Why Did KLAC "fail" During World Series' Final Game?

[davideduardo]

We have heard that iHeart put the final game on KFI when KLAC "went off the air".

We have not heard why, in that precise moment of broadcasting the game, KLAC's transmitter facility failed.

Stations today have backup transmitters and emergency generators, as well as alternative studio to transmitter links (STL). Studios are redundant and interchangeable.

So what happened? If I were still a station manager or owner, if my station was originating the potentially final game of the World Series, I'd have "live" engineers at the studio and the transmitter. Small price to avoid a major embarrassment.

 

[TheBigA]

Here's some reporting on the story:

Dodgers' flagship radio station hit technical difficulties around World Series G5

The Los Angeles Dodgers' radio flagship station, AM 570 LA Sports, hit significant issues Wednesday during G5 of the World Series.

awfulannouncing.com

Dodgers Win! Let's Hear Some Kudos for Dodgers Radio - Radio World

Wednesday night, in a nail-biting championship game, the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Yankees 7–6 in Game 5 of the MLB World Series.

www.radioworld.com

That's all I was able to find as far as reporting. Where was our enterprising radio reporter at the LA Daily News?

From what I can see, there were bodies there who were able to switch the game to the other station, who were able to inform listeners on social media, so it wasn't like nobody was home. The game began at 5 PM LA time. So it had to be a big problem.

 

[tbolt909]

We have heard that iHeart put the final game on KFI when KLAC "went off the air".

We have not heard why, in that precise moment of broadcasting the game, KLAC's transmitter facility failed.

Stations today have backup transmitters and emergency generators, as well as alternative studio to transmitter links (STL). Studios are redundant and interchangeable.

So what happened? If I were still a station manager or owner, if my station was originating the potentially final game of the World Series, I'd have "live" engineers at the studio and the transmitter. Small price to avoid a major embarrassment.

What Happened? Maybe everyone including the engineers were at home watching the game on TV. This incident illustrates how far AM Radio has fallen. How many people even noticed is the bigger question...

 

[davideduardo]

What Happened? Maybe everyone including the engineers were at home watching the game on TV. This incident illustrates how far AM Radio has fallen. How many people even noticed is the bigger question...

You can't let an opportunity to say something negative get by you, can you?

Radio sports play by play has a huge audience with people who are working, driving, or doing something else that does not allow them to sit and watch TV. It's been that way since the first TV broadcasts of baseball over 70 years ago. You have not discovered something new.

 

[TheBigA]

I believe the national feed of the game was also available on ESPN LA 710 KSPN.

 

[ChannelFlipper]

Here's some reporting on the story:

Dodgers' flagship radio station hit technical difficulties around World Series G5

The Los Angeles Dodgers' radio flagship station, AM 570 LA Sports, hit significant issues Wednesday during G5 of the World Series.

awfulannouncing.com

Dodgers Win! Let's Hear Some Kudos for Dodgers Radio - Radio World

Wednesday night, in a nail-biting championship game, the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the New York Yankees 7–6 in Game 5 of the MLB World Series.

www.radioworld.com

That's all I was able to find as far as reporting. Where was our enterprising radio reporter at the LA Daily News?

From what I can see, there were bodies there who were able to switch the game to the other station, who were able to inform listeners on social media, so it wasn't like nobody was home. The game began at 5 PM LA time. So it had to be a big problem.

Maybe the Dodgers can take it up with ownership? Oh, wait...

 

[radiofan2023]

I know someone at Fox Sports Radio who knows people at the station, I can ask him if he knows/has heard anything about what happened.

 

[tbolt909]

Radio sports play by play has a huge audience with people who are working, driving, or doing something else that does not allow them to sit and watch TV. It's been that way since the first TV broadcasts of baseball over 70 years ago. You have not discovered something new.

You seem to think it's still 1980. Other options were available to listen to the game. The "Major Embarrassment" as you called it, went unnoticed by most people.

The infamous Heidi Game between the Jets and Raiders angered viewers when the network dumped out before the game was over. Back then, networks didn't have 5 other channels to juggle programming...

 

[davideduardo]

You seem to think it's still 1980. Other options were available to listen to the game. The "Major Embarrassment" as you called it, went unnoticed by most people.

No, you are missing the point entirely just to be negative.

Most listeners to the AM KLAC World Series broadcasts would be people not able to watch TV. Duh.

Those will be people driving or at work locations where there is no TV and where they are doing something else. Get that?

Such people do not have a variety of audio sources that they can find and/or use while driving and working.

You try so hard to "awfulize" everything about radio that you totally miss the point of many posts. Instead, you find some way to offend or demean the poster while ignoring the fact that radio is a business in the process of adapting to a changed media world.

 

[Larry]

Most listeners to the AM KLAC World Series broadcasts would be people not able to watch TV. Duh.

Don’t forget there are also those who watch on tv but hate national announcers so watch on tv and listen to local radio for audio of game.

 

[kevtronics]

Are you suggesting the "transmitter failure" was intentional, to move the game to a bigger signal?

 

[tbolt909]

No, you are missing the point entirely just to be negative.

Most listeners to the AM KLAC World Series broadcasts would be people not able to watch TV. Duh.

Those will be people driving or at work locations where there is no TV and where they are doing something else. Get that?

Such people do not have a variety of audio sources that they can find and/or use while driving and working.

You try so hard to "awfulize" everything about radio that you totally miss the point of many posts. Instead, you find some way to offend or demean the poster while ignoring the fact that radio is a business in the process of adapting to a changed media world.

You casually ignore my point. The game was on another Radio signal. It shouldn't have been that hard for people to find it on the other station. I guess you think people have never changed Radio stations while driving or working...

 

[K.M. Richards]

You casually ignore my point.

You casually ignore that you are arguing with one of the most knowledgeable people in the business, with decades of both experience and observation.

And to boot, you are arguing with a moderator.

I am inclined to agree with David when he uses the phrase "something negative" to describe your posts ... the ones in this thread, at least have a tone of "someone at iHeart screwed up and I want to know who it was and why they didn't get fired!" (That is the feeling I get when I read them, but apparently David also sees that.)

Something took KLAC off the air unexpectedly. Fact.
Someone at iHeart had the authority to move the game to KFI and did so. Fact.
And ... iHeart has no obligation whatsoever to announce what happened and why. Fact, and checkmate.

Fact: This thread -- even though started by David himself -- has run its course. (Your mileage may vary. Batteries not included. Some assembly required. Member FDIC.)

 

[radiofan2023]

Those will be people driving or at work locations where there is no TV and where they are doing something else. Get that?

Also, blind people who don't have descriptive audio services on their TVs or prefer listening to the radio instead of to the TV audio.

 

[NYAZSporty]

We know it can't be the weather (unless there's a strong Santa Ana wind type event) as it was sunny, perhaps an issue with the transmitter itself, wonder if it's high up on Mt. Wilson along with the TV stations which might be why they resorted to KFI as sometimes SoCal transmitter sites are tough to get to in a quick manner to fix especially if they're on the mountains.

 

[K.M. Richards]

We know it can't be the weather (unless there's a strong Santa Ana wind type event) as it was sunny, perhaps an issue with the transmitter itself, wonder if it's high up on Mt. Wilson along with the TV stations which might be why they resorted to KFI as sometimes SoCal transmitter sites are tough to get to in a quick manner to fix especially if they're on the mountains.

??????? (as in WTF?)

KLAC is an AM, not an FM. Their transmitting facilities are not on Mount Wilson. They are located immediately northeast of downtown Los Angeles, in the Lincoln Heights/El Sereno area.

 

[alok]

So why did 570 go off the air and could not switch to back up equipment, was it a remote control failure? Anybody know. Did l miss the reason?

 

[K.M. Richards]

So why did 570 go off the air and could not switch to back up equipment, was it a remote control failure? Anybody know. Did l miss the reason?

You didn't miss anything, although with the argument going on, you likely would have if it had been mentioned.

KLAC does not have a backup transmitter, as you correctly allude to. In the modern era, there doesn't need to be a "remote control point" per se so long as the automated transmitter control system at the site has the ability to send notifications if something has gone outside of the licensed parameters. That said, there is a small chance that something did happen and either a notification could not be sent due to a malfunction (more probable) or the alert notification was ignored (much less probable ... we're talking iHeart here). In either case the fail-safe would shut down the transmitter after a pre-programmed period of time.

I do not know what -- if any -- backup power is available at the site. That area is within the Los Angeles city limits, so LADWP is the electric utility. From my own experience as a residential customer, I can report that they are pretty reliable and if there had been a failure affecting the KLAC transmitter site it would have been reported in the Los Angeles Times.

My best guess is that it was an unforeseen transmitter failure of some sort. Absent any statement from iHeart, best guesses are all we have.

I will discount the probability that their tower was taken down by a hot-air balloon. 😝

 

[davideduardo]

So why did 570 go off the air and could not switch to back up equipment, was it a remote control failure? Anybody know. Did l miss the reason?

There are a few situations that will totally knock an AM off the air.

Among them:

• Failure of both main and auxiliary transmitters
• An arcing / burn of the point where the transmitters connect to the antenna feed line.
• A major component failure in the ATU (antenna tuning unit) which couples the feed line to the tower(s)
• A tower collapse
• Power loss coupled with failure of the emergency generator.
• Odd items like water pipe breaking open in building and flooding transmitter room or fire control devices turning on mistakenly or a delivery or service truck hitting the building.
• Clear weather lightening strike not going to ground but burning the ATU or cable between the building and tower system.
• Rats chewing insulation off wiring in conduits and causing a short.
• Loss of all audio links to studio. Example: a station using multiple types of wired services has the wires severed by something cutting the wires (often construction that does not check buried cable notices).
• Aliens homing in on the station and sucking all the power out of the air.

 

[TheM1ghtyBear]

The HD2 signal on 98.7 was not affected, right? Not unless programming was on a different subchannel.