Y2K Midnight Observations

[Pete Kemp <kempp@bethel.k12.ct.us>]

WLAD-800 glitched at Midnight.  Gotta love it.  Jim Bohannon doing 
countdown on Westwood One and then dead air.  I kept listening for a while. 
Around 0004, a prepared weather tape cut in and then back to dead air.  The 
black box used on WLAD to automate its evening and overnight programming is 
always hiccupping.  It is not unusual to have it forget to switch from 
Bruce Williams to Jim Bohannon at 10 p.m. local.  The box regularly treats 
its listeners to a tape weather report and a station promo at the same 
time.  Gee all this and NO riots in the streets.  Weatherman Geoff Fox 
reported on WTNH-Channel 8 that five of his six weather forecasting 
programs are working smoothly, but the sixth program says its 1980! 
Basically Y2K was a non-starter in the news biz.  Now, where will all the 
"experts" be in the media?  Probably out hiding in the bunkers, with their 
canned food and bullets proclaiming victory? If I had a nickel for every 
reporter who did an ATM report, I'd been rich. Now the BIG wait for the 
REAL millennium in 2001 and a new wave of doom prognosticators. I even 
heard one reporter say that the next glitch is anticipated on February 
29th, in conjunction with Leap Year. Won't the media ever stop the b.s.? 
Probably not, as the tabloid approach to news is fully engrained.  Now that 
the magic time has come and gone, what glitches or routines of interest 
were pulled off in your area?