At first I thought that the guy on the air should have learned in broadcasting school to always listen to the 'on-air' feed, not the 'board feed'.
I had visions of somebody reading along not aware that the computer had malfunctioned.
Then, it dawned on me that somebody probably had enough of reading all night traffic all night long and had ...quit.
Turns out AM730 went through 3 format changes last night, all in one night.
Up all night at work, I was scanning the dial.
At 120 am I noticed AM730 went from a newscast by Kyle Benning directly into another newscast read by Erin Newbells (sp?).
Sadly there was a false double outcue at the end of her report where she signed off the newscast... twice.
Then the computer fired up the same Benning newscast - again!'
Then...the computer fired up the same Newbells cast, with the same double outcue mistake - again.
Then the computer went into a commercial cluster and...you guessed it...went back to a Benning four minute newscast again.
Then the Newbells newscast. Again. Again.
Over and over and over and over and over...the same newscasts kept repeating.
For over an hour and a half!
At 3 am the newscasts stopped.
AM730 changed format AGAIN!!!
Between 3 am until 439am the station ran non stop 30 second commercials...back to back... approximately 180 commercials!!!
In a row.
At 439 a live voice (finally) followed a newer 4 minute newscast saying :
"I just got here and gotta get some stuff organized. I know you just listened to a whole bunch of commercials but I need to take a break. Here's some more".
After a bunch of spots the announcer came back with some quick generic traffic info before declaring:
"I need a glass of water. Here's some more commercials".
To his credit, he DID recover nicely after obviously having been called in the middle of the night to come put out the fire.
Never a dull moment at Mickey Mouse Radio!
Meanwhile, kudos to Real Radio CBC's Stephen Quinn for getting his ass into the station at FOUR AM to start Tsunami coverage for the province.
Interesting night in Vancouver radio.
(As an ex production manager it was quite the thrill to hear an hour and a half of spots)!
lol
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