Billy Joel Special Cut Off

[Derek]

Yeah, here in Phoenix (KPHO), we saw the ending in full. In fact, it went a minute over the scheduled end at 10:01 MST & we ended up getting a JIP message leading into the late news because it also airs on sister Gray independent station KTVK.

Phoenix here too. It was 10:02 on our Cox cable box. I didn't even realize it had run over until the JIP message.

 

[anotherguyTN]

Nonsense. That’s a part of the business. Putting big ticket events on Sundays is perfectly common. And sports are darn near ubiquitous.

They surely can coordinate events where they are less likely to conflict. The Billy Joel special could have been shown a week earlier or later where the Masters wouldn't have conflicted.

 

[radiofan2023]

CBS is showing the special again on Friday night at 9 Eastern.

 

[Don CT]

How about CBS blow out the schedule and show the full 3 hour show.

 

[secondchoice]

That would support the theory that it was an incorrect out time that many CBS stations hubbed master controls went with, and was not cut off on the actual network feed.

Most likely so, and master control times were not adjusted for the end of prime time for the affected stations.

As is common with streaming services, the Paramount feed will have a significant delay from OTA. I have YouTube TV, and the local stations on it are about 25 seconds behind OTA.

You have to remember that most station master controls are hubbed elsewhere, perhaps more than a thousand miles away, and those hubs are running dozens, if not hundreds of program feeds at the same time. The local stations have nothing to do with that within their own buildings. The days of stations having their own in-house master control are mostly gone.

How do stations do local news if the control room is "thousands of miles away". How do the stations do severe weather? Are the local commercials inserted at the hub?

I guess you learn something everyday. I always thought the local TV stations had a manly (compared to radio) pc/server that did the switching, (based on tones from the network), played non network syndicated programs and played the local commercials at the station.

 

[Don CT]

How do stations do local news if the control room is "thousands of miles away". How do the stations do severe weather? Are the local commercials inserted at the hub?

I guess you learn something everyday. I always thought the local TV stations had a manly (compared to radio) pc/server that did the switching, (based on tones from the network), played non network syndicated programs and played the local commercials at the station.

Local TV master control was manned 24/7 back in the day. Now one person over sees 10 networks from a central location.

 

[fybush]

The anchors are (usually) still in a local studio, as are the meteorologists.

But the need for local MCR mostly went away once it became trivially cheap to move data back and forth by fiber. Why ingest Jeopardy 40 different times at 40 stations when you can ingest it once at a hub and play out the same file to 40 stations? Why maintain 40 different satellite downlinks?

If all you're doing is playing out files, what does it matter where the server is?

(Which, by the way, also means you can do a hub architecture in a few different ways - you can play all the files out at the hub and send the actual video stream back to the local transmitter by fiber. Or you can put the playout server at a local site but use a hub to send files to it and control what's playing out when.)

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

They surely can coordinate events where they are less likely to conflict. The Billy Joel special could have been shown a week earlier or later where the Masters wouldn't have conflicted.

They plan the shows for specific weeks, inclusive of working through what that means for their regular series and the potential increase of audience. Let’s keep some perspective; it’s one show, with one flubbed cutoff. Outside of a few TV nerds who insist on rehashing every little thing for years, this isn’t going to be a blip in anyone’s mind in a few weeks. People vented, click-hungry websites ran stories, and the world moved on. There are other changes to processes that can be made; changing how they plot when the big events get placed is not going to happen for this little mishap that didn’t even effect half the country.

 

[Loverofradio]

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.

Not at my station. We have master control here

 

[Loverofradio]

The anchors are (usually) still in a local studio, as are the meteorologists.

But the need for local MCR mostly went away once it became trivially cheap to move data back and forth by fiber. Why ingest Jeopardy 40 different times at 40 stations when you can ingest it once at a hub and play out the same file to 40 stations? Why maintain 40 different satellite downlinks?

If all you're doing is playing out files, what does it matter where the server is?

(Which, by the way, also means you can do a hub architecture in a few different ways - you can play all the files out at the hub and send the actual video stream back to the local transmitter by fiber. Or you can put the playout server at a local site but use a hub to send files to it and control what's playing out when.)

If you want your tv station to look good, and not sit in black at the stupidest times, theres a huge need for master control. Too many ad dollars at risk to look like a bad tv station. we’ve got MC at my station. Take a look at your local nexstar station and let me know what you think 😂

 

[nomadcowatbk]

Local TV master control was manned 24/7 back in the day. Now one person over sees 10 networks from a central location.

back in the day, stations aired test patterns after the anthem early in the morning

 

[CTListener]

back in the day, stations aired test patterns after the anthem early in the morning

I remember them powering off completely from sign-off until an hour or so until sign-on, when the test pattern would appear.

 

[vchimpanzee]

CBS is showing the special again on Friday night at 9 Eastern.

I saw an article in an actual newspaper in the Eastern time zone which got everything relating to times wrong.

Does anyone monitor what they're getting from other sources?

According to the article (I don't know how to link) the special was supposed to end at 10 but got cut off abruptly at 10:30 as stations went to local news. The special will air again at 8 Friday night.

 

[Mr Tony]

back in the day, stations aired test patterns after the anthem early in the morning

I remember them powering off completely from sign-off until an hour or so until sign-on, when the test pattern would appear.

my local CBS/FOX affiliate (KEYC Mankato, MN) signed off until Sept 2020 and they would shut the transmitter off. After Anthem they would do a weather map thingy mainly for cable subs but they didnt stay on 24/7 until September 2020

 

[fybush]

If you want your tv station to look good, and not sit in black at the stupidest times, theres a huge need for master control. Too many ad dollars at risk to look like a bad tv station. we’ve got MC at my station. Take a look at your local nexstar station and let me know what you think 😂

The one station in my market with a local, staffed master control is also the one that most frequently steps on network content coming out of breaks.

Just saying.

 

[Loverofradio]

The one station in my market with a local, staffed master control is also the one that most frequently steps on network content coming out of breaks.

Just saying.

Then that MC isn’t doing their job and management im sure is turning a blind eye to it

 

[IM42A]

When I read this, I immediately thought of the "Heidi Game":

CBS’ Billy Joel blunder is the Jets’ ‘Heidi Game’ all over again

Fifty-six years after “Heidi,” some poor worker didn’t get the memo from some suit at CBS to use an ounce of common sense and realize that if we were all still tuned in at 11:30 p.m., we were most …

nypost.com

 

[fybush]

When I read this, I immediately thought of the "Heidi Game":

CBS’ Billy Joel blunder is the Jets’ ‘Heidi Game’ all over again

Fifty-six years after “Heidi,” some poor worker didn’t get the memo from some suit at CBS to use an ounce of common sense and realize that if we were all still tuned in at 11:30 p.m., we were most …

nypost.com

I am so tired of seeing people make the comparison between this and Heidi.

Back then, NBC made a deliberate decision to cut away from the game and go to scheduled programming.

Nobody made any deliberate decisions here. Someone at CBS didn't update the math when they inserted a breaking news segment between the golf (which played out to conclusion) and the Billy special (which was meant to run in full).

This is, if anything, the opposite of Heidi.

 

[tbolt909]

I am so tired of seeing people make the comparison between this and Heidi.

Back then, NBC made a deliberate decision to cut away from the game and go to scheduled programming.

Nobody made any deliberate decisions here. Someone at CBS didn't update the math when they inserted a breaking news segment between the golf (which played out to conclusion) and the Billy special (which was meant to run in full).

This is, if anything, the opposite of Heidi.

Agreed. It's not like Billy Joel abruptly walked off stage during a song. If that happened, concert goers could be angry. This was a TV special that people can rewatch over and over if they wish. I would rather have Root Canal than ever hear "Piano Man" again...

 

[IM42A]

I am so tired of seeing people make the comparison between this and Heidi.

Back then, NBC made a deliberate decision to cut away from the game and go to scheduled programming.

Nobody made any deliberate decisions here. Someone at CBS didn't update the math when they inserted a breaking news segment between the golf (which played out to conclusion) and the Billy special (which was meant to run in full).

This is, if anything, the opposite of Heidi.

I was simply referring to the perception by viewers, that something they were seriously interested in, was cut short by programming of no importance to those people watching the football game and the concert respectively.

In both cases, it was a mistake. Here's what the Wikipedia article says about the "Heidi Game":

NBC executives had originally ordered that Heidi begin at 7:00 p.m. EST, but then decided to allow the game to air to its conclusion. However, communicating this revised plan to the technicians running NBC's master control proved impossible – as 7 p.m. approached, NBC's switchboards were jammed by viewers phoning to inquire about the night's schedule, preventing the planned change from being communicated. Heidi began as scheduled, preempting the final moments of the game and the two Oakland touchdowns in the eastern half of the country, to the outrage of viewers.

In the case of the "Heidi Game", it was a breakdown in communication.