Way back in the olden times of the 1980s, long before 24-hour programming and infomercials dominated the wee hours of the night, television stations used to air something called a "sign off" at the end of the broadcast day.

They all usually ended the same way: with a patriotic montage featuring a stirring rendition of The Star Spangled Banner before the station switched to static for the rest of the night. In fact, it was such a common event that the movie Poltergeist was entirely based around it.

Remember the little girl waking up at night and putting her hands on a static TV screen? Yeah. That's how she knew, "They're heeeeere."

MGM / Amblin Entertainment
MGM / Amblin Entertainment
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Check out this KPLC sign off from 1985 that we stumbled across on YouTube. It's pretty fantastic.

It starts off with the last few notes of Don Henley's "Boys of Summer" before transitioning into a totally tubular '80s PSA about the LCPD. Seriously, check out part where a kid tosses an ice cream cone at the officer. Look at the kid's hair. JUST LOOK AT IT.

(Also, if you slow down the video and watch it closely, there's no way that ice cream cone would've actually hit the officer. A quick edit tries to cover it up, but it's obvious very little concern was given to the realistic depiction of the speed at which the officer was traveling in relation to the arc of the thrown cone. But the '80s were a simpler time. We didn't really care about the laws of physics back then.)

After that, there's a commercial for some Sunday night show called Outdoors and Fishin', an advertisement for Hixson Funeral Home, and an uplifting prayer that lasts nearly two minutes before the whole thing ends in the standard patriotic crescendo.

Check it out below:

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