# Sun outages **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 8, 2016, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sun-outages/767963 "2016-10-08T18:46:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sun-outages/767963/1 "2016-10-08T18:46:21Z")
_The Fog_ was interrupted for a while because of [sun outages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_outage). (Heh.) Question: If the station’s signal is disrupted, how can they send the message saying their signal is disrupted? ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sun-outages/767963/2 "2016-10-08T18:54:28Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > _The Fog_ was interrupted for a while because of [sun outages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_outage). (Heh.) > > Question: If the station’s signal is disrupted, how can they send the message saying their signal is disrupted? They can be predicted in advance, and stations do announce that the signal might be lost briefly. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sun-outages/767963/3 "2016-10-08T19:04:55Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > They can be predicted in advance, and stations do announce that the signal might be lost briefly. There was never a loss of ‘a’ signal. The service interruption message was never interrupted. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sun-outages/767963/4 "2016-10-08T19:07:55Z")
The message is displayed by your local TV station or cable provider. Normally they receive the TV show through a satellite link and re-broadcast it to you. With the sun outage affecting the satellite link, they couldn’t receive the show. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sun-outages/767963/5 "2016-10-08T19:12:39Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > The message is displayed by your local TV station or cable provider. Normally they receive the TV show through a satellite link and re-broadcast it to you. With the sun outage affecting the satellite link, they couldn’t receive the show. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sun-outages/767963/6 "2016-10-08T22:04:26Z")
I only dimy recall the movie, but I’m not sure that would apply. I think the radio show was all done live in the studio, without any content received via satellite, so there wouldn’t have been any content susceptible to a “sun outage”. Everything from the microphone or the turntable pickup arms to the transmitting tower on the AM or FM frequency would have been wired. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2016, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sun-outages/767963/7 "2016-10-08T22:16:50Z")
But its clear now why the sheriff didn’t call her back. She gave out the number 555-2121 on the air, and the sheriff kept getting intercept that there is no such number. Ofr else he got Joel Goodson’s answering machine, in “Risky Business”.