Dead air on WSAZ?

[Bar Rat]

Channel 3 died in midstream of Law & Order tonight. Anyone else notice or is it a cable problem?

[Hoosier Daddy]

Wait a minute ...
Hold it right there ...
You know it's coming ...
I want to say it ...
Here goes ...

Market leader indeed.

[tvchick]

OMG, did you see that WSAZ also missed a station ID at 2:00 pm Wednesday, and earlier during the Today Show they upcut the return back to Roker...and a couple of days ago they ran school closings over the first 10 seconds of a local commercial! The market leader is surely going down in flames....what has Gray done to our beloved WSAZ?

Gee wizz, get a grip. Mistakes happen. Sometimes it's the station's fault, othertimes its the network or cable. All stations have mistakes (even radio stations). One of our competitors yesterday forgot to clean out their school closing system and ran two week old closings for three hours. NOW THAT'S A BIG MISTAKE! Did the world come to an end? No. The few pissed off school systems will likely forget about it by the time the next snow flake flies.

[David Paleg]

Channel 3 died in midstream of Law & Order tonight.

Maybe they were told they have the right to remain silent. *Doink Doink*

[Big Media]

Gee wizz, get a grip. Mistakes happen. Sometimes it's the station's fault, othertimes its the network or cable. All stations have mistakes (even radio stations). One of our competitors yesterday forgot to clean out their school closing system and ran two week old closings for three hours. NOW THAT'S A BIG MISTAKE! Did the world come to an end? No. The few pissed off school systems will likely forget about it by the time the next snow flake flies.

I hate to say it but I totally agree with tvchick. Technical problems happen regularly. The computer gremlins do not care if it is prime-time or 3 AM. When they take control of the station, they take control.

[Bar Rat]

OMG, did you see that WSAZ also missed a station ID at 2:00 pm Wednesday, and earlier during the Today Show they upcut the return back to Roker...and a couple of days ago they ran school closings over the first 10 seconds of a local commercial! The market leader is surely going down in flames....what has Gray done to our beloved WSAZ?

Gee wizz, get a grip. Mistakes happen. Sometimes it's the station's fault, othertimes its the network or cable. All stations have mistakes (even radio stations). One of our competitors yesterday forgot to clean out their school closing system and ran two week old closings for three hours. NOW THAT'S A BIG MISTAKE! Did the world come to an end? No. The few pissed off school systems will likely forget about it by the time the next snow flake flies.

Actually, I wasn't trying to be critical of anyone. I was asking a question.

[genlock]

TVchick has a point. With the reduced competition from WCHS and WOWK, WSAZ does not have to
maintain anywhere near the standard of excellence previously held. I did notice today at noon, that
Bill Murray's newsroom report had no audio except for someone off camera coughing. Murray and the
kid who was anchoring the noon newscast looked like idiots before the director finally dumped
the newsroom shot.

Market leader, indeed.

[Lee]

Holy freakin' crap!

Do y'all watch that much TV to notice stuff like that or constantly monitor television stations for mistakes???

I mean, when I watch TV...I *WATCH* TV...meaning if Rob Johnson misses a cue or the cameraman is jerking off making the camera go in a back and forth motion...I...I...just don't care...

Good grief!!

Who cares if there's dead air at 4am, 6pm, or 3:25xy in Bizzarro ZASW??

If Tim Irr goes off and punches Randy Yohe in the face, I want to be the first to know, and would want video of that! If Jessica Ralston and Marina Jurica decide they cannot control their insatiable lust for each other any longer and decide to devour each other on camera, I'd be interested in hearing about it and would look forward to seeing the video. If Kallie Cart decides to let a huge fart on air...see above statements.

As far as dead air, miscues, missed weather...

WHO CARES?!?!?!?

[genlock]

I watch TV for the mistakes.
That is the best part of local TV.
I need a life.

[Lester]

Holy freakin' crap!

Do y'all watch that much TV to notice stuff like that or constantly monitor television stations for mistakes???

I mean, when I watch TV...I *WATCH* TV...meaning if Rob Johnson misses a cue or the cameraman is jerking off making the camera go in a back and forth motion...I...I...just don't care...

Good grief!!

Who cares if there's dead air at 4am, 6pm, or 3:25xy in Bizzarro ZASW??

If Tim Irr goes off and punches Randy Yohe in the face, I want to be the first to know, and would want video of that! If Jessica Ralston and Marina Jurica decide they cannot control their insatiable lust for each other any longer and decide to devour each other on camera, I'd be interested in hearing about it and would look forward to seeing the video. If Kallie Cart decides to let a huge fart on air...see above statements.

As far as dead air, miscues, missed weather...

WHO CARES?!?!?!?

You know as well as the next guy that radio folks hear every mistake in signal coming out of the radio. Hell, most of us turn UP the radio if there is an extended length of dead air.

Apparently TV peeps are no different.

[Lee]

Dude, I know this! I think it's hilarious and imagine some guy there sitting there asleep at the wheel...well...these days it's more likely some kid needing to right click. It's happened to me, you, and probably most on this board.

The only difference is I don't post it...ad nauseum!

[genlock]

Lee, I hope you don't think that I post every mistake I see on WSAZ
on the board or that I even watch that much on WSAZ. It is just sad
that a once dominant station in all aspects of the business has gotten so
sloppy. I know that in a market like this that WSAZ does not need to
excel anymore as their first place finish is assured in each book.
They even have a lot of room to sink before they run off significant
viewership. Competition makes you better, WSAZ has none.

[Big Media]

You are both right but for different reasons.


Mistakes are prevalent because no one care. Not the viewers, not the station management, certainly not the board op, no one.

There are several reasons for this decline. We could talk about it for days.

There's the FCC slacking of the rules about having to be licensed to operate a transmitter. Nowadays, stations want warm bodies (cheap labor). The DON"T want someone who is well trained and will come through the control room door and start telling them they are doing it wrong. They want someone who will sit down and do only what they are told to do. Don't think. Just do what I say.

There's the lack of good, well-trained engineers. We talked about this in another thread. What passes for an engineer these days would have been passed over a laughed out of the building in years past. Again... stations want cheap labor. Not a veteran engineer who sits around recalibrating the meters all day earning 75K per year but can't replace a motherboard. They want the kid who will work for 35K per year who sits around replacing motherboards all day but can't recalibrate a meter.

There's the lack of pride in one's job. When I was in radio, we actually had to start each song, stop set, sweeper, etc. manually (shudder). We took pride in our board. We were damn hard on ourselves when had dead air. These days, the Commodore 64 runs the show. If there's dead air, so what. Not my problem. The engineer who is paid 35K per year and sits around replacing motherboards all day.... that's his problem. I voiced my shift hours ago and now I am parked in front of the Nintendo Wii. Who listens to their own air shift anymore?

I could go on. Discuss?

[genlock]

It is far better to hear dead air and mistakes on someone elses station.
I once kistened to dead air on an am station in Cannonsburg(I think) for over an hour.
I thought all the time I was listening, "sucks to be them". I also wondered what could be the problem
as if it were my station. What happened? Equipment, operator, what?
As long as you are associated with the business you will be interested in things like this.
When things go right, they don't need much fixing. It is only when things go wrong that the
real attention and skills need to be applied.

[Arp2]

Standards: start with "perfection" and always be raising them.

[fearpeddler]

yah, if i posted every mistake I saw on any of the 3 locals here Lester would ban my arse for fillin up the server I think the same can go for anyone who would do teh same, its just nice to point out those extra special ones..

[Lee]

Lee, I hope you don't think that I post every mistake I see on WSAZ
on the board or that I even watch that much on WSAZ. It is just sad
that a once dominant station in all aspects of the business has gotten so
sloppy. I know that in a market like this that WSAZ does not need to
excel anymore as their first place finish is assured in each book.
They even have a lot of room to sink before they run off significant
viewership. Competition makes you better, WSAZ has none.

Nah...it just seems that way!

I know what you're saying...but the thing is, I really don't see it...well...I do sometimes, but I just overlook it. That's the beauty of live TV, ANYTHING can happen.

What they need to do is bring back Mr. Cartoon and Beeper. I woke up early one morning and saw an image of Beeper at the bottom of the school closings crawl. And I was thinking..."None of these kids today knows who Beeper is!" They just think it's some weird rainbow dog looking thing. Anyone can be Beeper, who'd be the "new" Mr. Cartoon?

What would be really cool if they released all those shows on DVD...they HAVE to have those old episodes in the vaults somewhere. Sell 'em locally and I'd say they'd sell like meth on 8th Ave! Those of us who grew up on Mr. Cartoon would buy it...I would!