Fisher Plaza: Fire in the hole!

[valvashon]

Fire last night at about 11:20 pm at the Fisher Plaza parking garage, in an underground transformer vault.  The fire department and sprinklers put things out, but as of 4:45 am Friday morning, this is how things stood with the Fisher stations:

KOMO-DT:  Appears to be off-air (DT 4.1 and 4.2 are not on the Comcast cable)
KOMO-TV:  Cable feed on analog channel 4 has a still picture of some sort of flat blade grinder from some infomercial.
KUNS-DT:  51.1 Transmitter appears to be on-air without programming, there is a weird black and green screen random pattern thing which is probably being generated from their STL, which I believe is a Streambox.
KUNS-TV:  For reasons I won't get into, I can't see the analog cable feed of this station.  May not be carried on analog cable anymore.

KOMO AM:  On-air, being programmed by two guys in a transmitter shack somewhere.  Painful to listen to, as they are really struggling.
KOMO FM:  Transmitter on-air with a dead carrier.
KVI-AM:     Transmitter appears to be off the air.
KPLZ-FM:   Transmitter on-air with a dead carrier in stereo.

I count three stations currently running illegally, that is dead air without station ID's and presumably without any operator controls over them (unless there is an engineer at each transmitter site).  Aren't full power stations required to have failsafe controls at transmitters at remote sites?  Failsafe meaning when dead air or loss of transmitter control is detected for a certain amount of time, the transmitter shuts off.  Will there be fines?

Val

[w9wi]

I count three stations currently running illegally, that is dead air without station ID's and presumably without any operator controls over them (unless there is an engineer at each transmitter site).  Aren't full power stations required to have failsafe controls at transmitters at remote sites?  Failsafe meaning when dead air or loss of transmitter control is detected for a certain amount of time, the transmitter shuts off.  Will there be fines?

I would say there is zero chance of fines, at least from the FCC. 

Dead air, while not a good idea, isn't illegal. 

A station operating attended (with personnel either at the transmitter or, more likely, at a remote control point) must have the ability to turn the transmitter off within 3 minutes.  Stations operating unattended must be wired such that the transmitter is automatically shut down within three minutes if it is operating in such a way "...that is likely to significantly disrupt
the operation of other stations,"  Examples include operation on the wrong antenna pattern (only likely at AM stations). 

Operation otherwise at variation with the station license or FCC rules requires that the transmitter be shut down within three hours.  Strangely, operation at excessive power is specified as an example in this paragraph -- you would think it would be a condition that could "...significantly disrupt the operation of other stations." and would require a 3-minute shutdown.

It is very unlikely any station on this list besides KOMO(AM) could end up in a mode that would interfere with other stations.  There is a remote possibility of a frequency drift but that's unbelievably rare.  Their transmitters, even if turned all the way up, are not capable of running enough power to interfere.  KOMO AM is the only station on the list that *has* more than one antenna pattern mode.

http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/cfr_2008/octqtr/47cfr73.1350.htm (FCC regulation 73.1350)

If the STLs were out, I suppose the stations would probably lack the ability to run a station identification.  So if the outage ran across the top of an hour, there would likely be a violation.  Arguably, however, violation of the legal ID rule would fall under paragraph (d) of 73.1350, and the station could continue operation for three hours without an ID. 

Many stations have used the failure of the studio-transmitter link as an interlock to the transmitter.  It certainly serves as an easy means of compliance with paragraph (b)(2) of 73.1350.  It's not the only way though; it's not mandatory.

[valvashon]

I don't see the modify option, so here is an update at about 0600:

KOMO-DT:  On the air (no audio) at 38.4 on my converter box.  World News Now with a local cut in from a KOMO crew at Kerry Park right at 0600.  2 cameras, glitch switching, 3 talent.  Both WNN and local content appears to be 4:3 SD.  Again, no audio on any of it.

KOMO-TV:  Analog cable feed switched at some point to WNN with audio, then the local cut in also with audio.  After 15 minutes or so of that, they tossed back to WNN but with KATU audio.  WTF???

P.S.- they mentioned that the Fisher Plaza building had no power.

Val

[LITTLEBOYBLUE]

FPlaza was, supposedly, designed to be self-sustaining for about a week (power, water, etc.).  The reality is that many events such as generator testing have, instead, crippled the place.  When the water main broke (in front of KING), it affected F.Plaza and people were not allowed to use water, flush toilets, etc.  Much of the lease rates of being in FPlaza are, supposedly, to pay for these backup conditions.

In this case, a fire IN the facility is different than dealing with external events (loss of external power); but still is relevant for dealing with catastrophic recovery and identifying "choke points" in ability to keep several critical facilities on the air.

This event will be a fascinating "learning opportunity" for everyone in the business -- what was done well, what designed well, etc. and the flipside.  It was fascinating to read the engineer's account of the fire @ Kirkland transmitter (1460am) a few years ago and to follow the events of getting it back on the air.

Similarly, when CBS/LA moved all the stations into one facility (bean-counter idea), the engineers were very nervous because they wondered what would happen in event of earthquake, fire, etc. because all their eggs were now intentionally in one basket. 

[TowerLamp]

If the STLs were out, I suppose the stations would probably lack the ability to run a station identification.  So if the outage ran across the top of an hour, there would likely be a violation.  Arguably, however, violation of the legal ID rule would fall under paragraph (d) of 73.1350, and the station could continue operation for three hours without an ID. 

Well, I've been listening to KPLZ for several hours with no ID, in fact nothing but segued songs. Sounds like an iPod or laptop just playing mp3's. KOMO-FM, dead carrier for several hours-No ID's, no modulation at all and KVI carrier is on but transmitting only open squelch noise from their STL, again no ID's.

Amazed that there aren't some emergency back-up CD's with voice tracks, anything to keep the meters moving...just patch KVI over to the bird and cut in with ID's. Can't imagine the lost revenue with no spots playing on any of the Fisher stations.

[dunno]

Ditto what LBB posted.  I thought this place was supposed to be state of the art with many back up features.   Lucky for the company, this didn't happen on a busy mid week work day.
In talking to a friend who works there, hardly anyone is being allowed into the building.  As far as fines from the FCC, leave it to the vultures
on this board to jump down Fishers throat.  I guess we'd like to see the last local TV/Radio media outlet run out of town?  Fisher, no soup for you!!!

[The Street]

From what I have heard, this was a catastrophic fire and power failure to not only the broadcast section of the building but to the entire Fisher Plaza and all of it's high tech companies from data services to credit card processing!

Yes, while KVI and Star 101.5 were off the air for several hours, they had KOMO on AM 1000 back on and for the most part running the format by 5AM.
Weather, Traffic, Sports, Money and the news of the day, while in limited fashion, all being heard. I am guessing the casual listener probably didn't even notice other than enjoying the commercial free broadcast and until hearing about the fire which forced the team to be broadcasting from the transmitter shack under the tower on Queen Anne Hill. It had to be an engineers, not to mention the talents, nightmare. Kudos to the experienced staff for the ability to operate outside of the comfort zone and to pull it all off in the face of adversity.

[crainbebo]

As of 2:28PM, here you go,

Ch. 4 cable: Regular programming.
Ch. 4 DT cable: Off the air
Ch. 51 cable: Green screen, STL link
1000 AM: regular programming
97.7 FM: regular programming with a 10-15 second delay
101.5 FM: MP3's with no IDs, RDS still mentioning John Tesh on the air
570 AM: off the air, dead carrier

-crainbebo

[swhyde1980]

I believe in this situation, KATU in Portland is taking over some of the Master Control duties for KOMO.  Fisher's radio stations are probably being operated out of their transmitter buildings (which would have meant a trip to Vashon Island for Ken Schram & John Carlson for their show).

Sounds like KOMO's news team got a trip to Kerry part a day earlier than expected, before their 4th of July broadcast!  It's a nice warm day day out anyways....why not have your newscast, outside?

[swhyde1980]

Fisher's radio stations are probably being operated out of their transmitter buildings (which would have meant a trip to Vashon Island for Ken Schram & John Carlson for their show).

OK, my mistake.... Read up some more online.  Sounds like KOMO 1000 is operating out of the KOMO 4 transmitter building (OK, how do they deal with the noise of the KOMO 4 transmitter operating in the background??).

Meanwhile, KOMO-FM 97.7, sounds like they are taking the feed directly off AM 1000.  It litterally sounds like you are listening to it on AM (along with some static).  Wonder how 97.7 is going to sound like tonight?  The traffic, and most of the news reports, are just being phoned in.

KVI = still dead air as of 3:30pm.