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Technical problems takes down CBS Evening News, 5/19

The NYC broadcast center, former home to the Evening News, is still closed. It originally was closed due to COVID contaonation back in March. The CBS Evening News moved to DC last fall. Previously they could have switched origination to NYC.

There is speculation that the W57th Street building is now for sale:

https://www.globest.com/2020/01/23/...adcast-center-sale-plots-staff-consolidation/

CBS has already sold Television City in Los Angeles as well as its 51W52nd street headquarters.
 
I am noticing more "glitches" in both radio and tv programming across the board the past couple of months. Usually I am the first to complain, but I think what we are seeing is scaled down control room operations, less radio employees at the actual facility, etc. Am willing to give them a break at this point.
 
CTListener said:
No indications of sabotage, I pray.
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Are you saying that somebody could have hacked in to their satellite which I think is how it s put over the air and messed it all up. Isnt that how it is broadcast either that or some secret computer server location that does it. This happened in the movie live free or die hard where the national cbs feed was hacked into.
 
Syfy said:
Are you saying that somebody could have hacked in to their satellite which I think is how it s put over the air and messed it all up. Isnt that how it is broadcast either that or some secret computer server location that does it. This happened in the movie live free or die hard where the national cbs feed was hacked into.
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With all the "enemy of the people" talk about the media and the characterizations of CBS, other networks and some social media outlets as purveyors of "fake news," I wouldn't rule out any scenario, no matter how far-fetched. That an interview with Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, was to air on the night the "technical issues" cropped up was probably an unfortunate coincidence, but I don't think it's irrational to raise the remote possibility that the "glitch" could have been high-tech sabotage or even an inside job. A motive is certainly there, and in this age of dirty tricks and personal destruction tactics, the possibility can't be ignored. I just hope the glitch was just what CBS says it was.
 
CTListener said:
With all the "enemy of the people" talk about the media and the characterizations of CBS, other networks and some social media outlets as purveyors of "fake news," I wouldn't rule out any scenario, no matter how far-fetched. That an interview with Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, was to air on the night the "technical issues" cropped up was probably an unfortunate coincidence, but I don't think it's irrational to raise the remote possibility that the "glitch" could have been high-tech sabotage or even an inside job. A motive is certainly there, and in this age of dirty tricks and personal destruction tactics, the possibility can't be ignored. I just hope the glitch was just what CBS says it was.
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How could cbs be hacked though wouldn’t they have to hack into a satellite which is nearly impossible.
 
Okay, I'll play along. (For the record, I don't believe any of the conspiracy theories out there--I've got too many other things to worry about!)
Why would someone want to delay or cancel a Mark Zuckerberg interview? Was he going to spill secrets of a competitor? Was it an angry laid-off or fired Facebook employee not wanting to see him again? Does CBS hate Facebook?
You know, all the usual reasons someone would go to extremely complicated time-consuming ridiculous process to shut someone up.......

I hope you realize I'm being silly.
 
skippercollector said:
Okay, I'll play along. (For the record, I don't believe any of the conspiracy theories out there--I've got too many other things to worry about!)
Why would someone want to delay or cancel a Mark Zuckerberg interview? Was he going to spill secrets of a competitor? Was it an angry laid-off or fired Facebook employee not wanting to see him again? Does CBS hate Facebook?
You know, all the usual reasons someone would go to extremely complicated time-consuming ridiculous process to shut someone up.......

I hope you realize I'm being silly.
Click to expand...

My question was more based around how a national network like cbs could be hacked not why it would be hacked.
 
Syfy said:
My question was more based around how a national network like cbs could be hacked not why it would be hacked.
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Back up there Vivid listener. First of all, there was no indication CBS in DC was "hacked". They have a brand new facility, and sometimes new systems suffer from infant mortality. From what I've heard, the problem may have involved their video routing system. Nothing nefarious.

Regarding your question about hacking: Like any business or home, there are a myriad of ways any computer network could be infiltrated. Could be from the inside or outside. Could be a form of malware or ransomware is utilized to capture data from computers on a network, like Target. Could be that the malware opens a vulnerability that allows someone access from the outside. A company website could be tampered with because of an insecure administrator password, or traffic to a website could be blocked by a Denial Of Service attack. An outside infiltration could involve a port in the company firewall being left open to the Internet. I could go on and on.

Most larger companies, like TV networks, pay big bucks to keep their networks safe from unauthorized access, which I believe is what you were asserting.

The famous Sony hacks weren't actually hacks into the company. They were to a Post Production contractor who had been editing the movie. The post house had a very insecure network.
 
I had a friend who was an amateur computer geek and was able to hack into the computer running what was Clear Channel's POWER 104.1 in Hartford, Connecticut and sent them into dead-air for several hours. This was in 2003 right after they had flipped from Modern Rock Radio 104 to Hip-Hop Power 104.1 WPHH. He didn't do it to protest the format change. He told me he did it to prove that Clear Channel had security problem with their computer servers.

This was a conversation we had on AIM.

Him: Marc, have you checked out POWER 104.1 the new hip-hop station yet?
Me: I've been listening, but today they've been off the air all day, so I went back to Hot 93.7
Him: That was me. I hacked into their computer that plays the music and knocked them into Dead Air. I also started deleting song files.
Me: Why, bro? I thought you liked hip-hop music.
Him: I do, but I wanted Clear Channel to realize they have a major security problem with their computer servers.
Me: If only you could use your computer skills for good instead of evil. Then you would be rich.
 
MarcB said:
I had a friend who was an amateur computer geek and was able to hack into the computer running what was Clear Channel's POWER 104.1 in Hartford, Connecticut and sent them into dead-air for several hours. This was in 2003 right after they had flipped from Modern Rock Radio 104 to Hip-Hop Power 104.1 WPHH. He didn't do it to protest the format change. He told me he did it to prove that Clear Channel had security problem with their computer servers.

This was a conversation we had on AIM.

Him: Marc, have you checked out POWER 104.1 the new hip-hop station yet?
Me: I've been listening, but today they've been off the air all day, so I went back to Hot 93.7
Him: That was me. I hacked into their computer that plays the music and knocked them into Dead Air. I also started deleting song files.
Me: Why, bro? I thought you liked hip-hop music.
Him: I do, but I wanted Clear Channel to realize they have a major security problem with their computer servers.
Me: If only you could use your computer skills for good instead of evil. Then you would be rich.
Click to expand...

Could he have broadcasted on the station when he threw them into dead air or would that be a whole other process.
 
Many years ago, when KSL was a CBS affiliate and the CBS -West regional news bureau was colocated in the newsroom, we shared equipment and personnel with Bonneville Satellite. At shift change time, the oncoming uplink engineer had a problem with his glasses, and powered up to do the usual cross-pole test for the round-robin sat feeds, not realizing he was on the wrong satellite. The frequency happened to be the same as the beginning of Dan Rather for the east coast.
The satellite control center could not see him come up on their analyzer, but eventually found him after CBS lit up their phones.
The next week, it was agreed that some new software would be written, with some substantial interlock capabilities. After several meetings, things were finally smoothed over and all was forgiven.
 
kenglish said:
The next week, it was agreed that some new software would be written, with some substantial interlock capabilities. After several meetings, things were finally smoothed over and all was forgiven.
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I've never seen a software yet that will prevent double-illumination of a transponder. If anything it causes it to happen more often. For one, you can't have a software control all the various uplink locations that might come up, intentionally, or accidentally, on any particular bird.

I suspect that some upset higher-up's were told that some secret sauce-special software was being developed to 'prevent this from ever happening again'. In reality, saying something like that is just to placate the pissed.
 
It wasn't a very elaborate system.
The transmitters were interlocked so that you could not come up on a frequency unless the corresponding receiver was also tuned to the same transponder and proper polarization.
That meant that the operator had to be monitoring the transponder before he could transmit on it. Of course, those were the analog days. Nowadays, I'd want it to automatically tune the spectrum analyzer, too.
 
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