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Billy Joel Special Cut Off

TheBigA said:
Correct, it was the full network feed for East Coast and Central time zones. Obviously the Masters didn't delay the west coast feed, so that one was unaffected.
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I'm curious about what we experienced at my O&O affiliate, KOVR in Sacramento. "Piano Man" cut off early here, just as it did in the Eastern and Central time zones. In the west, we're not subjected to sports delays on Sunday nights, so I wasn't expecting the cut, which I knew about in advance from social media.

Was the KOVR cut due to the fact that the station is an O&O and picked up a feed directly from CBS in the Eastern time zone? If so, it sounds like there was nothing KOVR could do locally because the cut was already done by the time the feed aired in Sacramento. Is this correct?

FWIW, KOVR does "early prime" here (and has been doing so for 30 years -- 10:00 late local news), but I doubt that had anything to do with the cut.

(Edit: Looks like Mediafrog+ answered the question, but I'm still curious about the specific example in Sacramento with KOVR being an O&O).
 
TheBigA said:
Fans of Billy Joel are angry at CBS for cutting off his TV special at 11:30 PM for local news:

www.billboard.com

Billy Joel Fans Not Feeling Alright After Network Cuts 100th Madison Square Garden Show Broadcast During ‘Piano Man’

Billy Joel fans were furious at CBS on Sunday (April 14) after the network cut the broadcast of Billy Joel's 100th MSG show short during 'Piano Man.'
www.billboard.com www.billboard.com

www.huffpost.com

CBS Pulls The Plug On Billy Joel At Worst Possible Moment, And Fans Are So Pissed

The iconic singer's landmark performance was cut off at the exact wrong time -- and viewers are livid.
www.huffpost.com www.huffpost.com

The special was delayed due to coverage of The Masters. The CBS contract with affiliates requires them to return to local at a certain time. Unfortunately Billy was in the final verse of his biggest hit Piano Man when the switch occurred. No warning, no artful fade, just a hard edit from the show to local news.
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Mediafrog+ said:
Didn’t watch the show, but was this a national thing done by CBS itself or a case of some CBS affiliates with a common Master Control hub dumping out prematurely due to a hard timed automation playlist that wasn’t updated? The “abrupt cut” seems to indicate the latter. There have been numerous instances of station automation not being updated to reflect time shifts in the network feed.

I have never heard of any “return to local at a certain time” agreement, and CBS programming has previously run much later in the evening due to delays. Also what happened on the west coast, with its later feed?
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There is no such return to local at a certain time rule. The late news starts at a different time every week during football season.
 
VMan said:
I'm curious about what we experienced at my O&O affiliate, KOVR in Sacramento. "Piano Man" cut off early here, just as it did in the Eastern and Central time zones. In the west, we're not subjected to sports delays on Sunday nights, so I wasn't expecting the cut, which I knew about in advance from social media.

Was the KOVR cut due to the fact that the station is an O&O and picked up a feed directly from CBS in the Eastern time zone? If so, it sounds like there was nothing KOVR could do locally because the cut was already done by the time the feed aired in Sacramento. Is this correct?

FWIW, KOVR does "early prime" here (and has been doing so for 30 years -- 10:00 late local news), but I doubt that had anything to do with the cut.

(Edit: Looks like Mediafrog+ answered the question, but I'm still curious about the specific example in Sacramento with KOVR being an O&O).
Click to expand...
I know in regards to CBS, all affiliates out West record the ET/CT feed (I know this as someone who follows 506 Discord & someone there who does MC at a CBS affiliate sharing during NFL season broadcast notes from the network in regards to flex markets as well as one time this past season KPHO (Phoenix) when blacked out of a late DH game, instructed on how to handle recording the main feed in case the DH game ran long), although as I mentioned here in Phoenix, "Piano Man" was shown in full as well as the closing credits.
 
How long was the actual concert. How much did CBS edit out to fit the 2 hour window. Plus 20 minutes for commercials. I dumped out of it after they ran way to many commercials.
 
VMan said:
I'm curious about what we experienced at my O&O affiliate, KOVR in Sacramento. "Piano Man" cut off early here, just as it did in the Eastern and Central time zones. In the west, we're not subjected to sports delays on Sunday nights, so I wasn't expecting the cut, which I knew about in advance from social media.

Was the KOVR cut due to the fact that the station is an O&O and picked up a feed directly from CBS in the Eastern time zone? If so, it sounds like there was nothing KOVR could do locally because the cut was already done by the time the feed aired in Sacramento. Is this correct?

FWIW, KOVR does "early prime" here (and has been doing so for 30 years -- 10:00 late local news), but I doubt that had anything to do with the cut.
Click to expand...
Just an educated guess, but KOVR, due to its “early prime time” schedule, likely does a delay of the ET/CT CBS feed. Thus the timing screwup carried over and no one caught it. Other PT stations get a timeshifted west coast feed from the network, and have for decades.

NYCsporty said:
I know in regards to CBS, all affiliates out West record the ET/CT feed
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MT stations recorded and timeshifted CBS prime time programming for years. Not sure if they now receive a special MT feed from the network. PT stations always got a west coast feed out of Los Angeles, though the origination of that might have changed in recent years.

nelsonincharlotte said:
There is no such return to local at a certain time rule. The late news starts at a different time every week during football season.
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And on CBS NFL singleheader weekends the late news can start at different times for ET and CT stations depending on where you are. Stations with only an early game have a “normal“ prime time, while those receiving only a late game will have a delayed prime time if their game runs over.

Different procedure on Fox where stations receiving only a late game will JIP prime time, which is usually reruns in that hour.
 
In addition to the CBS rebroadcast, the concert special is available – in full – on Paramount+.
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Is that unedited commercial free full or just not missing the final 2 minutes of the broadcast.
 
As best I can make sense of what happened, it looks like CBS had a communications issue when it came to the news update that was inserted between the Masters and the concert. Whatever time that added (90 seconds?) wasn't figured in to the end time that was sent to affiliates so they'd know when to dump net for the late news.

Affiliates that had local MCR operators that were paying attention were able to adjust on the fly. The network did feed the whole show and at least a few affiliates stayed with it to the end, but most that have automated/hubbed MCRs followed the timing they got from the network and dumped out during Piano Man.
 
VMan said:
I'm curious about what we experienced at my O&O affiliate, KOVR in Sacramento. "Piano Man" cut off early here, just as it did in the Eastern and Central time zones. In the west, we're not subjected to sports delays on Sunday nights, so I wasn't expecting the cut, which I knew about in advance from social media.

Was the KOVR cut due to the fact that the station is an O&O and picked up a feed directly from CBS in the Eastern time zone? If so, it sounds like there was nothing KOVR could do locally because the cut was already done by the time the feed aired in Sacramento. Is this correct?

FWIW, KOVR does "early prime" here (and has been doing so for 30 years -- 10:00 late local news), but I doubt that had anything to do with the cut.

(Edit: Looks like Mediafrog+ answered the question, but I'm still curious about the specific example in Sacramento with KOVR being an O&O).
Click to expand...
Interestingly KPIX in San Francisco did early prime in the late 1990's when CBS converted KPIX into an O&O as a result of the Group W deal. But the ratings around that time made CBS to make KPIX to follow the PT feed lineup and revert early prime.
 
Y2kTheNewOldies said:
Interestingly KPIX in San Francisco did early prime in the late 1990's when CBS converted KPIX into an O&O as a result of the Group W deal. But the ratings around that time made CBS to make KPIX to follow the PT feed lineup and revert early prime.
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This subject could be its own topic, as it's very interesting. I was living in the Bay Area when this occurred (I think it occurred in '92). KPIX and KRON (then the NBC affil) switched to early prime as an experiment. KOVR and I believe KXTV (which was CBS back then) also followed suit. The experiment only lasted a few months, and all stations except KOVR switched back.
 
Don CT said:
Why would they schedule this concert the same night as The Masters knowing it always runs long.

I also never get why CBS doesn't program 60 Minutes at 7:30 on masters night. They never hit the top of the hour ever.
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All the networks should know better than to schedule a major event on any Sunday night when they're carrying live sports that can possibly run over into prime time.
 
CTListener said:
Since I dump out of "Piano Man" by changing the radio station after the first half-dozen notes every time it comes on, I obviously wasn't affected by this cataclysmic event. But tell me, why would even the most devoted Billy Joel fan be outraged over missing the final stanza or so of Billy's 7 billionth performance of that song?
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I wonder how much "Outrage" really happened. Many folks may have dozed off long before the glitch happened. Of course, if it had been Taylor Swift -- It truly would have been the Apocalypse...😑
 
tbolt909 said:
I wonder how much "Outrage" really happened. Many folks may have dozed off long before the glitch happened. Of course, if it had been Taylor Swift -- It truly would have been the Apocalypse...😑
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Of course, Taylor Swift knows her audience better by not dumping her Eras Tour concert not on a broadcast net, but on streaming services like Disney+. We're lucky CBS righted the wrong here the right way rather than just telling ppl to watch it in full streaming on Paramount+ which they could easily do because we know they, like the other broadcast nets who have streaming services, want to prop it up & get new subs.
 
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