RE: WMTW to drop 5 and 5:30 newscasts

[Garrett Wollman <wollman@lcs.mit.edu>]

<<On Wed, 22 Jan 2003 05:00:47 -0800 (PST), Cooper Fox <fox893@yahoo.com> said:

> I didn't realize that TV Tx's had to be manned 24
> hours a day.  Or, for some reason, do they have their
> main control at their Tx site?

They don't (not any more, anyway).  However, stations with relatively
inaccessible sites such as these view the full-time staffing as an
insurance policy.  If no personnel are stationed on the mountain, it
might take several days to restore service if a transmitter fails
during bad weather.  (It still might -- but with personnel up there,
diagnosis and recovery can proceed immediately, whereas without
full-time engineers it could take a day just to get someone up the
mountain to identify the problem!)  Particularly in the case of a
small broadcaster (Mount Mansfield Broadcasting gets all of its
revenue from its one and only broadcast station), it's a prudent step
to take.

-GAWollman