Yule Log (TV program)
"The Yule Log" is a Television Program which airs traditionally on either Christmas Eve and/or Christmas morning on New York, New York television station WPIX-TV Channel 11. A radio "simulcast" of the musical portion was broadcast on sister station WPIX-FM until 1988, when the radio station was sold to new owners. The program, which is currently four hours in length, has no story and no TV commercial interruptions. It is simply a film loop (at first a mere seventeen seconds, now a little less than seven minutes) of a Yule log burning in a fireplace, with a traditional soundtrack of classic Christmas Carols and secular music playing in the background. The idea of "The Yule Log" was originally created in 1966 by the station's general manager at that time, Fred Thrower, as a televised Christmas gift to those residents of "The Big Apple" who lived in apartments and homes without a fireplace at the cost of $4,000 in cancelled commercials. The original film was done at Gracie Mansion, which served at the time as the residence of the Mayor of New York. When the film was re-shot three years later, producers removed a protective fire grate to film the fire ablaze for dramatic effect, a stray spark destroyed a rare antique rug. Needless to say, the Mayor's office was not amused, and in 1970, station management found a look-alike fireplace in Palo Alto, California, and filmed a burning log there, which has been the one viewers have seen ever since. From 1974 until 1989, a special message by WPIX-TV vice president and general manager Richard N. Hughes usually preceded the program while he was running the station. "The Yule Log" ran every holiday until it was extinguished by new station management in 1990 due to - what else? - the high costs of running the program without commercial interruptions. It wasn't until October 2000 that a group of faithful Yule Log fans led by Joseph Malzone, who ran a web site called "Bring Back The Log" (now called The Yule Log.net), petitioned station management via the internet to put "The Yule Log" program back on the air. The film was gathering dust in a warehouse in New Jersey when Julie O'Neal, the station's program director, found it in a film can that simply read "FIREPLACE". When it was announced that the program would return, thanks to Malzone and many, many "Yule Log" fans, Betty Ellen Berlino, general manager of the station, cited that people wanted "comfort food TV" following the September 11, 2001 attacks. The program was the most-watched TV program in the metropolitan New York area for Christmas Day of that year, and has been winning its time slot annually since. In 2003, Tribune Broadcasting, parent company of WPIX, announced that in addition to being broadcast in New York, "The Yule Log" would be broadcast in additional U.S television markets on other Tribune-owned television stations. The program made its "national" debut in 2004 on WGN-TV and its sibling Superstation.
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