Re: Fw: No backup transmitter sites

[Scott Saloway <saloway@bu.edu>]

It's strange to think that this is exactly what happened back in 1993. I
remember sitting at home (near Morristown, NJ at the time), and only
having access to WCBS. And this was over cable. Almost all of the other
stations were down. 

I was under the impression that the stations went to great lengths to set
up backup sites following the '93 attack. I guess that was wrong.

Of course, I don't think anyone expect anything like this to ever happen.

On NPR tonight, reporter Ric Karr talked about the electronic impact of
the attack on NYC. 

WNET president Bill Baker told Karr that his station lost an engineer in
the attack as well, whom Baker said "kept us on the air until that tower
began to fall."

WNET, he said, is hoping to be back on the air sometime next week using a
low-power transmitter from the Empire State Building. I imagine many
others will follow suit.

To Chris Beckwith's point about Oxygen relaying NY1: Does anyone know
where Oxygen's studios were? Did they take over the WBIS studios - which I
believe were with the other Dow Jones operations at 1 World Financial
Center, across from the WTC - when WBIS was sold to Pax?

I found it interesting that WFAN was simulcasting WCBS on the night of the
attack. I'm assuming they could have also carried their sister station
WINS. For my money, WCBS was the better choice, since they always seem to
perform better in a crisis - but might this point out that, in Infinity's
eyes, the demise of WCBS has been greatly exaggerated?

Also, let me be one of the many to commend the vast majority of my
colleagues in the radio and television world who did the right thing on
Tuesday morning, as soon as it became apparent what was happening. 

By switching to news, you did your listeners and viewers - and this
country - a great service. Your listeners and viewers will not forget
that. 

Those of you who switched to light music, or open-phone-line talk shortly
after the attack came to an end deserve to be commended as well.

I firmly believe that the purpose of our industry, in a time of crisis, is
first and foremost to keep our audience informed. Second, it is to comfort
them and let them know that things are going to be OK.

Those that did one or the other - or both - truly lifted the bar for all
of us, and truly performed a public service. God bless each and every one
of you.

Stay safe,

--Scott--

On Thu, 13 Sep 2001, Paul Anderson wrote:

> The fact that only one New York TV station is on the air* speaks volumes 
> about the affect of cable TV.  Would the same thing have happened years 
> ago, before most people had cable, if a common transmitter site had been 
> destroyed?  I can't imagine stations doing without a backup site in 
> those days.
> 
> One of the stations (I think it was WPIX) had a note on their Web page 
> directing cable system operators to their satellite location.
> 
> I wonder why WCBS-TV is the only station with a backup site.
> 
> Paul
> 
> *on their own frequency; WABC-TV's rebroadcast on suburban stations, 
> although resourceful, doesn't count
>