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WKTV PSA fest

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Anybody who tuned in to the 5pm news on Monday was treated to about 26 minutes of :30 and :60 psa repeating until they could get the news on. I'm not sure what the technical difficulties were, but today it looks like they are using their old studio cameras and the automation seems to be shot. I will say this if it is indeed the old cameras they have a much better picture quality than the computerized ones.
 
Buffalo Too

Hmmm. Must be something in the water. WIVB in Buffalo had a similar problem last week. Newscaster disappeared in the middle of a story about 5:45, replaced by the commercial of a dog scooting across the carpet. Station in commercials and PSAs until they finally got back in time for the 6:00 PM news. According to the local paper, the computer switching equipment failed, and they couldn't get the newsroom back on the air until it was either rebooted or replaced.
 
That's a real shame too as WKTV is the only TV station in Utica with local news. Technology is such a wonderful thing, but its shortcomings sometimes has killer consequences.
 
Get enough major crashes like that in the middle of November sweeps, and it won't be long before corporate begins to reconsider their brilliant cost-cutting decision to replace people with technology.

With a full production crew, at least you can continue the show even if one camera is down or one of your VTR's has a jammed tape. There are very few (if any) problems that would force you into playing 25 minutes of commercials. Even if it came down to the worst-case-scenario of an anchor literally reading stories on-camera from paper scripts instead of a teleprompter, at least you still have a newscast.

But with automated TV, you just need that one tiny computer to crap out, and that's it... you're done. And yes, WKTV may be the only Utica station doing news, but cable viewers could have switched right over to News 10 Now or WTVH. During those 25 minutes, WTVH may have actually had more viewers in Utica than they did in Syracuse!
 
I am pretty certain that KTV uses "ParkerVision", the one-person production system. Maybe it crashed. In that case, old systems - cameras, switchers, -- can't just be turned on and work right away, especially if they haven't been used in a long time. Plus, if they were running PVTV, they might not have the production staff they once did, making a manual newscast difficult.
 
ParkerVision

Gee, WIVB uses ParkerVision too. I wonder if there's a bug in the system?
 
Whatever happened, it's still not completely back to normal at WKTV. Among the glitches I noticed during the noon show today:

- Vic keeps looking down, prompter apparently not working
- No "live" bug for a live shot near the top of the show -- just Don Shipman's name with the "live" bug, but then it went away when Don's name went off
- Audio is a few seconds late with "turning on" various elements (packages, wx-guy's mic, some commercials)
- In one case, Vic's mic was still on during a commercial... thankfully they cut it before he had a chance to really say anything
- No time/temp bug
- The "story title" graphic that's usually on for the duration of a package is gone - they only super people when sound bites appear (no big deal, that's "normal" for most stations anyway)
 
ParkerVision

FWIW, WIVB in Buffalo also seems to have any awful lot of audio problems - wrong mic, mic on late, etc.

Maybe they should just turn all the mics on, and give each talent a mic with an on/off switch...
 
The way automation's going, who knows... maybe it'll be a matter of time before even a director isn't needed for Parkervision. The producer could do it all... or even the anchor could just press buttons to advance through the rundown as they read the copy.
 
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