Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 11, 1994 TAG: 9407110119
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
"This basically is a nightmare come true," Production Manager Eric Newman said Sunday.
The WSLS transmitter atop Poor Mountain already was straining to reach its viewers when a part failed Saturday morning.
Channel 10 broadcasts through a dual transmitter, so that if one side breaks down, the other side can take over the signal.
"One side had been down for a couple of days, but by and large we were able to cover the area until . . . basically what was not supposed to happen happened when the other side broke down as well," Newman said.
He said a power-supply part in the second transmitter had somehow been damaged. A new part, ordered through RCA, arrived Sunday evening just after the 6 p.m. news was broadcast for those able to receive it.
Fiber-optics allowed the 30,000 or so Cox Cable subscribers to continue watching the Saturday night movie or the Sunday golf game, but Newman couldn't estimate how many non-cable subscribers missed out on weekend viewing.
If the calls taken by weekend news anchor Nola Woods were any measure, "thousands" of people wanted to watch 10.
"The phone would ring, I'd pick it up, hang up, then another call would come in," Woods said.
But Woods knew the barrage of questions attested to viewer loyality. "Appreciation is the key word to remember here."
by CNB