(Pardon me if this has been asked and answered elsewhere. I did try a search.)
I live in Nashville and immediately after the Nightline program with the reading of the names, ABC – or at least its affiliate station here – went off the air without explanation. Was this just a local problem?
Having stood in Master Control in New York City ( Network Master Control ) as well as Master Control in the Washington, D.C. News Bureau on DeSales Street, I can say with a high degree of certainty that ABC did not go off the air.
It never goes off the air. There is a constant flow of programming, which is either used by local ABC affiliates, or not- depending on many things. However, ABC did not go off the air.
What may have happened is that your local ABC affiliate went dark after Nightline. If unannounced, it’s likely there was a problem. However, it would have to be a transmitter/feed problem, since anything else typically results in those cute “Technical Difficulties” graphics.
Wow! And I was hoping for just a moderately authoritative answer!
friedo, I do have cable, but it was only the ABC programing that disappeared.
This Year’s Model, it is possible that they did go off the air out of respect, but I would have thought that they would have kept at least a photo of the flag on the screen.
Thanks !! Now, having given that, I’ll offer a real W.A.G. comment on that last post. When I was a wee bairn, rocking out to WMMR and WYSP in Philly, we used to hear the Urban Legend about how if a radio station had more than 5 seconds of “dead air time”, they’d get an F.C.C. fine.
Who knows? Not I. However, if a network or local station were to decide beforehand to go silent out of respect, I would wager that they would A) Announce same, and B) NOT go black or to snow, but instead show as mentioned, an American Flag, or other appropriate graphic. With no sound, I’d guess.
But, looking like they dropped off air? No way was that a show of respect, IMHO.
And pressing the “power” button on a computer at your cable company’s head-end will make just that one station go off the air for all the cllients served by that head-end. Heh. I should know - I’ve done it. So, apologies to anyone in southern Kentucky if just your MTV went out in August of 2000. That was me.
Oh, I caught a nasty case of curriculum vitae once when I was 17. I tell ya, it was the most miserable summer of my life. Between the shots and the full-body immersions? Feh !!!
The Dr’s said I got it from the doorknob of a rest room on the New Jersey Turnpike. Figures.