Interval signal

The break mark ( interval signal) is an acoustic signal between two radio or television broadcasts on radio and television, which is intended to bridge the break and also the transmitter recognition serves.

General

Between the end of the program and the beginning of the next was previously sent no bridging advertising block in the system of public service broadcasters in Germany, but a repetitive break character. It served both as a bridge between two broadcasts during a pause in transmission, on the other hand also as the transmitter identification ( " station identification" ). For technical reasons - - prolonged phases of switching over between two channels bridged with pause character addition, the were. In addition, it is used as a unique identification for each transmitter.

History

Pause characters are as old as the radio. In the U.S., pause character were mostly not used in private broadcasting, because you started commercials and jingles for transmitter identification. In contrast, the commercial-free public broadcasting used most self-produced break character. The transmitter Mirag (Leipzig) sent since 1924, the ticking sound of an alarm clock, the transmitter Germany led in 1933 a new break character that was created by a break signalman. In a Radio Technical Report 1934 single characteristic break characters are listed with notes. One of the most famous break character is the tone sequence BBBF the BBC, with the Morse code · · · - matches for " V" ( = Victory ) and is similar to the starting notes of Beethoven's Symphony of Fate. Both have been used for propaganda during World War II. Because of the high density station on medium wave and short wave in particular the indigenous to this radio station frequencies have to pause character allows their identification by the radio listeners and given him the opportunity to set the radio frequency correctly. Also break characters broadcast by state radio stations that propaganda program sent (about Radio Moscow with the Voice of Russia for the first time on October 29, 1929, Radio Habana Cuba from May 1, 1961). In the early 1950s played the three East German radio station broadcasting a passage from the workers' song When we're marching ' side by side '.

In Germany, the public- service broadcasters have ignored for a long time that the world's pause character were withdrawn in favor of jingles. Certainly was, at that time the classic break character no meaning in the context of an acoustic brand management. Only with the advent of private broadcasting in January 1984, the jingles began immediately, and the pause character were gradually abolished in public broadcasting. They were also broadcast on German television; world's so-called already used in television source identifiers were also used in Germany much later.

Instrumentation and content

The self-produced pause character based mostly on existing compositions, which were reproduced shortened. The WDR used a motif from Beethoven's "In all good hour " ( Opus 122), which has been played since the splitting of the NDR and WDR in NWDR on 1 January 1956 for the first time. Bayerischer Rundfunk played a passage from the folk song " As long as the old Peter" - actually composed by Carl Lorens Vienna. The Sender Freies Berlin sent the musical translation of his name broadcasting - the melody It - FB (pronounced SFB). Pause characters were played by one or more instruments or creates a so-called break signalman. With advent of the tape recorder you used a tape loop. After the introduction of digital tuning systems, the use of pause character went back, but was not completely abandoned. Since the break characters are almost completely disappeared from the radio and TV everyday worldwide, collectors strive for the completion of entire databases with pause characters. Today break characters will be replaced as an identification aid in broadcasting through jingles and television by the so-called source code.