th hour that I created in 2009.

However, after I advised them that as a result of this they would then be repeating the 1st hour of music back-to-back, they then decided to shuffle the reels so that the hours play out of sync.

I pushed back hard on this by advising them that the Yule Log soundtrack is like a record album to the ardent, longtime fans of the program. The telecast has certain pace and feel to it, by design. Tampering with that is sacrilegious. The fans are used to listening to the songs in their original order, and the 3rd hour of the original 3-hour program has a finale song to it, Percy Faith's "Joy To The World," as does my 4th hour and 5th hours, with Percy Faith's "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" and "Hallelujah Chorus," respectively.

I went on to advise them that the 4th and 5th hours that I created for the Yule Log soundtrack were not for me, but for the fans, and that WPIX had the opportunity this year to air the complete soundtrack for the fans like they did in 2016. I further told them that I just don't understand that decision, and that I wouldn't expect the fans to either.

Unfortunately WPIX was sold by Tribune Broadcasting to E.W. Scrippts Company earlier this year, and there have been many changes to the station. I lost some of my best contacts who were champions of the program. And this is the result.

Thank God for my friend Sean Compton at Nextstar Media Group; he airs the complete Yule Log presentation nationally across the country on his Antenna-TV network: all‍ five hours and in their correct order.

Just heard from Jessica Bellucci at WPIX-TV, one of my champions of the Yule Log at the station, and she assured me that the engineering department won't shuffle the reels, and that the program's music will play in the original, proper sequence.  She also said that next year if they air the Yule Log five hours in a row again, the full soundtrack can air like it did in 2016.

Chip,

I was incorrect.  What I meant to say was, I have the first hour that I dvr'd and it is the 1966 footage which was broadcast on Christmas Eve.  Then on Christmas day, they broadcast 4 horus, but it did start with the first hour Joy To The World (Percy Faith)  and ended with Gesu Bambino (Percy Faith).  which also started the second hour.  The second hour ended with Bring A Torch, Jeanette Isabella (Percy Faith)   Hour 3 started with The Christmas Tree (David Rose) and ended with Joy To the World (Percy Faith).  Hour 4 started with Adeste Fideles (Mantovani) and ended with  Jingo Jango (Bert Kaempfert)

From what I can tell with my DVR recordings, hour 5 was not aired in 2018 on WPIX I may have commented on this last year in another post.

Then in 2016 I have WPIX broadcast that started with the 1966 footage and hour 2 started with the 1970 hour footage Gesu Bambino (Percy Faith) and ended with the 5th hour  Hallelujah Chorus (Percy Faith).

Now in 2017 I have the full 5 hour broadcast that was on Antenna TV in one recording I believe there was a glitch and I don't have the WPIX broadcast.

In any case, I am happy that WPIX will broadcast the entire 5 hour soundtrack in sequence.  Sadly, I will not be able to watch it on TV.

 Chip

Great news . I lost the fifth hour in 2016. I was replaying it when all the family arrived and before I knew it someone had switched to a football game and wiped out the entire recording. I'm sure this was not easy to get this done. Many thanks.

Susan:

My new 5th Hour did not air on WPIX in 2017 or 2018; but hopefully it will again in 2020. As for this year, they will air the 4-hour program that includes my new 4th Hour that I created in 2009. They're airing 5 hours this year; but as I said in my earlier post, the first hour will be repeated in the second hour when they transition from the 1966 footage to the 1970 footage. Again, I'm going to make sure this does not happen next year.

Bill:

For you or anyone who wants to see the complete 5-hour program that includes my new 4th Hour and 5th Hour, it is broadcast every year nationally on Antenna TV.

Chip,

That is good news....  I remember one year, not sure if it was for the fourth hour that you added, but I was watching it when it aired and I remember you talking about it too that there was an audio glitch.  You were doing something and when you heard that glitch you rushed back to the tV and bumped your head.

I have a different questions though.  When WPIX aired "A Log's Life" they were talking about how they have many backups of the program in case of a machine failure or some other technical issue, to make sure the broadcast goes off without a hitch.

If there was a machine failure, how would they be able to do that so there wasn't any interruption?  I know today that with live TV/Radio call in programs and so on that they run on a delay, so in the event a person was to swear or say something inappropriate they could stop it before it might have made it on the air.  Does WPIX run several tapes simultaneously?  So,if there was a glitch they would just press a switch or something so it would go to the next machine and therefore when it went to air, we wouldn't notice anything?

The broadcasting of television shows in the new digitized world is all done so very differently today, Susan. What I can tell you is that the reels are now converted digitally to a different medium and then sent over to a server. The technical aspects of all this are beyond my knowledge and understanding, which is why I leave all technical matters to engineering. The only time I ever get involved is if there is a glitch in the broadcast; and then I work with them to get it resolved. But they do all the actual technical work, as I am not an engineer.

I monitor the program as it's airing live; and that incident that you had referred to was when I stepped out of the room for a minute and then heard a sound glitch in the broadcast. I ran so fast back to the other room that I bumped my head on the door jamb. Oy vey...

Things have really changed in the broadcast industry today.  Even at the movie theaters.  Rarely do you see them showing movies on film anymore because they are digitized.  This way they don't have to worry about splicing reels together and you don't have to worry about the film breaking.  But I am sure the production companies and distributors charge just as much to send the movies to the theaters and drive-ins, possibly even more.

I remember back in the 1990's when I worked as a cleaner for several movie theaters.  There was a 9-screen a 5 screen, and a couple of 3 screens that I would clean each night, and sometimes I would be there when the films were being delivered.  Some films had 6-8 reels each that had to be spliced together and then loaded onto a turntable/platter and when they were done with the movie, they had to cut it where they did the splice and put it back on each of the reels.  It was interesting to watch, but now, I believe they just download it online from the distributor.

When I was younger, I would look up at the holes/windows that the film was projected through, and even without the punch holes in the film that some people would notice on screen that would indicate to the projectionist that they needed to start the next reel (they also had a bell that would go off in the projection booth).   I would look up and see the movie coming out of a different window.  Often the way the films were made you might see the scene and as the camera is scrolling across the scene there might be wall for something as if the camera was going through the wall and for a couple seconds you would see a black space as it scrolls into the next room and that was how the next reel was started so there wasn't any noticeable gap in the movie.  My guess is that the first reel ending frames was duplicated on the next reel so that maybe both were projected at the same time.  It happens so quickly that we wouldn't necessarily notice.

I had a personal experience where there is a time-delay with a radio station and I sort of knew that when they had contests and people would call in.  Some get so excited that they might curse inadvertently and it it was not time-delayed that would have gone over the air.  I called into a radio station last year before Thanksgiving and was one of  the 2 correct callers.  While they had me on hold,  I could hear the station music on hold, but I was also listening to the radio on air, and I was surprised about the length of the delay.  Let's say that I called right at the beginning of a song as I heard it on the radio, but what I heard while I was on hold was the song that hadn't even aired yet. so that is how much of a delay they had.  Also while on hold so they could come back on and get my name, address etc., it was a good minute after I hung up that I heard my voice on the radio and it was after the song I heard on hold was playing.

I apologize for getting off topic, but that is how things go sometimes.  One thing might lead to something else.

No problem to digress once in a while, Susan.

Oy vey is right.  Thankfully, by your update, it seems you talked some sense into people.  Didn't get what we wanted as far as playing ALL five hours, but at least they're not going to muck around with the music that's there.  

It does however make me think that my fears over the Scripps transition may be partially realized, unfortunately.  When Tribune sold WPIX, I worried that the new owners wouldn't adhere to honoring the classic elements of the station.  As we know, PIX is the one New York station that still did so.  The others, WNYW and WWOR, have completely forgotten what they used to be, on the other hand.  

My worries were quelled a bit when PIX kept Thanksgiving day programming as it was pretty much.  But this near-mishap with the Log, as well as the elimination of the Magic Garden Christmas, makes me think there's lots of work to be done.

Quote:

For you or anyone who wants to see the complete 5-hour program that includes my new 4th Hour and 5th Hour, it is broadcast every year nationally on Antenna TV.

Being in Texas, that's the only way I get to watch it! Glad it is the correct way, Chip.

James:

The holiday programming for WPIX was already in place before the sale of the station was finalized earlier this year; so unfortunately, there is really no way of telling yet what might or might not happen next year and beyond. However, in addition to the unknown about future programming, there is also the unknown of who ultimately will own the station. Because under the terms of the sale, E.W. Scrippts gave Nexstar Media Group (which is the new owner of WGN America and Antenna TV) the option to buy back the station between March 31, 2020 and December 31. 2021. So things are currently in flux. The good news, though, is that the current GM of WPIX, Bart Feder, is a fan of the Yule Log. So I am confident that as long as he remains in that position, the Yule Log's future is assured.

Rodney:

Enjoy the program!