My friend is back. I am glad to have my friend back. My friend was in bad shape for a while but is all better now. Luckily the problem was not terminal. It only took one part and some bench time and it was back up and running. “What?” you say? “Bench time?” What kind of a person is this? No person at all. It is a “thing.” It is my television. “You call your television a friend?” Sure! Don’t you call yours a friend too? Stats show that most people spend more time with their televisions than with other humans so wouldn’t it make sense that it is your “friend?”
I haven’t gone as far as some people do and name my TV or my car for that matter. Sure, I think highly of both of them. But when their time comes to hit the garbage, I will have some amount of sorrow, but I will be too busy enjoying their replacement to feel too bad for too long. But that is a long way in the future. I hope. The story that had my friend in “surgery” is somewhat typical.
A couple of months ago I started noticing a small faint ripple moving from the right to the left of the screen changing speed from very slow at times to very fast at times and other times not even there. Then about a month or so ago I started having trouble turning the set on. It would start to come on but never quite get there. Then it wouldn’t come on at all. The set is 4 years old and of course the warrantee expired 3 years ago. It is a HD set so there was no way I was going to throw it out and buy another one.
Trying to find a TV repair shop these days is like trying to win the Power Ball. When I first got the set, there was a recall on a circuit board and the manufacturer sent a company out of Kernersville to fix it. I thought I would call them. A call gleaned they were no longer a service center and it would be FIVE WEEKS before they could even send someone out to just pick up the set. Well that wasn’t going to cut it. I had determined that the problem was somewhere in the power supply system and not a fatal problem and I wasn't going to wait 5 weeks just to see a repair truck show up. I started looking around again. I found a little repair shop in High Point and called them. Yep, they could fix it and if I could bring it in, they could get it fixed quicker. I said “OK!” Well that was easier said than done. My friend weighs more than most people do. It weighs 212 pounds.
It is a 34 inch CRT set. With the widescreen picture tube, not plasma or LCD, that much glass weighs a ton. But with a dolly and a ramp off the front porch into the bed of the truck, off to the repair shop my friend and I go. The repairman tells me that he can start on it either that day or the next. Better than I thought. Exactly six days later I got a phone call. My friend was up and running and I could come take him home.
I showed up ready to fork over several hundred dollars but was surprised to find that it was only $95. $15 for one IC chip in the high voltage power supply and $75 labor. Typical more for the labor than for the parts. Oh well, I wasn’t going to complain. I got out cheaper than I thought. We loaded up my buddy and away we go.
It is so nice to have my friend back. My little 20 inch SD set from the bedroom worked just great, but it just doesn’t have the screen size or the resolution of the 34 inch HD set. There definitely was a large hole, not just physically but emotionally as well. Who would have thought that of a television? Hopefully I am set for a long time of great television vieweing from my friend who lives in the living room.
Friday, October 27, 2006
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Five Years After Hell On Earth - 9/11
That Tuesday morning actually started for me 6 months earlier.
Back in March on a routine dental visit of teeth cleaning, the little yellow card that marked my next appointment was handed to me. It read "9:30 AM Sept 11, 2001." The moment I saw it a strange feeling came over me. I had no idea why, but it just didn't hit me right. The feeling lasted about 2 seconds and the reminder card went into my wallet so I wouldn't forget it and out the door I went. I didn't think about it again. I can't tell you anything else about that March day. I can't even tell you what day it was, but that 60 seconds is seared in my brain forever.
Fast forward to September. It was not a normal day in many ways. My wife, who also works in the newsroom as an assignment editor on the day shift was filling in for the night side assignment editor and was asleep. As I was waiting to leave for my 9:30 dental appointment I was surfing the net and I just happen to have FOX News Channel on, sampling "FOX and Friends", since I normally watch our morning news while getting ready to go to work. It was as clear and warm of a day here in the Piedmont as it was in New York City.
Out of the corner of my eye and half listening, I hear E.D. Hill say reports were coming in that a small aircraft had hit the World Trade Center. Being somewhat of an aviation enthusiast, my ears perked up and I started to pay attention to the television. The time, 8:48 AM, two minutes after the hit. I had planned to leave to go to the dentist at 9:15 since the dentist office is only about 4 miles from home.
I am looking at the pictures that are now on the screen and not believing a small aircraft could cause that much damage. The thought did cross my mind that it could be terrorism but I dismissed it as unrealistic as several "experts" via telephone began to say it MIGHT be terrorism. About 8:55 Jon Scott takes over the coverage from the F&F team. 9:03 the second aircraft slams into the south tower. As I am seeing it, instantly I grasp what is going on and say out loud to no one, "We are at war!" Several long seconds later, Scott says on air, "It has happened again! Another plane has hit the tower! This can't be a coincidence. This has to be a terror attack!"
I don't know why, but I instantly thought of my wife's 4 year old niece and 11 year old nephew and how they would never know a world at relative peace again in their lifetime. Sadness fell over me. Then the broadcaster in me took control. I knew what had to be done and it had to start now.
I then went to the bedroom and woke my wife. I said "Two planes have struck the World Trade Center in New York. They suspect terrorism. I think you need to call the station and see if they need you to come in early." I go back to the TV and see I need to leave in a few minutes. I begin planning on what I needed to do for work and how I can make my appointment and get to the station as fast as I can. Since this is not a local story, yet, I figure I have a few minutes to work in the dentist. Being the transmitter guy, I am usually not the first person they call.
At 9:30 I walk into the dentist office and ask if they have heard what happened in New York City. They hadn't. I asked if they could rush me through since I suspect I would need to get on to work. 20 minutes later I was out the door. The quickest I have ever been through a dentist's office! By 9:50 I am on the road headed for the station. Just about every radio station on the dial has someone else’s coverage. I hear CBS, NBC, ABC AND FOX TV audio on MANY stations. I call my wife and she tells me the south tower has collapsed. I can't even comprehend it.
I hang up and the cell phone immediately rings. It is my boss wanting to know where am I. I tell him I am on the way to the station via the dentist and should be there in 15 minutes. He waives me off and tells me to go to the transmitter and stay there. I arrived there in record time.
I go into the office and turn on the monitor and see we have picked up the FOX feed that is carrying FOX News Channel. Jon Scott and Shepard Smith are now co-anchoring. In mid sentence of Shep Smith saying how if the north tower comes down, the death toll will be unbelievable, the north tower collapses. Cut to a helicopter shot of the dust cloud that rises up from lower Manhattan. I can't believe what I have just witnessed on our air. Then the report of a 5th highjack plane inbound to Washington hits air, later proved to be unfounded. My head starts to spin.
I stay glued to the TV the rest of the day and then when I go home that night until I go to bed at 3 AM when the adrenaline rush of the day wears off. For the next 6 days, I stay glued to the TV as every station in the country goes wall to wall coverage.
I can't tell you what I saw that whole time, but I was there and saw it all.
Back in March on a routine dental visit of teeth cleaning, the little yellow card that marked my next appointment was handed to me. It read "9:30 AM Sept 11, 2001." The moment I saw it a strange feeling came over me. I had no idea why, but it just didn't hit me right. The feeling lasted about 2 seconds and the reminder card went into my wallet so I wouldn't forget it and out the door I went. I didn't think about it again. I can't tell you anything else about that March day. I can't even tell you what day it was, but that 60 seconds is seared in my brain forever.
Fast forward to September. It was not a normal day in many ways. My wife, who also works in the newsroom as an assignment editor on the day shift was filling in for the night side assignment editor and was asleep. As I was waiting to leave for my 9:30 dental appointment I was surfing the net and I just happen to have FOX News Channel on, sampling "FOX and Friends", since I normally watch our morning news while getting ready to go to work. It was as clear and warm of a day here in the Piedmont as it was in New York City.
Out of the corner of my eye and half listening, I hear E.D. Hill say reports were coming in that a small aircraft had hit the World Trade Center. Being somewhat of an aviation enthusiast, my ears perked up and I started to pay attention to the television. The time, 8:48 AM, two minutes after the hit. I had planned to leave to go to the dentist at 9:15 since the dentist office is only about 4 miles from home.
I am looking at the pictures that are now on the screen and not believing a small aircraft could cause that much damage. The thought did cross my mind that it could be terrorism but I dismissed it as unrealistic as several "experts" via telephone began to say it MIGHT be terrorism. About 8:55 Jon Scott takes over the coverage from the F&F team. 9:03 the second aircraft slams into the south tower. As I am seeing it, instantly I grasp what is going on and say out loud to no one, "We are at war!" Several long seconds later, Scott says on air, "It has happened again! Another plane has hit the tower! This can't be a coincidence. This has to be a terror attack!"
I don't know why, but I instantly thought of my wife's 4 year old niece and 11 year old nephew and how they would never know a world at relative peace again in their lifetime. Sadness fell over me. Then the broadcaster in me took control. I knew what had to be done and it had to start now.
I then went to the bedroom and woke my wife. I said "Two planes have struck the World Trade Center in New York. They suspect terrorism. I think you need to call the station and see if they need you to come in early." I go back to the TV and see I need to leave in a few minutes. I begin planning on what I needed to do for work and how I can make my appointment and get to the station as fast as I can. Since this is not a local story, yet, I figure I have a few minutes to work in the dentist. Being the transmitter guy, I am usually not the first person they call.
At 9:30 I walk into the dentist office and ask if they have heard what happened in New York City. They hadn't. I asked if they could rush me through since I suspect I would need to get on to work. 20 minutes later I was out the door. The quickest I have ever been through a dentist's office! By 9:50 I am on the road headed for the station. Just about every radio station on the dial has someone else’s coverage. I hear CBS, NBC, ABC AND FOX TV audio on MANY stations. I call my wife and she tells me the south tower has collapsed. I can't even comprehend it.
I hang up and the cell phone immediately rings. It is my boss wanting to know where am I. I tell him I am on the way to the station via the dentist and should be there in 15 minutes. He waives me off and tells me to go to the transmitter and stay there. I arrived there in record time.
I go into the office and turn on the monitor and see we have picked up the FOX feed that is carrying FOX News Channel. Jon Scott and Shepard Smith are now co-anchoring. In mid sentence of Shep Smith saying how if the north tower comes down, the death toll will be unbelievable, the north tower collapses. Cut to a helicopter shot of the dust cloud that rises up from lower Manhattan. I can't believe what I have just witnessed on our air. Then the report of a 5th highjack plane inbound to Washington hits air, later proved to be unfounded. My head starts to spin.
I stay glued to the TV the rest of the day and then when I go home that night until I go to bed at 3 AM when the adrenaline rush of the day wears off. For the next 6 days, I stay glued to the TV as every station in the country goes wall to wall coverage.
I can't tell you what I saw that whole time, but I was there and saw it all.
Monday, September 4, 2006
SNL - Too many years later
Staying up all night was a favorite thing of mine in my youth and Saturday nights were no different. Back in those days, my parents owned a house at the beach and we would go every weekend.
I can remember watching a little known news show at 11:30 pm on Saturday nights called "NBC News Weekend" with even less know reporters Lloyd Dobbins and Linda Ellerbee. It was the first attempt at a hip late show on network TV. It lasted about 6 months but was a forerunner to the 1983-4 "NBC News Overnight" with the same Lloyd Dobbins (later Bill Schechner) and Linda Ellerbee. It too failed within a year or so but set the stage for all of the overnight news programs you see on network TV today. Somewhere I have on beta tape a couple of "NBC News Overnight's" with Schechner and Ellerbee. This is where Ellerbee got the "Lucky Duck" idea from. She received a little yellow duck (same one you see at the end of her production companies programs) from a viewer and she liked it so much she put it on the anchor desk and started calling it "Lucky Duck." After the show ended and she left NBC News, she started a production company called "Lucky Duck Productions." She also stole her trademark line, "And so it goes" from Lloyd Dobbins. Dobbins used it to close the show on "NBC News Weekend" and "Overnight." When he left "Overnight" Ellerbee started using it and has ever since. I met Dobbins in the early 90's at the NC state AP News Convention after he retired from NBC News and had moved to Raleigh. He jokingly said he was still mad at Ellerbee for stealing his line, but at least unlike him, it was still working.
After the "Weekend" experiment failed, Tom Snyder got a shot at late night Saturday with a version of "The Tomorrow Show." It failed also but "The Tomorrow Show" moved to five nights a week after "The Tonight Show" and later went to CBS as the "The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder" after "The Late Show with David Letterman" and still continues after moving from a news/feature show to a purely comedy show with Craig Kilborn and now with Craig Ferguson.
On that last "The Tomorrow Show" on Saturday nights, Tom Snyder introduced a group of people that would become show biz icons. On that August night the world was introduced to the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" better known as Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, and Garrett Morris. I do think Belushi was stoned out of his mind that night. He did some things that got Snyder hot under the collar, but it was a forebearer of what was to come. The next Saturday night at 11:30 pm we saw the first prat fall of Chevy Chase and an institution was born.
I watched that show every Saturday night for the next 5 years. In the 1980 season when Lorne Michaels left, most people, including me, left also. It was a few years later I came back during the later Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo years and then last watched regularly in the 1985-6 "superstar" season of Jim Belushi, Mary Gross, Gary Kroeger, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the well known Billy Crystal; Martin Short, Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer and Rich Hall. After that season, when the cast was purged, I bailed for good.
I would catch an occasional show if there was a guest host I liked but would only watch those parts they were in. In recent times I watched the first post 9/11 opening with NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani and NY Governor George Pataki. After the monologue I bailed again and had not watched SNL since. Until this past Saturday night. It was a repeat of the Christmas show with Jack Black as the guest host.
With the new TV season about to start, there was nothing on and for the first time in a long time, I wasn't fast asleep at 11:30 on a Saturday night. So the wife and I watched SNL. Either I have gotten too old to get modern comedy or this show stunk. None of the skits were funny. Weekend Update with Tina Fey was so lame, I have seen amateur parodies funnier. Even the wife commented how unfunny it was.
With NBC producing two shows this season about a fictitious late night comedy/sketch show ("30 Rock" created and produced by SNL alum Tina Fey) and "Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip" by "West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin) either one or both could be funnier than the show they are based on.
Sometimes it isn't such a good idea to keep reinventing yourself. After 30 years it might just be time to retire SNL. One could say it had a good run.
Friday, August 25, 2006
Closure
Well I think I can finally put the new tower project to bed. The last milestone that needed to be done has finally happened. To myself and Ross the Boss and a few others, it was a monumental event. To a small band of viewers it was a relief. To the rest of the world, it didn't matter.
Since we got the digital transmitter setup in February, we have had some issues with the RF tubes in it. The transmitter manufacturer and the tube manufacturer have been to the site many times in the last 6 months trying to get things in order. I jokingly say that Denver Jim has been here so many times now, he needs to just buy a house for him to stay when he is here. Alex from Canada has been here several times as well. Both have gotten to know the area well. Alex so well, he has gotten a speeding ticket! Anyway, if I am reading the tea leaves correctly, everyone is just about on board that the transmitter isn't the issue and they think they have the situation finally under control. Only time will tell.
The beast FINALLY on the air
While all of this was taking place, we have been quietly waiting for the FCC to approve what is called a "minor modification of the Construction Permit" so we can turn this beast on to the masses. It really is only a paperwork thing that usually takes 45 days at the most. The most recent I saw was taking about 3 weeks. We had filed for our modification in May of 2005 and we still had not heard from it in February when we wanted to turn this thing on. And we continued to wait for another six months beyond that. The government gets real cranky if you do things without their blessing and turning this thing on without their blessing would have brought the rath of God down upon us. They said they had been too busy with other things. It turned out that about 200 other stations were in the same boat we were in. So we waited and used the time to fix the problems with the tubes.
The last thing of this project was to turn the DTV transmitter on. We had gotten tired of calling the lawyer (I am sure she was tired of hearing from us to) and just moved on to other things this summer. Yesterday, about 11:15, Ross the Boss and I were at the old transmitter building stripping it out, getting it ready for its new life as a backup site. A job we have been doing all week. It is starting to look pretty good, if you ask me. Anyway, Ross' cell phone rings. I didn't know who it was, but by the conversion I assumed it was the lawyer telling us the mod had been approved and he was trying to get the specifics. It was actually the general manager of the station relaying the information. Before I could figure all of that out, the building phone starts to ring. I go and answer it. It is one of the corporate VP's of engineering. He is asking me if I have seen my email yet. I say no that we are working in the old building. He then tells me that the mod has been approved and the authorization is in an email. About that time Ross comes into the main transmitter room where I am and he tells me what I have just heard. I tell him I am heading over to the other building and get things going and did he want to talk to the VP. He said yes and I take off.
Time begins to speed up and slow down at the same time. This isn't the first time I have turned on a new station. It is only the, ah, let me count here, sixth new transmitter site I have put on the air in 25 years of doing this job.
First thing is to look at the authorization to see if there are any caveat's. Nope. All looks like a standard CP with Program Authorization testing included. I did have one AM station where we had to get permission to even test the thing, much less put it on the air for real. That was my first one in 1984!
Second thing is to power down the transmitter from the dummy antenna. Since the main and standby antennas have never been powered up before, you don't just hit them with full power. You "nurse" them up meaning you run the power to zero and then switch to the antenna and then bring the power up in steps and then waiting a short time at each point to see what happens as you check all kinds of meters until you either reach full power or you burn the damn thing up!! The latter does happen every now and again. A station in North Dakota found that out about 2 years ago when they put their new DTV on the air and the antenna literally caught fire! There are pictures of flames shooting off of the antenna on the tower! Once you see that things are stable, it doesn't matter if you hit it with full power or not in the future.
Since we have two antennas on the tower, one main and one standby, I need to test both of them before we go on air. I spend the next five minutes nursing and then watching what happens with the standby antenna. Everything works just like it is suppose to. I run the power down, and switch to the main antenna and start the process again. 10 percent power. Wait 30 seconds. 20 percent power. Wait 30 seconds. 30 percent power. Wait 30 seconds. 50 percent power Wait 30 seconds. 70 percent power. Wait 30 seconds. Run up to 80 percent and when it reaches about 75 percent the transmitter trips off. A VSWR warning light comes on. Usually this means that the antenna has a problem but since this is the first time this antenna has had any power to it, it probably isn't anything, but to make sure I run the power down to zero and start again, this time only stopping at 25 percent, 50 percent and 70 percent and enough time to check meters and then move on. I then move to 75 percent and stop. Meters look good. Nothing happens. I then move to 80 percent. Check meters again. All OK and then move to 90 percent. All still OK. Then I run it up to 110 percent and run it there for about 2 minutes. All runs OK. I then drop it back to 100 percent. This time checking all of the meters on the transmitter (about 30 of them). Certify all is OK. Check the clock. It is 11:35. I call Master Control and tell them we are at full power, 1 million watts of digital power!
So THAT is what 1 milion watts looks like, eh? Well 50,000 out of the transmitter and the antenna makes up the rest!
Of course this was happening so fast that the news department didn't even get a chance to get a photog down to the site to record the "historic moment" (and I have already heard about that) but of course there is nothing visually stimulating in watching someone push buttons! Like I told my wife, when I hit 100 percent the first time, no brass bands played. No show girls danced through. No confetti fell. Just the sound of fans running and circulating water, the same sounds it has been making for the last 6 months. The only difference was the antenna switches were in a physically different position and if I screwed up, I would have the transmitter off the air. In reality, it was all pretty anticlimactic after the long wait to be honest. It was more of a relief that it was finally done. But then it should have been. Even the factory admits that transmitter has been the most evaluated transmitter in the companies history with all of the tube problems we have had so at least I know the cabinets are sound! I did miss the usual hoopla that goes along with commissioning a new transmitter. Usually you have the transmitter sitting there ready to go, the tower crew is finishing up the antenna and the general manager or station owner is breathing down your neck to hurry them up so you can get it on the air faster! That didn't happen this time since everything was done and we still couldn't turn it on, so when it did happened, it happened quick and unceremoniously. It just happened. I guess I just missed the pressure!
The other day in doing some clean up in the old transmitter building, I found the original 1963 "Proof of Performance" when the station signed on in 1963. It is a document each station has to have for every transmitter and is updated yearly for each transmitter. It shows that the transmitter meets the FCC specs before it is put on the air. With today's state of the art, Proofs are done in a couple of hours tops (the new channel 8 transmitter took 2 hours and the DTV transmitter took about an hour once everything was set up) and you usually do not find any problems. In 1963, it took them 10 days, from October 1 through October 11 to get the original RCA TT25DH transmitter to make Proof! Shows you how far we have come and how routine these transmitter christenings have become. Back in those days, you put on a new transmitter and it was a celebration. The newspaper came out. The mayor pontificated. Speeches by other dignitaries were spoken. It was really celebration. Today the engineers celebrate and the rest of the world yawns. We are a fickle bunch aren't we!!
End of this chapter. Time to start a new one.
Since we got the digital transmitter setup in February, we have had some issues with the RF tubes in it. The transmitter manufacturer and the tube manufacturer have been to the site many times in the last 6 months trying to get things in order. I jokingly say that Denver Jim has been here so many times now, he needs to just buy a house for him to stay when he is here. Alex from Canada has been here several times as well. Both have gotten to know the area well. Alex so well, he has gotten a speeding ticket! Anyway, if I am reading the tea leaves correctly, everyone is just about on board that the transmitter isn't the issue and they think they have the situation finally under control. Only time will tell.
The beast FINALLY on the airWhile all of this was taking place, we have been quietly waiting for the FCC to approve what is called a "minor modification of the Construction Permit" so we can turn this beast on to the masses. It really is only a paperwork thing that usually takes 45 days at the most. The most recent I saw was taking about 3 weeks. We had filed for our modification in May of 2005 and we still had not heard from it in February when we wanted to turn this thing on. And we continued to wait for another six months beyond that. The government gets real cranky if you do things without their blessing and turning this thing on without their blessing would have brought the rath of God down upon us. They said they had been too busy with other things. It turned out that about 200 other stations were in the same boat we were in. So we waited and used the time to fix the problems with the tubes.
The last thing of this project was to turn the DTV transmitter on. We had gotten tired of calling the lawyer (I am sure she was tired of hearing from us to) and just moved on to other things this summer. Yesterday, about 11:15, Ross the Boss and I were at the old transmitter building stripping it out, getting it ready for its new life as a backup site. A job we have been doing all week. It is starting to look pretty good, if you ask me. Anyway, Ross' cell phone rings. I didn't know who it was, but by the conversion I assumed it was the lawyer telling us the mod had been approved and he was trying to get the specifics. It was actually the general manager of the station relaying the information. Before I could figure all of that out, the building phone starts to ring. I go and answer it. It is one of the corporate VP's of engineering. He is asking me if I have seen my email yet. I say no that we are working in the old building. He then tells me that the mod has been approved and the authorization is in an email. About that time Ross comes into the main transmitter room where I am and he tells me what I have just heard. I tell him I am heading over to the other building and get things going and did he want to talk to the VP. He said yes and I take off.
Time begins to speed up and slow down at the same time. This isn't the first time I have turned on a new station. It is only the, ah, let me count here, sixth new transmitter site I have put on the air in 25 years of doing this job.
First thing is to look at the authorization to see if there are any caveat's. Nope. All looks like a standard CP with Program Authorization testing included. I did have one AM station where we had to get permission to even test the thing, much less put it on the air for real. That was my first one in 1984!
Second thing is to power down the transmitter from the dummy antenna. Since the main and standby antennas have never been powered up before, you don't just hit them with full power. You "nurse" them up meaning you run the power to zero and then switch to the antenna and then bring the power up in steps and then waiting a short time at each point to see what happens as you check all kinds of meters until you either reach full power or you burn the damn thing up!! The latter does happen every now and again. A station in North Dakota found that out about 2 years ago when they put their new DTV on the air and the antenna literally caught fire! There are pictures of flames shooting off of the antenna on the tower! Once you see that things are stable, it doesn't matter if you hit it with full power or not in the future.
Since we have two antennas on the tower, one main and one standby, I need to test both of them before we go on air. I spend the next five minutes nursing and then watching what happens with the standby antenna. Everything works just like it is suppose to. I run the power down, and switch to the main antenna and start the process again. 10 percent power. Wait 30 seconds. 20 percent power. Wait 30 seconds. 30 percent power. Wait 30 seconds. 50 percent power Wait 30 seconds. 70 percent power. Wait 30 seconds. Run up to 80 percent and when it reaches about 75 percent the transmitter trips off. A VSWR warning light comes on. Usually this means that the antenna has a problem but since this is the first time this antenna has had any power to it, it probably isn't anything, but to make sure I run the power down to zero and start again, this time only stopping at 25 percent, 50 percent and 70 percent and enough time to check meters and then move on. I then move to 75 percent and stop. Meters look good. Nothing happens. I then move to 80 percent. Check meters again. All OK and then move to 90 percent. All still OK. Then I run it up to 110 percent and run it there for about 2 minutes. All runs OK. I then drop it back to 100 percent. This time checking all of the meters on the transmitter (about 30 of them). Certify all is OK. Check the clock. It is 11:35. I call Master Control and tell them we are at full power, 1 million watts of digital power!
So THAT is what 1 milion watts looks like, eh? Well 50,000 out of the transmitter and the antenna makes up the rest!Of course this was happening so fast that the news department didn't even get a chance to get a photog down to the site to record the "historic moment" (and I have already heard about that) but of course there is nothing visually stimulating in watching someone push buttons! Like I told my wife, when I hit 100 percent the first time, no brass bands played. No show girls danced through. No confetti fell. Just the sound of fans running and circulating water, the same sounds it has been making for the last 6 months. The only difference was the antenna switches were in a physically different position and if I screwed up, I would have the transmitter off the air. In reality, it was all pretty anticlimactic after the long wait to be honest. It was more of a relief that it was finally done. But then it should have been. Even the factory admits that transmitter has been the most evaluated transmitter in the companies history with all of the tube problems we have had so at least I know the cabinets are sound! I did miss the usual hoopla that goes along with commissioning a new transmitter. Usually you have the transmitter sitting there ready to go, the tower crew is finishing up the antenna and the general manager or station owner is breathing down your neck to hurry them up so you can get it on the air faster! That didn't happen this time since everything was done and we still couldn't turn it on, so when it did happened, it happened quick and unceremoniously. It just happened. I guess I just missed the pressure!
The other day in doing some clean up in the old transmitter building, I found the original 1963 "Proof of Performance" when the station signed on in 1963. It is a document each station has to have for every transmitter and is updated yearly for each transmitter. It shows that the transmitter meets the FCC specs before it is put on the air. With today's state of the art, Proofs are done in a couple of hours tops (the new channel 8 transmitter took 2 hours and the DTV transmitter took about an hour once everything was set up) and you usually do not find any problems. In 1963, it took them 10 days, from October 1 through October 11 to get the original RCA TT25DH transmitter to make Proof! Shows you how far we have come and how routine these transmitter christenings have become. Back in those days, you put on a new transmitter and it was a celebration. The newspaper came out. The mayor pontificated. Speeches by other dignitaries were spoken. It was really celebration. Today the engineers celebrate and the rest of the world yawns. We are a fickle bunch aren't we!!
End of this chapter. Time to start a new one.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Are you ready for some football?
In the last few years fall as moved up on my list of great times of the year. That is because that is when football season begins!
I have never been a big sports fan. When the Carolina Panthers franchise came into existence in 1993, I was attending a transmitter school in Quincy, Ill having been with WGHP less than a year. The franchise had been awarded 3 days before I left. I went to the only place you could buy a Panthers sweatshirt then, Belk's, at Four Seasons. I bought it because I really thought that it was a good thing for our state and I wanted to show my support. I then went on my trip.
One day into my week stay there I pulled out the sweatshirt and put it on. It was a chilly fall day and I didn't want to tote a coat around. When I arrived at the factory, many of the guys wanted to know what a "Carolina Panther" was. Most of these guys were from the Mid West and were Bear's or Viking's or Lion's or Brown's fans. Most were amused that the NFL had come to the Carolina's. But all of a sudden, I was "one of the guys" since my area had a team. It didn't matter that we were a team in name only since no coach had been named yet, no players had been signed, no plays run, no touchdowns, no wins or no loses. It was the "well my team has so and so and he will do so and so" followed by someone else arguing that when so and so played for HIS team he did this and this.
When you "have a team" in your area, it is different that when you "have someone else’s team" because you are not in a teams market. When you live in a secondary area of a team, like the Carolina's did for many years, many people have many "teams." No one team dominates. In the northern and eastern parts of the North Carolina, many people were Washington Redskins fans. People from Charlotte west and south into South Carolina were Atlanta Falcon fans. Growing up in the eastern part of the North Carolina, my dad was a big Skins fan. My wife’s family, living south of Asheville followed the Falcon's. The Panthers come to town and now we all root for the White/Black and Blue.
Oh sure, you still have Falcon fans, and Redskin fans around here, but for me, the Panthers brought me into football in a way that the Redskins and Falcons never could. They were always someone else’s team. The Panthers are MY team!! That chilly day in Illinois opened my eyes to that fact. And I STILL have that sweatshirt. I don’t wear it as much anymore since it is starting to get thread bare and is now 13 years old but every time I see it, I get chills and can’t wait for the team to hit the field. I am still not a sports fan, (I could care less about hockey or baseball or basketball) but when football starts, I get pretty rabid about it.
So far things look pretty good this season for the Panthers, but it is only preseason. HHHMM. Tine to make sure I am NOT working Super Bowl weekend.
Tuesday, August 8, 2006
Yes, I am still alive, but just barely
I have so much to say and no desire to say it. I chalk it up to the summer heat. Of course, I let myself get talked into starting a blog on our new station website, http://www.myfoxwghp.com by one of the IT guys and so I felt I needed to get a couple of posts in the can on there, so to speak, and so with the heat, I am kinda literallaly (is that even a word, much less spelled correctly!?) drained at the moment.
Plus a couple of weeks of intense issues at work and looks like another ballbuster beginning thanks to what I think is poor quality in a product (God, if I could just say what I REALLY think on that subject, but too many people stealthly read my blog, or at least they keep telling they do. Who knows? And I do like my job. Even on days like yesterday when I think the only way it could be worse would be to get fired!!)
Maybe when things cool off outside and inside, I will be more in a "blogging mood." Strap in. The fun is just beginning. Of so they say.
Plus a couple of weeks of intense issues at work and looks like another ballbuster beginning thanks to what I think is poor quality in a product (God, if I could just say what I REALLY think on that subject, but too many people stealthly read my blog, or at least they keep telling they do. Who knows? And I do like my job. Even on days like yesterday when I think the only way it could be worse would be to get fired!!)
Maybe when things cool off outside and inside, I will be more in a "blogging mood." Strap in. The fun is just beginning. Of so they say.
Saturday, July 8, 2006
And Now a Message from Our Sponsor......
I fully intend to get back to my search for the Carter Family so don't worry, but in the mean time, I ran across something that really peeked my interest that I just had to blog about it. While doing some research on an unrelated subject, I ran across an article detailing a website of fans that were creating their own new Star Trek webisodes.
Since the cancellation of ST:ENT, or as it is more commonly know as, Enterprise on UPN, fans are hungry for more Trek. Starting with ST:TOS (The Original Series of the 1960's with Kirk), and ST:TNG (The Next Generation with Picard) along with the movies, it hasn't been uncommon for fans to fantasize about being in Star Trek by writing their own stories or publishing fan magazines or fanzines or zines as they are known as. I myself have been a Trek fan or Trekker (not to be confused with little girls who love anything with Vulcan ears called Trekkies, there IS a difference) since I watched TOS on NBC in the 1960's, anything new about Star Trek will at least cause me to take a pause if nothing else. During the mid 1980's through this last TV season, there has not been so much of this fan driven activity due to something related to Star Trek being in major production for the last 20 years continuously (ST:TNG, ST:DS9 - Deep Space Nine, ST:VOY - Voyager and finally ST:ENT and the movies).
With the cancellation of ST:ENT last year, fans raised money to continue it just to find out that Paramount, the owner of the rights, had decided it was time to give Star Trek a rest. This restarted the fan driven activity of the past. In those bygone days of the 70's and early 80's, many fan stories were created and past around via mail and conventions. This did continue through the last 20 years, but not as much as before. Now with the Internet, the worship websites turned into new fan material factories. With the cost of camcorders and computer editing software in the range of everyday people, fans began to create their own Star Trek episodes and started to post them on the Internet. These fan created webisodes were not much more than home movies with bed sheets and cardboard phasers battling aliens in the backyard. But Star Trek has been around for 40 years and has influenced many people in the entertainment industry and they began to come together to pay homage to Star Trek through their own stories and webisodes.
One fan took it one step further. A man named James Cawley had friends in the industry. He had been collecting TOS props over a ten year period and had gotten the original set building plans and with his own money and help from other fans time and money, rebuilt the original sets of the Kirk era with the idea of one day continuing the stories of the original series. NBC had cancelled Star Trek after only 3 seasons. Cawley's idea was to begin production again with season 4 of TOS with fans portraying the classic characters, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc. In 2004, he and Max Rem produced "Come What May" a story about two aliens who basically do a good cop, bad cop where one menaces a planet and then the other one saves them. The actor John Winston, who played Transporter Chief Kyle in the original series had a cameo as a star ship captain and Cawley himself portraying James Kirk. Cawley created a website called www.startreknewvoyages.com to promote and distribute the webisode.
The actual story wasn't a bad one (I enjoyed it), and the production was head and shoulders above anything anyone else had done, but it still wasn't anywhere near even the campy original series. Cawley had industry professionals helping, but in order to get his dream made, Paramount would only allow him to use the Star Trek banner if no money was made. That meant that everyone involved could not be paid and had to donate their time and money to participate. The CGI computer special effects were certainly above anything the original series had enjoyed, many of the props were originals used on the series and the sets were so good, you expected to see William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy themselves coming out of the Turbolift on to the Bridge. But the script was not very tight and the acting, was in many places, not very good being that most of the actors had either never acted before or were not up on the original series and the interplay of the characters. It was a cross between Wayne's World and an indie film. But the fans wanted more and wanted to be a part of it.
In 2005 Cawley and Rem produced another webisode entitled "In Harms Way" a sequel to the second season episode "The Doomsday Machine" with William Windom in a cameo reprising his role of Commodore Matt Decker from that second season episode. Also appearing in this webisode is BarBara Luna who appeared in the second season episode "Mirror, Mirror" where she played the "Captain's Woman" in the parallel universe and to round out the cameos of former Trek actors appearing as a Klingon, Malachi Throne who portrayed Commodore Jose Mendez in season one's two parter "The Menagerie." This webisode was better than the first and the acting was better, still not ready for prime time, but with the cast beginning to gel along with the former Trek actors, people in the business began to take notice including Gene Roddenberry's son Roddy Roddenberry who was a Consulting Producer on this webisode.
For 2006, Cawley and company landed ST:TOS's Executive Story Editor and writer of many well known Star Trek scripts from TOS, the animated series, and TNG. D.C. (Dorothy) Fontana and reprising his role from TOS and the movies, Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov for a webisode entitled "To Serve All My Days." It is scheduled to be released on Septemberer 8, the 40 anniversary of the premier of ST:TOS on NBC.
Mr Koenig, in a podcast interview, admitted that he was contacted by Mr Cawley and looked at "Come What May" and "In Harms Way" and while it was not up to the standards he was used to, he said he saw something unique and had to be a part of it, even if it meant he had to pay his way onto the set, like everyone else. He contacted Dorothy Fontana about writing a script and they began to talk to others formally connected with Star Trek in various forms.
For the next webisode "World Enough and Time" that starts shooting later this year, George Takei will reprise his character of helmsman Hikaru Sulu. Also appearing with Mr Takei is Grace Lee Whitney who played the Captain's Yeoman, Janice Rand the first season. "World Enough And Time" is being co-authored by Marc Scott Zicree and Michael Reaves. Mr Zicree wrote several DS9 episodes, the TNG episode "First Contact" along with the Babylon 5 episode "Survivors" just to name a few of his many credits. Mr Reaves credits includes a writing stint on "The New Batman Adventures", TNG episode "Where No One Has Gone Before" as well as many animated sci fi series and the Twilightht Zone episode "Nightsong".
But that doesn't signal the end of former Trek people becoming involved with ST:New Voyages. The writer of second season episode "The Trouble With Tribbles" David Gerrold has signed up for two scripts along with Ron B. Moore who is perhaps best known for his visual effects supervision on TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise and the feature film, "Generations". His film credits include: "Ghostbusters", "2010", "Frightnight", "Solarbabies" and "Moonstruck". Mr Moore will be supervising future ST:NV special effects. And even more former Trek types are coming on board. The actor who portrayeded Commander Sirol in the "Pegasus" episode of ST:TNG, Michael Mack, who's other credits include "Outerworld", "Head Of State", "The West Wing", "The Wire" and a recurring role on "The Young & The Restless." Mr Mack is also an acting coach. Former DS9 writers Jack Trevino and Ethan Calk have agreed to write this script.
But non Trek types in the industry want in as well. Leslie Silva, who was a lead on the recent Showtime series "Odyssey 5" has been cast as a guest star in the webisode "World Enough And Time."
So even though none of the above mentioned people will be paid for their efforts, it is quite clear that Mr Cawley and Mr Rem have caught fire in a bottle with many of the past Trek people wanting to be a part of this fan driven project.
With original TOS standing sets available, Sky Douglas Conway, head of PlanetXpo and producer of "Lady Magdalene's" and the "Roddenberry on Patrol" short films, has announced he will be producing a script written by himself along with Jack Trevino and Ethan Calk called "Star Trek: Of Gods and Men". This will be a 3 part miniseries using the ST:NV sets and in cooperation with ST:NV for technical support and additional actors. Staring in this indie web mini series are Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig reprising their roles as Uhura and Chekov, but in the post-Kirk time of Enterprise-B captain John Harriman, reprised by Alan Ruck. Tim Russ will direct, and will also appear as a younger Tuvok. The film will include other performances by Garrett Wang (Harry Kim of Enterprise), Chase Masterson (Leeta of DS9), Grace Lee Whitney (Janice Rand of TOS), Gary Graham (Soval of Enterprise as well as credits in JAG, Crossing Jordan, Walker, Texas Ranger, Ally McBeal, just to name a few) and Crystal Allen (from the ST:ENT episode "Bound" along with credits from The Sopranos, NCIS, Boston Legal, Sex In The City and Ed just to name a few), along with some special "surprise" guests.
If the music industry is afraid of artists bypassing the traditional record companies for the Internet to distribute their products, the same could be said that when the big media companies do not deliver the video content the public wants, the public will make it for themselves. Who knows, ST:NV may be the next "official" Star Trek when Paramount brings the franchise back in a few years.
There is another large website that has been doing Star Trek fan webisodes called Hidden Frontier from the time period immediately after TNG movies and along side Voyager. But that site appears to be in a time of change with several of their technical people and actors moving to ST:NV.
In the mean time, it appears that ST:NV is the place to be if you are into Star Trek. If you can get past William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy not playing Kirk and Spock, can put up with some actors who are not as polished as you might like, but some stories with real heart and feeling as if "The Great Bird" himself had written them, then you must check out Star Trek: New Voyages at http://www.startreknewvoyages.com.
Don't worry, even though none of the actors try to immitate the original actors, James Cawley does a good Bill Shatner even when he isn't trying.
Since the cancellation of ST:ENT, or as it is more commonly know as, Enterprise on UPN, fans are hungry for more Trek. Starting with ST:TOS (The Original Series of the 1960's with Kirk), and ST:TNG (The Next Generation with Picard) along with the movies, it hasn't been uncommon for fans to fantasize about being in Star Trek by writing their own stories or publishing fan magazines or fanzines or zines as they are known as. I myself have been a Trek fan or Trekker (not to be confused with little girls who love anything with Vulcan ears called Trekkies, there IS a difference) since I watched TOS on NBC in the 1960's, anything new about Star Trek will at least cause me to take a pause if nothing else. During the mid 1980's through this last TV season, there has not been so much of this fan driven activity due to something related to Star Trek being in major production for the last 20 years continuously (ST:TNG, ST:DS9 - Deep Space Nine, ST:VOY - Voyager and finally ST:ENT and the movies).
With the cancellation of ST:ENT last year, fans raised money to continue it just to find out that Paramount, the owner of the rights, had decided it was time to give Star Trek a rest. This restarted the fan driven activity of the past. In those bygone days of the 70's and early 80's, many fan stories were created and past around via mail and conventions. This did continue through the last 20 years, but not as much as before. Now with the Internet, the worship websites turned into new fan material factories. With the cost of camcorders and computer editing software in the range of everyday people, fans began to create their own Star Trek episodes and started to post them on the Internet. These fan created webisodes were not much more than home movies with bed sheets and cardboard phasers battling aliens in the backyard. But Star Trek has been around for 40 years and has influenced many people in the entertainment industry and they began to come together to pay homage to Star Trek through their own stories and webisodes.
One fan took it one step further. A man named James Cawley had friends in the industry. He had been collecting TOS props over a ten year period and had gotten the original set building plans and with his own money and help from other fans time and money, rebuilt the original sets of the Kirk era with the idea of one day continuing the stories of the original series. NBC had cancelled Star Trek after only 3 seasons. Cawley's idea was to begin production again with season 4 of TOS with fans portraying the classic characters, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc. In 2004, he and Max Rem produced "Come What May" a story about two aliens who basically do a good cop, bad cop where one menaces a planet and then the other one saves them. The actor John Winston, who played Transporter Chief Kyle in the original series had a cameo as a star ship captain and Cawley himself portraying James Kirk. Cawley created a website called www.startreknewvoyages.com to promote and distribute the webisode. The actual story wasn't a bad one (I enjoyed it), and the production was head and shoulders above anything anyone else had done, but it still wasn't anywhere near even the campy original series. Cawley had industry professionals helping, but in order to get his dream made, Paramount would only allow him to use the Star Trek banner if no money was made. That meant that everyone involved could not be paid and had to donate their time and money to participate. The CGI computer special effects were certainly above anything the original series had enjoyed, many of the props were originals used on the series and the sets were so good, you expected to see William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy themselves coming out of the Turbolift on to the Bridge. But the script was not very tight and the acting, was in many places, not very good being that most of the actors had either never acted before or were not up on the original series and the interplay of the characters. It was a cross between Wayne's World and an indie film. But the fans wanted more and wanted to be a part of it.
In 2005 Cawley and Rem produced another webisode entitled "In Harms Way" a sequel to the second season episode "The Doomsday Machine" with William Windom in a cameo reprising his role of Commodore Matt Decker from that second season episode. Also appearing in this webisode is BarBara Luna who appeared in the second season episode "Mirror, Mirror" where she played the "Captain's Woman" in the parallel universe and to round out the cameos of former Trek actors appearing as a Klingon, Malachi Throne who portrayed Commodore Jose Mendez in season one's two parter "The Menagerie." This webisode was better than the first and the acting was better, still not ready for prime time, but with the cast beginning to gel along with the former Trek actors, people in the business began to take notice including Gene Roddenberry's son Roddy Roddenberry who was a Consulting Producer on this webisode.
For 2006, Cawley and company landed ST:TOS's Executive Story Editor and writer of many well known Star Trek scripts from TOS, the animated series, and TNG. D.C. (Dorothy) Fontana and reprising his role from TOS and the movies, Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov for a webisode entitled "To Serve All My Days." It is scheduled to be released on Septemberer 8, the 40 anniversary of the premier of ST:TOS on NBC.Mr Koenig, in a podcast interview, admitted that he was contacted by Mr Cawley and looked at "Come What May" and "In Harms Way" and while it was not up to the standards he was used to, he said he saw something unique and had to be a part of it, even if it meant he had to pay his way onto the set, like everyone else. He contacted Dorothy Fontana about writing a script and they began to talk to others formally connected with Star Trek in various forms.
For the next webisode "World Enough and Time" that starts shooting later this year, George Takei will reprise his character of helmsman Hikaru Sulu. Also appearing with Mr Takei is Grace Lee Whitney who played the Captain's Yeoman, Janice Rand the first season. "World Enough And Time" is being co-authored by Marc Scott Zicree and Michael Reaves. Mr Zicree wrote several DS9 episodes, the TNG episode "First Contact" along with the Babylon 5 episode "Survivors" just to name a few of his many credits. Mr Reaves credits includes a writing stint on "The New Batman Adventures", TNG episode "Where No One Has Gone Before" as well as many animated sci fi series and the Twilightht Zone episode "Nightsong".
But that doesn't signal the end of former Trek people becoming involved with ST:New Voyages. The writer of second season episode "The Trouble With Tribbles" David Gerrold has signed up for two scripts along with Ron B. Moore who is perhaps best known for his visual effects supervision on TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise and the feature film, "Generations". His film credits include: "Ghostbusters", "2010", "Frightnight", "Solarbabies" and "Moonstruck". Mr Moore will be supervising future ST:NV special effects. And even more former Trek types are coming on board. The actor who portrayeded Commander Sirol in the "Pegasus" episode of ST:TNG, Michael Mack, who's other credits include "Outerworld", "Head Of State", "The West Wing", "The Wire" and a recurring role on "The Young & The Restless." Mr Mack is also an acting coach. Former DS9 writers Jack Trevino and Ethan Calk have agreed to write this script.
But non Trek types in the industry want in as well. Leslie Silva, who was a lead on the recent Showtime series "Odyssey 5" has been cast as a guest star in the webisode "World Enough And Time."
So even though none of the above mentioned people will be paid for their efforts, it is quite clear that Mr Cawley and Mr Rem have caught fire in a bottle with many of the past Trek people wanting to be a part of this fan driven project.
With original TOS standing sets available, Sky Douglas Conway, head of PlanetXpo and producer of "Lady Magdalene's" and the "Roddenberry on Patrol" short films, has announced he will be producing a script written by himself along with Jack Trevino and Ethan Calk called "Star Trek: Of Gods and Men". This will be a 3 part miniseries using the ST:NV sets and in cooperation with ST:NV for technical support and additional actors. Staring in this indie web mini series are Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig reprising their roles as Uhura and Chekov, but in the post-Kirk time of Enterprise-B captain John Harriman, reprised by Alan Ruck. Tim Russ will direct, and will also appear as a younger Tuvok. The film will include other performances by Garrett Wang (Harry Kim of Enterprise), Chase Masterson (Leeta of DS9), Grace Lee Whitney (Janice Rand of TOS), Gary Graham (Soval of Enterprise as well as credits in JAG, Crossing Jordan, Walker, Texas Ranger, Ally McBeal, just to name a few) and Crystal Allen (from the ST:ENT episode "Bound" along with credits from The Sopranos, NCIS, Boston Legal, Sex In The City and Ed just to name a few), along with some special "surprise" guests. If the music industry is afraid of artists bypassing the traditional record companies for the Internet to distribute their products, the same could be said that when the big media companies do not deliver the video content the public wants, the public will make it for themselves. Who knows, ST:NV may be the next "official" Star Trek when Paramount brings the franchise back in a few years.
There is another large website that has been doing Star Trek fan webisodes called Hidden Frontier from the time period immediately after TNG movies and along side Voyager. But that site appears to be in a time of change with several of their technical people and actors moving to ST:NV.
In the mean time, it appears that ST:NV is the place to be if you are into Star Trek. If you can get past William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy not playing Kirk and Spock, can put up with some actors who are not as polished as you might like, but some stories with real heart and feeling as if "The Great Bird" himself had written them, then you must check out Star Trek: New Voyages at http://www.startreknewvoyages.com.
Don't worry, even though none of the actors try to immitate the original actors, James Cawley does a good Bill Shatner even when he isn't trying.
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