Not For Broadcast Network Material Accidentally Broadcast

[Stanislav]

Who has ever seen one of the broadcast networks "slip up" and accidentally broadcast something meant to be seen or heard only by the affiliates and not by the general public? You know -- test patterns, slides, slates, countdowns, or any audio voice-overs.I've already mentioned in a prior thread the apparent internal announcement on NBC that aired the day of the 1977 NYC Blackout -- the one with the techie announcing the start time of the delayed "Tonight Show" for the benefit of the affiliates. Stuff like that.One example I witnessed many years ago doesn't quite fit my own parameters above, but it was definitely something not meant to be seen nationally at any rate. NBC once cancelled a couple of prime-time shows on very short notice (this would have been during the "Supertrain" era when their shows were dying like flies left and right) and substitued a movie in their place. (It was the perfectly horrible "Rafferty and the Highway Hustlers" with Sally Kellerman, Alan Arkin, and a young pre-"One Day at a Time" Mackenzie Phillips.) Someone slipped up on the timing, because the movie ran a good 5 or 6 minutes short in the time slot. The credit roll finished, followed by a short period of dead air, and then nationwide viewers were treated to a series of local PSAs and promos, all with the WNBC-TV New York logo clearly included on each one!!I suppose in the panic of realizing they were going to run short, the techies in NY just grabbed whatever was at hand and ran with it.

 

[oldschooler1]

OK -- (does this fit this thread?) who remembers when NBC (bashing NBC again) ran THE WRONG PART of the famous miniseries "the holocaust"?! I think it was Tuesday night in March, 1978 -- they were supposed to be running part two, and instead, for 19 minutes, part THREE was running! I was watching that night - our family shook our heads, saying -- "uh, they're running the wrong segment!" I see countdowns on network news all the time. Just last Monday night, CNN took the President too early -- he was rehearsing, it turns out, but I guess the director at the board thought the Prez was giving his actual speech, and took it -- only to force Wolf Blitzer to apologize when they cut back to him. I'm pretty sure I saw the on-screen computer menu for some network's weather system pop up -- maybe it was on NBC during the Today show. I know I've seen it-- just can't remember where or when.

 

[Stanislav]

OK -- (does this fit this thread?) who remembers when NBC (bashing NBC again) ran THE WRONG PART of the famous miniseries "the holocaust"?! I think it was Tuesday night in March, 1978 -- they were supposed to be running part two, and instead, for 19 minutes, part THREE was running! I was watching that night - our family shook our heads, saying -- "uh, they're running the wrong segment!"

Also kinda OT for my own thread, but that brings to mind the Florida station that back in the 70's once accidentally ran part of a porno flick for their late late movie (apparently it was in a mislabeled can). The funny thing is that it took over half an hour for them to get a phone call and realize their error, which means that whatever viewers were watching in the wee hours weren't complaining. ("Hot d---!! Finally some decent programming on this channel!!")

 

[enigmawi]

This is not really a slip up, but the local ABC affiliate here in Milwaukee used to show the countdown to WNT after their 5:00 news. They had a video wall as part of the news set.. When their news ended, they cut to a wideshot of the desk and slowly pulled in in the video wall with the countdown

 

[Smittian]

Not TV related, but does anyone remember President Reagan's rehearsal for his Saturday radio address back in the mid-80's?"My fellow Americans, I'm proud to announce that we have just passed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in 5 minutes."

 

[nuzguy]

Not a network faux pas, but there's always the infamous statement by former Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz. It falls more under the heading of "Never say anything you don't want the world to hear if there's a microphone anywhere near." Butz was out of a job in record time.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

Years ago CBS used 5:30-6:30pm ET weekdays (after the closed-circuitnews feed at 5:00) to preview upcoming programming to the affiliates.I don't recall which anniversary of the JFK assassination it was, butthey were feeding a special that included excerpts of CBS Newscoverage from 11/22/63.Now don't get ahead of me here but when the 1963 B&W CBS NewsBulletin slide appeared (as Cronkite interrupted ATWT at 1:40pm ET),the MC operator at a certain CBS affiliate punched it up on the air..."In Dallas Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade..."

 

[jal41]

Who has ever seen one of the broadcast networks "slip up" and accidentally broadcast something meant to be seen or heard only by the affiliates and not by the general public? You know -- test patterns, slides, slates, countdowns, or any audio voice-overs.

Occasionally, WXIA-TV Atlanta (NBC) forgets to cue a local commercial during Conan O'Brien's or Carson Daly's show, and the small animated peacock appears in the center of the screen over a black background (meaning local affiliate commercial time).While not network related, WSB-TV (ABC) accidently showed 15 seconds of competitor WAGA (Fox O&O) on WSB's air one time. I did not think that they had the capability to put a competior on the air, but I guess they do.And here is a kicker involving the Emergency Alert System test once. In 2003, radio station WSB-FM (B98.5, WSB-TV's sister), who was at the time responsible for conducting the tests, accidently sent out midday DJ Jordan Graye's voice and a couple of commercials over the EAS. Religious TV and radio stations and others broadcast Jordan's voice and the commercials over their airs. WSB-TV and a couple of other stations caught the gafe in time, and muted the EAS audio after the origination tones. Testing is now done by the Georgia Emergency Management Agency and there is a new primary station.People are human, and they make mistakes. It is fun to watch this stuff happen.

 

[Stanislav]

Years ago CBS used 5:30-6:30pm ET weekdays (after the closed-circuit news feed at 5:00) to preview upcoming programming to the affiliates.I don't recall which anniversary of the JFK assassination it was, butthey were feeding a special that included excerpts of CBS Newscoverage from 11/22/63.Now don't get ahead of me here but when the 1963 B&W CBS NewsBulletin slide appeared (as Cronkite interrupted ATWT at 1:40pm ET),the MC operator at a certain CBS affiliate punched it up on the air..."In Dallas Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade..."

Hee hee.....bet that was one embarrassed board op!That would have probably been the 1988 CBS special "Four Days in November." It had a "cold opening" showing a few seconds of the 11/22/63 "As the World Turns," interrupted by the first bulletin slide. (Which, for those interested, would have looked like this.)

 

[Stanislav]

And here is a kicker involving the Emergency Alert System test once. In 2003, radio station WSB-FM (B98.5, WSB-TV's sister), who was at the time responsible for conducting the tests, accidently sent out midday DJ Jordan Graye's voice and a couple of commercials over the EAS. Religious TV and radio stations and others broadcast Jordan's voice and the commercials over their airs. WSB-TV and a couple of other stations caught the gafe in time, and muted the EAS audio after the origination tones.

I heard a similar screw-up here in Central Florida a couple of years ago -- in this case, the errant audio was a promo for some Christian music festival being held in Lakeland! I heard that botched EAS test on at least two different stations that day.

 

[azumanga]

About a couple of years ago in Grand Rapids, then-lead EAS station WLAV-FM forgot to include the tones used to end the EAS test -- as a result, one of WLAV's liners and a rock song went over the airwaves of every Western Michigan radio and TV station, though, thanks to the 20-minute maximum delay, some stations (especially Christian stations) caught it on time and logged it in their EAS records as a technical problem.

 

[MarcB]

On a few occassions I've seen the title of the show, the length of the show episode number, etc on the screen before a show runs.Example:Cheaters Episode 96-XLength: 22:00And though I haven't seen it in a while a few times I've seen a show rewind or fast forward over the air.And does this count?Once I was watching a Simpsons Rerun at 6PM on FOX 61. They were having technical problems with the show. And when they came back from the first commerial break they came back running an entirely different episode.

 

[dhett]

Just last weekend, KSAZ-TV in Phoenix was running several back-to-back M*A*S*H episodes on a Saturday afternoon, as they're prone to do. They ran one episode in the early afternoon, then later, I noticed that they were running the same episode that they had run earlier. They went to commercial, and when they came back, it was an entirely different episode.

 

[oldschooler1]

On a few occassions I've seen the title of the show, the length of the show episode number, etc on the screen before a show runs.Example:Cheaters Episode 96-XLength: 22:00This is called a "slate". Every show on tape has one. The name comes from the old days of the movies, when slates were actually slates -- and not electronic time-coded as they are now (the slate being the device that the stage manager would hold up before the camera -- and shout -- for example -- "gone with the wind, scene 7 take 5" and then "slap" the top arm down -- slate, meaning all that info was written in chalk on a blackboard, or "slate"). Slates are still used, in movies, but you've seen them, I'm sure -- they have time code running on them, for reference. And in TV, nearly everything that goes on tape is given an electronic slate -- but it's generated from a Character Generator, or CG, Chyron, or whatever it's called in any particular shop. Production history lesson for you.

 

[cdk]

This past Thursday Night here in Phoenix, KAZT-TV was running a 6:30 pm episode of Andy Griffith. At approximately 6:45, the tape just stopped right after a commercial and there was dead air for about a minute. A screen showing the station logo appeared for a few minutes and then the show came back on...with the closing credits. I turned it off at about 6:53, but at this point the station was showing the logo screen again.

 

[oldiesfan6479]

This past Thursday Night here in Phoenix, KAZT-TV was running a 6:30 pm episode of Andy Griffith. At approximately 6:45...

Yeah, they finally got back to the approximate point in the episodewhere it (their server?) went south, however by then they wereunable to air it to completion.Ticked me off, too, as I didn't get to see the part where Floyd says"Cer--cer--certified...?!" I'll have to send a nastygram to Mr. Hagerty.

 

[zman]

I recall seeing WYZZ TV 43 in Bloominton Illinois the FOX affiliate and in the late eighties a CUBS affiliate accidentally putting on the couple seconds of a CUBS game they were not carrying instead of the weekday afternoon cartoons. I saw a quick view of Wrigly field. It was caught within a few seconds and the Flinstones I think it was came back on. This haapend when they were going from the commercail break back to the show. This one might be slightly off topic but I've read on www.chicagotelevision.com that in the early days of WSNS TV 44, they had a habbit of showing commercails upside down. I was not aware taht was possible. Speaking of WSNS. During the ON TV days I saw them accidentally come out of scrambled mode and broadcast a few seconds of a movie. It was caught quickly and went back to a scrambled signal.

 

[MarcB]

That reminds me. In the early 1990s on the cable system where I lived the Spice porno channel was shared time on Channel 45 with The Learning Channel. The Learning Channel would be 6AM-8PM. Spice 8PM-6AM. The scrambling and unscrambling of channel 45 was controlled by computer. The night they switched the clocks back and hour Spice was unscrambled for an hour and that was the first time I saw "The Horizontal Dance". ;D I think I was 8 or 9 at the tim.

 

[country103]

nothing for at least 120 days

i do remember fox toledo rewinding a oreck informercial, and an off-air part of a tigers game was aired (they were taking on my minnesota twins) and the commerical audio was on-air!! (it happened this summer)

yes it happens on the radio too: i remember one time i was on my way home from my summer vacation at Tempreance, MI (and on my way to stay at a hotel at Escanaba, MI), i was listening to Drudge, and i was expecting TOH news, but all i got was classical music, and this repeating message: "YOU ARE TUNED TO PREMIERE CHANNEL 2, THE MATT DRUDGE SHOW BEGINS 6 MINUTES PAST THE HOUR, ON PREMIERE RADIO NETWORKS" (this was an overnight re-feed of the 1st hour)
the same music was heard instead of local commericals on the local break times.

the same thing happened to WKNR in June " YOU ARE TUNED TO THE PREMIERE RADIO NETWORKS, JIM ROME WILL RESUME AT 6 MINUTES PAST THE HOUR"

and who can never forget this
"CBS RADIO NETWORKS CHANNEL 42... BEEEEEEP!... CBS RADIO NETWORKS CHANNEL 42... BEEEEEEP!"
(heard after westwood one NFL coverage)

even the promo feed from ESPN. Tim heard the same thing on WTIG in Massillon on a different date. ESPN sends 30-second show promos....one after another after another (etc.)...and you hear things like: "....3, 2, 1...(pause...then promo beings)". And, Tim heard it run that way on WKNR and WTIG for about 10 minutes (well, he gave up listening after 10 minutes! ).

 

[NoWayNoCC]

I was told that in the mid-'70s, every CBS show was preceded by a "ding" and a flash on the screen, which was supposed to be some sort of cue that wasn't supposed to be seen by the viewer. I vaguely remember seeing this a lot when I was like 3 or 4.

I guess this is like the tones that a lot of cable channels (such as CNN) used during commercial breaks in the '80s.