Heartbeat sound at the end of commercials

[bandit957]

Anyone know what this is for? Lately, I've noticed that many TV commercials end with a brief heartbeat sound after the picture fades. It's just a little "lub-dub." This seems to be especially common during court shows.

Is this like the "CBS bong" of the '70s or the little beeps on cable in the '80s that were supposed to signify when commercial breaks end?

[MNHighwayMan]

It's an encoded message, like numbers stations. It tells the intended recipient, who has a head shaped like a Speak & Spell, who bubbles while yelling "hoolg!"

[bandit957]

It's an encoded message, like numbers stations. It tells the intended recipient, who has a head shaped like a Speak & Spell, who bubbles while yelling "hoolg!"

That's sort of what I thought.

[Max Rockatansky]

It isn't a commercial unless it involves a futurist dual to the death over a board game:

[Rothman]

Had that game.  It was fun for a couple of days.

[adventurernumber1]

I also wonder why some commercials have police sirens in them. I was reminded of this when my mom and I were in the car a few days ago. She was driving on the road, and all of a sudden there was police sirens in a commercial on the radio. It scared her to death, and she went on a rant about how there should not be police sirens in commercials because the driver may get frightened and think they are being pulled over, while I agreed and we were both dying laughing the whole time. Now I find it hilarious when commercials have police sirens in them.   

[abefroman329]

I also wonder why some commercials have police sirens in them.

To scare the viewers into buying whatever product they're selling.

[cjk374]

I think the heartbeat sound occurs after commercials for gsk pharmaceuticals.

[Scott5114]

I also wonder why some commercials have police sirens in them. I was reminded of this when my mom and I were in the car a few days ago. She was driving on the road, and all of a sudden there was police sirens in a commercial on the radio. It scared her to death, and she went on a rant about how there should not be police sirens in commercials because the driver may get frightened and think they are being pulled over, while I agreed and we were both dying laughing the whole time. Now I find it hilarious when commercials have police sirens in them.   

I agree. There's also some songs with siren sound-effects in them. It seems like it could be a safety hazard.

[jon daly]

I think the heartbeat sound occurs after commercials for gsk pharmaceuticals.

I heard it at the end of a Nissan commercial and I think that's where I heard it before. What I really want to know wrt tv commercials is what accent does the kid at the end of the Playstation ad have?

[qguy]

There's a local station in my area that uses a few heart beats at the end of all of their station identification ads. It's intended to convey an impression of "We're important; keep listening to us."

A few years ago that same station aired an ad that contained a police siren and listeners immediately started complaining. As in, "In what universe does it make any sense at all to broadcast the sound of a police siren when many if not most of your listeners at any given time are listening while driving their cars??" The ad was pulled in about three days and the station issued an on-air apology. Just brilliant.

[Henry]

The ads for GSK products and Nissans have really popularized the heartbeat sound at the end. Wasn't that sound also used in Chevy commercials back when their slogan was "The Heartbeat of America"?

I also remember the brief flickering gray horizontal bars on a black screen during CBS-TV's newscasts (at least during Dan Rather's evening newscasts) that occurred after the last commercial in the break had been shown. Did either NBC or ABC also use the "flickering bars" effect, or was that exclusive to CBS?

[bandit957]

I also remember the brief flickering gray horizontal bars on a black screen during CBS-TV's newscasts (at least during Dan Rather's evening newscasts) that occurred after the last commercial in the break had been shown. Did either NBC or ABC also use the "flickering bars" effect, or was that exclusive to CBS?

I don't remember this, but I do remember the "CBS bong", which sounded like the Facebook message notification sound. Back in the '70s, this sound was heard on CBS at the end of a commercial break, right before a show started. It was accompanied by a flicker on the screen. Decades later, I found out the flicker was part of the station ID slide for CBS's New York station.

In the '80s, a lot of cable channels - CNN among them - had a weird little tone to signify the end of a commercial break.

[SectorZ]

I also remember the brief flickering gray horizontal bars on a black screen during CBS-TV's newscasts (at least during Dan Rather's evening newscasts) that occurred after the last commercial in the break had been shown. Did either NBC or ABC also use the "flickering bars" effect, or was that exclusive to CBS?

I don't remember this, but I do remember the "CBS bong", which sounded like the Facebook message notification sound. Back in the '70s, this sound was heard on CBS at the end of a commercial break, right before a show started. It was accompanied by a flicker on the screen. Decades later, I found out the flicker was part of the station ID slide for CBS's New York station.

In the '80s, a lot of cable channels - CNN among them - had a weird little tone to signify the end of a commercial break.

In the early 90's, NESN while playing Red Sox games would have a high-speed seven digit phone dialing sound after the third and sixth innings, and ninth and so on if it went extras. I could never figure that out, but figured it served some sort of purpose.

[abefroman329]

I also remember the brief flickering gray horizontal bars on a black screen during CBS-TV's newscasts (at least during Dan Rather's evening newscasts) that occurred after the last commercial in the break had been shown. Did either NBC or ABC also use the "flickering bars" effect, or was that exclusive to CBS?

I don't remember this, but I do remember the "CBS bong", which sounded like the Facebook message notification sound. Back in the '70s, this sound was heard on CBS at the end of a commercial break, right before a show started. It was accompanied by a flicker on the screen. Decades later, I found out the flicker was part of the station ID slide for CBS's New York station.

In the '80s, a lot of cable channels - CNN among them - had a weird little tone to signify the end of a commercial break.

In the early 90's, NESN while playing Red Sox games would have a high-speed seven digit phone dialing sound after the third and sixth innings, and ninth and so on if it went extras. I could never figure that out, but figured it served some sort of purpose.

SportVision in Chicago had the same thing.

[RobbieL2415]

I've watched clips of TF1 (French TV station) commercial breaks on YT and they would go to a blue screen in between commercials. This persisted up until around 2008/9. I'm guessing their programming system needed it to know when to start the next tape.

[Henry]

I also remember the brief flickering gray horizontal bars on a black screen during CBS-TV's newscasts (at least during Dan Rather's evening newscasts) that occurred after the last commercial in the break had been shown. Did either NBC or ABC also use the "flickering bars" effect, or was that exclusive to CBS?

I don't remember this, but I do remember the "CBS bong", which sounded like the Facebook message notification sound. Back in the '70s, this sound was heard on CBS at the end of a commercial break, right before a show started. It was accompanied by a flicker on the screen. Decades later, I found out the flicker was part of the station ID slide for CBS's New York station.

Close enough. The flicker you mentioned is the one I was thinking of, and I remember seeing this on WBBM (the CBS station in Chicago) back in the day. It was still there when I moved to L.A. (the home of KCBS).

[inkyatari]

When I worked in radio, the NASCAR broadcasts on my station had tones at the beginning and end of the commercial breaks so that stations that were on automation would roll local commercials automatically.  The station I worked for (AM 1320, WKAN) was only half automated, so I had to run the local spots manually.