TV en fuego

Thanks to the power of corporate synergy, the WPIX Christmas Eve Yule Log will burn brightly again this year from coast to coast. The longtime New York television tradition will be carried on WGN Superstation as well. Watch carefully and you might see someone throwing Cubs season tickets on the blaze.   

Press release on the jump.

YULE LOG AGAIN BURNS TWICE AS LONG, TWICE AS BRIGHT, WPIX/11 XMAS DAY --

GOES NATIONAL ON SUPERSTATION WGN XMAS EVE

NEW YORK, December 2005 -- The beloved Yule Log, a favorite New York holiday tradition, will again burn twice as long and twice as bright this year on Tribune Broadcasting's WB Television Network affiliate, WPIX Channel 11 (The WB11). The Yule Log, The WB11 video Christmas card to New York, which returned to television in 2001, ending a 12-year hiatus, will again be seen for four hours this Christmas instead of the traditional two hours. It will be seen from 7 am to 11 am on Christmas Day (Sunday, Dec. 25). The Yule Log was first expanded from two to four hours for Christmas 2003.

For the second year The Yule Log will also be seen in High Definition Television (HDTV) on WPIX's digital channel, WPIX-DT Channel 12. The Yule Log in HDTV, as close as TV can be to a real burning fireplace log, will be available to those with HDTV sets who can receive the WPIX-DT signal. Those with standard TV sets will still be able to see the Yule Log in its traditional format from 7 am to 11 on December 25, Christmas Day. Both versions will feature popular Christmas music in high-fidelity stereophonic sound.

 

This year, the Yule Log will go national on Superstation WGN, which will show it between 2:30 am and 5:30 am Eastern Time on Christmas Eve (actually early Christmas Morning).

The Yule Log, video of a blazing fireplace accompanied by holiday music, was a holiday tradition on Channel 11 from 1966 to 1989. During its hiatus, the many letters and phone calls to Channel 11 requesting its return attested to its undying popularity. The Yule Log often wins its time period for WPIX in New York's overnight Nielsen Station Index ratings.

The Yule Log was the creation of the late Fred Thrower, General Manager of WPIX from 1953 to 1975. "I thought about all the cave dwellers in New York, all the apartments that don't have fireplaces," he remembered in a 1988 interview. "I thought this might be a wonderful way...to let people hear real good Christmas carols and to have their own fireplaces burning."

The first Yule Log was a 17-second film of the fireplace at Gracie Mansion, residence of New York's mayor, shot when John Lindsay was in office. The film was looped to fill a two-hour broadcast. It was later re-shot (1970) in a studio with care that the fireplace should resemble the original at Gracie Mansion. To bring The Yule Log back to TV in 2001, the film was completely remastered using the latest digital technology to give a very sharp picture. The sound track, however, is the original collection of carols that delighted viewers throughout the 1960s, 70s and 80s.

The entire, four-hour WPIX broadcast of The Yule Log will be seen without commercial interruption. The Yule Log may also be enjoyed on The World Wide Web at www.wb11.com, where it is available now and will continue to be shown throughout the 2005 holiday season.
--30--