[BC] Power Glitch on Mt. Wilson

[SHAFFER, RANDY L]

Reader wrote -

>> KABC-TV in Los Angeles was knocked off the air for more than three hours 
>> Sunday by a power outage at its Mt. Wilson transmitter.
.... "and somehow the backup equipment did not kick in as it is
>> supposed to."
Tom added -

>	Um, whoops?

	Whenever I've been involved in any utility rewiring, I am there, I 
>>switch to the generator on my terms, and I measure the voltage of the 
>>new feed when the crew is done. I've heard two stories over the years 
>>where crews have put in the wrong transformers, and the incorrect power 
>>is supplied.

We had this same thing happen this week...but at the studio. Utility company called to say they were going to switch transformers. Phone call was sent by the switchboard to the sales manager who then relayed it to our Asst. Dir of Eng. At this point, the change was less than 10 min away. He went out to start the generator and it wouldn't crank. The batteries were discharged. The utility called to say that they were ready to switch. He begged for 5 more min and they said
they had to change the transformer NOW, but gave him the 5 min. Jumped the genny with a live
truck and thought he was saved. But, the UPS serving our commercial playback system didn't 
transfer. We ended up losing our endbreaks and had to roll the next shows 2min early but at
least the air was clean.

Randy Shaffer
WLYH-TV/WHP-TV 
Harrisburg, PA