No signal
WBRE and WYOU are still missing in action, one day after a giant wind storm swept through the area and knocked their signals out. Fun, fun, fun.
Fellow local media gadfly NEPA Media chimes in with who had the best coverage of what some think was a tornado.
Fellow local media gadfly NEPA Media chimes in with who had the best coverage of what some think was a tornado.
posted by Howard Beale at 3:11 PM
34 Comments:
Somebody told me 44's out, as well (FM isn't on).
Does that mean 16 is on a separate power line, or they are Proud To Serve with a generator?
Since WYOU and WBRE are sharing everything else, could they share a generator, as well?
Will we now see two full weeks of fund raising, misleading phone calls (I got one) and begging letters from Bill K asking for money, this time for a generator so he can run the Msgr. McGowan tape another couple dozen times?
Ain't it something that 3/4ths of our stations aren't ready when the lights go out?
I really enjoyed the Army/Navy game on WYOU today, NOT. Do they have any clue how to do anything right? Maybe them being knocked out all weekend could be a call-in topic?
WBRE is back, but WYOU and Fox 56 are still missing in action.
Here in Scranton, on cable and over the air, it looked as if ALL the stations that have towers on Penobscot Mountain were dark for extended periods--all but WNEP.
I'd be interested in the story behind the story: was it just NEP's good Karma, or do they have backup power up there?
I’ve been wrong, and I’m here to admit it.
Every time someone gets on a rant here about how lousy the WBRE and WYOU web pages are, I’m one of the “Who gives a s**t?” posters.
My thinking has been “Why don’t you put some effort into your primary job, broadcasting, first? When (and if) you get good at that, you can devote time and effort to the web.”
I stand corrected.
I take it the storm knocked the Nexstar stations (and several others, all but WNEP) off the air Friday afternoon. How do I know? I don’t. Could be Osama bin Laden shorted out the wiring up on the mountain trying to string the Al Jazeera satellite feed into 22 and 28. I looked for answers in the papers, but they were typically clueless. So I went to the horse’s mouth, to the 22 and 28 web pages, for an answer. Now I feel like a horse’s ass. Nexstar’s web sites are both operating under the motto, “If it’s news to YOU it’s news to US.
Time for me to join the 21st century, I guess. Nexstar, too?”
No WVIA or FOX 56 on Adelphia (comcast)
WBRE, WYOU, and WVIA are back on my cable system.
Think about this carefully, for a sec. Strong winds did plenty of damage in the Mountain Top area. OK. But what about a more widespread emergency? What would be the reaction of media outlets around here to, say, a major emergency at the Berwick nuke? I hate to say it, but we're likely in for days upon days -- maybe weeks, or even a month, of self-serving in-house promotional advertising by those few media outlets that covered Friday's storms to even the most meager of levels.
FLASH! 10:17pm Fox News at 10:00. Kurt Aaron just announced that the tornado was 150 *miles* wide. Send it to the Guinness book ... call The Weather Channel.
Yes, WNEP does have backup power. A big generator at the studio, and another one on Penobscot. You may need it only once every couple of years, but when you use it once, it's pretty much paid for itself...
I heard Kurt's "150 mile wide" reference and got a chuckle out of it. Quite a discrepancy! On the other hand, I've tripped over my own tongue often enough not to point fingers. Who doesn't? At least this was harmless, although way off. I'd be critical if he made errors in the warnings which might endanger part of the public. This was harmless, and actually somewhat comical. I'm sure he'll get busted by all the staff for a long time to come! Alas, another falls to the dreaded "Foot in Mouth" disease! I'll bet he has a red face still! So have a good laugh, pat him on the back when you hand him Snedeker's bag to put over his head, and file the tape for a future WNEP bloopers reel (wouldn't that be a treat!) Kurt, thanks for the laugh. I'm sure most of us could use one.
Tom Carten: I also heard Kurt say 150 miles wide. Obviously, he misspoke. The graphic up at the same time indicated "150 yards."
Too bad the producer or someone else in the control room didn't alert Kurt to correct himself.
Well... ya didn't miss anything!
1:35 said: Too bad the producer or someone else in the control room didn't alert Kurt to correct himself.
I have made many mistakes over the air in my life:
- Women's slow-bitch softpall
- Taptist Babernacle
- Luzerne c*nty
Best advice I ever got: Keep going.
Saturday morning on WILK, ABC news reported that a Mr. Z's Supermarket sustained great damage because of the storm. They identified the location as Allegheny County, Pa. Sometimes TV gets it wrong, but most of the time, the national news guys have no sense of geography when they report a story. And local radio on the weekend is pretty much non existent. Andy Palumbo would be the only bearer of bad news if that nuke plant blew.
Yonkstur
I'm going to cut Kurt Aaron a lot of slack.
I think delivering a weather forecast is the toughest on-air job in TV. It's ALL ad-libbed, but you have to touch a complicated series of mile-markers along the way—highs, lows, satellite images, maps, current conditions, forecasts. It's an obstacle course.
I know plenty of people who can't order a latte at Starbucks without stuttering and stumbling. I'm not about to criticize a meteorologist for such an obvious slip of the tongue.
Nature hates Mr. Z's/Weis Markets also. Come one- pick one name for your stores.
I mean, it isn't Wegmans/Johnny's Market is it??
"I think delivering a weather forecast is the toughest on-air job in TV. It's ALL ad-libbed, but you have to touch a complicated series of mile-markers along the way—highs, lows, satellite images, maps, current conditions, forecasts. It's an obstacle course."
I have to laugh at the 6:10 post. Delivering weather forcast is the toughest....yeah right. How about having your work researched and produced by the NWS or AccuWeather and just be a talking head on TV. Have you ever seen those self-weather promos by WNEP, WBRE and WYOU, "The storm tracker team...using the latest radar..."
Yet, the talking head have been wrong so many times. I don't know of a career where the work is done by someone else, it could be totally wrong and they still get paid big bucks.
WBRE is the only station in this market that has a chief with a mail-order meteorology degree. The 2 guys at WYOU and 3 of the 4 at WNEP are degreed meteorologists, that make their OWN forecasts. I've worked with some guys that just took whatever the forecast was from the National Weather Service or Accuweather, but 28 is the only station here that does that. The forecast you get from WNEP & WYOU is done by the meteorologist on duty. It is THEIR opinion on how they think the weather will be. Give these guys some credit. 4 years of high level math & science in college to tell you what the weather will be. It is the only part of the newscast that tells you the future. Think about it. The accident has already happened, the murder has already happened, the sports game has already happened. One meteorologist I know puts it this way: "Tell me what the winning Powerball #s will be next Saturday night." That is what it is like to be a meteorologist.
"I don't know of a career where the work is done by someone else, it could be totally wrong and they still get paid big bucks."
9:42 AM
It's not that easy. And remember, they have to endure the slings and arrows of outrageous assholes.
How many jobs exist where any small mistakes are out there for all the world to see? Maybe some of the talking heads don't do all of the work, but they take all of the criticism for mistakes made, both theirs and any made in text by background people. Some justified, some not. But in any case, not a peaches and cream job anyway. Sometimes the bright spotlight shows even minor flaws. It's a job, that's all. But at least my mistakes aren't broadcast when I make them!
No offense to the weather talent, but give me a break. What do they do? Ask anyone who works in TV, the weather guys leave for three hours in between shows. If they want, the forcast is done for them. They do not have the hardest job, but they do like to scare the viewers. PLEASE GET YOUR BREAD AND MILK AT THE SURESAVE...WE ARE GETTING SNOW. OH MY GOD IT SNOWS IN PA!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great guys i'm sure! Easy job. No editing, seldon a live shot, really no producing. Ad-lib what, todays low!
An F2 tornado blows through the area and it's a surprise that 3 stations were knocked off the air ? Come on, people.
7:07 said: An F2 tornado blows through the area and it's a surprise that 3 stations were knocked off the air? Come on, people.
Yes, it *is* a surprise. Or should be. Absent their towers laying on the ground like new-mown hay, they should have had a generator to provide some sort of coverage. 16 did; why not 50?; I can see 44 not being around. But that F2 hit power lines, not transmitter buildings or the antenna farm.
WYOU and WBRE are penny wise and pound foolish. What happened if the towers came down? I believe 16 has a direct fiber feed to a couple of the big cable operators. Has Nexstar made that investment?
6:40 said: I believe 16 has a direct fiber feed to a couple of the big cable operators. Has Nexstar made that investment? I'm on Service Electric and saw the WBRE's 11:00pm news when they announced they were still off the air. So they are with SETV, at least.
You are correct, 6:40am.
The start of fiber optic was "Adelphia 63" where WNEP began repeat news and local programs 24/7 on Adelphia Cable (now Comcast). If WNEP's transmitter site has a problem, the station can still send programming to some cable subscribers.
Years ago, WNEP lost power at the station a couple of times (before the back up generator) and viewers still got newscasts. Network programs were aired through the transmitter location, and someone was bright enough to use microwave trucks to send a signal to the transmitter and get newscasts on the air. No switcher, very little video and a lot of time on the single camera, but the viewers had the information.
WBRE/WYOU should be ashamed. Unless the tower falls, television stations in the 21st century shouldn't be off the air for hours and days by a storm.
4:48PM says "Unless the tower falls..."
WBRE's tower toppled some years ago, didn't it? Anyone know the details?
7:46 asked: WBRE's tower toppled some years ago, didn't it? Anyone know the details?
I don't know what brought it down, but nobody knew it visually because of the fog. I think only a couple of sections fell.
Ron Schacht happened to have a tower there, possibly on the ground, and he rented it to 28 with the provision that they take it down and assemble it on Larksville Mountain for his new 93.7 operation after 28 put up its new stick.
BTW: Ron has a letter in this week's RW.
Amazing how this has been forgotten - WBRE's tower came crashing down, and I mean it was nothing more than a pile of twisted and broken metal, because of icing. It was January 8, 1989, which I discovered while googling around for any info on the matter.
The de-icers on the tower were either a)Not working properly, b)Not turned on. The enormous weight of even a thin coat of ice everywhere on the tower caused it to fail, and down it came. Only thing is, no one saw it happen, no one heard it happen - it's just like the tree in the forest; if no one's there to hear it, well, you know the rest.
Subsequent to the tower collapse, WBRE launched a sizable promotion built around the new Tower of Power as the replacement stick went up.
4:48 said: WBRE/WYOU should be ashamed. Unless the tower falls, television stations in the 21st century shouldn't be off the air for hours and days by a storm.
Didn't someone on this board, some time back, mention offhand about 28 having an xmtr generator? Seems to me I heard about them having one, but I'm not sure exactly where I read it.
Off the air over the weekend, and Friday "Pennsylvania Morning" didn't get on the air until 5:30 a.m. On top of that, the lead story was a "look live" on snowy roads from the night before. What a sorry excuse for television stations!
It should be mentioned that when WBRE's Tower fell over, they got back on the air after some assistance from WYOU.
Most of the young Diapers on this page don't even know that.
Not only did WYOU help get them back on the air, but WYOU carried the NFL playoff game that was scheduled on WBRE for that day on NBC....
Post a Comment
<< Home