Fisher Plaza: Fire in the hole!

[crainbebo]

KOMO Ch. 4 cable has been dropping out several times during The Doctors. Even saw a shot of the KOMO logo for a nanosecond before the show came back on.

570 is off the air STILL.

Ch. 4 has been showing the logo of KATU several times. 1000 on the air, 101.5 still with non-stop MP3s and John Tesh RDS.

[Bongwater]

It certainly does serve as a reminder you can never be too prepared

[crainbebo]

Now Ch. 4's airing Wheel of fortune and Jeopardy when First News at 4's supposed to air.

-crainbebo

[swhyde1980]

Now Ch. 4's airing Wheel of fortune and Jeopardy when First News at 4's supposed to air.

-crainbebo

....after about 5 minutes of dead air.

And I guess they have more than the electrical problem....now they have to clean up the water, from the fire sprinklers going off, before they can start up their backup generators.


http://seattlest.com/2009/07/03/groping_for_matches_belltown_goes_d.php

Looks like KATU in Portland has taken over entirely for the time being.  KOMO should either send a couple anchors down there and broadcast from there (albeit a 2 1/2 hour drive), or KBTC or KCTS should donate their facilities for the time being.

I can't understand why KATU can't grab Seattle-based commercials off a network (Vivx for example...what we had at Q13 when I was working there).  They should have setup KATU fully as a backup.  I think some master control operators there are getting plenty of overtime pay right now!

Meanwhile.... What's happened with KIMA in Yakima, KEPR in Tri-Cities, and KLEW in Lewiston, ID?  Their Master Control is operated out of KOMO as well.  I assume they fell back to local operations for the time being...  (Centralized Master Control = Not always a good idea)

[boiseengineer]

KBCI Boise is run from Seattle also but seems to be normal. Just have to have the local automation and a local warm body pushing buttons.

[swhyde1980]

KBCI Boise is run from Seattle also but seems to be normal. Just have to have the local automation and a local warm body pushing buttons.

That's good, to have some local "redundency", just in case something happens back at the central Master Control!

Meanwhile, KOMO 4 is doing their 5pm newscast from a building across from Fisher Plaza, entirely in widescreen HD, even for the 4:3 viewers.  Elisa Jaffe apparently is a great artist according to Jim Castillo, making up some weather "graphics" on poster paper.  They are really winging it, but doing a great job!  They hope to be back in the studio for the 11pm newscast.

[Jumper]

Please take note,  KOMO has "consolidated" it's technical departments, resulting in fewer and fewer engineers on staff. A single staff is responsible for TV and Radio.

Today is *The* day having more technical staff around would have made a significant difference.  There is nobody there to run around to setup temporary solutions to this most acute technical problem!

Go Broadcast Engineers! You are missed! 

[dtuba]

Please take note,  KOMO has "consolidated" it's technical departments, resulting in fewer and fewer engineers on staff. A single staff is responsible for TV and Radio.

Today is *The* day having more technical staff around would have made a significant difference.  There is nobody there to run around to setup temporary solutions to this most acute technical problem!

Go Broadcast Engineers! You are missed! 

Agreed. The KOMO technical staff is to be commended for their efforts in dealing with this crisis situation. You guys Rock!

[SeattleRadioPro]

Perhaps Fisher Broadcasting management should read this article: http://www.techflash.com/venture/How_one_CTO_avoided_a_Web_site_disaster_after_data_center_fire_49891132.html

While I commend the engineer (engineers?) for getting/keeping the stations on-air, there's been tens of thousands of dollars lost thanks to not running commercials.  Guess they didn't think about putting backup Prophet gear at the transmitter sites on Cougar, Vashon & Queen Anne.

[Bongwater]

They're trying to get power back to Fisher Plaza (the wires must be absolutely SOAKED, they're still on rooftops, in TV transmitter buildings and KPLZ is still on it's iPod.)

Speaking of........

They've been sounding AWESOME ALL DAY. I just love it. No voicers, no jingles, no liners, no jocks, no mandatory legal station IDs, just MUSIC wall to wall. If there's a way to beat JACK, this is HOW.  

Hey, just kick back and enjoy it. It's KPLZ Raw!..

How's KVI?