Re: Major Power Outage

[Aaron Read <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 12:01 AM 8/18/2003, Garrett Wollman wrote:
><<On Sun, 17 Aug 2003 00:29:57 -0400, "Kevin Vahey" <kvahey@tmail.com> said:
>
> > Overnight Thursday WFAN was simulcasting WCBS and WNEW was simulcasting
> > WINS
>
>WNEW was probably operating from its backup tx in Lyndhurst, and if
>they had problems with studio power, all they had to do was move a
>patch cord at the tx.
>
>-GAWollman

In theory...reality might be a bit trickier.  For example, one major 
trip-up I could imagine would be EAS.  Most stations keep EAS at the 
studio, so broadcasting from the transmitter (unless you take steps to keep 
EAS in the airchain - even a phone line is sufficient) is not legal.

Granted, many stations do it anyway when they have to.  In most cases I see 
little or nothing wrong with it...BUT in case like this it's foolhardy to 
cut EAS out of the loop as it was entirely possible that Bush could have 
issued an EAN (National Alert) to assure the nation that it wasn't a 
terrorist alert or something like that.   After all, there was something 
like a quarter of the US population without power...that's justifiably EAN 
territory I'd say.   Even if not, state and local authorities could've done 
so (did they?).

Fortunately Bush...or someone in his administration...knows better than to 
wreak havoc with the nation's broadcasters by issuing an EAN.  It'd 
probably cause more problems than it would solve.  :-)



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