RE: WBZ & WRKO - No Audio

[Martin Waters <martinjwaters@yahoo.com>]

>What, no STL/TSL microwave backup?  I'm curious what
> WBZ has for
> tech coverage both at studios and at the stick?  If
> a page-out was
> needed to roundup someone, that could account for
> lost time...and
> units.

    Good questions.

    AP reported that WBZ (AM) was off from 1:10 to
about 2 p.m. It said a contractor severed a cable at
the intersection of Spurr St. and Western Ave.,
knocking out phone service in the neighborhood. A WBZ
employee was quoted saying that the station retained
incoming phone service, but not outgoing. And that it
had to rely on cell phones to call out even after the
station got back on the air. There was nothing about
exactly how the station got back on the air (and I'm
inferring from what it does say that WBZ bypassed the
still-knocked-out phone service.) The AP says nothing
about WRKO.

    Fifty minutes seems a long time to get the
auxiliary transmitter on from Allston. And, what's up
with the studio to Hull transmitter connection? I
would have thought WBZ would have used an STL anyhow
and, in any event, had at least one redundancy. Maybe
the signal goes by land line a short didstance to the
STL transmitting antenna? And maybe the backup feed to
Hull can't get on unless someone is out there?
Inquiring minds want to know . . . And we know WBZers
lurk around here.




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