Penn. CBS affiliate drops 60 MINUTES; "Busted transmitter"

[rawstory]

By John Byrne | Raw Story Editor

A CBS affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania stopped broadcasting around the time ‘60 Minutes’ was supposed to be broadcast, leading thousands to question whether the network dropped the show because its content was critical of President Bush.

A news director confirmed that the program was not carried, saying, “Our transmitted busted.”

“I can tell you that it was not part of a vast right wing conspiracy,” he added.

One viewer, who asked not to be named, wrote to RAW STORY outraged that WYOU would pull the program.

“When the CBS affiliate goes off air at 8:00 PM, and promptly resumes coverage at 9:00 PM, and no other stations had technical problems – it’s a clear case of censorship,” the viewer wrote. Folks have been calling WYOU non-stop about this since last night, and station officials are extremely defensive and hostile.”

“They refuse to re-broadcast the 60 Minutes episode,” the letter continued, “telling callers to “get a life” and “take it up with CBS” if they’ve got a problem.”

More at: http://rawstory.com

[freetobegay]

1. Was the transmitter fixed after 60 minutes was over?

[grannylib]

2. Sounds like it, if they went back on the air promptly at 9:00 pm...

[BiggJawn]

11. As a former Transmitter Supervisor, I say hogwash.

Just MAYBE...They had it back up in exactly 60 minutes. When I had a transmitter under my care, it went back on the air ASAP, none of this "wait till the top of the hour then go back up" You got it back up as soon as it was able so you didn't spend all night fucking around the shack seeing if it was gonna be OK.

But a TTU-110C could be a fickle mutha-fucka!

[DemoTex]

15. BJ, are station logs kept?

Can they be viewed by the public? I'm not up on broadcast regs.

[BiggJawn]

16. I'm not sure what all goes into the Public File

progrqamming logs may go into the file, so as to document what went out over the air.

I don't think discrepency logs go in, this is the log where any problems with/variations from the program log are noted, such as "20:32, aired EAS notification/weather alert for viewing area...21:58, Smiling Jack car lot ad still advertising "President's Day Sale". Labour day was last weekend...."

Transmitter logs do not go in, and frankly, those are usually automated and would at most indicate time on/off for High Voltage, Filaments, and other operating parameters and what time tower lights came on.

There should be a log with comments/narrative about what was wrong with the transmitter, and what was done to correct it, but this is not a legal document, it's intended to help the engineer by not making him re-invent the wheel for a re-occuring problem. Good luck getting your hands on that one.

[fudge stripe cookays]

3. Start building some signs....

Get a bunch of people to go demonstrate in front of their studios, and show them how democracy works!

These guys are lying pieces of shit, and need to know that the viewers will nto stand for this type of censorship.

Transmitter, my ass.
FSC

[LisaL]

4. Well, I guess the question is

who busted their transmitter?

[Khephra]

5. Indy's CBS channel replaced it with a show for their 50th aniversary

and then had it listed in the tv guide as being shown at 2AM in the morning.

2 AM roled around and guess what? It wasn't on then either. I put the tape on 6 hour tape mode and haven't had the chance to see if it came on later or not, but I don't have high hopes.

[BiggJawn]

8. You're kidding! WISH pre-empted it?

I wonder if it aired on WLFI? They're owned by the same company...

[Khephra]

10. That's what the tv guide said

but it looks like they screwed up their who schedule last night. A CBS fall preview that was supposed to be on at 9PM was in the 2 AM slot where 60 Minutes was supposed to be shown. My luck is that they screwed around with showtimes at the last minute and showed 60 Minutes at 9PM instead of 8PM like normal. That would be a double whammy--first telling us it was going to be on at 2AM and then switching it to 9PM at the last moment.

I'm currently not a happy puppy about the whole mess.

[Khephra]

13. Well, that's what it looks like they must have done

I just checked my late night tape--no 60 Minutes.

They changed their minds and either played it at 9pm or 10pm instead of 8pm after they sent out the info to online tv guides. It wasn't shown anytime latenight last night. What a way to double-screw people! Tell them you're showing it late night and then "Change your mind" and show it an hour or two after it's normally supposed to be on. That way no one who wants to see it can see it no matter how hard they try.

:grr:

[AmerDem]

6. I'm one of those people effected!

I bitched non stop here last night. There is NO DOUBT the fix was in! It took forever to talk with someone at the station today and once I was able to they were as rude as hell and pushed the call to a voice box.

This area is considered to be a must for shrub to win Pa. Cheney was here 2 weeks ago and shrub was here a few days ago. This is nonsense and it sure has the stink of Rove all over it!

[Flubadubya]

7. They pulled the same thing in Baton Rouge, La.

I believe WABF actually aired an old rerun of some other episode in its place. Now, that they can't pin on a "technical difficulty"... it's out and out censorship. Oh how far we have fallen!!!

[underpants]

9. Richmond didn't see it due to tornado coverage

So that is understandable especially since the local CBS affiliate is THE channel that EBS directs you toward.

[friesianrider]

12. Not surprised....

Very typical of the neo-cons here in PA, especially in the weatern part of the state...

[grannylib]

14. I don't get CBS, long story, but I checked and it did air here in S cent

ral Minnesota
Wish I'd seen it.

[Ducks In A Row]

17. what about the advertisers? are they giving the money back.

The advertisers should cancel their ads, because they can't trust the ads to run.