RE: WMTW to drop 5 and 5:30 newscasts

[Aaron Read <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 12:17 PM 1/22/2003 -0500, Garrett Wollman wrote:
><<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


In rough terms, isn't it more cost-effective to have an alternate 
broadcasting/backup site that is at a "safer" location (even if it doesn't 
cover as much territory, signal-wise) than to pay what must be a decent 
salary (plus benefits and all the other costs of having an employee) for 
someone to be at the primary site all the time?   Even if the guy is only 
paid $40000/yr, it probably costs the company more like $60-70000/yr by the 
time you add everything up...that adds up pretty quick over the years, no?



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aaron "Bishop" Read             aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels Consulting          AOL-IM: readaaron
http://www.friedbagels.com      Boston, MA