Part of TV that we usually gloss over or ignore is the proverbial network promo spot that usually takes a small bit of commercial air time in between regularly scheduled programs. Here in TN I ignore most of these also, save for one. As a child growing up in the south, it was never a sure thing that snow would fall during the holidays. Likewise, not living in a large urban cityscape with huge buildings chock full of animatronics holiday wonderment the TV was as close as many of us would get to the kind of window dressing folks in New York might take for granted.
Each year the TV station WTVF News Channel 5 a CBS affiliate would play an animated promo that touched me. It has a sweet catchy jingly tune seemingly meant for the holidays and a comforting beauty that captured the holiday spirit perfectly, snow, toys in shop windows and all. This year I happened to see the promo again and it flooded my heart with such memories and good thoughts of Christmas gone by that I wanted to know more about it.
This commercial was hand drawn cell by painstaking cell by a former NEWSCHANNEL 5 employee named Charles DePriest in 1974. The music used was from a music box and is titled “Gott ist die Liebe” (“God Is Love”) written by German composer August Rische (1819-1906) and can be found in many a German hymnbook. Charles DePriest is now retired and lives in Smyrna,TN.
All this may not mean much to most that read this, but those that have lived here in Tennessee their entire lives you will appreciate this extra info like I did.
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10 thoughts on “WTVF Holiday Promo Circa 1974”
Thanks so much for posting this, they seem to have stopped running it anymore (I have not seen it in 2018). Seeing and hearing it takes me right back to childhood, and other people remember it fondly. And thanks for the extra information, too.
Thank you for sharing! This commercial takes me back to my childhood and sweet memories of Christmases past.
Blessings for posting this treasure in time. I was thinking of this & searched for it. So happy to see the post. Tom December 2015
You are still absolutely right..im a child of the 70’s and this is one of my fondest christmas memories
Just saw this commercial again. Reminds me of my childhood in the 70’s. Love to see these old commercials. Brings back so many fond memories.
I’ve been watching this commercial since I was a kid. My daddy loved it, if he was in another room in the house and heard it come on, he’d come to the tv to watch it. He gone now, but I always think of him when I watch it. It brings back holiday memories with him and is one of my Christmas traditions that I see it a few times. Thank goodness for YouTube and Newschannel 5 for still showing it!
Your right, this means a lot to those of us old enough to remember it as kids during the 70’s. What I want to know is….whatever happened to the one that Channel 5 used to run back in those same days with all the different languages saying “Merry Christmas”…Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, etc…and each one against a painting of the Nativity scene by one of the classic artists of history, or an image of a Nutcracker toy soldier…it ended with a nighttime photo of the Tennessee Tower (back then the National Life and Accident Company Tower) with the words “PEACE ON EARTH” spelled out using blacked out office windows against a facade of the remaining office windows unshaded and with the lights turned on inside. I would love to find that one on Youtube to go with this one! A different time.
It’s on YouTube too. Search for “WTVF Christmas commercial”.
I have had a lot of positive response on this from friends and family. Thanks for reading. I appreciate the feedback!
My wife and I are lifetime Nashvillians, and look forward to this every year–we hold hands while watching it. I decided to Google it, hoping to share it on Facebook, and was impressed/delighted/informed when I found it here. You have a new regular reader.