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Sinclair Broadcast Group hit by apparent ransomware attack

Local news on WEAR looks normal. WPMI is working with the bare minimum. WFGX and WJTC are still running Charge.
I wonder if they’ll be able to show ABC and NBC prime time tonight? It might be interesting without local commercials.
 
Are the affected stations able to air video packages or have graphics during their newscasts, or is it just anchors and reporters reading scripts?

It seems that it would be very tough to put on a 30 minute newscast without the ability to show video actualities.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
Are the affected stations able to air video packages or have graphics during their newscasts, or is it just anchors and reporters reading scripts?

It seems that it would be very tough to put on a 30 minute newscast without the ability to show video actualities.
Click to expand...
Yesterday, WPMI in Mobile was airing news video by way of screen mirroring a Windows PC with a video player, complete with all the controls and Windows taskbar visible on screen. As of this evening's news, they figured out how to hit F11 to make it full screen. They're also airing commercials this way.

Teleprompters are back online, but the chyron is still dead, so the entire show except weather has "NBC 15 NEWS" on a banner for each story. Weather must be a completely separate system as it has been unaffected.

And, at least in this market, both the ABC and NBC stations are still airing regular network programming. The My Network TV and independent WTJC are still showing Charge! Surprisingly, Charge! is airing in HD on these channels, when it's normally in widescreen SD on the subchannel.
 
It seems these rather wide-spread attacks are becoming somewhat common, with one reported on this board every couple of months. It makes one wonder if EVERYTHING within a given station needs to be networked and if it does, is it all required to be connected to the internet at all times.
 
KIMA Yakima's local news was screwed up tonight as well. Anchor Jake Taylor didn't know which camera to look at, and I believe they were having to use cue cards.
 
In Syracuse, NY Sinclair owns the NBC (WSTM), CBS (WTVH) and CW (WSTM-DT2 formerly WSTQ) affiliates. They were airing Charge on both WSTM and WTVH in the 4PM hour when syndicated programming would normally be airing. The CW appeared to be running CW programming and then switched to running The National Desk (Sinclair's national news program) when syndicated programming would normally be run. The local news was missing most of its graphics, there are no network bugs, no bottom ticker, no intro or closing credits. They were able to run video segments and show a few static graphics during the weather segment, but the video quality looked lower, I think they were just playing them off a computer. They mentioned their telepromters being down and that they were using paper scripts. During the 10 and 11PM newscasts, they were using a white board to report the Bills vs Titans score, it looked like the reporter was getting score updates from his phone.

At 8PM they were able to play network programming from NBC, CW and CBS, but there were no local commercials playing. Sinclair is going to lose some money during this, advertisers probably aren't too happy that their ads didn't run during prime time. They appear to still be having issues this morning as there was national weather forecasts running during the NBC and CBS morning shows when they would normally cut in and do a local forecast.
 
www.insideradio.com

Former Seattle Radio Stations Also Affected By Ransomware Attack On Sinclair.

A ransomware attack that hit Sinclair Broadcast Group TV stations also affected the company’s former radio assets in Seattle. The online streams of news KOMO-AM/FM, hot AC “Star 101.5” KPLZ
www.insideradio.com www.insideradio.com

Oddly enough KOMO Radio now owned by Lotus was hit by the same breach that Sinclair owned TV stations are dealing with.

How much of a transition period does a former asset have until Lotus connects KOMO radio to its own systems.
 
Watching KIMA news tonight...

Very few graphics are being used. No story graphics.
Mike McCabe's prerecorded WX is coming from a computer on the F11 full-screen key. The audio is muffled. Weather graphics are fine (no having to write the forecasts on a whiteboard like with some stations).
Still using paper scripts. Alan Sillence was definitely looking at a paper script while doing the sports report, and there was only one video package.
 
crainbebo said:
Watching KIMA news tonight...

Very few graphics are being used. No story graphics.
Mike McCabe's prerecorded WX is coming from a computer on the F11 full-screen key. The audio is muffled. Weather graphics are fine (no having to write the forecasts on a whiteboard like with some stations).
Still using paper scripts. Alan Sillence was definitely looking at a paper script while doing the sports report, and there was only one video package.
Click to expand...
I was curious abut some of the E. Washington stations, so I pulled up KIMA last night. My wife asked me last night what KIMA stood for. I told her it didn't have any special meaning, just what they picked many eons ago. And that's when it hit me. KIMA is in YaKIMA. How I didn't know this... I have no idea. Maybe I did and I'm just getting old and forgetful.
 
i bet by the end of this month, Sinclair will be back to normal, after they buy new computers (or wipe the hard drives clean and redo the computers) and role out new graphics (even if the graphics package impacted by the ramsonware incident was new ones too) because ramsonware ruined computers need to be wiped clean by computer techs who have to install a clean copy of the OS on the impacted computers.
 
I really thought they'd be back to normal by now, but it's another day of playing commercials off a mirrored PC screen, and no chyron or syndicated shows. Honestly, though, my local teeveenewz is actually more competently produced now than before this hack. Their transitions are smoother and there are far fewer gaffes now. Wonder why?
 
wn3 said:
I was curious abut some of the E. Washington stations, so I pulled up KIMA last night. My wife asked me last night what KIMA stood for. I told her it didn't have any special meaning, just what they picked many eons ago. And that's when it hit me. KIMA is in YaKIMA. How I didn't know this... I have no idea. Maybe I did and I'm just getting old and forgetful.
Click to expand...
KIMA - YaKIMA
KEPR - Kennewick, Pasco, Richland
KLEW - K LEWISTON.

All three simulcast syndicated programming and have for decades. They used to be called Cascade Television. And KIMA's news quality is awful as you can tell from watching. It's nothing like it used to be under Fisher, or Retlaw. Ransomware attack or not!
The fact that the local "weatherman" is actually down the interstate 80 miles in Pasco is a red flag...When Stu Seibel retired his longtime post as KIMA's meteorologist some 14 years ago, they never bothered to replace him locally. It's like if KVAL Eugene went to using KATU talent for the weather. It doesn't make sense, but it's market #114 and revenue has been down year-to-year for *several* years now.
 
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