Mountain Time Zone network feeds

[justthenumbers]

Over the years, the question about whether separate network feeds exist for broadcast TV affiliates in the Mountain Time Zone has been brought up from time to time on this forum. I came across a posting on another forum that sheds some light on this topic:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=11426833&postcount=1

 

[SteveRichards]

Thanks for posting the link to that post. I enjoyed reading it.

 

[BRNout]

Pretty good description. I worked at an ABC affiliate in the Mountain Time Zone and we had to record everything off of the Eastern Time Zone feed. That caused the occasional glitch; I'll never forget the night when someone forgot to roll tape on the second half hour of an hour-long drama in prime time! Station management begged ABC to allow us to run KUSA's feed live off the bird (they were ABC at the time) and they were denied. A big mea culpa ensued and the show was presented at 1:30 am local time for VCR taping.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

Wow. Total geekdom. (And I mean that in the nicest way.)

If the author of the article is a "girl tech" I'd marry her in a minute!

...someone forgot to roll tape on the second half hour of an hour-long drama in prime time! Station management begged ABC to allow us to run KUSA's feed live off the bird (they were ABC at the time) and they were denied. A big mea culpa ensued and the show was presented at 1:30 am local time for VCR taping.

How did you fill the second half-hour, an hour later?

And from where did you get the show for the 1:30 AM replay--left coast feed?

 

[Tim-In-Houston]

Take into consideration that that posting is two and half years old.

I work at the Great Falls, MT ABC affiliate and as of the end of January, they are providing a live HD feed to all their ABC affiliates out here. Prior to this, our master control (both prior to and after the company centralized master control at our Missoula sister station) tape-delayed the east coast feed for later broadcast. During the transition to centralization, if the overnight MC op forgot to flip the switch, we would occasionally air the first 5 minutes or so of "GMA" live at 5am MT before they swapped the feed to our replay of "America This Morning."

When the switch happened, and for about a month afterwards, our ABC SD-feed monitor (which also displays text alerts from the network) was stuck on the last minute of an "All My Children" feed at the moment of the switch and scrolled a message alerting affiliates that as of a certain date and time (which I think was 1:27 PM EDT on January 29) ABC would no longer provide an SD feed to mountain time zone affiliates.

It's my understanding, based on an article in the Great Falls Tribune shortly before the digital switch last summer, that CBS was already providing a live HD feed to their MTZ affiliates.

 

[JayR]

One word: Slingbox.

You can watch the eastern/central time feed as it airs (of course this requires either having a residence or knowing someone in the eastern or central time zone).

 

[azumanga]

And then you have Arizona, where everything is delayed at station-level for replay at local time during Daylight Savings Time (which began today).

 

[oldiesfan6479]

And then you have Arizona, where everything is delayed at station-level for replay at local time
during Daylight Saving Time (which began today).

At least you have two chances to "ingest" (is that word used in the
digital server world to replace "record"?) the incoming programming,
for those networks with a Mountain zone feed.

If it's any consolation, the Phoenix and Tucson (OK, Yuma too) CBS
affils should be able to pick up the left coast feed for daytime, for
the shows they air in pattern. They'll also have the 5:30 and 6 PM PT
left coast feeds of Katie (same for ABC/NBC on the evening newsers).

Getting back to Mountain Time Zone feeds in general, it would seem
that CBS may now be the only holdout. Or maybe not. Can any techs
from Mountain zone CBS affils give us the real scoop?

 

[ixnay]

Thanks for posting the link to that post. I enjoyed reading it.

Guess that's why there's chocolate, vanilla, and butter pecan, Steve. I found it to be unnecessarily (indeed, arrogantly) long. It could've been concise and put in non-geek terms. The poster owed its readers an apology at the end.

ixnay

 

[oldiesfan6479]

It wouldn't be in non-geek terms...it's the AVS Forum.
(Forum motto: rookies need not apply. )

 

[BRNout]

How did you fill the second half-hour, an hour later?

And from where did you get the show for the 1:30 AM replay--left coast feed?

I was in a hurry and so failed to mention that the 1:30 AM replay was done several days later and was mentioned on the news for those interested. The mistake was identified just as the master control operator went to change to tape spools - so about 8:25 pm MT (IIRC, it ran from 8-9 MT and was recorded from 7-8 MT). In other words, they didn't have the hour of lead time or they would have pre-empted the program. It was worse than that because they had already aired the first 30 minutes!

What followed was a litany of the nastiest four letter words you've ever heard, lots of running up and down hallways and desperate scrambling. This was in about 1988, so the best that they could do initially was to air a station ID slide with a crawl about 'technical difficulties.' After the idea of rebroadcasting the KUSA feed was declined, all that was left to do was to air about 20 minutes of "Jeopardy" and call it a day. They taped the PT feed of the show in question (2 hours later) and that was aired at a later date.

A very memorable evening. ;D

 

[Radio3787]

I never understood why network programming wouldn't just solve the problem by making prime time at 8 Eastern and Mountain / 7 Central and Pacific. Two feeds. Live for every time zone.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

I never understood why network programming wouldn't just solve the problem by making prime time
at 8 Eastern and Mountain / 7 Central and Pacific.

It would disrupt long-time viewing and sleeping habits. You don't want
cranky Nielsen families! ;D

Viewers in the Mountain zone have typically been, as in the midwest,
earlier to bed, earlier to rise. News at 11 PM and Jay/Dave at 11:35
would be too late. Not that the Mountain Time Zone has ever meant
anything to the networks, but this would make us "hate" New York
and the east coast even more. It's bad enough that certain cable
companies (cough...Cox...cough) have love affairs with left coast feeds
(Pacific plus one hour makes things even later).

As for the left coast, the biggest gripe there would be from the affils
who wouldn't want to lose the lucrative access hour (7-8 PM PT),
especially those with the Jeopardy/Wheel Of Torture franchise. Some
PT affils have tried "early prime" (7-10) in the past but most have gone
back to 8-11. The SMF CBS (O&O) station still goes early, but I can't
recall any others still doing it--this of course takes them out of the
left coast feed and makes them delay prime themselves.

 

[The King Bee]

While stationed at Cannon AFB, Clovis, NM in the mid-to late 70's, the cable company took network affiliate feeds from Albuquerque, Lubbock and our home market, Amarillo. This enabled us (on MST/MDT, 10 miles from the CT boundary) to see network programming THREE times! For example, we'd see "CBS Evening News" at 1630 local (1730 CT, 1830 ET), again at 1730, and the MT feed at 1830 local.