WOOD TV goes dark during middle of Lions game

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A massive IT failure in Indianapolis appears to be the culprit.

https://www.woodtv.com/about-us/signal- ... mXOPzjlH4E

Amanda Porter was responding on Twitter that it was an NBC issue. Pretty clear it is a Nexstar issue.

I have never liked Amanda, especially as weekend anchor. Horrible crosstalk between her and others (does she even listen to the weather or sports report???), and gives off a bad vibe to me. I knew it was somewhere in WOOD’s chain, and was wondering if the problem was in Indy. Called it. I pretty much raised hell with those accusing WOOD, NBC or their provider as the culprit. Don’t ya love technology?


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[sinklair]

I don’t believe their excuse. The fact is they knew it was a big game. With as many NBC stations owned by Nexstar, they absolutely should have identified a backup source before the game. They didn’t do it. That’s a failure of WOOD TV’s management and engineers. WOOD TV 8 is truly a Mickey Mouse operation.

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I don’t believe their excuse. The fact is they knew it was a big game. With as many NBC stations owned by Nexstar, they absolutely should have identified a backup source before the game. They didn’t do it. That’s a failure of WOOD TV’s management and engineers. WOOD TV 8 is truly a Mickey Mouse operation.

This involved their CBS, ABC and FOX stations, plus WOOD’s subs were apparently off as well. Gotta love technology to save money.

BTW, Blake Harms hit all of the bullet points below on Facebook:

Just to peel the curtain back a bit on what happened to our signal during the game today:

WOOD TV8 receives our network feeds from a Nexstar hub in Indianapolis. That hub suddenly lost power this afternoon and their back-up source completely failed. We are the only Nexstar NBC station in Michigan, so that’s why we were the only part of the state and the only channel affected. That’s also why Peacock was mostly unaffected, as they get their feed directly from NBC.

We already have an engineer who works on Sunday and he was quickly able to figure out it wasn’t a local issue. Other engineers rushed in and the team was able to take the feed from a station in Florida. Thank goodness for that move from our engineers, because our in-house signal was not restored until late in the fourth quarter.

We are just as upset as you are for missing part of the game. From what I’ve been told, we will be working with corporate to ensure this never happens again. The timing on this issue quite literally could not have been worse in West Michigan, and we realize that.

Above all, we’re sorry it happened.


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[jesusjenny]

Inexcusable for a company of this size to have the BACKUP also fail. Stuff happens, but that's why there is a backup Generator etc in place for just reason which we can assume hasn't been tested or checked recently. Deregulation was a great for Media right? You can bitch at the local affiliates - but at the end of the day, they aren't truly to blame for corporate greed. Nice job by the Engineers at 8 to come up with a work-around as quick as they did.

[TheGadgetGuy]

Regardless of the hub, one would think that WOOD would still have an NBC downlink in GR that they could use as a backup if needed.

I realize that this costs money, but a company as big as Nexstar should be able to afford it.

[sinklair]

The engineers and management should not be complimented for finding a solution “as quick as they did”. That’s BS.

If they had planned ahead and had a backup source to air network programming and communicated that with local master control ops, it literally would have taken seconds to switch over. Not more than a half hour.

This was a failure of monumental proportions from Nexstar, WOOD TV, and its other regional NBC stations.

Yes, it’s just a game. But when you heavily promote these games — and sell it at the same level of local Super Bowl ad rates as WOOD and WDIV did — then fail to follow through with a proper engineering plan, then I’m sorry, but WOOD management deserves to be heavily criticized. There is ZERO excuse.

As for WISH TV in Indy… how do engineers there fail to do regular maintenance and testing of its backup systems and generators when regional stations depend on them for programming and commercial insertion?

[Jason Kragt]

Local broadcasters demand that we watch their signal and actively block all attempts for us to access out-of-market channels on cable and satellite.

Then they broadcast a black screen during much of the biggest pro football game in Michigan in decades.

Nice.

[BirdieKingBobo]

When I think of television and radio engineers.... I picture Scott Salem from the Howard Stern show. I know its not fair, but Scott couldn't fix the simple sound problems.

It is like when I worked for the government.. when there was an issue with technology, our IT's couldn't figure it out... they were always calling Chicago or Baltimore.....

Pay in bananas .... and all you will hire is monkeys. Pay real wages, and the better employees you will get. Nextstar and Sinklair haven't figured that out yet..

[Bdl]

WOOD 8 dodged one. I can't believe that you wouldn't have a back-up feed set up FULL TIME for your network feed. Shouldn't have to pinch a Florida feed...patch directly into the NBC feed until the problem is fixed.

[Bdl]

I have never liked Amanda, especially as weekend anchor. Horrible crosstalk between her and others (does she even listen to the weather or sports report???), and gives off a bad vibe to me. I knew it was somewhere in WOOD’s chain, and was wondering if the problem was in Indy. Called it. I pretty much raised hell with those accusing WOOD, NBC or their provider as the culprit. Don’t ya love technology?


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Amanda Porter had nothing to do with this outtage.

[MWmetalhead]

She gave misinformation as to its cause.

[brianbcomedy]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/vi ... 0a7c&ei=16

[MWmetalhead]

The engineers in GR shouldn't be blamed for Indy's incompetence. Seems like the local folks scrambled to clean up Indy's mess.

Someone mentioned WISH-TV earlier. Nexstar no longer owns that station. They own WTTV and WXIN there.

[Bdl]

The engineers in GR shouldn't be blamed for Indy's incompetence. Seems like the local folks scrambled to clean up Indy's mess.

They shouldn't have been scrambling to try and restore their signal. Placing the blame (maybe deserved) at Indy doesn't help those fans at home trying to watch the football game. Would have looked a LOT more professional by going over to the network feed (with a single patch) than the scrambling that went on behind the scenes. Self-inflicted wound.

[MWmetalhead]

Agreed, but I suspect corporate policies are largely to blame for how programming gets routed from point A to point B.