WBOY Meltdown

[JKF18]

What happened to the 11pm newscast on WBOY Saturday 8/22? After network programming ended there was dead air. Then a rotation of commercials, dead air, and shots of the anchor sitting at the desk looking confused with no audio. Eventually, both the news and sports anchor came on a single shot that was overshadowed by a green tint. They made an apology about the technical problems, ran one story each, and left the air for another several minutes of commercials. The piped-in weather did not air.

I remember back in the mid 90s when WDTV took a lightning bolt to their building and it fried a bunch of their equipment - leaving the "brown leather 1980s bar stool" setup in front of the control room as their news set for a few weeks.

[jag]

I, too, saw that and I, too, wondered what was going on. I was giving this thread a chance to elaborate on the problem(s), but it seems that it hasn't happened, yet. Surely, somebody has to know.

[JKF18]

Another Saturday night and yet another meltdown on 9/5. 20 minutes of commercials preceded by dead air. Quick recap of the WVU game and a taped package eventually air. No news. Apology about the technical difficulties. C'mon! SOMEBODY tell us what's going on over at WBOY. I wonder if that station out in the midwest still produces "local" newscasts. Anyone else remember the old FOX 46 10:00 news experiment? Local people shot the video while a station in Indiana(?) packaged it all together with their out of town anchors. If the technical difficulties continue - could we see the end of local production, at least maybe on the weekends?

[fearpeddler]

directors just not showing up for work maybe? or anchors??

[JustWinBaby]

Bray probably layed them off and forgot to replace them with younger, cheaper labor.

[tvchick]

Come on, have you guys never heard of Parkervison...or Ignite as it is now known as. If the system crashes, it takes 15-20 minutes to reboot and get it running again. All of Bray's stations have it...guess they went cheap and didn't get a mirrored backup system.

[JustWinBaby]

So buying the system out of the back of a truck in an alley wasn't a good idea?

[Greg Goodfellow]

Anyone else remember the old FOX 46 10:00 news experiment? Local people shot the video while a station in Indiana(?) packaged it all together with their out of town anchors.

Yep. Since my cable dropped 46/10/whatever, replacing it with TWO other FOX outlets, each having its own news (for now), the experiment will probably not be repeated.

[JustWinBaby]

Wait till you see this year's WVMH trick: Having high school kids shoot football highlights. This should take quality to a whole new low.

[tvchick]

Anyone else remember the old FOX 46 10:00 news experiment? Local people shot the video while a station in Indiana(?) packaged it all together with their out of town anchors.

It's not an experiment. Independent News Network, based in Davenport, Iowa, does news for about a dozen stations.

[Greg Goodfellow]

Sorry about that. After all this time, I still don't 'quote' well. Someone else referred to the 'experiment.' I simply stated that I remembered them doing it. As Tony Kornheiser says, "We'll try to do better next time!"

[JKF18]

Call it an "experiment". Call it an "embarassment". The point being the Fox 46 News at 10 did not last. Not sure if many people in NCWV even knew about Fox 46 back then as most people considered it religious WLYJ. The only amusement it provided was watching out of town anchors pronounce names, towns, etc. wrong. WBGN-LP in Pittsburgh was using this "service" - not sure if they still are or not.

[oldtvman2]

13 made it a habit to reboot the system just before the news went on. maybe they didn't pass the word along or perhaps those that were told are not there now?

[JustWinBaby]

Maybe they need Brad "The Karate Kid" Stanford to drop in from Wheeling and straighten out all of their problems...or not.

[whatchamacallit]

What they need is more properly trained personal...

The 2 meltdowns were caused from catastrophic failures of the parkervision system, the weekend crew is way too green to deal with the punches when the crap hits the fan , so they freak out ...

Unfortunately with automation the real production factor is completely gone, nobody gets proper training with working with actual broadcast equipment anymore, the emphasis is more on that's on the computer screen than on an actual switcher, cameras, etc.

I feel real sorry for the engineering staff at wboy from what i heard that there is now only two of them and they are being worked to the bone (another wonderful round of cutbacks)

All the cutbacks haven't helped much matters either everyone is beyond overworked, The whole station is on the edge
Hate to say this but I saw this coming months ago.