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Problems at WTIC AM 1080 last night

W

wxctintern

Guest
The TV show I was watching ended at 12:05AM, so I turned off the TV and flipped on my radio to WTIC AM 1080 to catch "The Dream Doctor". PSAs and Station Promos were playing. After about 8 or 9 minutes of this "The Dream Doctor" comes on, but it was hiccuping, which explains why they were playing only PSAs and Stations Promos. I listen, annoyed for about 3 minutes, leave my room for a minutes to get a drink of water. When I come back WTIC is back to playing only PSAs and Station Promos. I listened until 12:27 when I turned off the radio and went to sleep.

Does anyone know what could have been the cause of the hiccuping of "The Dream Doctor" show? I'm not sure what satellite network distrbutes that show. I don't think I've ever heard this type of problem before on any station.

And another question. Does WTIC not have any back-up programming on tape or CD that they could've played instead of playing just PSAs and Station Promos? When I was at 990AM we had CDs and tapes of infomercials to play if the satellite went down. We also had a CD of Polka Music to play if we lost the phone feed from the Britsol Polish Club during the Polka Show.
 
> The TV show I was watching ended at 12:05AM, so I turned off
> the TV and flipped on my radio to WTIC AM 1080 to catch "The
> Dream Doctor". PSAs and Station Promos were playing. After
> about 8 or 9 minutes of this "The Dream Doctor" comes on,
> but it was hiccuping, which explains why they were playing
> only PSAs and Stations Promos. I listen, annoyed for about 3
> minutes, leave my room for a minutes to get a drink of
> water. When I come back WTIC is back to playing only PSAs
> and Station Promos. I listened until 12:27 when I turned off
> the radio and went to sleep.
>
> Does anyone know what could have been the cause of the
> hiccuping of "The Dream Doctor" show? I'm not sure what
> satellite network distrbutes that show. I don't think I've
> ever heard this type of problem before on any station.
>
All of Jones radio network (16 feeds) went down last night.
The Operator on duty covered the feed loss ok in the beginning (checking satellite receiver signal strengths, running around calling trouble numbers that no one was answering). In review better decisions should have been made regarding alternate programming.

Procedures and policys were reviewed and reinforced today to avoid this kind of embarrassment ever again.
WTIC

> And another question. Does WTIC not have any back-up
> programming on tape or CD that they could've played instead
> of playing just PSAs and Station Promos? When I was at 990AM
> we had CDs and tapes of infomercials to play if the
> satellite went down. We also had a CD of Polka Music to play
> if we lost the phone feed from the Britsol Polish Club
> during the Polka Show.
>
 
> The TV show I was watching ended at 12:05AM, so I turned off
> the TV and flipped on my radio to WTIC AM 1080 to catch "The
> Dream Doctor". PSAs and Station Promos were playing. After
> about 8 or 9 minutes of this "The Dream Doctor" comes on,
> but it was hiccuping, which explains why they were playing
> only PSAs and Stations Promos. I listen, annoyed for about 3
> minutes, leave my room for a minutes to get a drink of
> water. When I come back WTIC is back to playing only PSAs
> and Station Promos. I listened until 12:27 when I turned off
> the radio and went to sleep.
>
> Does anyone know what could have been the cause of the
> hiccuping of "The Dream Doctor" show? I'm not sure what
> satellite network distrbutes that show. I don't think I've
> ever heard this type of problem before on any station.
>
> And another question. Does WTIC not have any back-up
> programming on tape or CD that they could've played instead
> of playing just PSAs and Station Promos? When I was at 990AM
> we had CDs and tapes of infomercials to play if the
> satellite went down. We also had a CD of Polka Music to play


Jones radio network uplinks the Dream Doctor program.
spoke with them today about the problem early Tuesday morning
and found there was a flood in the basement of Quest communications
across the street from Jones where Jones T1 lines are.
We ran Jim Bohannon on WICC inplace of the Dream Doctor

> if we lost the phone feed from the Britsol Polish Club
> during the Polka Show.
>
 
Doesn't the operator on duty also watch the news wire? Is this too much of a distraction for keeping an ear on the network?

Not to sound...arrogant here, but a #1 Rated Station like WTIC having this kind of problem must really be embarassing. Was the operator a newbie, not sure what to do, poorly trained or a combination? Again, I'm not trying to show any type of one-up-manship, or pick a fight, because for the most part I respect the guys at Infinity. Being #1 is a tough gig! (truely, no sarcasm intended) This type of event should be planned for, ESPECIALLY if you have satellite programming.

Anyway, I guess I'm just surprized the way it was handled by the affiliate.

At the same time, I recognize we are all human and we all have our bad days, so this isn't a rip on the station or management. I hope Steve S. has got things back under control. I guess maybe it was more of a humbling experience that even the Big Dog goofs now and then. I hope it's a laughable situation and not a "do or die" environment because of the mishap.

Live and learn.

:)
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</P>
 
Not to turn this into the "Beat On WTIC" thread, but what's up with the dumping out of the Red Sox games before the cue-line of "... on the WEEI Red Sox Radio Network?" Don't tell me the mighty 1080 is that afraid of the call letters of a Boston station (who's signal barely makes the state line, never mind Hartford) getting out over their air?

It's inconsistent (as the commercials for advertising "on the WEEI Red Sox radio network" complete with the WEEI phone number play in the network breaks) not to mention sloppy (as they never dump Castiglione in time and it goes "...on the dub... WTIC Hartford.")
 
Not to jump on with that but I think the Sox games are poorly edited in general. Hence why I have XM and this is no longer a problem I experience. Thanks WTIC :)
 
> Not to jump on with that but I think the Sox games are
> poorly edited in general. Hence why I have XM and this is no
> longer a problem I experience. Thanks WTIC :)
>

When I try to listen to the Red Sox on XM, I always get the other teams radio home, never can get WEEI the Red Sox home.
 
> When I try to listen to the Red Sox on XM, I always get the
> other teams radio home, never can get WEEI the Red Sox home.
>

The XM Radio set up at my work place in Newington has the Red Sox home feed every so often. I tune channel 175 and just scroll up since the channel for each team will vary.
 
> > When I try to listen to the Red Sox on XM, I always get
> the
> > other teams radio home, never can get WEEI the Red Sox
> home.
> >
>
> The XM Radio set up at my work place in Newington has the
> Red Sox home feed every so often. I tune channel 175 and
> just scroll up since the channel for each team will vary.
>
I've only had this problem twice. Once I got the ESPN feed (expected) and once I got the Yankee feed (UNHAPPY) while they were at Fenway. I almost always get EEI guys for Home Games. Not that I mind getting other people I'm not a huge fan of the EEI team, unless "Ground ball stabbed by Foulke..." is the call which just so happens to be my ring tone :D
 
> Not to turn this into the "Beat On WTIC" thread, but what's
> up with the dumping out of the Red Sox games before the
> cue-line of "... on the WEEI Red Sox Radio Network?" Don't
> tell me the mighty 1080 is that afraid of the call letters
> of a Boston station (who's signal barely makes the state
> line, never mind Hartford) getting out over their air?

WEEI-AM Boston may be barely, if at all, audible in CT (especially at night), but WEEI-FM Westerly, RI covers a significant portion of the state.
 
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