WHDH Meltdown

[odomski]

If you happened to be watching WHDH's 11:00 news last night, you will know what I'm about to discuss.  Immediately, after the network programming, they sat in black for a few seconds...then Randy Price and Christa Delcamp appeared.  Randy said they were having technical problems, but they would still bring us the news.  Christa tried to talk about the Isreal/Lebanon violence...but she simply couldn't handle the fact that she didn't have a teleprompter.  She's not really good at ad-libbing.  Randy handled the situation like the true pro he is.  Then, they ran a commercial break...came back and tried to run a Dan Hausle "package."  The video sat paused on the air for about 30 seconds...then the tape ran with no reporter voice track.  They went back to the anchor team and to another commercial break.  Around 11:07, they gave an apology on how they couldn't give us the news tonight.  They aired MSNBC for the rest of the half-hour.

Technology at it's best before our very eyes.

[Skynet74]

 Ahhhh. That's Great! I wish I had seen that. I often watch 7 News because I think it's the best in Boston. I'm also a big fan of Fox 25 News at 10 which I happen to watch even more.

  When things like this happen it allows you to see who truly has talent and who are just talking heads with a script. It sounds like last night it was easy to seperate the two.

  A Good anchor can adlib. A bad one can't. It's as simple as that. Sorry to hear that WHDH had to be put to the test though. That's a POP Quiz which no Television anchor wants to have to take.

[wkrpfm]

I saw the entire thing...I thought maybe they would have brought in hard copies of the stories and that they would do their best at reporting the news off paper....it reminded me of one night when we lost power at the station due to a storm..we got some things up and running, but i was so flustered i threw on songs with DEAD SEGUES....trying to get everything up and running and trying to do breaks was a nightmare...we rely so much on technology, I don't think some of us know what to do when a wrench is thrown in the mix..
Randy's mic was fine, but at first I had a hard time hearing the woman when she was talking.

[Skynet74]

 I wonder what happened exactly. It sounds like a more serious problem then just the teleprompters going down. Mics didn't work, Video was frozen. No show opening, No audio on the Dan Hausle "package".

  It sounds to me like the Director didn't show up and they had no one else in the control room who knew how to direct the damn newscast.

[raccoonradio]

I work nights and have a break at 11 pm; I usually listen to the local news via an AM-FM-TV Sound radio and I was also wondering what was going on. I went back and forth between (sound from) Ch 4, Ch 5, and when I went back to 7 it sounded like a long-form piece on JonBenet Ramsey and I thought, "Maybe they had some kind of sporting event that ran late, and the news will be on late tonight--this might be a news magazine show from NBC...but what was that I heard earlier?
Something about 'technical difficulties'..."

[Casablanca]

Good to see Boston's Tabloid News Station proving how shallow their team is with the exception of Randy Price.

Bright colors and snappy cuts can only take you so far even for the average under educated Channel 7 viewer.

As the late great Jack Cole once said on Channel 7 ..." Now back to more alleged news."

[Julius May]

Wow, no newscast in a major city like Boston becuase of problems like that? If anyone recorded this, pleae post the video.

[Garrett]

If you happened to be watching WHDH's 11:00 news last night, you will know what I'm about to discuss.  Immediately, after the network programming, they sat in black for a few seconds...then Randy Price and Christa Delcamp appeared.  Randy said they were having technical problems, but they would still bring us the news.  Christa tried to talk about the Isreal/Lebanon violence...but she simply couldn't handle the fact that she didn't have a teleprompter.  She's not really good at ad-libbing.  Randy handled the situation like the true pro he is.  Then, they ran a commercial break...came back and tried to run a Dan Hausle "package."  The video sat paused on the air for about 30 seconds...then the tape ran with no reporter voice track.  They went back to the anchor team and to another commercial break.  Around 11:07, they gave an apology on how they couldn't give us the news tonight.  They aired MSNBC for the rest of the half-hour.

Technology at it's best before our very eyes.

What!?  And nobody taped this for Youtube? Urghh!

Must have been a computer glitch. Or could it be switching digital line type of thing? Does WHDH do their own switching?

[odomski]

Julius:  post the video where?  You can't post videos on this board.

Also, why do you care about WHDH Julius?  What interests you about Boston television news?  Don't you have enough to talk about on the Philly boards?  Aren't you too busy talking about ESPN Radio in Philadelphia and why it's on a station in Trenton, why you think WIP is a "crappy station," and Penn Quakers play-by-play?  Every message board I visit, you're there.

As "Fred Flintstone" said on the Philadelphia radio board....STOP IT!!!!

[odomski]

From reading other television related blog/gossip sites, the word is the WHDH Meltdown was caused by their new computer system crashing.  The station recently went "tapeless."  Meaning, the stories are being played on the air via some type of computer system.  Word is the new system crashed about 40 minutes before the 11:00 show, and they weren't able to get it back up and running properly.  I'm not saying this is the truth...it's just what I have read on other "gossip" sites.