What Really Ground Young Me's Gears: Age Requirements!

Welcome to the Chronicles of Trevor, the only where people of all ages are allowed to view all my posts, even 0-year-olds! 

And now, a special version of What Really Grinds My Gears. Today I'm talking about something that young me hated, and thought was a form of ageism.

You know how contests and giveaways have "Official Rules"? These often contain age limits. Some are open to those as young as 13, but most are limited to people of age 18 and up. As a young tween-age kid, this really irked me. It was like the companies were like "Hey everyone, YOU can have the chance WIN THIS COOL PRIZE!" "Sorry, you're too frakkin' young, we need to exclude you".

What was worse for young me were the very rare contests that were open only to those aged 21 and up. I get it for campaigns from alcoholic beverage companies, but there were some giveaways where the higher age made absolutely no sense!

Take for instance, HGTV's Dream Home Sweepstakes. When 10 year old me first seen the 21+ age limit of that contest, I got so angry, that I tensed up, and kicked my bedroom wall. It caused my big toenail to break, and enough blood to fill a NyQuil dosage cup seeped out of my toe.

It was the policy of Scripps Networks (the then-owners of HGTV) that caused the bump in age limit. 

What also irks me is that when Scripps Networks was bought out by Discovery, they inherited that annoying policy. So when I was 20, I saw an ad for a Gold Rush-themed giveaway where you could win a Mason jar full of gold nuggets. When I seen "Open to legal US residents, aged 21 or over", I was so mad! My blood was BOILING AS RAPIDLY AS WHITE-HOT MAGMA! 

I could understand the age limit if it was a giveaway for a jar of moonshine from Moonshiners, but A FRAKKIN' MASON JAR FULL OF GOLD NUGGETS? WHY DO YOU NEED TO BE 21 TO GET A JAR OF GOLD NUGGETS? IT'S NOT LIKE YOU'RE THE ONE MINING FOR IT! Screw Scripps, and Down with Discovery. Also OF COURSE a moron like David Zaslav would change his company's policy after acquiring another company. Just look at how he's ruining the animation industry.

But I digress. Another thing I hated about age limits are that sometimes, they can be downright hypocritical.

Take for instance, a local radio station where I live, Mix 104.1, back in 2019, was promoting a Kesha concert and giving away tickets. It was sponsored by the station, and a few others. After the main part of the promotion, the station's announcer said "This is a 21 and over event" as if she had channeled her inner MicroMachines commercial guy. But wanna hear the worst part? One of the sponsors was EDAVILLE FAMILY THEME PARK, a local amusement park in my area that has a railroad which features THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE!!!!!

YOU READ THAT RIGHT. 

THOMAS! 

THE! 

TANK! 

ENGINE!!!!!!!! 

Why in ABC's Wide World of Sports would they of all people sponsor a non-family-friendly event? Someone call Mattel, Gullane (Thomas) Ltd., and Britt Allcroft, I sense a revocation of the Thomas & Friends license.

After that, a year later, Mix 104.1 promoted and sponsored another concert, thus one was supposed to help children with leukemia. It would've been a great thing to hear, had the Mix announcer not stated it was a 21-and-over event.

WHAT THE FRAK, MIX? YOU HAD ONE JOB YET AGAIN, AND YOU SCREWED UP JUST LIKE LAST TIME! But at least it's going to a great cause. 

Because of that, I'm no longer a Mix 104.1 listener.

I hope you enjoyed that little tangent on how age limits used to irk me when I was younger.

What Really Grinds My Gears: Logo Plastering

Welcome to The Chronicles of Trevor, the blog that's the fire in the Columbia Torch Lady's torch.

Wanna know what really grinds my gears? Logo plastering.

According to the glossary of AVID, the Audiovisual Identity Database, plastering is "when a company deletes and/or replaces an older logo with either a newer logo from the same company, or a different company's logo". This practice has made preservation of older production logos harder to do.

If you don't know about AVID, it is a wiki that catalogues over 16,000 logos, television idents, VHS/DVD bumpers, test patterns, and other forms of audiovisual identities. This site has a large community of enthusiasts dedicated to the preservation and documentation of production logos and other forms of motion graphics. This group is known on the internet as the "logo community". You should check out the site in the link above!

But I digress. This blog post will cover some examples of the biggest offenders in logo plastering. 

The most omnipresent logo in ALL of television has to be the 2002 Sony Pictures Television logo, known to many in the logo community as the "Bars of Boredom". This is because of its extremely common availability on programming, mostly due to it plastering older Columbia Pictures and TriStar Pictures related logos. Say, you were watching a modern print of a late 1980s episode of The Bold & The Beautiful. You would expect the 1988 Columbia Pictures Television logo to play, alongside its triumphant fanfare.

But the Sigil Splicers at Sony want to scrub any signs of seasoned symbols. And BEHOLD!!!!!! The Bars of Boredom are the bane of the existance of many logo enthusiasts since its debut in 2002.

This logo is like a raisin cookie disguised as a chocolate chip cookie, since logo enthusiasts have been looking for a logo for a TAT Communications Company, which is said to have been seen on the original One Day at a Time, The Jeffersons, and The Facts of Life. Below is a screencap from a 1980s aircheck of a rerun of One Day containing the logo in a partial form. The logo was unfortunately cut off by a CBS network ident, with a voiceover boasting that "This is CBS". Even though it's a partial find, it's still important, since it proves that the logo is out there and can be found.

Sony also ruined a joke with logo plastering. In the Mad About You episode "That's A Wrap", Paul, while on the phone, tells a director to show the logos, resulting in a great use of biting-the-hand-that-feeds humor.

Sadly, Sony's Sigil Swipers Struck this Show's Syndicated Stock. The Pegasus was removed, and as a result, they changed it to the über-bland joke-cracker that is:

...the "-s" being the cut off word "Wings"

With Sony's 2015 revival of TriStar Television, I'd want to see them bring back the "stupid horse with the wings" joke, since their revival just begs for that joke to make a comeback.

Other plaster kings are 20th Television, with their 2008 logo, and MGM with their 2000s logo that has the studio's website underneath the ribbon.

Say you're watching Dr. No, the first 007 film, and you see Leo the Lion proudly roaring, and the URL "www.mgm.com" underneath him. That movie is from 1967, and "www.mgm.com" wasn't registered as a web address until 1997. It is extremely confusing. And let's not forget the fact that United Artists, the distributor of 007 films, was owned by Transamerica Corporation at the time, NOT MGM.

Other than that, 20th Television is a logo I don't mind, since I've always liked 20th Century Fox logos. (except for 20th Century Studios)

That has been "What Really Grinds My Gears", and the first post of September! Thank you so much for reading!

The Downfall of Channel 25 in Boston: A Timeline

This is The Chronicles of Trevor, the blog that will always be owned and operated by Trevor Hart.

From a station owned by the folks who brought you The 700 Club, to a Fox affiliate featured in The Practice and Boston Legal, It's no surprise that WFXT in Boston has had such an interesting history. Today, I will talk about the history of Channel 25, from the rise to its fall.

In 1969, a license for channel 25 was given to a company called WREP-TV, Inc. This iteration of channel 25 never made it on air, and was dark until 1977.

October 10th of that year was when the late Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network acquired the license to broadcast on channel 25, with the call letters of WXNE, meaning Christ in New England. Christ is often abbreviated as X, which is also where Xmas comes from, but I digress. WXNE was an independent station that would air family-friendly programming, and the ultra-iconic CBN flagship series, The 700 Club. CBN would own 25 for 10 years. 

A year after Rupert Murdoch acquired the stations formerly owned by Metromedia, he approached CBN with a deal to acquire channel 25. WCVB was owned by Metromedia, but a month before Murdoch's acquisition, was spun off, with a new owner, WCVB, Inc. Murdoch wanted a station in every top 10 market, so he went to CBN to acquire WXNE. They accepted, and WXNE became the current WFXT. The calls stand for FoX Television, representing the new owners (Fox Television Stations, Inc.) and network affiliation.

WFXT would go on to become one of Fox's flagship stations, along with the stations acquired from Metromedia, but in 1990, since Rupert Murdoch acquired the Boston Herald, FTS sold WFXT to the Celtics. Yup, THE BOSTON CELTICS once owned a TV Station! The C's then started a new group called Boston Celtics Communications Limited Partnership, which consisted of WFXT and WEEI-AM, who would also broadcast non-NBC Celtics games. They even had a mascot for WFXT, a cartoon fox dressed in a Celtics jersey numbered 25. 

I'd say that this era of WFXT was one of the best eras, because of this mascot alone.

In 1994, the same year that 20th Century Fox introduced its CGI logo with the Schwarzenegger film True Lies, Fox Television Stations re-acquired WFXT, and the fox mascot was no more. But with this came a newscast called Fox News Boston, produced in-house by the station themselves (prior to this, New England Cable News (NECN) produced 25's newscasts). The theme for FNB, called "First on Fox", was commissioned by WFXT and composed by Stephen Arnold Music. This theme was a horn-driven tune with some sax accompaniment, and guitar backing chords. This theme would last until 2004, when an unknown theme was composed by an unknown artist, and used by 25, a punk rock-esque tune with the 20th Century Fox drumroll at the beginning. Back to 1997, Fox 25 introduced the numeral 25 that would be used in its logos until 2015. But I digress. In 2003, Fox 25 introduced its well-known voiceover, Russ Harris. He would be the voice of the station until 2015.

2006 was a time of standardization at Fox Television Stations. Every Fox O&O station changed their logo to the famous "Boxkite" design, and used a electric-guitar driven theme composed by New York-based music group OSI Music, led by famous theme music composers Reed Hayes and Phil Garrod. This dynamic duo also co-composed the NFL on Fox theme with Scott Schreer, and the theme to "The O'Reilley Factor" and other Fox News Channel cues. This new theme was called the rather generic "Fox Affiliate News Theme". It is one of the most memorable news themes I've ever heard.

This is the studio of OSI Music. Pretty neat, huh?

2009 saw the analog-to-digital switchover, and new HD "Boxkite" graphics. This is the most nostalgic era for me!

But in 2011, Fox started de-emphasizing the Boxkite logos and went back to the normal horizontal FOX (NUMBER) logos.

Keep in mind, they still used the Boxkite logos on promos and the PSA's aired on E/I weekend programs.

Sadly in 2014, Fox traded WFXT and Memphis sister station WHBQ to Cox Media Group, for the San Francisco duopoly of KTVU and KICU. In my opinion, that was the downfall of WFXT, and the end of an era in Boston media. The changes were unnoticeable until 2015, when WFXT changed its logo to one that looks like a market 200 station. The FOX logo was replaced by the name FOX in a bland Helvetica Italic font. 3 years later, CMG pulled a Disney before it was cool, by changing the FOX25 brand to Boston 25. So far, the Boston 25 branding has been disastrous for the station. Keep in mind this was 2 years before Disney made the unconventional decision to deface 20th Century Fox and turn it into 20th Century Studios. Way to go, Cox Media Group, for ruining my childhood by defacing the station I have watched my whole life.

Here's the logo history of the station.

P.S. Fox also blundered with KTVU. They added the FOX logo next to the iconic 2 logo, when the 2 used to stand alone. They never called themselves "FOX 2" under CMG ownership. Fox even made the confusing decision to brand KICU "KTVU Plus". It is confusing because they're using the KTVU calls on a station with the call letters KICU. Also, two TV stations can't have the same call letters. So I would've called it "TV36" or something along those lines.

Shopping Segments in Newscasts: An Editorial

    

    Journalists have one of the toughest jobs out there. Reporters have to deal with random guys that shout swears in the mic, and Video-bombers. But one thing that's ruining Journalism more than those attention-hungry morons are "Steals & Deals" segments interrupting newscasts. 4 years ago, my local Fox affiliate, WFXT 25, started airing segments called "Local Steals & Deals" which consists of a bored-sounding host who over-exaggerates things about a product, raving about it, etc. These products are NOT local, the only steal is them stealing 5 precious minutes they could've used for news, and you can get the same products at Walmart for cheaper! (which makes sense, considering Cox Media Group, 25's owner, is owned by Apollo Global Management, who also owns Walmart.) It's like your newscast is being interrupted by QVC or HSN. 

    3 years later, the CBS-owned station in my area, WBZ, started airing a similar program for stations owned by CBS, called "CBS Deals". It's exactly the same as "L. S. & D.", with the same 4-note marimba chime playing before the product-hawking begins. and a similarly bored-sounding host. That is because both segments are produced by a New York-based company called Knocking. Local Steals & Deals used to be hosted by Lisa Robertson, former QVC host. In her first few segments, she sounded cheerful, but when 2020 came along, she sounded more bored, and kinda meh. 

    Also, the fact that the owned-and-operated stations of a major network like CBS need to have one of those deals segments is WAY beyond me. They're CBS, they don't need to cheapen their newscasts, they have a buttload of cash! They're owned by Paramount Global, for Pete's sake! The same Paramount that owns Nickelodeon, and therefore, SpongeBob! They could use that SpongeCash wisely, and not use a steals and deals segment and be greedy like Mr. Krabs. But then again, it's Paramount Global we're talking about, who used to be known as Viacom, one of the GREEDIEST companies on Earth.

    Also also, these steals and deals segments are redundant, since a lot of the syndicated talk shows that WBZ and WFXT air already have a steals and deals segment included as part of the time.

    My tip for WBZ and WFXT, Get rid of the steals and deals segments. Also to Cox Media Group, Trade WFXT back to Fox for KTBC in Austin, since the Standard General/Tegna deal died.

That was my editorial for tonight. The views and opinions expressed therein were my opinions only, and may not necessarily reflect the views of my readers, and that's alright. I respect your views and opinions.

Thanks for reading :)

Italian Anime Dub Theme Songs: Headbangers from Europe's Big Boot!

     TV show theme songs are like a bag of Halloween candy. There are the delicious candies, like the SpongeBob Theme Song, and there is that box of raisins that one crazy lady gives out, such as the theme from Fanboy and Chum Chum. Theme music for Italian dubs of anime are almost always like a bag full of your favorite candy. Why? They are just so darn catchy, with techno elements and a great beat. This blog post describes how these themes were made. Most of the information comes from PatMac's video about International Theme Songs. Check it out on YouTube here!

    The reason why Italian anime themes are so catchy, is due to 2 prominent figures in Italian Music, and a company founded by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

    The first figure is a man named Giorgio Vanni. His first stunt on Italian TV the Italian-language version of the jingle used in 1990's "Always Coca-Cola" commercials. Later in 1998, He was approached by Alessandra Valeri Manera, the head of Boys' programming at Mediaset, one of the largest media corporations in the country, owning 3 networks at the time, Canale 5, Italia 1, and Retequattro. Most of the animated programming at that time was on Italia 1, since that network was geared toward older children and young adult audiences. Vanni's first song at Mediaset was the theme to the 1970's Superman dub that aired on Italia 1 at the time. He later wrote and sang the themes for the dubs of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon, Dragon Ball Z, Sonic X, and many others.

 

The logo of Italia 1.

The second prominent figure is a musician, actress, and voice actress named Cristina D'Avena, whose 1st theme song made for Mediaset was for a dub of the anime "The Adventures of Pinocchio" that aired on Canale 5. She later on sang the themes for the dubs of "The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog" alongside the voice of Sonic and a children's choir in Milan, where Mediaset is based. 

If you want to listen to the songs mentioned above, look 'em up on YouTube! You might even find a new favorite TV theme song!

Stay tuned to my blog for more reviews, interesting editorials, and fun facts.Thanks for reading! :)

My takes on the Banana Splits Movie (2019)

So on June 5th, I started my summer bowling league. I named my team, with unanimous support, "The Banana Splits", since split is a bowling term, and as a reference to the 1960s series.

Tonight, I'm going to share my takes on the 2019 horror movie.

But first, a little history lesson. The 1968 "Banana Splits Adventure Hour" series was a variety program produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in association with Sid & Marty Krofft. It originally aired on NBC from 1968 to 1970, and re-ran in syndication from late 1970 to the late 90s as "The Banana Splits Show". The series revolved around a Monkees-esque bubblegum rock band consisting of Fleagle the Beagle, Bingo the Orangutan, Drooper the Lion, and Snorky the Elephant, who would present various Hanna-Barbera cartoons to viewers, and would contain interstitial segments featuring the band "making up a mess of fun".

But in 2019, Warner Bros., and SyFy made up a mess of garbage with "The Banana Splits Movie", an R-rated slasher film that has absolutely NOTHING to do with the G-rated fare from the 60s, except for the fact that the Splits are in it. 

The movie was produced by a WB subsidiary called "Blue Ribbon Content". *scoffs* That name is ironic, considering what follows afterwards.

Legend says that this movie was originally a script for a Five Nights at Freddy's film (say that 10 times fast), but the series creator Scott Cawthon disapproved of it, so they went with the Banana Splits. This is what I think happened at WB at that moment.

Joe: How's that FNAF movie going, John

John: I just got a message from Scott, he said that he isn't satisfied with the scripts we've produced, and is going to Blumhouse.

Joe: What should we do here? We have a bunch of scripts here, and no characters! Hey George, Patrick, what characters do we have in our library that we can use?

George: Uh, couldn't we just make up new characters?

Joe: We don't have the budget for that

Pat: WhAt iF wE UsE tHe BaNAnA SpLItS?

Joe: Patrick, you're a GENIUS!

(Yup, I put in a SpongeBob reference!)

    The story takes place in the 2010s, involves a man named Mitch, his wife, and his son, who is a fan of the Banana Splits. It is the son's birthday, and he got tickets to a taping of the Banana Splits show, which was... apparently not cancelled.

    Some other people are revealed, like a group of young influencers and another kid who isn't a fan of the show, but is coming with Mitch's family.

The network hired a new executive, and he wanted the show cancelled because it's just boring now. The Splits, who are now animatronics for some reason, hear about said cancellation and go on a killing spree.

    There are some inconsistencies with this movie and the 1968 series. In the movie version of the show, there are messy Nickelodeon-game-show-like minigames and the main focus is the Banana Splits themselves. In the 1968 series, the interstitial Banana Splits sections are just 3 minute long wacky sequences filmed at Six Flags Over Texas, with uber-catchy music. These segments punctuate the cartoons being showcased.

    You know what really grinds my gears about this movie? The fact that a movie with the title of "The Banana Splits Movie" could be rated R and have blood, gore, horror violence, and mild language.

Way to ruin childhoods, WB, SyFy, and """"Blue Ribbon Content""""

If you want to watch an ACTUAL Banana Splits movie, Watch the made-for-ABC special "The Banana Splits in Hocus Pocus Park". That one is so much better. I give this movie a ♪ Tra-La-La, La-La-La-Nah ♪.

Edited August 31, 2023 11:52 pm.

TV Sign-Offs : A Lost Piece of Broadcast Memorabilia

Imagine that you're laying in bed one night. You've just finished watching the Late Show, and the credits start to roll. You see a station logo and an out-of-view announcer blabbering about technical stuff that an everyday TV viewer wouldn't really understand, followed by a faded film of a waving flag with the national anthem playing, concluding with a slew of images that look like an alien broadcast, and pixelated snowfall. The TV station you were watching just signed off for the night! 

    

    If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll tell you about it in this blog post! So sit back, relax, and enjoy my deep delve into TV Sign-Offs.

    TV sign-offs vary from country to country. I'll talk about various types of international sign-offs, from the US, to Japan, to the UK, to the Phillipines, They'll all be there! Sorta.

    Starting with my country, the United States. Here in the US, TV stations don't sign off like they used to before. But when they did, they had a set list of what to do at sign-off. 

US Stations would usually sign off with the following...

• A Station Identification slide featuring the station's logo, and city where they are licensed to operate out of, and sometimes, some scenery of the viewing area.
• An Announcer listing information, such as the audio and visual output and transmitting power, the station's owner, copyright disclaimers, and/or a message stating that businesses can't charge people to watch said station on their TVs.
• The Star Spangled Banner (Some stations play America The Beautiful, God Bless America, God Bless the USA, etc.)
• Test Patterns, like the iconic color bars.

Nowadays, with the advent of infomercials, TV stations have stopped doing nightly sign-offs, but CBS-owned stations play the national anthem every morning at 4PM Eastern Time.

In the UK, The BBC used to have nightly sign-offs (known as closedowns) on its flagship channel BBC One, but in 1997, a few months after Martin Lambie-Nairn (RIP, BTW) redesigned the BBC Blocks logo, They started airing overnight news from the BBC World Service. BBC Two still signs off for the night.

This is how BBC signed off their channels at that time.

• A voice-over called a Continuity Announcer would give details on the next day's scheduled programming. The programming and times would also be shown on screen.
• A View of a clock ident (a station identification featuring a clock, shown live), followed by the continuity announcer saying good night.
• (BBC One only) A playing of the British national anthem "God Save the Queen" (at that time) (RIP), with the Globe spinning.

And now the UK's Ad-Supported channels of the ITV Network. Their closedowns are similar to BBC Two's, in the fact that not all stations would play GSTQ. But most ITV stations would end their broadcasts with a black screen, and a delayed-by-a-few-seconds reminder to turn off your TV set. The reasoning for this is because older TV sets were prone to igniting on fire if used for prolonged amounts of time. In my opinion, having 10 to 15 seconds of black screen and silence, just for the announcer to come and give that reminder can scare the heebie-jeebies off of people who don't expect it.

Japanese TV sign-offs, known as Closings, are pretty similar to US sign-offs in style. The greatest sign-offs from Japan are the ones from NHK. That channel's sign-offs are some of the most US-esque sign-offs in that country, with scenes from the islands, an announcer listing off technical details, and playing the national anthem, "Kimigayo", which, fun fact, is the shortest national anthem, with 11 bars and 32 hiragana characters!

Filipino TV sign-offs are also extremely well known to sign-off enthusiasts. They are similar to US sign-offs in the way that they provide technical information, but they provide a lot more information, such as the technical staff of a station, its broadcast license number, and the date of the license's expiration date. Unfortunately, The most well known network in the country, and outside of it, ABS-CBN, was shut down by the National Telecommunications Council (The equivalent of the FCC in the US) for an extremely unfair reason, relating to broadcasting license renewal. But their programming airs on other channels in the country due to them finding some loopholes in the NTC guidelines.

If I find some more examples of TV sign-offs from other countries, I'll make a Part II!

TV Station Logos: An Under-Appreciated Art

In this blog post, I'll be reviewing the logos of some TV stations in my local area. If you know me, I'm a media buff and a fan of logos, so I hope you enjoy my takes on the identities of these stations.

WGBH-TV (PBS)

What happened to the W?!

This is the current logo for the PBS member station WGBH Channel 2. In 2020, they changed to this W-less logo from their iconic 1974 logo, because of their focus on digital distribution. GBH employees thought that the W in the logo signified that they were "just a TV station". I think that they should revamp the 2020 logo by adding a W to it, for on-air purposes.

Rating: 6/10

There it is!