Times Square Ball

"Ball drop" redirects here. For a listing of other ball drops or raisings around the world, see List of objects dropped on New Year's Eve.

The Centennial Ball designed for New Year's Eve 2008, on permanent display at Macy's in Herald Square.

The Times Square Ball is a time ball that has been lowered or "dropped" from the flagpole of One Times Square nearly every New Year’s Eve since December 31, 1907 in Times Square, Manhattan, New York City. The ball (now in its sixth incarnation) is currently made by Waterford Crystal. Since 2009, the ball remains on the flagpole over One Times Square year-round, and is only lowered on New Year's Eve or removed for general maintenance. Every December 31 at 11:59 p.m. EST, the ball descends 77 feet (23 m) over the course of a minute, coming to rest at the bottom of the flagpole at midnight, where a sign lights up with the digits of the new year, as the ball's lights turn off at the same time. Fireworks are then lighted from the building to signal the arrival of the New Year. While the ball drops, several billboards in Times Square count down into the New Year, most notably, the Toshiba (former Discover Card) screens directly below the ball.

Every year up to one million people gather in Times Square to watch the ball drop, and it is watched on video by 70 million people in the United States. The event has inspired many other droppings across America, such as the Underground Atlanta Peach Drop and The Possum Drop in Brasstown, North Carolina.

History

See also: Time ball

The first New Year's Eve celebration in what is now known as Times Square was held on New Year's Eve 1904. The New York Times had opened their new headquarters at One Times Square (at the time, the city's second tallest building) in Longacre Square and persuaded the city to rename the triangular "square" surrounding it for their newspaper (which the city later did on April 8, 1904). The newspaper's owner, Adolph Ochs, decided to celebrate the opening of the company's new headquarters with a midnight fireworks show on the roof of the building on December 31, 1903. Close to 200,000 people attended the event, displacing traditional celebrations that had normally been held at Trinity Church. However, Ochs wanted a bigger spectacle at the building to draw more attention to the newly-named Times Square. After four years of New Year's Eve fireworks celebrations, the newspaper's chief electrician Walter F. Palmer constructed an electrically lit time ball that would be lowered from the flagpole on the roof of One Times Square. It was constructed with iron and wood, lit with one hundred 25-watt bulbs, weighed 700 pounds (320 kg), and measured 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter. It was first lowered on New Year's Eve 1908 (December 31, 1907). It originally dropped one second after midnight. Though The New York Times would later move its headquarters to a larger building at 229 West 43rd Street, the New Year's Eve celebration at One Times Square remains to this day.

The original Ball was replaced in 1920. The second ball remained 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter and was constructed of iron, weighing 400 pounds (180 kg). During World War II, the descent of the second ball was discontinued for New Year's Eve 1942 and 1943 due to wartime lighting restrictions in case of an enemy attack. Celebrants instead observed a moment of silence at midnight, followed by the sound of chimes that were played on speakers throughout Times Square. It was replaced by a third ball in 1955 made of aluminum, weighing 150 pounds (68 kg), and remained 5 feet (1.5 m) in diameter. From 1981 to 1989, the third ball was decorated in honor of the I Love New York campaign, with red bulbs and a green stem to give it the appearance of an apple. The original white bulbs returned in 1989, but were replaced in 1991 with red, white, and blue bulbs to salute the troops of Operation Desert Shield.

The duplicate Millennium Ball designed for New Year's Eve 2000, on permanent display at the Waterford Crystal Factory in Ireland.

The third ball was revamped again in 1995 for New Year's Eve 1996, adding rhinestones and a computerized lighting system featuring strobe lights. New Year's Eve 1996 was also the first time a Times Square Ball was lowered down the flagpole by computer. For the new millennium, an entirely new ball was constructed. Weighing 1,070 pounds (490 kg) and measuring 6 feet (1.8 m) in diameter, the fourth ball was covered with 504 crystal triangles (provided by Waterford Crystal), illuminated externally with 168 halogen light bulbs, and internally with 432 light bulbs of clear, red, blue, green and yellow colors along with strobe lights and spinning mirrors. Many of the triangles were inscribed with messages of a certain theme, such as “Hope for Fellowship,” “Hope for Wisdom,” “Hope for Unity,” “Hope for Courage,” “Hope for Healing,” and “Hope for Abundance.” In 2001, the ball's crystals were engraved with the names of organizations who assisted during the September 11 attacks and the nations who were affected by the event. On December 31, 2006 for New Year's Eve 2007, the fourth ball was dropped for the last time. A duplicate of the fourth ball, also made in 1999, has remained on permanent display at the Waterford Crystal Factory in Ireland.

In honor of the Ball Drop's 100th anniversary, a fifth ball debuted for New Year's Eve 2008. Once again manufactured by Waterford Crystal with a diameter of 6 feet (1.8 m), but weighing 1,212 pounds (550 kg)), it used LED lighting provided by Philips (which can produce over 16.7 million colors, and programmed for more advanced patterns and effects, designed by local firm Focus Lighting) instead of halogen bulbs. The ball featured 9,567 energy-efficient bulbs that consume the same amount of electricity as only 10 toasters. The fifth ball was only used once and has been on permanent display at Macy's in Herald Square since. For New Year's Eve 2009, the simplistic design of the Centennial Ball was maintained, but doubled in size with a new sixth ball. The sixth ball is a icosahedral geodesic sphere, 12 feet (3.7 m) in diameter with a weight of 11,875 pounds (5,386 kg). To accommodate the new ball (which is first one to be displayed outdoors year-round), the flagpole atop One Times Square was rebuilt and enlarged, now rising 475 feet (145 m) above Times Square.

For the arrival of 2012, the sixth ball added 288 more Waterford Crystal triangles for the "Let There Be Friendship" theme.

Sound effects during the countdown debuted for New Year's Eve 1998/99. Between then and 2002 "whooshing" sound effects were used. The 2003/04 drop introduced the current clock-ticking and whooshing (limited to 30 seconds) sound effects which have been used since, regardless of countdown clock design (even though the 2004 clock was inspired by an actual analog clock).

For the millennium event, Ascent of Time, an orchestral piece by Charles Byungkyu Kim was played prior to the ball drop, and was reused for 2001. After that different songs were played each year prior to countdown. Beginning with the 2005/06 festivities, at 11:56 p.m. John Lennon's recording of Imagine has been cued. This continued until the 2010/11 celebration, when the recording was replaced by a live performance of the song (performed by Taio Cruz). For 2012, Cee Lo Green from Gnarls Barkley sang Imagine.

Special guests

By tradition, the ball drop is ceremoniously started by the pressing of a ball-shaped button on the concert stage. (Note the ball is actually cued automatically by a computer running on a WWVB-set atomic clock.) Usually, the mayor is joined with a special guest, selected due to his or her significance, to press that button. Sometimes, an entire group is invited. The following is a list of some past honourees since 1996.

• 1996–97: Oseola McCarty
• 1997-98: Randi Fisch, Karl Vetter, Ariel Rodriguez, Dominique Miller, Diana Shen
• 1998–99: Sang Lan
• 1999–2000: Dr. Mary Ann Hopkins
• 2000–01: Muhammad Ali
• 2001-02: N/A
• 2002–03: Chris and Dana Reeve
• 2003–04: Cyndi Lauper and Shoshana Johnson
• 2004–05: Colin Powell
• 2005–06: Wynton Marsalis
• 2006–07: Liliana G. Perez and Oswaldo San Andres
• 2007–08: Karolina Wierzchowska
• 2008–09: Bill and Hillary Clinton
• 2009–10: Twelve high school students from New York City high schools on America's Best High Schools' Top 100 "Gold Medal" List
• 2010–11: Salvatore Giunta. Note: The button was pushed at around 50 seconds to midnight, ten seconds after the automatic activation of the ball.
• 2011–12: Lady Gaga Note: She will perform first before pressing the button.

Weather at midnight

The average temperature at midnight in New York City since the ball dropping tradition began in 1907 is 33.7 °F (1 °C).

The coldest event was in 1917 when the temperature was 1 °F (−17 °C), the second coldest was 11 °F (−12 °C) in 1962. The warmest ball drop was 58 °F (14 °C) in both 1965 and 1972. It has snowed during the ball drop just seven times out of 104 events (one being light snow), 1926, 1934, 1948, 1952, 1961, 1967, and 2009 and it has rained multiple times.

Crowd control

Up to one million people go to watch the ball drop each year. New York Police Department (NYPD) exert strict control over the crowd so as to prevent crushes and stampedes. The technique used by NYPD is to divide Times Square up into sections, commonly referred to as "pens." As people arrive, usually in the afternoon, they are directed into the pens. NYPD starts with the pens closest to 43rd Street, and as those pens get full, closes them to further people and works their way back toward Central Park. Once inside the pen, people may leave, but will not be able to reenter the pen.

Also, access to Times Square is extremely limited during the course of the celebration. Those staying in hotels in the area need to prove to NYPD that they are in fact guests at those hotels. Also, no alcoholic beverages are permitted (as per NYC's open container laws), and there are no portable public restrooms available.

Television

File:New Year Ball Drop 2012 at Times Square.jpg

The fireworks display after the ball drops at midnight to ring in 2012.

The fireworks display after the ball drops at midnight to ring in 2011.

Several networks have aired coverage of the Times Square Ball Drop; as the event is held in the public square there is no rights or exclusive coverage. The most notable is ABC's Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest, hosted for 40 years by Dick Clark and recently joined by American Idol host Ryan Seacrest after Clark suffered a stroke in 2004, as well as a West Coast segment hosted by singer Fergie from The Black Eyed Peas. Because of its prominence, ABC has been able to get exclusive rights to hold concerts in Times Square itself.

NBC also has coverage of the events under the name New Year's Eve with Carson Daly; previously a special edition of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (and before that, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson) would air in this slot, but Leno has since ceded hosting duties to Daly, who hosts more conventional coverage. Since NBC cannot hold concerts in Times Square itself, it instead opts for concerts outside its studios at 30 Rockefeller Center and in Los Angeles.

Fox also has its own coverage of the New Year's Eve event, New Year's Eve Live, which started in 2003–04. Ryan Seacrest hosted the first two years; in 2005–06, Regis Philbin (who had filled in for Clark on ABC the year prior) took over as Seacrest went to ABC. Fox's host changes each year; previous hosts included Spike Feresten and Nancy O'Dell. Fox complements the Times Square coverage with All American New Year, which airs live in all time zones on sister network Fox News Channel and is hosted by Fox News anchors Bill Hemmer and Megyn Kelly. Beginning with the 2012 celebration, Fox's musical guests will be oriented more toward country music, with the event being renamed American Country New Year's Eve Live and Rodney Carrington brought in as host.

For many years CBS was known for its coverage of the ball drop featuring Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians band (he had done so on CBS Radio Network since 1928 and on TV since 1956), live from The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and featuring the now famous rendition of "Auld Lang Syne". Lombardo died in November 1977; the Royal Canadians did the show for two more years (with Victor Lombardo substituting for his late older brother for 1977-78) but would disband after that. The broadcasts continued under the name Happy New Year, America beginning in 1979-80, still live from the Waldorf-Astoria (with taped segments added from Billy Bob's in Texas and Walt Disney World), with various guest hosts (among them Andy Williams, Brent Musburger, Gladys Knight, Christie Brinkley, Natalie Cole, Kermit the Frog and Lily Tomlin in character as "Ernestine the Telephone Lady"). The last broadcast was in 1995–96 and featured Montel Williams as host; in 1996, Disney pulled out of prodyee thea ald kja (and several other CBS holiday specials) when it bought ABC, and CBS decided to discontinue its New Year's coverage. CBS no longer covers the ball drop and instead opts for reruns of The Late Show with David Letterman. Some CBS affiliates show local ball drops or other local celebrations instead, with WBZ-TV in Boston taking its First Night Boston coverage as far as putting a small screen of the Times Square ball alongside the First Night celebrations on the broadcast. (Note that WBZ is the only TV station allowed to broadcast the First Night Boston events and that the Times Square picture in picture was only shown on TV.)

CNN also carries coverage of the festivities, as part of a more nationwide perspective on New Year celebrations. CNN's coverage, also named New Year's Eve Live, has most recently been hosted by Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin.

The Spanish-language networks also joined in on the celebration. Univisión's coverage of the event is called ¡Feliz (Year Number)! hosted by Don Francisco from Sábado Gigante and Don Francisco Presenta. It became the biggest New Year's Eve program on the network since its original run. In every edition, the show has musical guests, special celebrity appearances, and as always, the sixty second countdown to the next year and as the show progresses, more cities joined in on the festivities in addition to Times Square and Miami including San Juan (¡Feliz 2006!), Acapulco (¡Feliz 2010!), and Anaheim (¡Feliz 2011!). All five cities returned for ¡Feliz 2012! to finish 2011.

MTV also offers ball drop coverage, as their headquarters are in Times Square. This means they can hold concerts there, but they are held at the MTV Studios in Viacom's building rather than in the square itself. On December 31, 2010, they also offered a ball drop at Seaside Heights, New Jersey where Jersey Shore star Snooki was locked into a "hamster ball" and was dropped for the 60 second countdown to welcome 2011. Originally, it was planned for that drop to occur in Times Square. However, MTV was asked by city officials to conduct the drop elsewhere.

External links

• Times Square Alliance - New Year's Eve
• Pictures of One Times Square Building and Flag Pole
• Focus Lighting, Inc. - 100th Anniversary of the Times Square Ball
• Times Square Ball - Hi-res Ball closeups