Back in the New York metro zone for a week now, I’m running across a myriad of memory triggers every day.

A particular source for that: The local television stations. I was a typical late-20th Century kid — the boob tube, as surrogate babysitter, planted countless indelible mental images in my brain. And since my pre-teens came before the VCR and cable, most of those images derived from the local TV stations. So it’s a kick to flip to Channel 5 or Channel 11 and see or hear a familiar on-air personality, still at it 30 years later.

To assure myself that the televised flotsam and jetsam of my youth wasn’t imaginary, TV Ark has an archive of imagery and video clips from all six NYC-area stations:

• Channel 2, WCBS
• Channel 4, WNBC
• Channel 5, WNYW (formerly WNEW, in its pre-Fox Network days)
• Channel 7, WABC
• Channel 9, WWOR (something of a ghetto channel, as it specialized in “Benny Hill” reruns and “The Joe Franklin Show” back in the day; very interesting rundown on how it came to be based in Secaucus, New Jersey)
• Channel 11, WPIX (another beloved independent station, in the days before UPN and The WB)

Just seeing the familiar names like Roz Abrams, John Roland (can’t believe he retired only in 2004), Ernie Anastos, Rolland Smith and other local news announcers brings forth the memories.

Unfortunately, all the video on TV Ark is in Real format, meaning I can’t watch it (I refuse to install RealMedia Player on my computers; don’t need yet another program fighting to become the default media player). But the pictures and text are enough to fuel a little nostalgia.