Raw, but c*nsored blabbing and blogging of a young journalista
and local news producer in Southern New England.
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Thursday, August 25, 2005

Eureka! and Bloody Useless WSBE/Channel 36/Rhode Island PBS Master Control Operators

Sorry, this one is way too long. Buckle up.

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Remember those FAKE PBS pledge breaks I've talked about before?

PBS calls them "VIRTUAL" breaks.

Check out Google's cache of a PDF file talking about it here. (Written by The National Educational Telecommunications Association.)

A choice quote:

What messages that you don’t like are being heard in Virtuals?
What messages should be featured in Virtuals, but aren’t?
Stars pushing their products, and occasionally overstating their value, was the first reply.
Example cited was Suze Orman saying how the viewer’s investments could have been more profitable if he had ordered her CD/Book/DVD sooner. Even though Orman couched it as “in her opinion,” the sentiment was still too self-promotional.

Ah, that Suze. You'd love to give her a swift kick in the rear, wouldn't you, then pinch her cheeky face for her cheekiness. Just like Martha Stewart.

Nothing to do with their being businesswomen. In Suze it's because she's so snotty. Which some of us gay men love. In Martha it's because she's so holier-than-thou. In the future it'll be because she's fallen from grace and is determined to take that fall... gracefully.

One of these days I'll pay a hell of a lot more attention to Suze Orman and I'll be able to catch her in a catty moment. It'll be better than watching Nancy Grace's glaring eyes. (GOOD GRACIOUS ME! HERE THEY COME AGAIN! RUN! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!)

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The discovery comes by chance as I was looking for information about WSBE's master control operations... and whether anybody else has complained about them. The typewriter text that follows is adapted from an IM conversation I had -- it's only what I said, and anyone else quoted is noted:

Okay. American Masters: Bob Newhart, Unbuttoned started all nice and neat at 9:00 PM.
Round about ten the air product started REWINDING ON AIR.
After just a few seconds it went to the ever-bloody-present "trouble"/legal ID screen.
Stayed on that for a while.

I figured, "they're not rewinding the entire bloody first reel to try and play it back again are they?" as though the first, 60 minute tape, had run out from when they taped it off the network.

So after a few minutes of dead air they threw on "HERstory," the history of Johnson & Wales... which was due to be on at 10:30. Keep in mind that it was about 10:10 PM by this point.

Now that I think about it they weren't as dodgy master-control wise (or at least it didn't appear to be the case) when I used to live in Providence on the East Side (2001-2003).

It has to be some human being because these are human decisions (to put the bloody trouble screen up so much).

The friend I was IMming with about it a bit remarked that Rhode Island PBS was in financial trouble when the FCC started mandating digital conversion. Google features several entries that allude to the fact that WSBE lost funding for digital conversion. Hmm. Maybe that explains this poor quality now, since their IDs proclaim that they are now WSBE-TV and WSBE-DT. The money had to come from somewhere...

...and I found something like a request for a grant for a video server... and there's no bloody way they're working off a video server. The on-air product would look different.
These days it looks like they're still coming off MII (pron. M-2) tape. That is if they haven't gone to something like DVCPRO or D2...

I mean, some Tuesdays I've seen them cut Allan Shawn Feinstein right off on his live "Our Great Kids" show ... because he was running long, but the live production crew is half that problem. They've gotten better at giving him cues I'll warrant...

One night when he ran really long they had to throw out the last Britcom before the BBC World News... and replace it with some little 15-20 minute BBC comedy program ("Posh Nosh" with Chris Langham and Arabella Weir as the Marchants. Yes, Dad, THAT Chris Langham.).

I mean, it all makes me wonder if they're getting high school kids to run master control. 8^p Yecch.

I mean, if Channel 6 could do it (employ immature, unprofessional high school kids) for their weekend morning shows (as a TV director friend of mine told me after she worked at channel 6 for ONE DAY before quitting) then WSBE's totally gonna do it.

The other thing I wonder is, what if WSBE has VOLUNTEERS running master control? MY GOD!

I'm on the verge of bombarding them with emails and snail mail letters because...

It was about this time -- 10:30 tonight -- when, with about 10-15 minutes left in the Johnson and Wales history (and it really was more of a history rather than an infomercial for J&W today... we didn't even hear from any current students on what they thought of the school's origins... They must not give a toff, huh?) they cut straight to the Inspector Morse promo for Friday's Mystery!"

Then two or three other promos.

Maybe they'll go back to Newhart for the rest of THAT... and then they'll rejoin the J&W program.

Then, of all things, a billboard: "Major funding for tonight's programming provided by ... the Rhode Island Foundation...."

Well, the Rhode Island Foundation is not f***ing getting its money's worth!
I could write the Foundation too to bitch at THEM. PULL YOUR FUNDING! I could say.

At first when the J&W program came up I thought, well, are they taking network? (meaning, the PBS "Schedule X" network feed) but when I switched over to 44 it didn't match. Not that 44 is always on Schedule X... usually overnight....

Then the Nightly Business Report News Brief, which is, what, I don't know, 60 to 90 seconds?

Throwing on the NBR is just buying the operator time to rewind the J&W tape and start that over probably.

Then another promo or two. "I'm waiting for the trouble screen," said my friend. "Watch," I said, "He or shee will run out of tape machines soon... unless they have like a Betacart for promos."

Then, finally, two minutes late, the Johnson and Wales history started playing AGAIN.

Here's what I'm thinking. Whoever taped American Masters off the network (because anybody actually distributing the show [American Public Television or what have you] would have the sense to put it on a 90+ minute tape)....

...either only used a 60+ minute tape by mistake, OR used two reels, a 60ish and a 30ish. So either the last reel was never recorded, or the last reel was LOST, or the tape broke or something like that.

So, rather than put on a completely unrelated program, or something short that would be like 5-10 minutes that would kill time, but be easy to get out of ["interstitial" programs], or (if you're desperate for a different program) put on something from last night, or for tomorrow night....

...they just start the next program? and then show it AGAIN? (rolls eyes) I dunno, not very imaginative.

Well, this is, I don't know, the last straw. I know I'm used to Oregon Public Broadcasting where it's a powerhouse of two (am & FM) radio stations and a TV station and professional high standards and whatnot, but this is just getting asinine.

So, maybe I'll fire off a few emails to programming@ripbs.org, membership@ripbs.org, and whatnot.

Here's the full WSBE contact information, especially for those of you who did not see Bob Newhart: Unbuttoned in its entirety on "American Masters" on Wednesday, August 24:

Rhode Island PBS
50 Park Lane
Providence, RI
02907

401-222-3636

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Incidentally, what bonehead at WSBE decided to dump "Vicar of Dibley" and bring back "Father Ted"?

Fine, I'll allow dumping "Barbara"... for the perennial favorite "Fawlty Towers." I enjoyed a few of them, and want to see more of Gwen Taylor (who originated the role of Marlene in Caryl Churchill's Top Girls, don't you know!) but it was a kind of by-the-numbers show.

But "Father Ted" is even more ... hmm, I don't know.... stupid. It's the "The Young Ones" of religious sitcoms.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 8/25/2005 12:33:00 AM ... Email this entry ...
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