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When automation fails...

davideduardo

davideduardo

Moderator/Administrator
Staff member
You just can't trust broadcast automation...

Here is one instance: the machine-operated NBC chimes malfunction ed and continued to ring over and over through the first three minutes of the network’s Morton Downey Show.

This happened on October 2, 1948, 71 years ago.

(Item courtesy of Jim Ramsburg's Gold Time Radio blog)
 
By 1948, the Blue network should have been out of the building, so the master control operator was only monitoring one network. However, I understand the chime generator was not in the program loop, similar to the CBS tone at the top of the hour. So even if the master control operator could hear the error, there wasn't much he could do about it,
 
Worst automation fail I've ever heard was at KSLY-FM San Luis Obispo around 1993. The station became automated in middays for the first time, and there were many of the usual errors (dead air, two spots playing at once, etc.). However, the EBS test was disastrous. The "this is a test of the Emergency Broadcast system..." prologue went over the air, then, instead of the test tone being activated, a spot for Sam Adams Beer was broadcast. the spot continued to air, drowning out the epilogue, and normal programming returned a moment later. I've never heard anything like that before or since.
 
I am not sure if I would call this an automation fail, or simply a fail that would only occur with automation. And I heard it twice in the late 80s, on two different stations. Music playing backwards, then a few seconds of silence, then more music playing backwards. Having worked on an IGM system myself, I know what happened. An op didn't rewind the reel to reel, but rather fast forwards (much easier and quicker) and then forgets to rewind it later or rewind on an off network deck. Next guy who puts that reel up will be playing the tape in reverse. And since the cue tones to trip the next event are only recorded on the left channel, the machinery can't hear them since they are now on the right channel. Good times.

Heard on 107.3 In Yakima WA and 105.7 Big Sky MT. In both cases it was apparently the full reel as both events lasted well over an hour. Nice monitoring of the air signal, guys.

That being said, we had a power bump one time and all four reels started at once on our FM, playing 4 songs at once. While I was live doing a newscast on the AM. Whoops.
 
Last year KMGW/Yakima WA (when they were still Rhythmic Oldies) was airing a broadcast of Slow Jams with R. Dub, one weeknight. The audio sent on the air was freaky-sounding...it had slowed and pitched down to the point where it sounded like a horror movie soundtrack. Like 20-30x slower than normal. NO ONE of course was monitoring the signal, as it went on for hours.
I heard Tom Kent's Music Magazine and multiple commercials both at the same time for 2-3 minutes a week or two ago on KARY/Grandview.
Not to mention all the times that a signal has gone to dead air because the music quit running.

Really bad and annoying stuff often happens on the TV side with automation as well. Won't get to it because that's a different thread to start. But I will tell you that no one in Yakima or Tri-Cities works as a TV master control operator. They haven't existed in over 10 years. KNDO is based at KHQ Spokane, KAPP is based at KXLY Spokane, and KIMA is based at KOMO Plaza in Seattle. Sad!
 
The New Chico said:
I am not sure if I would call this an automation fail, or simply a fail that would only occur with automation. And I heard it twice in the late 80s, on two different stations. Music playing backwards, then a few seconds of silence, then more music playing backwards. Having worked on an IGM system myself, I know what happened. An op didn't rewind the reel to reel, but rather fast forwards (much easier and quicker) and then forgets to rewind it later or rewind on an off network deck. Next guy who puts that reel up will be playing the tape in reverse. And since the cue tones to trip the next event are only recorded on the left channel, the machinery can't hear them since they are now on the right channel. Good times.

Heard on 107.3 In Yakima WA and 105.7 Big Sky MT. In both cases it was apparently the full reel as both events lasted well over an hour. Nice monitoring of the air signal, guys.

That being said, we had a power bump one time and all four reels started at once on our FM, playing 4 songs at once. While I was live doing a newscast on the AM. Whoops.
Click to expand...

When all format syndication was via tape, most syndicators shipped reels "tails out". That meant that the station would load the full reel on the right hand hub, and rewind to an empty reel on the left, thread the tape and hit play until the start of tape tone cued it.

Untrained operators would load the tape on the left side, which of course meant that it would play backwards.

Syndicators thought that operators would realize that the label side had to be facing outwards. Not always true. This is covered in the list of corollaries to Murphy's Law.
 
crainbebo said:
Really bad and annoying stuff often happens on the TV side with automation as well. Won't get to it because that's a different thread to start.
Click to expand...

If you have watched that stuff, please start a TV thread about goofs and errors on the television side!
 
Then where there's a game where the contact closure doesn't fire. I can remember WING in Dayton playing hours of "CBS Radio Network Channel 05. Beeeep" years ago
 
DavidEduardo said:
Untrained operators would load the tape on the left side, which of course meant that it would play backwards.
Click to expand...

One of the reasons why ABC distributed AT40 on vinyl rather than reel. They figured the turntables were more likely to be technically correct, while tape decks could have all kinds of problems. Very difficult to play a vinyl record backward.
 
You'd have to be pretty dumb to cue up the tape and not realize that it's "tails out."
I used to have a pile of AT40 disks. Sadly, I threw them away long ago. Wish I still had them.
 
frankberry said:
You'd have to be pretty dumb to cue up the tape and not realize that it's "tails out."
I used to have a pile of AT40 disks. Sadly, I threw them away long ago. Wish I still had them.
Click to expand...

I must have had a "dumb magnet" installed somewhere at one beautiful music station because we ended up making our own "wrong side" stickers to put on the syndication reels.
 
TheBigA said:
One of the reasons why ABC distributed AT40 on vinyl rather than reel. They figured the turntables were more likely to be technically correct, while tape decks could have all kinds of problems. Very difficult to play a vinyl record backward.
Click to expand...

The first cut on the AT40 Album was usually a tone.

I recall a PD looking me straight in the eye saying "DON'T get the tone on the air whatever you do!"
 
DavidEduardo said:


I must have had a "dumb magnet" installed somewhere at one beautiful music station because we ended up making our own "wrong side" stickers to put on the syndication reels.
Click to expand...

Remember, when you forget to rewind and put the automation reels on backwards....the tone ends up on the wrong channel, so when the 'brain' called for that machine, the whole reel played....backwards.
 
Yep, the CBS Radio Networks tone. I heard it many years ago one Sunday morning on KGA Spokane, and I think they were just getting into the sports format. There was also a night where 1040 CKST Vancouver aired a Westwood One test channel all night long after NFL or NBA. "The first tone is on the left channel only. BEEEEEEPPPP. The second tone is on the right channel only. BEEEEPPPPP." And so on. Have it on recording.
Another late night where I was playing with an SDR receiver in Alberta. KBUL was on top of 970, but the one underneath, WDAY Fargo, forgot to switch from NFL and ended up on Premiere Network's Test Channel, so there was smooth jazz and instrumental music for hours instead of Red Eye Radio. The Standard time switch I think also had to do with it somewhat. Too bad it's not a nightly staple on that station. Less political talk, more jazz ;-)
 
I remember one time when KMZU 100.7FMs' signal got knocked off the air due to a bad thunderstorm, sister station KRLI 103.9FM interrupted their automated programming (At the time, a Big Band/Easy Listening MOR format.) to air KMZUs' programming (Weather updates & Country music.). When they got KMZUs' signal back on, they forgot to restore the automation system on KRLIs' signal. I remember tuning into KRLI later that night & hearing nothing but station ids, bumpers, jingles, etc. (For instance, they would play a "Here's the Weather" bumper followed by a "Curly - KRLI" bumper, instead of airing a prerecorded weather forcast.). I think they had it straightened out by the next morning.
 
I remember back in the 1970's catching a few automated stations where the music tape reels ran out so all you heard were spots and jingles. Earlier this year the automation at KOTA - Rapid City got stuck, "At KOTA it's 31 degrees; At KOTA it's 31 degrees; At KOTA it's 31 degrees...."
 
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