Talk:WGBX-TV

Outage April 8, 2012

An extended broadcast outage began at about 8pm Sunday eve April 8, 2012 due to a failure at the broadcast antenna in Needham, shared with other stations. As of the afternoon of the next day, the specific cause of the problem had still not been identified. Because most viewers are able to receive the signal via paid cable services, there is little urgency to remedy the problem.

• www.boston.com/Boston/businessupdates/2012/04/mystery-outage-plagues-boston-stations/JAmrWayS0ih8Ku1Vr8VDMJ/index.html

"Four Greater Boston TV stations are racing to repair a mysterious malfunction that knocked them off the air on Sunday night.

"The affected stations are CBS affiliates WBZ-TV Channel 4 and WSBK-TV Channel 38; ABC affiliate WCVB-TV Channel 5; and PBS station WGBX-TV Channel 44. Over-the-air broadcast signals for all four stations were cut off at about 8 p.m. Sunday, due to an electronic fault that still hadn’t been diagnosed as of Monday afternoon.

"Most TV viewers aren’t missing anything. The stations continue to transmit over cable TV and satellite services, which are used by about 98 percent of viewers in the Greater Boston area, according to data from the Television Bureau of Advertising. Pabis estimated that 93 percent of WBZ’s viewers use such pay-TV services and have not been affected by the outage.

"While WBZ, WSBK, and WGBX are still off the air, WCVB has resumed broadcasting at lower power through an auxiliary antenna.

"Pabis said the the four affected stations share the same antenna and transmission line. He said that a transmission line failure is the most probable cause of the problem. “Transmission line failure is pretty common,” he said. “Copper lines tend to burn out pretty often.”

"The line in question is a rigid, copper-sheathed coaxial cable that runs up the 1,200-foot-tall tower in Needham which hosts the antenna. A second line is in place, but must be connected to the antenna by workers who make the long climb up the tower. Pabis said that on their first trip up the tower -- about a half-hour climb -- repair workers discovered that they didn’t have the correct part to connect the auxiliary line to the antenna. “They had to come all the way back down, get that piece, and bring it up,” Pabis said.

"Pabis said it’s unlikely that the antenna itself is malfunctioning. But if it is, repairs will take much longer, because an antenna must be custom-made to transmit the signals from all four stations. “That would take quite some time,” he said."

-96.237.1.158 (talk) 20:41, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

The outage continues Tuesday April 10 2012, with very little acknowledgement or information available anywhere. The problem is barely mentioned on the WGBH website. Here is the current official boiler-plate email statement:

"Thank you for contacting WGBH. As a member-supported station, we strive to provide the most accurate information to our viewers. Sunday night just before 8:00pm there was a failure at the transmitter, which is affecting WGBX 44—our multicast services World, Create, and Kids—as well as WBZ, WCVB, and WSBK, which all share the transmitter. Crews were immediately dispatched to the tower to diagnose the problem. While It is still unknown exactly how severe it is, we just learned that the initial assessment indicates that the shared antenna is damaged such that the repair may take at least several days.

"A broadcast alert was posted on the Contact Us page of our website wgbh.org/contact at 9:00am on Monday morning. And we'll continue to post service updates on that page as soon as additional information is available. We apologize for this inconvenience, and sincerely appreciate your patience and support. Please contact WGBH Audience & Member Services with any additional questions, concerns, or feedback.

Sincerely,

WGBH Audience & Member Services"

-96.237.1.158 (talk) 16:12, 10 April 2012 (UTC)

As of 8:30pm April 10, 2012 WGBX is temporarily working, WGBH broadcast is temporarily barely working at all:

• www.wgbh.org/about/contact.cfm

Broadcast Alert: WGBH 2 will be off the air for about one hour beginning at 1:00pm on Tuesday, April 10, for emergency repair work being done on the Needham tower transmission site. The work will allow WGBX 44, as well as several commerical stations, to return to the air after experiencing an outage since Sunday evening. Visit here for additional details about the outage.

• www.wgbh.org/articles/Work-May-Affect-WGBH-2-Signal-5979

WGBH Channel 2's over-the-air signal may experience a decrease in power over the next several days and will experience a complete outage for approximately one hour beginning 1pm (EST), Tuesday, April 10, due to emergency repair work being done on the Needham tower transmitter site. The temporary outage should not affect most area cable or satellite subscribers.

The planned outage will enable repair workers to move the WGBH transmitter to a lower section on the antenna, thus reducing its signal strength, but allowing several commercial stations in the market, as well as WGBX Channel 44, to return to the air after experiencing an outage since Sunday evening.

“Once the repairs have been made, WGBH and WGBX, as well as the other local stations should be back on the air, albeit at a diminished broadcast coverage area,” said Jake Messier, Associate Director of Media Relations and Marketing. “We felt that helping our fellow stations was the right thing to do in getting everyone back on the air."

Outlying areas from the tower may still experience outages, simply due to their geographic distance from Needham, until a permanent fix can be made.

• www.boston.com/Boston/businessupdates/2012/04/downed-boston-stations-back-the-air/7zbd3Z288EU6pmBpwgaHxM/index.html

Downed Boston TV stations back on the air

04/10/2012 2:33 PM

"Three Boston TV stations that were knocked off the air Sunday by a technical glitch returned to service on Tuesday afternoon.

Over-the-air broadcasts from CBS Corp. stations WBZ-TV Channel 4 and WSBK-TV Channel 38, ABC network affiliate WCVB-TV Channel 5, and PBS station WGBX-TV Channel 44 shut down at about 8 p.m. Sunday. All four stations share the same antenna, located atop a 1,200-foot tower in Needham. WCVB-TV quickly resumed broadcasting through a backup antenna but the other three stations have stayed off the air. The outage had no effect on the great majority of viewers, because the stations continue to feed their signals to cable and satellite TV providers, who serve about 98 percent of viewers in the Boston area.

At 1 pm Tuesday, engineers at the affected stations briefly shut down WGBH, then moved its signal to the backup antenna being used by WCVB. Then WCVB, WSBK, WBZ and WGBX all began broadcasting from the WGBH antenna.

Paul Pabis, director of broadcast operations and engineering for WBZ and WSBK, said the outage was apparently due to a breakdown in a “five-way power divider,” an electronic component that separates the signals from multiple stations before feeding them to the antenna. Fixing the problem will require a complete shutdown of the antenna.

To accomplish this, each station will install a temporary antenna on the tower. After that, the WGBH antenna will be completely shut down. The power divider can then be repaired."
-96.237.1.158 (talk) 03:22, 11 April 2012 (UTC)

General Court coverage

WGBX used to broadcast live feed of the MA General Court (House) during the day, a la C-SPAN. Does it still do this? - 205.132.175.177 (talk) 17:27, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Broadcast status

WGBH/WGBX seems to have no public broadcast status page. They seem to hide related information on their "Contact us" page. When there is a problem with the broadcast antenna, they will sometimes put a note there about it. After a while, these notes disappear. There seems to be no public archive of this information.-96.237.4.73 (talk) 20:40, 6 February 2013 (UTC)

January 2013 broadcast outage

One evening late in January 2013 (Jan 25?) the fiber optic connection from the studios to the antenna site was broken, and WGBH/WGBX broadcast ceased for a few hours. This may have also affected some cable customers. A note was eventually posted on their "contact us" page, and removed within a few days.-96.237.4.73 (talk) 20:41, 6 February 2013 (UTC)

Broadcast outage October 2016

• www.wgbh.org/about/contact.cfm

TRANSMISSION TOWER UPDATE - 10/24/16

On Saturday, October 22, there was a failure in the combined transmission antenna at the Needham tower site that affected over-air service for WGBX 44—our multicast services Create and Kids—as well as WBZ, WCVB, and WSBK, which all share the upper master antenna. Crews have been on the tower since Sunday assessing the situation.

While WGBH 2, which occupies the lower master antenna, was not directly impacted, its signal was temporarily off the air on Monday so the tower crews would not be exposed to its RF radiation.

As the diagnostic work continues, we have collaborated with the tower owner and the other stations that share the upper antenna, to move WGBX 44, WBZ, WCVB, and WSBK to the lower antenna position occupied by WGBH 2. This move has allowed all of those services to get back on the air. And WGBH is now broadcasting on an auxiliary antenna at lower power.

On Tuesday we expect a new set of auxiliary antennas to arrive at the tower to be installed temporarily, and all channels will be moved to them for the duration of the repair work.

-71.174.177.165 (talk) 02:28, 25 October 2016 (UTC)

Programming glich

8pm Sept 1 should be Shakespeare and Hathaway not This Old House which is also on 2. 73.47.77.194 (talk) 00:19, 2 September 2022 (UTC)