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Local Radio Among Those Worldwide Affected By Massive Microsoft Outage
It may be the largest IT outage ever. A Microsoft update that went wrong has halted airlines, stopped ATMs, affected businesses and plagued broadcasters around the world.
So far, stations as varied as CBC Radio, CFRB, AM640 and 680 News have all told listeners on air that this glitch is affecting them, although they haven't completely explained how or what they're doing to work around it. (Did anyone hold onto their typewriters?)
But they were the lucky ones. Some stations were all but knocked off the air entirely.
"News outlets in Australia — including the ABC and Sky News — were unable to broadcast on their TV and radio channels, and reported sudden shutdowns of Windows-based computers. Some news anchors broadcast live online from dark offices, in front of computers showing “blue screens of death.”
There's still no word on an actual fix or how long it will take to remove those Blue Screens at broadcasters worldwide.
Widespread technology outage disrupts flights, banks, media outlets and companies around the world
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Here's how one major broadcaster coped with the emergency.
"Presenters forced to read from sheets of paper or their phones as the autocues were still out of action.
"Meanwhile the graphics for the show were unavailable. Presenters were also unable to cut to pre-recorded segments of programmes which had originally been scheduled for today."
(Ironically, it almost sounds like what CFTO has been experiencing the past few weeks!)
Sky News returns to air with huge changes after being yanked off air by IT outage
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Thread Starter- Radiowiz
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Re: Local Radio Among Those Worldwide Affected By Massive Microsoft Outage
Well, at least it's not Rogers fault this time! 
RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person.
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.
- Ale Ont
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Re: Local Radio Among Those Worldwide Affected By Massive Microsoft Outage
C-B-C Morning in Ottawa has been replaced by Metro Morning out of Toronto.
- RadioActive
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Re: Local Radio Among Those Worldwide Affected By Massive Microsoft Outage
Check out what happened at one station in Australia, manned by a real trouper. It's every broadcaster's worst nightmare.
"At 2GB, for example, Drive announcer Chris O’Keefe was forced to talk for almost three hours because he didn’t have any commercial breaks or other pre-recorded content to give him a break. He was, however able to take live phone calls."
Radio stations across world disrupted by CrowdStrike outage
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Thread Starter- Walter
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Re: Local Radio Among Those Worldwide Affected By Massive Microsoft Outage
Imagine if somehow the internet was totally disabled for a period of only a few days. There would be total economic and societal chaos. Scary stuff.
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Re: Local Radio Among Those Worldwide Affected By Massive Microsoft Outage
I had to laugh when CFRB's John Moore and Jerry Agar both observed they didn't get paid on Friday because of the glitch. Agar proclaimed them both "volunteers" and said that meant they could do whatever they want on air until the money is there.
As if they don't already!
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Thread Starter- mjf
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Re: Local Radio Among Those Worldwide Affected By Massive Microsoft Outage
680 News is simulcasting on 570 from Kitchener. I noticed a much weaker signal from 97.7 HTZ-FM this morning. Turns out it’s MAX FM from Wasaga Beach! CHTZ is off the air.
- betaylored
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Re: Local Radio Among Those Worldwide Affected By Massive Microsoft Outage
I really appreciated 1010 having Carmi Levy on this morning on both MITM and Jerry's show to give us the Coles Notes on the cause of the outage and the whole negative event cascade aftereffects.
sidebar: major IT outage and then the LCBO strike ends shortly after, coincidence or..... 🤔
(I'm kidding)
Last edited by betaylored (July 19, 2024 4:51 pm)
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Re: Local Radio Among Those Worldwide Affected By Massive Microsoft Outage
betaylored wrote:
I really appreciated 1010 having Carmi Levy on this morning on both MITM and Jerry's show to give us the Coles Notes on the cause of the outage and the whole negative event cascade aftereffects.
sidebar: major IT outage and then the LCBO strike ends shortly after, coincidence or..... 🤔
(I'm kidding)
Sorry to say the LCBO strike may not be over yet after all. It's enough to drive you to drink.
Oh wait a second...
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Thread Starter- RadioActive
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Re: Local Radio Among Those Worldwide Affected By Massive Microsoft Outage
The outage that affected radio meant many had to find more creative ways to get their shows on air. Here's one example from Australia, where the problem surfaced in the middle of the afternoon.
"Operating from an Apple laptop, co-host Tim Blackwell was playing music from his personal Spotify account into manually patched in microphones, while fellow host Joel Creasey featured at various points via speaker phone.
The trio kept time via an analog clock positioned on an office chair."
And then there was this on an Aussie TV network.
“While [Donald] Trump is flying, a new low point for Joe Biden gathered serious momentum today as the man himself,” Aly began, before stopping himself upon realizing he wasn’t making any sense.
“Sorry … what am I saying? Oh, this is what happens when the systems go down … this weird text sort of appears on the … can we get a shot of a camera so you can see how the autocue works?”
All in all, a day I'm sure many broadcasters around the world will never forget.
Troubles On Air Down Under
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Thread Starter- RadioAaron
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Re: Local Radio Among Those Worldwide Affected By Massive Microsoft Outage
The only radio company I heard of being hit in Canada is Rogers, but they have backup computers for critical on-air functions that do not receive software updates until the main computers have been successfully updated.