WPIX "Yule Log" Ads from TV Guide, 1967-1983.

I have all these TV Guide ads for WPIX channel 11's classic Yule Log (from the New York Metropolitan edition, duh) in an album on Facebook, but I like having them all here in one DPiMR post. I thought sure I'd done it already, but nope.

I don't recall ever really watching the Yule Log, but we'd have the soundtrack's stereo simulcast (on WPIX-FM 101.9, of course) playing as we opened our presents on the night of Christmas Eve, German-style. The TV was down in the den, so I think I only checked in every so often, just to see the novelty of the commercial-free fireplace, then quickly back upstairs to the revelry. I always found the simulcast preferable to other radio stations on that night--even as a kid, I disliked hearing modern Christmas music. I wanted the old, before-I-was-born stuff!

I have my own YL video, recorded off a Portland, Ore. independent station in 2001. I was living alone in a downtown studio bachelor pad a little bigger than a prison cell, where random folks occasionally popped in using their own key (which was upsetting, but at least they seemed as puzzled as me). After I saw the TV schedule listing for it, I set my VCR to record and my expectations to "low."

I left Long Island in December of 1990, and as it happened, the last airing of the YL was the previous year's (and then it was revived after a twelve-year hiatus, intended as a post-9/11 balm). I doubt I even bothered with so much as a cursory viewing for the last few years I lived there. But when I checked that tape and saw that it was indeed the Yule Log of my childhood... well, that was a nice Christmas morning.

(Don't forget to click on the pics to see them better)

2023 UPDATE: Most recent acquisitions, 1967 and 1969, have been added!

1967, ad and listing. My nostalgia collecting generally begins with 1974, but I sought out earlier TVG issues just to get these ads. When this one arrived in the mail and I opened it to find this terrific full-pager, I was pretty stoked.

1969 (hey, I was born then!), ad and listing.

Here's 1970, with listings and without.

I don't have 1971, so on we go to 1972. The Wikipedia page for the YL says the longest running time was four hours. This ad (and the Newsday listing, coming up after the TVG's) contradicts that.

1973.

There's no ad in the TV Guide for Christmas Eve 1974, so here instead is the program close-up, with listing, from the Newsday TV Book. (At mentioned, more listings in a bit from these local Long Island guides.)
"Continuous until sign-off." I'm not sure why that phrase is so cool, but it is.

The next few years are similar, but different. Running times vary, and the original "11Alive" logo gets added. Here's 1975.

1976.

1977.

1978.

 1979, quite unlike the others (plus separate listings).

1980.

1981.

1982, with the new, angular "11Alive" logo, down to two hours.

1983. I swear every theme in my collection gets worse as it progresses from 70's to 80's, and Yule Log ads are no exception. Progress... humbug!

As teased, here's the Newsday TV Book YL listing for 1972.

The description gets a bit wordier in 1973.

I showed '74 already, so on to the next one I have, 1977.
Sorry about the X's indicating Christmas shows. I got a little over-zealous.

By 1980, the description was thinning out a bit, as cable listings increasingly crowded their way in.

1981, a little leaner still...

1983. Really, Newsday?

1984. Better, I guess.

And the very last issue of my whole collection is for Christmas 1985. There are so many listings for cable programs at this point that three columns only cover an hour-and-a-half. A dozen years earlier, you could have fit a third of your viewing day in the same space.

If I find anything else YL related, you can bet I'll put it here! (Oh right, like this short 1984 promo on my YouTube channel, for instance!) Be sure to share this, old-school New Yorkers dig it! Right?