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October 26, 2022 9:59 pm  #1


WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

Both of Sinclair's Buffalo outlets, WUTV/Fox and WNYO/myTV have been off the air (the other OTA) for the past 6 hours or so...

Both have the same message posted on their Facebook pages:

"WUTV is currently experiencing technical difficulties with our over-the-air and satellite transmission. We hope to have it restored ASAP. 
Thank you."


 

 

October 27, 2022 1:03 am  #2


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

Is WUTV/WNYO back on air now? Did they fix the issue?

 

October 27, 2022 2:02 am  #3


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

haydenmatthews14 wrote:

Is WUTV/WNYO back on air now? Did they fix the issue?

If they did, someone forgot to tell Rogers cable, lol so, most likely, no.
Nice music tho. Great graphics on a white screen to go with the text that still reads
"Technical difficulties Please stand by..."


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

October 27, 2022 2:13 am  #4


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

Still no signal via OTA for both WUTV and WNYO.   This is going on 10 hours now...
Either the problem is at the Grand Island TX site, or at the origination point.

What ever it is, it is major. And they do not appear to have backup or standby paths in place...
 

Last edited by Glen Warren (October 27, 2022 9:26 am)

     Thread Starter
 

October 27, 2022 3:12 am  #5


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

https://wutv29.com/live Darn, the streaming alternative is also out. (as of 3 am this morning)
 


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

October 27, 2022 8:59 am  #6


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

I think I read somewhere that WUTV and WNED share the same tower. But Channel 17 is still there, so whatever is going on, it doesn't appear it's antenna related. 

I'm starting to wonder - and this is total speculation on my part - if there was some sort of cyberattack that's shut down some key systems. The length of this outage would appear to show it's not something engineers can quickly fix, and if there was something that shut down their computer networks, it would take a long time to get it back. 

I'll be monitoring the Buffalo News over the next while to see if their TV columnist, Alan Pergament, has any updates. 

 

October 27, 2022 9:24 am  #7


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

RadioActive wrote:

I think I read somewhere that WUTV and WNED share the same tower. But Channel 17 is still there, so whatever is going on, it doesn't appear it's antenna related. 

I'm starting to wonder - and this is total speculation on my part - if there was some sort of cyberattack that's shut down some key systems. The length of this outage would appear to show it's not something engineers can quickly fix, and if there was something that shut down their computer networks, it would take a long time to get it back. 

I'll be monitoring the Buffalo News over the next while to see if their TV columnist, Alan Pergament, has any updates. 

Both WNED and WUTV have towers in close proximity on Grand Island.  There was some temporary sharing/lease agreement leading up to the ATSC re-pack a couple of years ago.  Now, if I recall correctly, WNYO is on the WUTV tower at Grand Island. ??? but I could be wrong...

The original WNYO tower and facilities were versioned for ATSC 3.0 as part of Sinclair's corporate push to Next Gen TV...  WNYO also hosts the other Buffalo broadcaster's signals on this tower, so that ATSC 3.0 modulation is available in the area. The WNYO sub channels are in return hosted by other Buffalo stations in ATSC 1. WNYO has 3 sub channels in addition to the main MyTV Buffalo channel.





 

     Thread Starter
 

October 27, 2022 10:03 am  #8


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

I just received an email from the Buffalo News' Alan Pergament, who says both signals are still there on his Spectrum cable feed. So those viewers who get their TV that way in the U.S. aren't affected. (I'm assuming it's not on Canadian cable at the moment but anyone on the various systems here should be able to confirm.)

As mentioned on their websites - with very little explanation - only their satellite and OTA viewers are affected. But rarely do these kind of things last this long.  

 

October 27, 2022 1:06 pm  #9


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

WUTV29 and WNYO49  are on the same transmitter as subchannels on Grand Island due to WNYO transmitter going ATSC 3.0. So if there is a problem with the shared ATSC 1.0 transmitter both stations go off the air. Interestingly enough WUTV and WNYO are still broadcasting on the ATSC 3.0 transmitter on RF16.

Last edited by canam2021 (October 27, 2022 1:09 pm)

 

October 27, 2022 1:13 pm  #10


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

canam2021 wrote:

WUTV29 and WNYO49  are on the same transmitter as subchannels on Grand Island due to WNYO transmitter going ATSC 3.0. So if there is a problem with the shared ATSC 1.0 transmitter both stations go off the air. Interestingly enough WUTV and WNYO are still broadcasting on the ATSC 3.0 transmitter on RF16.

Interlock or Power Amp issue(s) ???  
 

     Thread Starter
 

October 27, 2022 2:46 pm  #11


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

So I have no Fox-- 29 and no 49, BUT I do have the 49 subchannels coming in just fine OTA.  My new TV has ATSC3

Last edited by pinto (October 27, 2022 2:47 pm)

 

October 27, 2022 2:56 pm  #12


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

RadioActive wrote:

I just received an email from the Buffalo News' Alan Pergament, who says both signals are still there on his Spectrum cable feed.  

Most cable companies deal with local channels via a fibre link.   But because Canadian companies will use OTA or a Dish feed to pick up the signal, they would lose the feed.    

 

 

October 27, 2022 2:59 pm  #13


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

pinto wrote:

So I have no Fox-- 29 and no 49, BUT I do have the 49 subchannels coming in just fine OTA.  My new TV has ATSC3

Based on the setup, 49 means nothing.  It's Virtual ...  The subchannels for 49 come from other shared transmitters.  This was done to accommodate 3.0 and keep 1.0 fully operational.     The RF channel is not actually 49, and the subchannels and the main channel actually in this case have different RF channels.   Our TV's see it as the Virtual channel 49. 

 

October 27, 2022 3:00 pm  #14


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

Yes, I understand the whole virtual channel thing

 

October 27, 2022 3:35 pm  #15


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

WUTV has recently posted an update on their Facebook site.

The issue occurred Wednesday afternoon at 1:41 pm, when critical cooling component failed which forced the transmitter to shutdown. They have ordered the replacement part(s) which are in transit.
 

     Thread Starter
 

October 27, 2022 4:07 pm  #16


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

They will want to be back on for Football!!!!!
 

 

October 27, 2022 4:53 pm  #17


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

From Facebook:

To All our loyal WUTV / WNYO Viewers:
We thank you for your inquiries regarding our stations.
On Wednesday October 26th at 1:41pm a critical cooling component on our transmitter failed which required it to be shut down.  The materials needed to fix this unexpected issue have been ordered and are currently in transit.
This failure did not affect the fibers that deliver our programming on Spectrum or Fios but all 'over-the-air', satellite and Canadian viewers are experiencing the disruption.
Please note we are working as quickly as possible to bring the transmitter back up so you can enjoy your favorite shows on our two stations.  
If you would like to see any FOX prime shows that were missed due to this outage, please download the free FOXNOW app.  Yesterday’s Masked Singer and LEGO Masters are available for viewing.
We thank you for your continued patience during this unfortunate technical issue.

 

 

October 28, 2022 8:11 am  #18


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

When WUTV does return to the air, will it automatically return on Rogers services or will Rogers tech people have to remove their "technical difficulties" sign first. Judging by how inattentive Rogers staff can be when simsubs should end on a program, it could be some time before someone realizes that FOX29 is up and running again.

 

October 28, 2022 8:20 am  #19


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

mace wrote:

When WUTV does return to the air, will it automatically return on Rogers services or will Rogers tech people have to remove their "technical difficulties" sign first. Judging by how inattentive Rogers staff can be when simsubs should end on a program, it could be some time before someone realizes that FOX29 is up and running again.

Is this a Rogers message? Or a WUTV message? 
Regardless, again, here's the online viewing link if Rogers screws up: (May need VPN?)  https://wutv29.com/live

*a friend tells me that Bell Fibe switched to the Boston feed. The same can be said there about how long it'll stay Boston Fox after WUTV returns to normal.

Last edited by Radiowiz (October 28, 2022 8:23 am)


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

October 28, 2022 9:31 am  #20


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

A WUTV Facebook post from early Friday morning says:

"...parts have arrived in Buffalo and are in transit to the station. We hope to be up this afternoon."

Stay tuned and keep an eye on your TV to see what happens next. 

This is one of the longest non-hurricane or weather-related outages of a TV station I've ever seen. They disappeared on Wednesday and as of Friday, they're still not back on. 

The same kind of thing happened to CKTB back in May 2021, when a part in their transmitter was damaged in a storm and they had to order it from a place in the U.S. and wait for it to be shipped up here and installed. They were on low back-up power until June 4th, and were essentially wiped out of over-the-air reception in the GTA until the work was done. 

 

October 28, 2022 10:19 am  #21


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

RadioActive wrote:

A WUTV Facebook post from early Friday morning says:

"...parts have arrived in Buffalo and are in transit to the station. We hope to be up this afternoon."

Stay tuned and keep an eye on your TV to see what happens next. 

This is one of the longest non-hurricane or weather-related outages of a TV station I've ever seen. They disappeared on Wednesday and as of Friday, they're still not back on. 
...
 

Agreed.  They have had quite a few comments/inquiries from viewers as evidenced on their Facebook page.  Although more seem to be concerned with WUTV/Fox as opposed to WNYO/MyTV.  A lot of those viewers appear to be from Southern Ontario/GTHA. 

I mentioned earlier that the outage appears to indicate that WUTV/WNYO does not have a back-up transmitter? But thinking about it further, I suppose that they might have one, but it is of lower power and it is not enough to hammer thru to up here in Southern Ontario....



 

     Thread Starter
 

October 28, 2022 10:47 am  #22


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

So, how is it then a failed transmitter part seemingly prevents their being "LIVE"on their website?

Headed by this statement - "FOX29 is currently experiencing technical difficulties with our over-the-air & satellite transmission. We are working on the issue.", the continual running prompt is "We'll be right back."

 

 

October 28, 2022 2:58 pm  #23


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

Radiowiz wrote:

mace wrote:

When WUTV does return to the air, will it automatically return on Rogers services or will Rogers tech people have to remove their "technical difficulties" sign first. Judging by how inattentive Rogers staff can be when simsubs should end on a program, it could be some time before someone realizes that FOX29 is up and running again.

Is this a Rogers message? Or a WUTV message? 
Regardless, again, here's the online viewing link if Rogers screws up: (May need VPN?)  https://wutv29.com/live

*a friend tells me that Bell Fibe switched to the Boston feed. The same can be said there about how long it'll stay Boston Fox after WUTV returns to normal.

This is a Rogers message, in English and French.

 

October 28, 2022 3:22 pm  #24


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

Repairs completed and back on air, OTA speaking, around 3:00pm Friday afternoon...

 

     Thread Starter
 

October 28, 2022 3:41 pm  #25


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

As of 3:45, WUTV is up and running on Rogers.

 

October 28, 2022 3:46 pm  #26


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

I'm seeing both of them OTA, too.

Good news for cableless World Series fans - Fox is carrying the games. 

I wonder how much the make goods will cost them? 

 

October 28, 2022 7:22 pm  #27


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

RadioActive wrote:

I'm seeing both of them OTA, too.

Good news for cableless World Series fans - Fox is carrying the games. 

I wonder how much the make goods will cost them? 

I'd be willing to bet the majority of their American audience wasn't impacted, so probably not full make goods. 
 

 

October 28, 2022 11:42 pm  #28


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

Anyone have a good VPN to verify that the WUTV website isn't simply blocked here in Canada?  https://wutv29.com/live  is still reading "We'll be right back".

& if there is a Canadian block, where is the "Not available in your area" message???

Last edited by Radiowiz (October 28, 2022 11:43 pm)


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

October 29, 2022 2:39 pm  #29


Re: WUTV / WNYO Technical difficulties...

According to a 2019 press release, Sinclair purchase some 90 liquid-cooled transmitters.  If there was a cooling failure, that would point to a pump, or the outdoor heat exchanger. It is puzzling, however, that they wouldn't have some semblance of lower power (air cooled?) transmitter as a backup.  A little power goes a long way from a 300 metre tower.
This is probably indicative of a strategy that, cord-cutting notwithstanding, the vast majority of their domestic audience is on cable that is fed directly by fibre, or on satellite. The bean counters win again.