Not For Broadcast Network Material Accidentally Broadcast

[zumahans]

One night in 1985, viewers tuning in to NBC stations on the west coast for the David Letterman show at 12:35 am saw black, anf after a few minutes the black tape stopped, went into rewind, and the entire Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson went by backwards. The whole show, it took about 8 minutes to rewind!

After the tape rolled back into NBC Burbank bars, the stop stopped, shuttled forward, and sat on the 2 in the gate. For about 5 minutes!

A friend in SF said the affil there went to syndicated programming that night. Not KNBC. They sat on the "2" in the gate for about three minutes.

Then, Letterman popped up, JIP.

 

[azumanga]

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.

Don't recall a "flash", but I do recall the "ding" at the start of every show. I think it was used to denote the exact time at the top or bottom of the hour. Someone here mentioned that ABC and NBC also used similar cues at one point.

CBS-TV's "ding" was the same one used for CBS Radio, which preceeded their hourly network newscasts. Voice of America also used this cue as well.

 

[zumahans]

CBS radio still uses those tones: they are called Net Alerts.

 

[NoWayNoCC]

Anyone remember the time Dan Rather walked off the set because a tennis game ran too long?

I have to admit that I don't blame him one bit. Even the most trusted man in America should be allowed a good on-air tantrum once in his career.

 

[74WIXYGrad]

Anyone remember the time Dan Rather walked off the set because a tennis game ran too long?

I have to admit that I don't blame him one bit. Even the most trusted man in America should be allowed a good on-air tantrum once in his career.

Wasn't that Cronkite's title(Most trusted man in America)?

 

[oldiesfan6479]

Don't recall a "flash", but I do recall the "ding" at the start of every show. I think it was used to denote the exact time at the top or bottom of the hour.

This is of course the famous CBS bong which was/is the TOH time tone.
Was on the TV net until sometime in the 1980s, is still used on CBS Radio.

(As opposed to the "ding" which signifies that you're free to move about the country. ;D)

The "flash" was indeed an on-occasion occurrence, as it was a flash-frame
of the WCBS-TV channel 2 New York ID slide which got on the network
due to some switching error (both local and net share space in the dairy barn).
Perhaps rats in the cable troughs chewing through the coax.

CBS radio still uses those tones: they are called Net Alerts.

Net Alert is the "chirp" you hear just before the "bong" on CBS radio if the
affil's jock/board op/etc. pots up (OK, slides up) the net line a hair early.
Also heard in/out of stopsets in the TOH 'casts--this to feed different spots
on each of the three transponders (regionalized for ET, CT/MT, PT).

Don't recall chirps ever being on the TV net. Years ago they did alert
stations of special feeds during station breaks with a flashing "Monitor NY
Audio" font from a rudimentary character generator over net black with
an announcement from "CBS aiah control, New Yawk" (accent approximated).

 

[ixnay]

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.

Wonder what KNBC's techies did to fill that gap for left coast viewers?

ixnay

 

[ixnay]

Someone here mentioned that ABC and NBC also used similar cues at one point.

NBC's tone, in use, I remember, when I was maybe 6 to 8 or 9 years old (1967 to 1969-70) was similar to, if not the same tone as, the tone KYW-AM 1060 Philadelphia used (and still uses) to mark the top and bottom of the hour. And considering that KYW-AM is the sister of KYW-TV 3 (from 1965 to 1995 an affiliate* of none other than NBC, before becoming a CBS O&O), one can guess why KYW-AM went to the trouble of adopting that cue.

As seen by me on KYW-TV, typically the screen would be black at the moment the tone sounded, then would fade into the NBC Peacock beginning the unfurling of his plumes.

One time though, the Peacock was already a half second into his animation when the tone sounded. Somebody must've been anxious to roll the bird at 30 Rock. ;D That 1960's peacock used to scare me to death, btw.

Back closer to the topic, here's an example of a local audio vo'ing a network picture. On opening day of the 1976 NFL season, CBS' NFL Today was showing a review of the 1975 NFL season when suddenly I heard a telephone conversation between WGN-TV techies at Veterans Stadium and the WGN studio in Chicago. WGN was getting ready to show a Cubs-Phillies game. Why I heard that WGN audio on WCAU-10 Philadelphia (then CBS-owned, now NBC owned), I'll never know.

*Notice I said "affiliate". Philly's Ch. 3 began 1965 as NBC-*owned* WRCV, a topic that's been beaten to death on R-I.

ixnay

 

[azumanga]

NBC once cancelled a couple of prime-time shows on very short notice and substitued a movie in their place. (It was the perfectly horrible "Rafferty and the Highway Hustlers"...) 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.

Wonder what KNBC's techies did to fill that gap for left coast viewers?

My hunch is that KNBC caught wind of the east coast situation and added extra time to each of the breaks, so the film could finish on time, instead of early.

 

[country103]

today (Merry christmas) WCCO jumped the gun on the network and went to the CBS morning news too early leaving us with dead network air, my other affiliate (KEYC) started just fine, seconds later on 'CCO i saw a slate showing when the local weather cutaways will happen, they did it again after an oprah promo/i.d. but this time it was a timing slate (the show was still in progress).

did this happen to any of your stations (any network)

 

[azumanga]

I wonder if WCCO was working with a skeleton crew today, especially one with less-skilled people?

Considering the state of the CBS organisation these days (especially the TV and radio station groups), it's no wonder viewers are seeing foul-ups like these.

 

[KML0224]

Had something today on WTNH-DT (ABC) channel 10 of New Haven which went out on the air which clearly wasn't supposed to. It wasn't seen on analog channel 8 though. I posted about it on the New England TV board ("WTNH makes Public Access look professional...")

 

[w9wi]

Anyone remember the time Dan Rather walked off the set because a tennis game ran too long?

Like it was yesterday... I was on the board at WISC-TV, the CBS affiliate in Madison, Wis., at the time...

Tennis game ended, CBS went black for the station break. We ran our spots, went back to CBS -- and it stayed black. After about 10 seconds we put up a trouble slide & picked up the red phone to network control. Heard them yell "INCOMING" (i.e., they were getting black from Chicago, so that's all they could send us) & hung up. After another minute or two, we started stringing up some standby programming when suddenly video appeared on the network line.

There'd been a big explosion & fire somewhere in the U.S. that day, so when we saw video of the fire & heard related narration, we put it on the air. The announcer's voice was unfamiliar but we figured it might have been the local affiliate's reporter in whatever city this happened in. It was a bit disconcerting that the graphics weren't CBS's normal style though. Then, the news story ended, and up came...

the WBBM/Chicago local news set & local anchors.

Oops, back to the trouble slide...

Luckily fairly shortly thereafter CBS got *someone* on the set - I forget who - and went on with the show...

===============

It might have worked differently elsewhere. In Wisconsin, we didn't get our network signals from AT&T. (no satellite yet) Midwest Relay, a division of WTMJ, had their own microwave network. They had microwave transmitters at the Chicago O&Os & retransmitted them up into Wisconsin. It wasn't an off-air pickup -- we still received network shows even if Chicago preempted them -- but we did occasionally see the Chicago spots on the network line. Sometimes WBBM's break ran late (especially Saturday mornings) & if our operator didn't notice then we might get a WBBM ID on the air.

That all came to an end when CBS put in the satellite dish & everything came direct from New York.

 

[Ultimajock]

today (Merry christmas) WCCO jumped the gun on the network and went to the CBS morning news too early leaving us with dead network air, my other affiliate (KEYC) started just fine, seconds later on 'CCO i saw a slate showing when the local weather cutaways will happen, they did it again after an oprah promo/i.d. but this time it was a timing slate (the show was still in progress).

did this happen to any of your stations (any network)

...I wasn't awake for it this morning, but that's been happening a few times at WKBT/8 La Crosse this month...

 

[Ultimajock]

...and I recorded the video from KTLA/5 and KCBS/2 Los Angeles on the morning of the September 11th attacks. I remember KTLA airing at least two CNN feed slates and Peter Jennings' ABC network audio at the point of WTC2's collapse. There had to have been a lot of that going on elsewhere that day...

 

[oldiesfan6479]

After about 10 seconds we put up a trouble slide & picked up the red phone to network control. Heard them yell "INCOMING" (i.e., they were getting black from Chicago, so that's all they could send us) & hung up.

A red phone? You had a ringdown line direct to CBS Air Control? We had to get on a regular phone and call 212-975-XXXX. Yes, I still remember the "XXXX" but I'll use some discretion and not publish it here. Sort of the opposite of the Phoenix New Times vs. the Maricopa County Sheriff. (The publicity hound he is, he would like me to mention his name... ;D)

They had microwave transmitters at the Chicago O&Os & retransmitted them up into Wisconsin. It wasn't an off-air pickup -- we still received network shows even if Chicago preempted them -- but we did occasionally see the Chicago spots on the network line. Sometimes WBBM's break ran late (especially Saturday mornings) & if our operator didn't notice then we might get a WBBM ID on the air.

Embellish a bit more if you will. You say it wasn't an OTA feed, but you'd see WBBM spots and IDs--so was it a "dirty" master control feed rather than a "clean" feed of the CBS network patched to the microwave system from WBBM?

 

[notalkallstatic]

CBS Air Control

I have to mention this, of the two network affiliates that I've worked for, NBC Air Control peeps seems to be the rudest...even if nothing major is going on. I know I had a run in with one of them last night (Christmas Eve) with one of their main feeds. CBS is hit or miss, but not too bad. NBC Sat Control is much better than Air Control. CBS Sat Control usually sounds like I'm waking them up, but they are nice.

I've seen many many network materials hit the air in my area when it's not suppose to. Such as: NBC peacocks, CBS Color bars, ABC color bars, commercial slates, show slates…I could keep going.

 

[clichemoth]

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.

The same thing happened on Adelphia Cable in Los Angeles when The Nashville Network (which had been airing in the daytime hours on a channel shared with Spice) became The National Network and took over the channel full-time. People tuning in to see the premeire of WWF RAW on the new TNN got to see, well, people in the raw.

Earlier this year, the Canadian network that runs Gray's Anatomy up there(Global?) accidentally aired the second half of the 2-part season premiere instead of the first.

 

[w9wi]

After about 10 seconds we put up a trouble slide & picked up the red phone to network control. Heard them yell "INCOMING" (i.e., they were getting black from Chicago, so that's all they could send us) & hung up.

A red phone? You had a ringdown line direct to CBS Air Control? We had to get on a regular phone and call 212-975-XXXX. Yes, I still remember the "XXXX" but I'll use some discretion and not publish it here. Sort of the opposite of the Phoenix New Times vs. the Maricopa County Sheriff. (The publicity hound he is, he would like me to mention his name... ;D)

No, it went to Midwest Relay control. If we wanted to talk to CBS Air Control we had to dial the 212-975 number just like you. (unlike you, I've long since forgotten the XXXX! It's been 16 years...)

MRC was responsible for technical issues in the feed up from Chicago. (network sitting in black certainly *appeared* to be a technical issue - as it turns out in this case it wasn't)

They had microwave transmitters at the Chicago O&Os & retransmitted them up into Wisconsin. It wasn't an off-air pickup -- we still received network shows even if Chicago preempted them -- but we did occasionally see the Chicago spots on the network line. Sometimes WBBM's break ran late (especially Saturday mornings) & if our operator didn't notice then we might get a WBBM ID on the air.

Embellish a bit more if you will. You say it wasn't an OTA feed, but you'd see WBBM spots and IDs--so was it a "dirty" master control feed rather than a "clean" feed of the CBS network patched to the microwave system from WBBM?
[/quote]

Apparently. I was never totally certain of the exact topography of the feed - and I suspect it varied. During prime time we almost never saw anything but black on the network line during station breaks -- weekend mornings we usually did see the Chicago spots.

 

[sebenste]

A former Continental Cablevision headend in Joliet, IL had a problem
one morning about 20 years ago. They had The Weather Channel on a channel, and as a thunderstorm came through, it knocked out the power
ever so briefly to their head end. The result was that some channels got changed. You can guess where I am going with this...

Around 6:35 AM in the morning, and until a headend technician could scramble to get there, viewers saw a porn channel with allegedly some hard core stuff. They apologized for the technical difficulties, and offered upset customers a day's worth of free expanded cable---which, at the time,
amounted to a whopping 23 cents.

Then, I believe it was in Champaign, IL several years ago...a local public access channel was about to air the morning farm report. I don't remember if it was a PBS station, or U of I, or someone else, but there was a master control op at this head end. He rolled the tape, and...everything was fine!
So, once he gets the tape rolling, he decides to watch a porno. He puts in preview, not program. Unfortunately, he THINKS it's in preview, but messes up and puts it in program. The whole thing aired in its entirety, and farmers
across parts of central Illinois haven't been the same since.

I have seen WLS-DT in Chicago accidentally air an ABC engineering guy holding up a color palette for testing...that was not coming from Chicago, but it aired after a football game, for about 15 minutes last summer. Even the big boys make mistakes.

A big one was a station in central Illinois which will go unnamed; I think it happened a few years ago. A late running football game was frustrating the anchors at a TV station, waiting to go to air. Tired and frustrated anchors, over a 20 plus minute period let out rants including "f-bombs" and other no-no's. A MCO accidentally punched up sub-control audio for the news control room switcher 20 minutes before the start of the newscast, and didn't catch it right up until the game ended and the news aired. The news anchors audio was clearly heard over the network audio.