A compilation of (old and not-so-old) news intros from Spanish regional channel Telemadrid:
A lunchtime newsbrief from Costa Rican station Teletica in June 1999 (at the 3:37 minute mark). Coincidentally (like Telemadrid), its news service is also called Telenoticias.
The 1987 HTV West Xmas tape…I draw attention to the point of the video where we start…
Imagine having a train carriage named for a TV station!
Also, there are naughty bits and bobs. Not for younger audiences, or those with a disposition to sheep, given they are close to Wales. 
A 1996 promo for the just-launched CNNfn, a business news channel intended to compete with CNBC. It shut down in 2004.
Another CNN-branded offshoot of the 90s… CNN/SI. As part of CNN’s decision to embrace at the time the print brands of the then-newly formed Time Warner (which reflected on CNN launching its NewsStand series of newsmagazines and CNNfn’s partnerships with Fortune and Money magazines), CNN/SI mixed the CNN ethos with the long-form sports reporting of Sports Illustrated magazine, with its schedule being less reliant on the Headline News format by also then-recent ESPNews; live programming was constantly updated between 7am and 2am, mixing breaking sports news, real-time highlights and long-form segments repurposing SI sections into bite-sized capsules (everything from the gamut of opinion columns to Swimsuit Issue covers). Primetime focused on extended highlights, previews of pro games, conversation-driven programming with SI columnists, and documentaries.
Now, here’s ESPNews; well, this is a blooper reel (CW: some strong language), but gives us an idea of their initial presentation; it was designed to be looser in style and pace than SportsCenter (but was constrained by the HLN-like jukebox format), whilst also launching a new breed of presenters whom would later become an important part of “the mothership” and its team.
Much looser was, however, the initial ESPN2. The initial decision was to target the channel to an urban younger audience, hence the edgy, graffiti graphics and logo and the nickname “The Deuce”. Programming focused less on play-by-play and more on trendy content (NHL, extreme sports, home exercise, sports-related lifestyle…), and it became the launchpad for the BottomLine.
Here’s the first hour of the channel back in 1993, which launched with SportsNight, a much looser version of SportsCenter with less emphasis on highlights and analysis and more on entertainment, lifestyle and comedy. Keith Olbermann was brought from the sister network to bring his comedic style to it; he returned to SportsCenter some months later.
The looser style was toned down by the end of the millennium, with “the Deuce” nickname and edgy graphics dropped by 2001 in favour of ESPN’s corporate branding.
A 1992 graphics demo reel produced by a Miami-based graphics company for a station in the U.S. state in Georgia, which never adopted it:
Thanks for another wonderfully comprehensive post. This, by the way, is a fascinating oral history of ESPN, which also covers the initially troubled launch of ESPN2 in great detail:
A 2011 graphics reel for the now defunct Cayman 27 in the Cayman Islands from John Christopher Burns Design:
…and a wonderfully 1980s news open from Milwaukee, apparently produced by Collier Concepts, which also did some work in Australia:
A montage of IDs and promo campaigns used by Argentina’s América TV between 1966 and early 2019. The channel was founded by the owners of Radio Rivadavia, which took the bold decision to located the channel’s transmitter and facilities in the Buenos Aires provincial capital, La Plata; this bold decision would however hamper the channel’s ability to find an audience from the outset.
The channel’s promising start as Tevedos, which involved also hiring a big number of stars from its bigger rivals, led to Rivadavia downing tools; imported programming and low-cost originals would become the schedule for much of the channel’s early history; for a time, during the 1976 coup, the station became a repeater of Canal 13, before being assigned to the Buenos Aires Business Ministry.
After democracy returned to the country in 1983, the channel was privatized. Although Rivadavia placed a bid, it was suprisingly beaten by a much smaller group, Radiodifusora El Carmen, which took over the license at the end of October. It lacked any resources to operate, however, and the low-cost shows (most of which were produced by outsiders) continued.
Relief was found when El Carmen sought a deal with Héctor Ricardo García, owner of the Crónica newspaper and former director of Canal 11. He took the decision to challenge ratings leader Canal 9 Libertad by taking an emphasis on populist original shows and sensationalist newscasts; the move caused the launch of Teledos in 1987, which launched with a big number of stars as presenters. Although it boosted the ratings, rising as high as second place, and did menace Canal 9 in the ratings, soon cracks began to appear: the coverage of the murder of Alicia Muñoz and the trial of boxer Carlos Monzón angered the owners of Radiodifusora El Carmen, leading to an unresolved lawsuit almost immediately. García reacted by terminating the deal early; as a result, the previous programming scheme was reinstated and ratings went back to the cellar.
The cost of these move led to Radiodifusora El Carmen declaring bankruptcy by 1990, although it continued to broadcast. By 1991, a buyer was found: Argentinian-Armenian businessman Eduardo Eurnekián, who by then had a big media empire, composed of radio networks Radio América, Aspen Classic and FM Sport, newspaper El Cronista Comercial and Extra, and cable operator Cablevisión (now Flow). The channel began working on rebuilding from scratch; when operations were taken over by Eurnekián on April 15, the channel was renamed América Te Ve, starting slowly with lots of off-network syndicated programming and a daily evening newscast. Problems marred the first days of the newly-christened channel, as severe weather rocked La Plata that day, destroying the transmitter and causing broadcasts to be heavily disrupted for several months.
However, by 1993, Eurnekián had already invested on a degree of content to try to revive fortunes; it hired numerous old-house local stars to create shows based on their successes, but the nostalgia factor was a no go; ratings were poor and critical reception was negative. However, the newscasts, which were very tabloid initially before taking on a niche of covering more political and social stories, began to draw some new viewers. By 1994, the channel was named América 2, and was ostensibly copying WPIX and WSVN before launching its famous 4-squared logo, initially with the previous brand and later stand-alone.
That year, a new transmitter was finally installed, which resolved some of the reception problems that hampered the network (although it still had issues in the more southern parts of Buenos Aires). Additionally, it moved its facilities from La Plata to a new fully digital building in Palermo, which also served as HQ for Eurnekián’s media empire. By then, América had found a niche on news and current affairs shows, and was a pioneer in tabloid talk shows, relaunching the careers of old-school personalities, such as Mauro Viale and Moria Casán, but also taking on a controversial turn over the content of the shows, which often involved brawls. It also began airing a number of humor and gossip shows which had a more absurdist and often irreverent style, influencing its rivals.
In 1995, the 2 disappeared from the América name, as the channel began broadcasting on satellite and expanded its distribution to cover a national network of affiliates and broadcasting on cable networks through South America. However, amassed with big debts, Eurnekián began selling off its media outlets, finishing with selling the network to Torneos y Competencias. This move began a successful second era; with increased budgets for new shows and leveraging the rights of its parent company (including broadcasting the 2002 FIFA World Cup and winning rights for the 2004 Summer Olympics), although its programming stood with its existing remit.
The changes were also accompanied by a relaunch of the 4-squared logo into a cube, a design made under the supervision of creative director Guillermo Stein and in-house composers Daniel Goldberg and Daniel Tamborini. It would eventually win a PromaxBDA award in 2000. The Ávila operation wouldn’t last long: with the Argentinian economic crisis, he was forced to sell the network to raid investors Daniel Vila and José Luis Manzano, owners of Mendoza newspaper UNO and local repeater Canal 7. The acquisition successfully led América to finally break even after the crisis, although accusations of censorship began to be more common. By 2011, given the increased competition of cable news channels, América reoriented its strategy to focus on news, current affairs and gossip programmes, and airing most of these shows live, adopting its “La Vida en Vivo” slogan.
VCRBase in Hong Kong recently unearthed some holding slides for RTV 1, the Rediffusion-owned predecessor to ATV Home, circa 1977-78 (by the TV drama titles shown here):
From first to last picture:
1999 was a period of turmoil for British TV news after ITV was allowed to drop its long-running News at Ten, citing the need by the commercial PSB to air big-ticket films continuously on prime time. To replace both broadcasts were the ITV Evening News (at 6.30pm, which had a serious tone) and the ITV Nightly News (at 11pm, which was more focused on tabloid and lighter stories). As a result, its rivals cashed in the opportunity. However, even if urban memory says the BBC was the first to announce their plans, it is not true: Sky News (UK) beat them and prepared with anticipation the moment with a more simple move: brand their 10pm hour as a separate broadcast.
Although content-wise was very similar to a regular Sky News hourly report at the time (no and finally segment), the 10pm hour got a new look and an unique design, but still in line with the normal 1998 Pittard Sullivan look (launched on the day Sky Digital started). It also took on a fixed dual presentation team on weekdays (Monday-Thursday): Bob Friend and Anna Botting. Weekend shows (like the example down here) had a rotating mix of popular Sky newscasters.
The changes went on air the same day ITV launched its two new shows. Friend and Botting were replaced with Martin Stanford and Vivien Creegor the following year, and the unique branding was lost when Sky News launched its Election look and Newsplex-looking newsroom studio in 2001.
Here’s a longer look at the closer theme music, which was clearly designed to imitate News at Ten’s “The Awakening”; Sky was prevented from the outset of using the same title music and the Big Ben “bongs” fearing legal action from ITN. Sorry for the low quality.
Sky would do the same thing in 2017, after ITV temporarily moved News at Ten (now finding back its feet after a failed revival in 2001 and gradually improving ratings from 2015, when Tom Brady and Julie Etchingam took over as main newscasters) to 10.30pm to place the miserably received (by both critics and viewers) late night chat The Nightly Show; given ITV has now lessened the use of Big Ben imagery since the 2009 and 2013 rebrands, Sky began using the clock face as part of the opener (with its normal theme music), and still does until today.
@Medianext.MX Remember UK’s now defunct interactive, music-playing and user-generated MTV Flux?
Here’s a series of commercial breaks aired during that period. The channel really embraced the word “atece” during promos and other brand assets! The newscasts were named Pueblo Noticias during this short-lived period.
That particular era was directed by Lucía Suárez, who had directed a short-lived but very influential investigative newsmagazine, Edición Plus, over at Telefe. It was also a part of urgent needs by Alejandro Romay to revive the channel’s audience figures, thanks to Canal 13 having taken the lead with its very serious and in-depth newscasts, as well as that falling credibility you’ve mentioned. The set, heavily inspired by that of WCBS-TV used at the time, replaced the newsroom-style design (often regarded as a “colmena”, or hive, by local press). That music was composed by Luis Reales, who was Canal 9’s in-house composer at the time.
Ratings didn’t increase, so the custom composition was replaced by a remixed eurodance version of the Enoch Light arrangement of the Star Wars “Main Title” cut. For a time, the graphics were retained, but these changed within months in favour of a “tombstone” design.
With the channel going with a dramatic crisis, numerous changes were made in 1997, including trying a three-anchor format and a virtual set; however, the channel’s crisis was so bad, that cuts needed to be made: during the summer, the evening edition was dropped and reinstated in April, and the midday edition was displaced to cover Mirtha Legrand’s show, who went into a hiatus. Additionally, the weekend shows (which covered more sports than other editions) were culled altogether. Eventually, when the Prime Media Group took over, one of the first moves they did was to launch a faster-paced newscast in place of Nuevediario, 24 Horas, which ran until the launch of Azul Televisión.
The following is an interesting article on the history and uniqueness of Nuevediario’s tabloid format. It also includes a mention of some of the special (if controversial) treatments of the show, including José de Zer’s reports on UFOs and paranormal activity, Julio César Caram’s coverage of crime issues (at a degree it could be often confused with a melodramatic series or soap or a Lifetime movie) and Betty Aráoz’s coverage of funerals with a heavy “emphatic” element. It also reflects on the big importance of the videographers and sport reporters, as well as the social labour done by the show.
As the article tells, many of its reporters and presenters have went to bigger roles: editor Gustavo Siegrist went to work with Horacio Larrosa after taking over the leadership of Telefe Noticias, working strictly to unify the editorial processes of regional newscasts with the main Buenos Aires newsroom (mainly Teleocho in Córdoba, which had been recently taken over in full by Telefe). After Larrosa’s retirement, Siegrist has been serving as consultant and manager of Albavisión’s news operations.
Cristina Pérez would stay with Canal 9 until the end of the Azul era, where she went to Telefe (where she is still), and would also nurture a successful career on radio and as an occasional novelist and actress. Guillermo Andino would move to América TV, where he has served as host for both news and entertainment shows; he would also work with Artear for a time. Fernando Niembro became a star commentator for Fox Sports Argentina, where he would become known for his aggressive opinions on local football, which led to opposing reactions from fans, he currently works for ESPN and RCN in Colombia. José Corzo Gómez would become a constant as a “jubilados” commentator in other popular newscasts, and would attempt to start a political career to no avail. And Fernando de la Rúa would become president in 1999, but his tenure would be cut short after being forced to resign thanks to the Argentinian economical crisis.
Speaking of dual languages, here’s a sign-off message delivered in both Spanish and English, this time from WKAQ in San Juan, Puerto Rico in December 1980. Includes the Puerto Rican and American anthems. (see at the 11:26 minute mark)
Headlines and opener of Portuguese channel SIC’s Sunday evening news in early November 1993, presented by Paulo Camacho. The station was launched the year before, ending the TV monopoly of state-owned network RTP. (see at the 3:21 minute mark)
The sound bumper used after the intro is similar to the one used by the short-lived satellite provider BSB in the UK.
Here’s a just-uploaded BBC report from 1971 about LWT’s early difficulties and Rupert Murdoch’s entry into the London broadcaster:
There was a bit after the English sign-off I’ve always wanted to hear translated into English - was it another good night message in Spanish?
And here’s a just-uploaded YouTube mini-documentary, from Adam Martyn, about Engineering Announcements:
Argentina: here’s a quick branding montage and some ad blocks of Canal 9 during 2003. The orange 9 logo (and associated whirlwind symbol) was launched in mid-August of that year, after then-owner Daniel Hadad bought out the shares of Fernando Sokolowicz, Benjamín Vijnosky and Claudio Belocopitt (who joined him on buying the channel the previous year). The new look, which had a very unique and European style compared to Telefe’s conservative designs, Canal 13’s overuse of 3D and América’s very aggressive packaging, was designed by Medialuna (now Tónika).
When Hadad took over the entirety of Telearte (Canal 9’s license holder), he took immediate control of the channel’s editorial and content positioning and decided to model its spring schedule on a similar strategy to the heyday of the station (the Romay years) and taking on second-place rival Canal 13, focusing less on political programming and tabloid talkers and more on family entertainment shows. This was further reinforced by Editorial Atlántida (former owner of Telefe) taking over a small, non-controlling share on Telearte later that year. By the spring, a temporary branding was launched, including a modified version of the very infamous “siren” logo, as the new brand was being worked.
When the channel relaunched in August, Hadad’s plans to take on Canal 13 were clear: a new slogan was introduced, “Bienvenido a casa”, which clearly was a copycat of that of Artear, “Estás en casa”. However, the changes became a mixed bag: although ratings were improving, these were never successful on taking Canal 9 out of the third place it had been stuck for many years.
A sleaze of new shows were also launched that spring, including bringing back Gerardo Sofovich’s shows to TV after they left América, scripted series from Damian Szifron (the creator of Los Simuladores, which was still thriving on rival Telefe) and the descendants of humorist Tato Bores (Alejandro and Sebastián Borensztein), a new season of Cris Morena’s Rebelde Way, a new teen drama featuring Guido Kaczka, a game show from Marley, a daily lifestyle show from Ernesto Sandler and his Utilisima network, and the move of Viviana Canosa, then a panelist on Jorge Rial’s gossip show Intrusos (and way before publicly showing her hard-right political positions) to create a show rivaling its longer-established América rival. It also increased the number of children’s programming by hiring Caramelito Carrizo and launching the career of Laura Franco (Panam).
In the other hand, the new strategy dropped many of the channel’s news and political programming, but Hadad clearly still wanted to give it some credibility: Telenueve had a major facelift, with a very CNN-inspired design and branding (yes, the obsession with being an Argentinian CNN began way before C5N was a thing) and the music of EDM tango group Bajofondo, which gave the newscasts a strong identity for the first time. Its content became more middle-market in style, with increased political stories and in-depth reporting, and a number of new anchors were introduced, from veterans like Mercedes Martí and rising stars like Eduardo Feinmann. It also profited of Hadad’s vast media resources by taking coverage from co-owned Infobae and Radio 10.
The channel also retained a pair of political shows in its schedule, including Mariano Grondona’s Hora Clave and Marcelo Longobardi’s Fuego Cruzado; in contrast, Después de Hora (which boosted Hadad’s public profile), presented by Antonio Laje, was dropped to give way to the new American-style stripped schedule. Daniel Hadad, however, returned to presenting duties as the anchor of a radio-style morning news programme, El Primero de la Mañana, to rival Víctor Hugo Morales’ long-running Desayuno (by then airing on Canal 7/Televisión Pública). It failed spectacularly to threaten its longer-established rival, with Hadad leaving after just 20 days and the show being retooled within months as a morning edition of Telenueve.
One of the channel’s strengths in news programming (and partly due to Hadad’s brilliance) was the first-ever instance of marathon-style election results programming in Argentinian TV, using vastly Hadad’s media brands and its political shows to offer non-stop all-night coverage, and not consistent short updates intertwined between its normal schedule; it led to its rivals, particularly the news channels and Canal 13, taking notice and doing the same in 2007:
Additionally, Canal 9 became the first Buenos Aires OTA channel to broadcast 24 hours a day (most channels closed down during the night) and filled the graveyard slots with a non-stop playlist of AC-oriented music (both English and Latin) with a news ticker featuring headlines from Infobae; when Hadad launched a similarly-formatted station, Pop 101.5, the slot became known as “Trasnoche Pop”.
The branding was amended in stages by the end of 2003, with a more 2D design based on rings (which still looked neat on screen) and a new slogan, “Podés entrar”, as Hadad had dropped the prime time stripped schedule by the start of the new 2004 season, replacing it in favour of four new variety shows (featuring Canosa, Sofovich and Pablo Granados) to rival Susana Giménez; these famously tanked and were quickly dropped in favour of a more conventional schedule.
The channel, however, was quickly finding back its feet, but not before dropping many of the daytime original shows and bringing back imports after signing a deal with Televisa, allowing Hadad to air the Mexican broadcaster’s telenovelas. It also brought back the Saturday night “La Película de la Semana” movie block after signing wholesale non-exclusive deals with Disney, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Pictures and independent distributors, with a film selection strong enough to also help with recovering ratings. It also launched a series of conversation-driven magazine shows with a strong informative focus, including D9A11, which clearly aped Jorge Guinzburg’s topical show Mañanas Informales, but with more news, and Macu Mazzuca and Maby Wells as hosts.
As previously said, Hadad’s strongest year was 2005, after he successfully poached Marcelo Tinelli to an exclusivity deal with his company Ideas del Sur. That year, Canal 9 finally committed to get to second place thanks to the success of his new show, Showmatch; that achieved ambition led to the station increasingly taking on Telefe with a controversial “parrilla flexible” strategy, with the channel’s programming strategy Alejandro Stoessel consistently amending their schedule at short notice; although it also helped with bigger audience figures, it also led to some shows (mostly externally-produced) leaving the network due to its producers’ increasingly spatting with the inconsistent airing times. At the start of the year, Canal 9 introduced its most ambitious campaign, “Donde Vos Estás”, with a branding designed by Guillermo Stein (and his practice Steinbranding), with Mariano and Dante Saulino being responsible for the jingle and music.
By midseason, the flat branding was replaced by a much more colored, but muted 3D branding; by the end of the year, the brand had become more simpler, but still with lots of 3D elements; it was also rolled-out into the following year. This happened under very unfortunate circumstances: Tinelli unexpectedly broke the contract with Hadad after being offered a much more lucrative contract with Artear, leading Canal 9 to down tools: the following year, the “Donde Vos Estás” branding was dropped in favor of Bob Sinclar’s Love Generation.
Although Canal 9’s ratings went back to third place, it was still somehow competitive and many of their shows were still posting respectable viewer figures. However, Hadad’s empire was suffering with major debts and decreasing business profits, leading to his sale of the channel to Albavisión in 2007. The orange branding was retained, with a more restrained presentation, during the end of 2006 and the start of 2007, before the red brand took over that spring.
After a tumultuous period under Albavisión, where most of the entertainment programming was replaced by endless hours of telenovelas (leading to the channel being famously derided as el canal de las latas), the channel began finding back its feet thanks to the new Media Law, which led to its schedule being fully locally-produced by the end of the 2010s. The channel is now in a more improved situation unlike Hadad’s difficult period running the channel, with it now having a more consistent lineup and dedicated audience. After signing an operation deal (including the launch of its own news channel, iP), union leader Víctor Santa Maria (through Grupo Octubre) bought a majority stake in the channel in 2019, not before triggering a still-ongoing lawsuit on the channel’s ownership, as Albavisión’s owner Remigio Ángel González had brought lawyer Carlos Lorefice Lynch to complete the company’s acquisition of the network, leading to accusations of business fraud.
As for Tinelli, Showmatch would begin a successful run on Canal 13, becoming an unexpected phenomenon and having a great effect on ratings behavior and public discussions of entertainment, at a degree headlines regarding it often appeared in news shows, rather than being exclusive to entertainment and gossip shows; it also meant the end of an era of Artear, which increasingly dropped its highly-regarded quality programming strategy in favor of endless hours of gossip shows and more tabloid news and current affairs programming.
Tinelli’s continued and often discussed success (not only in media, but also in the world of local football and sport) allowed him to fend off a spat with controversial media empire Grupo Indalo Media (owned by a Kirchner-supported businessman and who took over most of Hadad’s empire, coincidentally, by 2012) and broke up and dissolved Ideas del Sur to form his own production company, LaFlia. He eventually decided to end amicably his contract with Artear last year (in part due to Canal 13’s declining ratings and sinking credibility) and signed a deal with América at the start of the ongoing season, including a presenting deal and serving as content manager, taking on the same strategy he employed when on Canal 9 (taking on Telefe), and bringing a number of Artear personalities to the network.
On a related note, but in radio rather than television:
One of the world’s first all-news radio stations was a thoroughly unconventional, shoestring operation that broadcast to Los Angeles from Mexico; here’s an excerpt from Gene Fowler and Bill Crawford’s 𝘉𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘙𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘰:
There is an interesting tip on the book Fowler and Crawford cite (Ronald Garay’s biography of Gordon McLendon, “The Maverick of Radio”, freely accesible here). The “everywhere over Los Angeles” slogan had a double meaning (reflecting the need to hide the Mexican identity of the station): not only McLendon wanted to make the station a SoCal station, but got in the extreme of wanting to name its transmitter and studio site “XTRA, Los Angeles” (p. 134). However, XETRA maintained some ad sales and executive offices there, and recordings of commercials, features and station logs were made from LA and transferred to the Tijuana transmitter site.
McLendon was forbidden legally to air a majority stake of a Mexican frequency (Mexican government policy makes radio frequencies a state-controlled good, and local laws limit foreign ownership to 50% in stake, but not before partnering with a local interest), and the ways he did the moves did anger Tijuana stations, worrying XTRA attracting both LA and American advertisers would affect their own finances, prompting them to follow suit. However, both the FCC and the SCT did not intervene.
The Spanish-speaking station ID “XETRA (pronounced equis ay tay erray ah), Tijuana, México” was due to Mexican media laws, which also force stations to air a legal ID at the TOTH; however, the way it was presented was the idea of Yolanda Salas, a Mexican who was assistant to program director Don Keyes. Keyes would retell to Garay that “Most Los Angeles listeners were oblivious to what they were hearing during XTRA’s station ID, and were never aware that they were listening to a Mexican radio station” (as retold by Garay, p. 134).
The station was successful thanks to its shoestring formatting, beating the other full-service station in the city, CBS-owned KNX, and becoming extremely profitable, leading McLendon to expand the format to Chicago (WNUS). However, both stations’ future was doomed, as Westinghouse had successfully expanded the WINS all-news format to KFWB, quickly taking away listenership from XETRA thanks to its strong local presence, making it a head start to it. WNUS, although also profitable, had from the start succumbed to WBBM, which responded to its arrival by going all-news on daytimes and talk during non-peak slots, and WGN, which remained successful with its strong news-focused full-service format. McLendon sold his stake in XETRA not before switching it to automated AC music, before selling his stake on the station to the Mexican owners.
Currently, XETRA is known as XEWW-AM, and is currently stunting, coincidentally, with an automated English Hot AC/Adult CHR format, including remixes of well-known songs. This happens as an attempt to operate as a Chinese-language full-service format, URadio 690, under the auspieces of Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television, a satellite broadcaster partially owned by the Chinese state government, led to a strong scrutiny by Republican lawmakers in the Congress. As a result, the FCC investigated and later denied an application by Phoenix to operate it in American territory, leading it to end the agreement with the broadcaster at the end of last year.