Why Did KLAC "fail" During World Series' Final Game?

[davideduardo]

I'd argue that while, yes, people unable to watch the game would be listening to it somehow, but how many were actually tuned to analog 570? How many were streaming through the iHeart app? or TuneIn? or listening via SiriusXM? or via the MLB.tv service? I'd be curious to know how many people were actually affected.

Well, in a normal week just under 500,000 people listen to KLAC. While not all would have been trying to listen for that particular game of the World Series as some were watching TV or using streams and the like, it would be safe to assume that several hundred thousand were using 570 AM to listen to the games prior to the failure at the time of the last game.

 

[bigdonho]

You bring up a separate and interesting point: while many FMs have auxiliary sites, I can't off the top of my head think of any AM station with an auxiliary site.

In LA, following the fires on Mt Wilson over a decade ago, those FMs that did not have AUX sites off the mountain rather rapidly built them. But, on the other hand, few of the FMs that are not on Wilson have auxiliary sites.

I remember back in 1980 when I was with WHYI in the Miami MSA, the FM had an auxiliary on a taller building in Ft Lauderdale. But if activated, it did not cover Miami. Eventually it was eliminated as it "missed" two-thirds or more of the market! .

A few AM stations have (or did have) auxiliary sites. Most were stations that had a daytime site and a night time site. WGH in Norfolk VA was one of these. With the cost of operating a directional site and the current status of AM stations, I doubt there are many/any left.

 

[secondchoice]

A lot of older AM towers could have been canadates for cell towers especially if it wasn't part of a directional system. Converting to a shunt feed for the AM would make things a lot more simpler for the tenants. If the tower was "too light" you could easily go to a bank with the cell contracts and upgraded the tower the first 150 or 200 feet then use the existing antenna sections for the top. Tower rental is good steady income.

 

[alok]

There are a few situations that will totally knock an AM off the air.

Among them:

• Failure of both main and auxiliary transmitters
• An arcing / burn of the point where the transmitters connect to the antenna feed line.
• A major component failure in the ATU (antenna tuning unit) which couples the feed line to the tower(s)
• A tower collapse
• Power loss coupled with failure of the emergency generator.
• Odd items like water pipe breaking open in building and flooding transmitter room or fire control devices turning on mistakenly or a delivery or service truck hitting the building.
• Clear weather lightening strike not going to ground but burning the ATU or cable between the building and tower system.
• Rats chewing insulation off wiring in conduits and causing a short.
• Loss of all audio links to studio. Example: a station using multiple types of wired services has the wires severed by something cutting the wires (often construction that does not check buried cable notices).
• Aliens homing in on the station and sucking all the power out of the air.

Ahhhh ---- I go with the last one, I hear they can tune to just the right frequency too.

 

[xmtrland]

In late August I just got into the studios from my commute from my home on Vashon Island, where the two am transmitters sites are for the station I work for are located. I walked by the Burk computer running Auto Pilot and noticed one AM sites was on Generator. It was starting to get stormy when I was driving in. Before I knew it the AM that carried MLB Baseball was off the air. This is a site with two generators. Runs directional at night and I can switch to either tower during the day. It's even a PeP station so I actually had 3 transmitter. But it was off the air and no amount of button pushing would allow me to switch transmitter or towers. Antenna/transmitter switching was not responding. Turns out the Day tower took a good lightning hit and shorted a status relay's snubber diode and blew the fuse in both the main and backup power supply in the Kintronics Antenna controller. So while all the RF switches were in the right alignment, the interlocks were open because the switcher had no power to pull in the failsafe relay.

I didn't discover this till I got back to the site. But standing there at the studio with the AM off the air and a MLB base ball game airing at 12pm. I know I needed to go back to the Island and get that AM back on. In the process of driving I ran through several scenarios as to what would be the issue. My plan of attack was to immediately pull the fail IE bypass the failsafe on the main transmitter. Programming was ready to run the baseball game on the other AM we have which was on the air but on generator.

Took me 90 minutes to get back to the Island from the studio via the ferry. As soon as I got inside the transmitter building I went for the interlock for the main transmitter and bypassed it. The transmitter popped on the air 30 minutes before the pregame show was to start. Crisis averted. I went to trouble shooting the issue and because of my knowledge growing up around this site built in 1941 I know where all the circuits were for the tower ATU status and found the issue and fixed it so we could resume normal operation with the antenna switcher doing it's job.

Could we have had a relay on the burk to bypass the interlocks...Sure but most engineers want to be at the site if your going to do that. Yes we have an NX50 which is very forgiving as it ramps up power looking at the load and most likely would shut off if it saw no load or a shorted load. But again by passing interlocks remotely is very risky. At one time there was an engineer for each of the 3 big 50KW stations that lived in Vashon Island, but those days are long gone. Now I'm the only engineer that lives out there helping take care of 5 50KW sites. Lucky things have gotten more reliable with solid state transmitters. But things still happen. As a matter of fact the generator for the second AM station the company owned on Vashon had an issue the same day as I was heading back to the Island and I had to have my room mate go down and restart that generator since I was sitting in the ferry line. When all was said and done. No one was made the scapegoat, no heads rolled. I was praised for my quick thinking and knowledge of an old legacy site.

As for that generator issue at the second station. My theory of what happened was that there was an initial power bump that started both generators at both the AM sites, but only one actually started the second one over spun and locked out. This was only a bump so the station that had the generator that didn't start returned to air because the power was out for only a few seconds. When the outage occurred again about 25 minutes latter the first station on generator was fine but the second one was off because the generator needed to have the lockout reset and restarted. Luckily when my roommate went to the site, he reset and started the generator.

So yes things happen. And Yes I have sat at the transmitter site for the AM while our NFL team played in the supper bowl, twice. Had a contactor fail going from day to might during a baseball game..Yup (although I was not working for the station at that time, my dad was.)

Between the STL, Control Systems, Antenna/Transmitter contactors and generators there is alot that can go wrong. Anytime you can get a station back on the air under 3 hours and make up those spots is a win. It's when your off the air for longer than 3 hours that makes it harder to make up spots. Of course spots during an NFL or MLB game would be more difficult.

While iHeart has had lay offs of some of their engineering staff, overall the ones I have contact with are excellent people. The LA engineers that got KLAC back on the air within an hour or two did an excellent job. The fact that they could quickly and easily put the game on KFI shows they did have a plan if the worse case scenario occurred.

Another thing, I have been reminded by listeners with sight impairment that turning off the Profanity delay during a game so they can listen to the game in near real time is much appreciated. I say near because of the slight delay with STL and processing can adds a second to the audio which I can't do much about. But they are thankful for being able to listen to the AM signal that is only off by 1 second during a home baseball or NFL game.

 

[boombox4]

^^^^^^^^^ Very insightful and informative, obviously from someone who deals with issues like this.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

 

[boombox4]

I'd argue that while, yes, people unable to watch the game would be listening to it somehow, but how many were actually tuned to analog 570? How many were streaming through the iHeart app? or TuneIn? or listening via SiriusXM? or via the MLB.tv service? I'd be curious to know how many people were actually affected. Ironically enough- I was. I was jumping on the bus to meet my partner in Westwood and grabbed my dinky little pocket radio and noticed 570 sounded like absolute garbage. I clicked over and realized it was being simulcast on 640 and just thought it was because it was a potential clincher of a game- I was none the wiser about what happed at 570. Also, I don't know if 830 had the ESPN calls, but 710 was airing Lakers basketball.

One thing to remember is that baseball fans average around 50+ years of age, and undoubtedly grew up with AM radio. So off the cuff, I would guess that the audience, even on an AM station, for a World Series game -- especially when it's your home team playing -- would be significantly higher than a an AM standards station. or another AM station in the area, like -- say -- KABC.

 

[KilowattKat]

A tale of 2 cities.

KWFN San Diego, Padres flagship station is tied for #1 (6.2 share) in Nielsen PPM, boosted by the playoffs.

KLAC Los Angeles, Dodgers flagship station is #23 (2.0 share), only half a share boost from playoffs.

This shows most people have moved on to other options other than AM for play by play sports, at least in LA

 

[TheBigA]

A tale of 2 cities.

KWFN San Diego, Padres flagship station is tied for #1 (6.2 share) in Nielsen PPM, boosted by the playoffs.

KLAC Los Angeles, Dodgers flagship station is #23 (2.0 share), only half a share boost from playoffs.

This shows most people have moved on to other options other than AM for play by play sports, at least in LA

KWFN is a very different kind of radio station. First of all, it's on FM. But mainly, it's an all sports talk station with popular LOCAL talk show hosts. Their model is WFAN in NYC.

KLAC is primarily a Fox Sports Network station, carrying most of the syndicated hosts like Dan Patrick and Collin Cowherd.

There had been talk about starting an FM sports talk station in LA, but it would have to be more like KWFN. Audacy owns that station and they know what's involved. They would have to run the station with only one local team. The finances aren't there.

On the other hand, both KLAC and KSPN understand that they have to do more than broadcast radio. Both iHeart & Good Karma understand the sports business is bigger than broadcast. If they control the broadcast rights, it gives them access to the content people really want. Both companies have built their platforms around highlights reels on social media. There's a lot of money in converting their exclusive play by play into digestible chunks that younger audiences prefer. They don't need to sit through the entire game. They just want the main plays. That's what sports media is about today.

 

[KilowattKat]

KWFN is a very different kind of radio station. First of all, it's on FM. But mainly, it's an all sports talk station with popular LOCAL talk show hosts. Their model is WFAN in NYC.

KLAC is primarily a Fox Sports Network station, carrying most of the syndicated hosts like Dan Patrick and Collin Cowherd.

There had been talk about starting an FM sports talk station in LA, but it would have to be more like KWFN. Audacy owns that station and they know what's involved. They would have to run the station with only one local team. The finances aren't there.

On the other hand, both KLAC and KSPN understand that they have to do more than broadcast radio. Both companies have built their platforms around highlights reels on social media. There's a lot of money in converting their exclusive play by play into digestible chunks that younger audiences prefer. They don't need to sit through the entire game. They just want the main plays. That's what sports media is about today.

Do you think it would make a difference if KLAC had all local hosts discussing mostly LA sports during the day, and keep Fox Sports at night only?

 

[TheBigA]

Do you think it would make a difference if KLAC had all local hosts discussing mostly LA sports during the day, and keep Fox Sports at night only?

It depends on who the hosts are and what they talk about. In Dallas, there's an AM sports talk station (with an FM repeater) that's also #1.

My take is Audacy ran the numbers and decided against it. As I said, iHeart is about creating content for their streaming service.

For me, I was covering an event during the first hour of game 5, so I was watching it on my phone using my MLB account.

 

[Karl]

Towards the end of Game 4 I went to listen to the game on my streaming radio. Not sure why, but the Fox Sports LA feed was playing a Fox Sports network show and not the Dodger game. I found the ESPN radio broadcast streaming on 710 and KLAA 830. Ended up listening to NYC's WFAN 660.

 

[mofocat2]

I was listening to KFI online until about 7:30 I think. I was hearing the regularly scheduled Moe Kelly show that gave no indication of a change in programming. The last hour of the Tim Conway, 6-7PM was odd. An hour with no commercials, only one after another short segments of previous Tim Conway shows. That was odd, but then Moe Kelly was right on schedule. I think I listened for 30 minutes or so, I had no idea KFI's air signal was going to the playoff.

 

[K.M. Richards]

I was listening to KFI online until about 7:30 I think. I was hearing the regularly scheduled Moe Kelly show that gave no indication of a change in programming.

They were likely in panic mode and no one thought to tell Moe what was going on. Or maybe they thought the backup plan wouldn't be needed and deliberately didn't tell him, not wanting an on-air announcement for something they ended up not doing.

I would not be surprised, nor fault them, for focusing on the technical issues.

 

[TheBigA]

I was listening to KFI online until about 7:30 I think. I was hearing the regularly scheduled Moe Kelly show that gave no indication of a change in programming.

My guess is: The KLAC stream was unaffected, so no need to pre-empt KFI's stream. Split programming on KFI, with broadcast carrying the game (temporarily) and the stream running regular programming. There may also be MLB streaming rights issues that limit the number of streams allowed.

This is what KLAC's emergency tweet said regarding streaming:

To stream the game live on any device, listen on @am570lasports on the free @iheartradio app! pic.twitter.com/z2i8njW2da

Streaming on KFI was not offered as an option.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Too bad we're not likely to know what really happened.

We've speculated seven ways from Sunday, and as has been said earlier, iHeart is under no obligation to release details ... and if they haven't by now, they're not going to.

As far as I am concerned, discussion over.

 

[fybush]

Whether or not we ever learn the details (and we probably won't), I think it's a conversation worth having. Good opportunities to learn about how modern broadcast facilities are designed and for those of us doing engineering to think about some of the points of failure.

 

[TomásEstefan]

KLAC does not have a backup transmitter *site.*

Unless you know something I don't, there's more than one transmitter in the building. There certainly was the last time I was there, though it's been a few years.

I can't think of any iHeart station I've seen that doesn't have a backup transmitter, even their lowliest and most forgotten little outlying FMs. The company believes strongly in backups and planning.

So what happened? They are indeed under no obligation to tell us. Since co-located KFWB (same towers, separate transmitter building) apparently was not affected, we can say with certainty it wasn't the towers, and we can reasonably speculate it had something to do with the STL, but it could also have been anything else specific to KLAC's side of the site - a failure to switch over to a backup transmitter, a problem with the power handling in their specific building, an issue somewhere along the transmission line out to where the 570 and 980 signals are combined. Could be anything.

I'm glad you mentioned 980. Unfortunately I didn't note what day it was, but very recently either before or during the period of the World Series games. KFWB was off the air for several hours late one evening and I guess until sometime in the middle of the night. I think this might be interesting as they do share the same plant as KLAC.

 

[Mark Roberts]

Whether or not we ever learn the details (and we probably won't), I think it's a conversation worth having. Good opportunities to learn about how modern broadcast facilities are designed and for those of us doing engineering to think about some of the points of failure.

Agreed…from this discussion I learned that KOA has a complete backup at the KDFD site which has ample mileage separation from the main site. That’s an important consideration for disaster recovery of computer systems; the same principle would apply to critical radio broadcasters such as a PEP.

The KKOB tower incident a few weeks ago is another example demonstrating the importance of this topic. In my humble opinion, it’s plenty interesting.

 

[K.M. Richards]

Whether or not we ever learn the details (and we probably won't), I think it's a conversation worth having.

All I am saying is that absent the details, there's not much left to discuss.

The last "takeaways" engineering wise were back at post #45. That's 15 post ago, after which we got into a discussion about streaming and sports-formatted stations in general.

It was a conversation worth having, Scott, and I agree with your reasoning about that. But we've learned all we are going to unless iHeart surprises us by saying in public exactly what happened.