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Nathan Downer's Nightmare 5 PM Newscast On 1010
It's every news person's worst nightmare - a newscast where everything goes wrong. Which is what happened to CFTO anchor Nathan Downer on Tuesday's 5 PM radio newscast over NT1010. He went to a lead voicer about a Canadian vote at the U.N.
Silence.
Undaunted, he read another story, then called for a separate tape for a third yarn.
Again, nothing.
He tried to read copy about it, but obviously didn't have it, so he skipped to his next story. Finally, with nowhere else to go, they played the weather stinger and intro'ed Lindsay Morrison with the forecast.
You guessed it - more dead air.
He ad libbed a very short current conditions update and then signed off the whole thing, about 2 and a half minutes early.
I have to say he handled it well and didn't sound upset, just a bit puzzled as to what happened to all his tape. Three in a row and none of them fired. I noticed that, because the traffic is often pre-recorded, they didn't even attempt to go to that, instead wisely throwing right back to "The Rush."
That's the kind of thing that was one of my biggest fears, although I didn't think it ever actually happened to me. So my sympathies to Mr. Downer.
Still no word (and we may never know) about why not a single pre-recorded story actually aired.
- haydenmatthews14
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Re: Nathan Downer's Nightmare 5 PM Newscast On 1010
Sad to see NewsTalk 1010 gets worse and worse everyday. Bell should be ashamed of themselves of what they did to 1010 and it's newsroom staff.
- peter
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Re: Nathan Downer's Nightmare 5 PM Newscast On 1010
With their tiny market share, no one else noticed 
Last edited by peter (December 13, 2023 8:03 am)
- BowmanvilleBob
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Re: Nathan Downer's Nightmare 5 PM Newscast On 1010
Hardly a new problem....
A classic newscast from ABC Radio's Headline Edition in 1953, including the commercial announcer cracking up as he tries to read a network promo.
"Well, Mother told me there'd be days like this..."
- RadioActive
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Re: Nathan Downer's Nightmare 5 PM Newscast On 1010
I've posted this before, but it's still my all time favourite news blooper. It features NBC News' great Frank Blair reading a newscast on the network, calling for tape after tape after tape, and none of them - not one - ever runs. Trust me, it's a lot worse when it happens on camera. There's simply, as Martha and the Vandellas once noted, nowhere to run to.
In this classic moment, that starts around the :35 sec. mark of the video below, it goes on so long and so often that Blair visibly slumps in his chair and says "you're kidding!," as if he just doesn't know what to do next. Finally, he starts talking on air to his floor director, "what page do you want, Larry?"
Still, he was a real pro and he got through the whole thing with pretty good humour, explaining to viewers these things happen on a live show.
Just maybe not this often.
I'd love to have been there when the camera was no longer on him.
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Thread Starter- shurmanator
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Re: Nathan Downer's Nightmare 5 PM Newscast On 1010
Poor Nathan. However, if you don’t have a few days like that behind you, you’ve never really been in radio. A few years ago, I finished show prep which included notes etc. for early aft shift on 640. At show change, I logged out, went into Master Control sat down and logged in…but the computer would not accept my login. My password had expired precisely between shifts. Took the techs about 20 or 30 minutes to get to me so I flew blind. Some people would have had a panic attack…that, to me, is verboten. Fortunately, when I read and make notes, the material finds its way into my addled mind and I doubt the listeners had any clue I was on the high wire without a net. These things don’t happen much anymore but back in the day, they happened a lot…and that built character.
Last edited by shurmanator (December 13, 2023 10:36 am)
- RadioActive
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Re: Nathan Downer's Nightmare 5 PM Newscast On 1010
You'd think that might not happen back in the days of paper, before computers became the thing. But CFRB's John Moore is constantly losing the page he wants to find on air, and he openly talks about. The more things change etc....
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Thread Starter- RadioAaron
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Re: Nathan Downer's Nightmare 5 PM Newscast On 1010
RadioActive wrote:
You'd think that might not happen back in the days of paper, before computers became the thing. But CFRB's John Moore is constantly losing the page he wants to find on air, and he openly talks about. The more things change etc....
Yep. It always comes down to human error, which we will always make regardless of the tools.