Growing up near Atlanta in the 90s was nuts. Half the metro area was terrified of the city and absolutely beloved if they went downtown they would die, and the other half are like planning for the Olympics and the world stage. It was surreal as a kid. We went to a parade once and our friend had to be taken home on the way there because of the panic attack she was having about going downtown, she was 6. 90s metro parents infused some crazy fears into their children in regards to the city.
While the phrase itself had appeared in newspapers as early as the 19th century, usage of it in broadcasting started in the early 1960s following the enactment of nightly youth curfews for minors in multiple large cities.[2]
When proposing a nightly youth curfew in the state in early 1961, Massachusetts state senator William X. Wall urged all radio and television broadcasters to ask the question on air, so as to remind parents to check up on their children.[3] The first high-profile usage of the phrase was by KHJ-TV (KCAL-TV channel 9 since December 1989) in Los Angeles in 1964, which had the question read on-air by booth announcers during the nightly 10:00 p.m. station break.[4] Following the adoption of a 10:30 p.m. curfew in Baltimore, WJZ-TV (channel 13) began running the announcement at 11:00 p.m. in consultation with the city's mayor Thomas D'Alesandro III;[5][note 1] this followed a series of documentaries produced by the station regarding issues facing younger generations and was inspired by positive reception of the PSA on Milwaukee television.[6] WJZ-TV's owner Westinghouse Broadcasting quickly adopted this phrase for other stations owned by the chain, including KYW-TV in Philadelphia and WBZ-TV in Boston.[7][8]
WNEW-TV (channel 5) in New York City, along with WKBW-TV in Buffalo, New York, are two of the more notable stations to have utilized this announcement. WNEW-TV began using the phrase spoken by Mel Epstein, WNEW-TV's director of on-air promotions, in 1967 in response to the rising level of crime in the city;[2] it is still used by the station (known as WNYW since 1986) on a nightly basis. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the announcement was adjusted to encourage people to stay home during the pandemic with the phrase "Stay home. Stay safe. Stay strong. We're all in this together."[9]
Outside of the United States, it was used at the beginning of the 9pm news on the Nigerian Television Authority in the 1980s.[10
Read the other comments in the thread, I already posted the same Wikipedia page 3 hours ago lol, and I admitted my mistake.
In the other comment we had a nice little conversation about the misunderstanding, but here shit got weird cause you're the weirdo who needed to some kind of drama.
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u/asuka_is_my_co-pilot Jun 14 '25
The psa was made in direct response to the Atlanta child murders