NBC News, MSNBC, ABC News and others from across the pond

Interesting, as the Saturday, May 16th edition of NBC Nightly News also had its share of technical difficulties, where on the East Coast feed, the broadcast had trouble going on air and did not display its title sequence and the programme’s former logo made a reappearance.
Here’s how it aired via WNBC New York

H/t TVnewstalk.net
The issues were corrected by the airing of NN’s West Coast edition

A statement from CBS News via CBS Newspath:

To make matters worse, the signal of the CBS-owned WBBM Channel 2 in Chicago went dark due to issues affecting its transmitters at Willis Tower.

Our over-the-air signal has been darkened due to the unprecedented flooding of Willis Tower. The tower, and ComEd are working hard on it. Thanks for watching CBSN at https://t.co/DCk1umidwF

— Ed Curran (@EdCurran) May 19, 2020

Specifically what happened at CBS News is that their Washington, DC Bureau is new and is an IP plant. Their Evertz audio router failed. Apparently they were back on the air for the mountain and pacific feeds but there were no graphics and it was a locked off shot. They were relying on the network master control to play out packages.

As for WBBM - I’d like to know what specifically caused them to lose power to their transmitter. There apparently weren’t any reports of all the other major stations who broadcast from their to be off air? The only conclusion I have is that they don’t have an emergency generator.

I don’t know what happened there but perhaps a communications issue. JDB due to COVID-19 is no longer flying to NY any more so the show originates (at least the anchor) from the Telemundo Center in Miami.

Per CBS Chicago, there has been torrential rain in Chicago as of late. The lower levels of the Willis Tower were flooded which led to a power outage that affected WBBM's signal

Here is CBS Chicago's report
https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/05/18/willis-tower-power-outage-cbs2/

Well the major rain storms that affected the Chicagoland area caused flooding everywhere. Apparently this has beeen the wettest May on record in the city. This is the first time this has reportedly ever happened at the Tower. The city also had to reverse the flow of the Chicago River, which is a rare step that doesnt happen very often. Sending rain water into Lake Michigan.

The Sears (Willis)Tower has just completed rebuilding the lower levels of the former worlds tallest building, into a big shopping venue. WBBM was not the only tv station that was affected. The building also houses the HQ for United Airlines which affected their operations. 2 other major tv stations were affected as well. PBS affiliate WTTW and all its digital substations were knocked off air. As well as all the stations for WCIU and its suite of channels went dark. This also affected several radio stations including WFMT, WTTW's companion classical music station. WLS Radio was knocked off but they were able to switch to their transmitter at the John Hancock Centre.

https://www.robertfeder.com/2020/05/20/flooding-willis-tower-knocks-tv-radio-signals-off-air/

Willis Tower Still Without Power After Floods https://t.co/PvHLTs2yNV pic.twitter.com/vaaWtI6tD4

— NBC Chicago (@nbcchicago) May 20, 2020

Yeah, I live in Chicago now and torrential barely begins to describe it. Compare and contrast the Chicago River after a day's downpour:

After all the rain, Chicago’s Riverwalk is completely under water. Highest we have ever seen it. @SasakiDesign @r_barc pic.twitter.com/5bBuaDmkvn

— MAS Context (@MASContext) May 18, 2020

Quick video of CBS EN last night I made...

Always strange to see footage of places you've been flooded out.

Power was partially restored on the afternoon Friday May 22 allowing the AM/FM and WBBM TV to return to air (as it’s air cooled) that afternoon and the following Saturday at 11AM the remaining water cooled stations (most of the full powered and low powered) returned to air at their regular transmission points. WGN (Ind) and WLS (ABC) had existing auxiliary transmission facilities on the John Hancock Tower that automatically turned on, and because of the spectrum repack WFLD (Fox) and WMAQ (NBC) used the Hancock Tower for interim facilities they were able to get back on the air quickly as well (don’t know if for Fox and NBC it would be automatic or if it would require someone to turn it on).


If you ask to join this group on Facebook you’ll read a pretty interesting account of what it took to take CW station WCIU back on air at low power and a tour of the transmission area. Once you’re approved for membership you’ll want to read first this post by a WCIU engineer and these two videos by the same engineer. In the videos you can see the WLS and WCIU and the WMAQ transmitter rooms. Apparently water was dripping into the WLS Suite.

Flatter graphics are becoming the norm for station after station in the US market. Many stations groups continue to update the look of their stations with a flatter graphic style. Tegna is probably the biggest station group to do so. With Scripps stations recently adopting probably the simplest loook with barely and open to their news broadcasts. CBS affiliate WTSP 10 Tampa/St Petersburg has received a new flatter modern logo. It harkens back to the shape of the 10 they used decades ago but in a modern rendering. The response has been mixed by viewers. Not that Tegna will listen and change it. There has been some issues with the new logo and moire patterns appearing. (I still think Tegna made a huge mistake with their Bobbi McPherin-esque theme music.)


Here is the time line of their logo in recent years.
From newscastsudio




More herehttps://www.newscaststudio.com/2020/05/27/wtsp-new-logo-design/

That is almost identical in shape and design to the channel 10 logo in Australia, though as both have CBS connections maybe that isn't a coincidence.