Billy Joel Special Cut Off

Loverofradio said:

If you want your tv station to look good, and not sit in black at the stupidest times, theres a huge need for master control. Too many ad dollars at risk to look like a bad tv station. we’ve got MC at my station. Take a look at your local nexstar station and let me know what you think 😂

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Nexstar is a mess. My market has 2 stations owned by them - WTNH 8/ABC and WCTX 59/MNT. WTNH had Rachael Ray at 10 and WCTX had Wendy Williams. (This was before Wendy changed to our Tegna owned FOX affiliate). One time coming out of a commercial break during Wendy they switched to Rachael. Another time instead of Wendy starting at 10 they instead switched to a live Camera feed of the New Haven Green for several minutes before switching to Wendy in progress. Another time a blank screen for 10 minutes instead of Wendy. Another time promos for shows they aired, but the promo was for FOX Providence, not WCTX.

And don't get me started on how they waste time on WCTX by simulcasting the 4AM-7AM News and the 11PM News from WTNH. Same commercials even. They have their own newscasts on WCTX 7AM-8AM and 8PM-11PM. The programming from MNT airs 11:35PM-1:35AM. I suppose if WCTX picks up CW from Tegna owned Channel 20 that will be the end of the prime time newscasts on WCTX.

MarcB said:

Nexstar is a mess. My market has 2 stations owned by them - WTNH 8/ABC and WCTX 59/MNT. WTNH had Rachael Ray at 10 and WCTX had Wendy Williams. (This was before Wendy changed to our Tegna owned FOX affiliate). One time coming out of a commercial break during Wendy they switched to Rachael. Another time instead of Wendy starting at 10 they instead switched to a live Camera feed of the New Haven Green for several minutes before switching to Wendy in progress. Another time a blank screen for 10 minutes instead of Wendy. Another time promos for shows they aired, but the promo was for FOX Providence, not WCTX.

And don't get me started on how they waste time on WCTX by simulcasting the 4AM-7AM News and the 11PM News from WTNH. Same commercials even. They have their own newscasts on WCTX 7AM-8AM and 8PM-11PM. The programming from MNT airs 11:35PM-1:35AM. I suppose if WCTX picks up CW from Tegna owned Channel 20 that will be the end of the prime time newscasts on WCTX.

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This is what happens when you have a staff of less than 10 people monitor 150 + tv stations. No one will say it. but the real reason people tune out local tv stations because the stations look like crap. Imagine radio stations hubbed and having dead air constantly

Loverofradio said:

This is what happens when you have a staff of less than 10 people monitor 150 + tv stations. No one will say it. but the real reason people tune out local tv stations because the stations look like crap.

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People don't "tune in" and "tune out" (pardoning your use of an archaic term) TV stations. They select video offerings such as movies, shows, newscasts and the like. They don't have much if any brand loyalty to TV stations at all.

Granted, some TV stations may have an image as being their market's "news leader" but that is still program loyalty: in LA I was "loyal" to KABC Channel 7 News. Not to "Channel 7" but to the program "Channel 7 News". I did not watch other shows on KABC more because I liked the local newscasts and their anchors.

With automation at the MC level, I can see 150 stations run by one person. As long as that person updates the data, including time overages, special news bulletins and the like, the equipment today does not need someone hovering over it. It needs someone really good putting in the data.

And that person could be in McGrath, Alaska, for all anyone cares. As long as they do their job competently, that is all that matters. And the audience could not care less where that takes place.

DavidEduardo said:

Granted, some TV stations may have an image as being their market's "news leader" but that is still program loyalty

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Probably the same way with KTRK Eyewitness News in Houston; before they became "Houston's news leader," they were, in the 80s, "#1 in Texas" (which leads me to wonder; was that for all of Texas, or just for Houston?).

bmasters1981 said:

Probably the same way with KTRK Eyewitness News in Houston; before they became "Houston's news leader," they were, in the 80s, "#1 in Texas" (which leads me to wonder; was that for all of Texas, or just for Houston?).

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As I recall, the KTRK news open in the 1980's started out "Number 1 in Texas", with the shape of the state within a circle, which then flipped to show the "13" logo, with the "3" crossing the circle under the "1". Later that was replaced with the "13" logo first, then "Number 1 in Texas" with the state flag in the moving background. So they did appear to be claiming that status for all of Texas. The ratings numbers were huge, that was for sure.

Mark Roberts said:

As I recall, the KTRK news open in the 1980's started out "Number 1 in Texas", with the shape of the state within a circle, which then flipped to show the "13" logo, with the "3" crossing the circle under the "1". Later that was replaced with the "13" logo first, then "Number 1 in Texas" with the state flag in the moving background. So they did appear to be claiming that status for all of Texas. The ratings numbers were huge, that was for sure.

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That explains it-- their slogan was illustrated quite well then.

Do network tones exist anymore or is it all manually programmed. If breaking news is coming down the line does the local feed have to manually switch over.

In West Michigan the Nexstar TV stations had the black screen bad timing for Lions VS Bucs game about 6 minutes before halftime which was a hub issue in Indy a few months ago. The New CW did have the weather map on the bottom of the screen. I was glad they got the game back for the second half on Wood TV. I didn't watch Billy Joel's concert I thought he played MSG more than a hundred times years ago.

Megatron said:

In West Michigan the Nexstar TV stations had the black screen bad timing for Lions VS Bucs game about 6 minutes before halftime which was a hub issue in Indy a few months ago. The New CW did have the weather map on the bottom of the screen. I was glad they got the game back for the second half on Wood TV. I didn't watch Billy Joel's concert I thought he played MSG more than a hundred times years ago.

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When I first read this, I thought you said "... more than a hundred years ago".

It seems that long.

Don CT said:

Do network tones exist anymore or is it all manually programmed.

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You are likely thinking of the early days of cable networks, where DTMF tones would trigger locally inserted commercials on cable systems. Not used on OTA broadcast networks.

Broadcast networks would provide stations with precise break times, which then would be programmed into local playlist automation, or for fully manual operations, would let MC staff know when to insert local material.

When network feeds were switched to satellite delivery, and later to digital formats, station master controls had to fudge the times by a second or two later than given by the network. This was due to time lag on the satellite signal path (can’t beat the speed of light) as well as a small delay in the digital to analog conversion process.

Today stations are hubbed or centralcast, so operations for large numbers of stations are combined.

Megatron said:

In West Michigan the Nexstar TV stations had the black screen bad timing for Lions VS Bucs game about 6 minutes before halftime which was a hub issue in Indy a few months ago.

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NFL games can be tricky for hubbed master control operations, as the network is split into regional feeds, with as many as five or six games going on simultaneously, all with different local break times. Each game can also have “constant” or “pullout” status for certain markets, which increases the number of feed versions.

Mediafrog+ said:

You are likely thinking of the early days of cable networks, where DTMF tones would trigger locally inserted commercials on cable systems. Not used on OTA broadcast networks.

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Why not? The cable companies did it on the cheap 30 + years ago. The graffics cards and software on the "modern PC" are amazing compared to back then. Are the network feeds still satellite? PCs "run" radio stations unattended except for new commercial addictions and the commercial scheduling. As long as the network can get it's tones correct, no human required. The PC could be maintained by the local broadcast engineer, the person who keeps the local news equipment going, or the person who does the office PCs.

Don CT said:

Do network tones exist anymore or is it all manually programmed. If breaking news is coming down the line does the local feed have to manually switch over.

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If the station is already airing network programming, the network will generally switch them to the breaking news. (I say generally because I'm currently in the Mountain Time zone. Weird things happen here.)

But if the station is in local programming, whether it's news, syndicated, or something live on satellite (like Kelly and Mark), the network has no control over the station.

Typically the network will send stations a notice via a squawk box and/or email letting them know the coverage is imminent. The station can then monitor the network feed for the "countdown" and join ASAP.

secondchoice said:

Why not? The cable companies did it on the cheap 30 + years ago. The graffics cards and software on the "modern PC" are amazing compared to back then. Are the network feeds still satellite? PCs "run" radio stations unattended except for new commercial addictions and the commercial scheduling. As long as the network can get it's tones correct, no human required. The PC could be maintained by the local broadcast engineer, the person who keeps the local news equipment going, or the person who does the office PCs.

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The OTA stations do send break triggers these days (not audible tones though). Our CW+ station is 100% automated that way. NBC does something similar, but we opt to use hard times when provided or roll manually. At the CBS affiliate I worked for, we enabled the triggers for anything live. Otherwise we'd use the hard start times provided by the network.

Mediafrog+ said:

NFL games can be tricky for hubbed master control operations, as the network is split into regional feeds, with as many as five or six games going on simultaneously, all with different local break times. Each game can also have “constant” or “pullout” status for certain markets, which increases the number of feed versions.

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Was an NFL Playoff Game back in Jan wasn't many NFL games like the fall.

With Sporting events messing with the Sunday night programming regularly, The network and their affiliates should be able to handle this it's not like 5 or 6 NFL games. With all or almost all of Eastern time zone stations bailing I believe it was a CBS error.