NBC 4 and WBNS 10 OTA "HD" signals off due to a "power hit"

[ohgary]

There were both up on TW cable ... Never knew they were down till the post.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Most large market TV stations have direct fiber feeds to the major cable companies.

The WCMH/WBNS "hit" apparently hit their shared transmitter site.

 

[gabigley1]

That outage also affected all the radio stations on the WBNS-TV tower site. This according to a Broadcast Engineer on site during the power outage:

Yes if affected, WLVQ, WSNY, WCOL, WBNS, The Blitz, and Jack FM.

I also noticed LPTV station Ch. 19 was also off last night and they are also on that WBNS-TV tower
site. Ch. 19 is also back on the air now.

Noticed the Columbus Dispatch has more on this:

http://www.dispatch.com/content/sto...ower-jolt-cuts-signals-for-wbns-and-wcmh.html

By Tim Feran

The Columbus Dispatch Wednesday January 18, 2012 9:41 AM

Last evening, American Electric Power was working on a repair, but Channel 10 officials said they had no estimate for when signals from WBNS and WCMH would again be available over the air.

“I just talked to both the underground and line supervisors, and they’re not sure where the problem is yet,” said Pat Ingram, director of engineering at Channel 10.

The WBNS tower also hosts several radio-station transmitters, including one used by WLVQ (96.3 FM). However, all have backup transmitters and should be working, Ingram said.

 

[gabigley1]

Also, NBC 4 and WBNS 10 OTA don't have backup power at the site because those TV transmitters use a lot of power.
That is a surprise to me. At least WBNS-TV should have back-up power for their station.

 

[gabigley1]

This makes me wonder if NBC 4 and WBNS 10 OTA will have a new back-up power generator in the future..

Here is something on the WCMH-TV 4 OTA outage:

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/wcmh-knocked-off-the-air-due-to-power-outage_b36275

Columbus, NBC Affiliates
WCMH Knocked Off the Air Due to Power Outage
By Andrew Gauthier on January 18, 2012 10:33 AM

WCMH was knocked off the air Tuesday afternoon due to a power outage, leaving viewers in Columbus unable to watch the NBC-affiliate over-the-air or on DirecTV for nearly 18 hours.

 

[del_griffith]

As an over the air viewer, the lack of the stations was noticeable. I noticed they were back on this morning when I turned on the tv prior to leaving for work.

 

[xmusicmatt]

Yes if affected, WLVQ, WSNY, WCOL, WBNS, The Blitz, and Jack FM.

I was wondering if QFM was on a backup site because I wasn't getting RDS from them last night and I remember the wilks stations always having that in the past. (at least call letters)

I didn't notice anything out of the normal on the other FMs that are on that tower -- except Jack FMs signal seemed weaker last night than normal.

Appears Radio in this market is a lot more prepared if something happens at the large transmission site than tv.. which still surprises me...

I understand the HD Transmitters take a lot of power --- I am just surprised there is no backup gen for a lower power transmission at all.. Considering WBNS and WCMH are the #1 and #2 news stations in this market. (It makes me think back to hat big wind storm we had in Sept a few years ago.... what would Ch10 and Ch4 do now days if we had that happen again and their tower site lost power for a week?)

Heck I am pretty sure that Sinclair has a backup generator at the WSYX/WTTE site for their two stations.

In fact I am pretty sure that WSYX News cast on OTA saw an increase in viewership last night (even those who dislike channel 6's news watched it)

The maybe not so humorous thing I saw was when CMH went to break on their news cast webstream -- they aired a PSA for "saving free over the air tv" from those who want the specturm.... Had to chukle at that --- a broadcaster who does not put much thought into having even a small lower powered HD Transmitter for OTA backup or a generator on site.. I got a feeling that these broadcasters care less about OTA viewership than they will ever admit with the cable penatration they have.

 

[Raymer_King]

All radio tenants were forced off the tower to their aux sites for a few hours due a failure in the generator plant that occurred shortly after 5:00pm.

Love the fact that the Dispatch article cites only one station by name and it's not the one they own:
"The WBNS tower also hosts several radio-station transmitters, including one used by WLVQ (96.3 FM)."

 

[del_griffith]

I joked with a friend last night Channel 6 news probably still came in third.

 

[gabigley1]

Most large market TV stations have direct fiber feeds to the major cable companies.

The WCMH/WBNS "hit" apparently hit their shared transmitter site.

This may not apply to Horizon customers in Chillicothe. They lost both WBNS and NBC 4 OTA and on cable.
more here:

http://www.chillicothegazette.com/article/20120118/NEWS01/201180325

Weather, water disrupt TV, Internet services
Jan. 18, 2012 |

CHILLICOTHE --

Horizon customers Tuesday lost those two channels until power could be restored at the tower location, which was expected to happen by this morning.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

Most large market TV stations have direct fiber feeds to the major cable companies.

The WCMH/WBNS "hit" apparently hit their shared transmitter site.

This may not apply to Horizon customers in Chillicothe. They lost both WBNS and NBC 4 OTA and on cable.
more here:

http://www.chillicothegazette.com/article/20120118/NEWS01/201180325

Weather, water disrupt TV, Internet services
Jan. 18, 2012 |

CHILLICOTHE --

Horizon customers Tuesday lost those two channels until power could be restored at the tower location, which was expected to happen by this morning.

Read my above message again..."the major cable companies". I meant TWC, Insight, etc. I have no idea who owns Horizon, but though it serves an important small community in the market, it's not a "major" company.

 

[Josh_Cols]

Even WDTN channel 2 in Dayton has a backup generator at the tower (a Kohler if i remember right) surprises me WBNS doesnt.

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

The maybe not so humorous thing I saw was when CMH went to break on their news cast webstream -- they aired a PSA for "saving free over the air tv" from those who want the specturm....  Had to chukle at that

Not exactly what I'd call a PSA.

 

[gabigley1]

There was one LPTV station that was on the air last Tuesday night. It broadcasts from the
WBNS-TV site far as I can tell. It is the HSN station on Ch. 44. LPTV Ch 19 was OFF the air Tuesday night and they are on the WBNS-TV tower.

This is what a Broadcasting Engineer told me about the outage of Radio and TV Stations at the WBNS-TV tower site. Permission granted to post this here on radio-info.com:

Neither the WBNS-DT nor WCMH-DT transmitters are on backup power. DTV transmitters just draw too much power. With only about 15% of the viewing audience watching "off-air", it was not considered cost effective to install a backup generator large enough to power the DTV transmitters.

All the FM stations, except WRZK are on generator backup. However, shortly before 5pm on Tuesday, the generators shut down due to a fuel problem (air in the system). All the Class B stations transferred to their backup sites. Unfortunately for 98.9 (a Class A), they have no backup site and had to remain off the air until after 6pm when the backup generator fuel problem was fixed.

Back in 1988, WRKZ was the last Class B FM station to move it's transmitting facility to the WBNS-TV tower. As such, there was not enough electrical capacity into the building, so WRZK had their own feed which isn't on either of the WBNS backup generators (there are two). When the underground feed failed at on Tuesday WZRK transferred to it's Grove City backup site and remained on that site until Wednesday morning when AEP finished up replacing several hundred feet of underground cable.


The problem with the power only affected one of the three power phases, a condition known as "single phasing". Of course this affected all the TV and large FM stations which require 3 phase power. However, LPTV and smaller radio stations, which only require single phase power (which is really two phases in this setup), may or may not be affected depending upon whether or not the missing phase is one of the two that they need. This is the reason that some of the LPTV stations (can't recall which) were able to remain on the air. Unfortunately for 98.9FM, the missing phase was one that they needed.

 

[XtraXtra]

There was one LPTV station that was on the air last Tuesday night. It broadcasts from the
WBNS-TV site far as I can tell. It is the HSN station on Ch. 44. LPTV Ch 19 was OFF the air Tuesday night and they are on the WBNS-TV tower.

This is what a Broadcasting Engineer told me about the outage of Radio and TV Stations at the WBNS-TV tower site. Permission granted to post this here on radio-info.com:

Neither the WBNS-DT nor WCMH-DT transmitters are on backup power. DTV transmitters just draw too much power. With only about 15% of the viewing audience watching "off-air", it was not considered cost effective to install a backup generator large enough to power the DTV transmitters.

All the FM stations, except WRZK are on generator backup. However, shortly before 5pm on Tuesday, the generators shut down due to a fuel problem (air in the system). All the Class B stations transferred to their backup sites. Unfortunately for 98.9 (a Class A), they have no backup site and had to remain off the air until after 6pm when the backup generator fuel problem was fixed.

Back in 1988, WRKZ was the last Class B FM station to move it's transmitting facility to the WBNS-TV tower. As such, there was not enough electrical capacity into the building, so WRZK had their own feed which isn't on either of the WBNS backup generators (there are two). When the underground feed failed at on Tuesday WZRK transferred to it's Grove City backup site and remained on that site until Wednesday morning when AEP finished up replacing several hundred feet of underground cable.


The problem with the power only affected one of the three power phases, a condition known as "single phasing". Of course this affected all the TV and large FM stations which require 3 phase power. However, LPTV and smaller radio stations, which only require single phase power (which is really two phases in this setup), may or may not be affected depending upon whether or not the missing phase is one of the two that they need. This is the reason that some of the LPTV stations (can't recall which) were able to remain on the air. Unfortunately for 98.9FM, the missing phase was one that they needed.

Great post!

They can probably write this into their leases, but in the future it might not be a bad idea if they have the option to take over one of LPTV subchannels, at least temporarily. With virtual channel numbers and outdoor antennas, most people wouldn't skip a beat. (Couldn't they make 19.2 appear as 10.1?)

I also thought Channel 19 broadcasts from the LeVeque Tower, or did they move?

 

[xmusicmatt]

I guess the moral of this is when the next big storm hits and WBNS-DT and WCMH-DT are without power... They will not be the 'news leaders' ... Hopefully Columbus never has another major wind storm (like we had a few years ago in Sept) or a severe ice strorm...

 

[gabigley1]

Ch 19 moved over the the WBNS-TV tower about six months ago when they went DTV. Thanks to the Radio-TV Broadcast
engineer for letting me share his email under Quote.

One more thing, do you believe the OTA viewing audience is only 15% of the total viewership? Was thinking more in line of 20%
to 25%.

 

[gabigley1]

I guess the moral of this is when the next big storm hits and WBNS-DT and WCMH-DT are without power... They will not be the 'news leaders' ... Hopefully Columbus never has another major wind storm (like we had a few years ago in Sept) or a severe ice strorm...

The WBNS-TV tower site was not down during that major wind storm. They had power the entire time, if I'm correct.

Do recall WVKO-FM 103.1 being off the air for several days during that major wind storm. They did not have a back up generator when they lost power and their tower site is in a rural location. That is why they were off the air for almost a weeks time.

 

[XtraXtra]

Ch 19 moved over the the WBNS-TV tower about six months ago when they went DTV. Thanks to the Radio-TV Broadcast
engineer for letting me share his email under Quote.

One more thing, do you believe the OTA viewing audience is only 15% of the total viewership? Was thinking more in line of 20%
to 25%.

With the price of cable rising, I think you are going to see more and more people going to OTA. I mostly watch MeTV and have been debating getting rid of cable. Would miss the news channels, though.

CBS or ABC News is left out of cable. They need to have a 24-hour news channel for OTA. ABC probably wouldn't want to encourage OTA for fear of cannibalizing ESPN, but CBS has nothing to lose.

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

Ch 19 moved over the the WBNS-TV tower about six months ago when they went DTV. Thanks to the Radio-TV Broadcast
engineer for letting me share his email under Quote.

One more thing, do you believe the OTA viewing audience is only 15% of the total viewership? Was thinking more in line of 20%
to 25%.

With the price of cable rising, I think you are going to see more and more people going to OTA. I mostly watch MeTV and have been debating getting rid of cable. Would miss the news channels, though.

CBS or ABC News is left out of cable. They need to have a 24-hour news channel for OTA. ABC probably wouldn't want to encourage OTA for fear of cannibalizing ESPN, but CBS has nothing to lose.

Many people stay tethered to cable TV because of the typical bundle pricing which discourages a la carte purchasing. Sometimes internet + basic TV costs about the same as internet alone.