WOOD TV goes dark during middle of Lions game

[DJ-MichaelAngelo]

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?

Very well said, WOOD-TV8 is indeed a rinky-dink operation from a technology standpoint, and frankly they always have been. This kind of mistake/glitch/screwup seems to happen quite a lot with their mysterious little "out-of-state" engineering hub, doesn't it? I can remember embarassing technical difficulties like this dating back 10-15 years, at least, and me calling the direct phone # to the booth myself (as a viewer!) to report signal-loss on WOTV Ch 41 programs back in the day. Nice to see that bad/lazy management continues to enable the disorganization and poor reliability, down at WISH-TV in Indianapolis, or whatever they're calling themselves these days. Here's a hypothetical question for engineers and those in the know: why on earth won't WOOD-TV8 quit relying on some dodgy out-of-town amateur hour operation 300 miles away, and actually build their OWN master control hub instead? Keep things in-house, for better reliability and control....lord knows they can afford it.

[A1B1C1D1]

As long as WOOD stays on the 'right side of history' all will be forgiven by cable providers and advertisers. I recorded the game on YouTube and was convinced it was a Google issue from high bandwidth. There was no message on the screen from WOOD.

[48125er]

My boomer dad RAGE called charter spectrum he thought it was their problem and ended up listening to the game on LAV.

[sinklair]

Discrep reports on the incident posted on FTV Live: https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2024/ ... go-offline

[Bull Shannon]

Here's a hypothetical question for engineers and those in the know: why on earth won't WOOD-TV8 quit relying on some dodgy out-of-town amateur hour operation 300 miles away, and actually build their OWN master control hub instead? Keep things in-house, for better reliability and control....lord knows they can afford it.

Nexstar owns WOOD-TV; Nexstar consolidated all master control to Indianapolis some years ago.

WOOD-TV's hands are presumably tied unless they get bought out by someone else.

[Lester The Nightfly]

It's been awhile since I've driven by their plant but don't they have a couple of 5 meter satellite dish receivers on their roof they could have switched the feed to until Indy came back online? Decommissioned?

[Feature/writer]

also happened to WNDU-TV in South Bend.... should they be taken to task as well? Or simply in the same boat as WOOD-TV and others in that Nextar hub.....

[MWmetalhead]

Now, that's bizarre - as WNDU is owned by Gray, not Nexstar. Are you sure you have your facts straight? I could've sworn I saw one or two comments on WOOD's Facebook page that WNDU was still airing the game when WOOD was blank.

Gray's WILX in Lansing had no issues.

By the way, WOOD is carried on some cable systems that straddle the MI / IN border.

[dwp49423]

Not sure what stations run out of the Indy hub but according to NexStar.tv (and the find function of Microsoft Edge), NexStar owns 36 NBC affiliated stations across the country. Guessing WFLA runs out of a different hub as that is the NexStar owned NBC affiliate in Tampa, FL and either Blake or Bill's post mentioned taking a feed from an NBC station in Florida.

[MWmetalhead]

Whatever happened to Intercity relays for network programming?

[Jason Kragt]

It's been awhile since I've driven by their plant but don't they have a couple of 5 meter satellite dish receivers on their roof they could have switched the feed to until Indy came back online? Decommissioned?

Perhaps the dishes are just decorations now.

They should have just put Blake Harms' phone in front of a studio camera during the game to show the Peacock stream.

[DJ-MichaelAngelo]

Here's a hypothetical question for engineers and those in the know: why on earth won't WOOD-TV8 quit relying on some dodgy out-of-town amateur hour operation 300 miles away, and actually build their OWN master control hub instead? Keep things in-house, for better reliability and control....lord knows they can afford it.

Nexstar consolidated all master control to Indianapolis some years ago.

....boy and a fine sound business decision that was! what could possibly go wrong?

[DJ-MichaelAngelo]

According to the "View Edit History" function on Facebook, WOODTV8 first reported the outage on their FB page at 4:32pm and didn't update the post again (that it was fixed) until almost 5pm. I just can't understand how it takes someone almost 1/2 hour in this day and age to fix a technical problem like this that is literally affecting countless thousands of viewers...do they not know the meaning of the word "urgency" down there in the engineering booth? I can't even imagine the volume of angry phone calls the station received afterwards, and deservedly so. Didn't affect me none however, I don't care for sports, but I continue to be baffled at the consistant technical failings of this once-beloved local TV station that I used to be a big fan of. Now I just kinda feel sorry for them.

[rugratsonline]

Discrep reports on the incident posted on FTV Live: https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2024/ ... go-offline

Apparently WANE had the faculties to put up a trouble slide during the downtime -- many didn't even do that.

Also, WIAT in Birmingham was showing a 700 Club telethon at the time -- take that as you will.

[MasterB]

I thought that the 700 Club telethon was only on Freeform I didn't know local TV station still air the 700 Club Telethon I know a few still air The 700 Club on the local TV stations. I knew that it wasn't a Charter Spectrum when I flipped to all the Nexstar TV stations the new CW had the weather map and just the black screen as there was winter weather advisory for Monday afternoon on Indy broader at that time.

I think Wood TV should've said having issues on the screen I know I saw that last week Wed on Fox17 as they had some issue and said it on the screen. I was glad that the issue got fixed/ a work around so that I could watch the game not a good time for the issue to happen during a major sporting event.