Although it may be hard to imagine today, there was a time when television was not available 24 hours a day. For much of the 20th century, most TV channels in many countries aired limited programming that began in the morning and ended around midnight or even earlier. At the end of the broadcast day, stations would commonly play the national anthem accompanied by the national flag or patriotic imagery. After this symbolic act, the signal would cut off completely, leaving the screen black, displaying a test pattern, or showing static until programming resumed at dawn.
There were several reasons for this practice. First, the technology of the time was much more limited,
