Technical Difficulties
How often have things like this happened?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yeX42fKIpU
This past Sunday's power failure in Buffalo was one example of missed action because of the ever-popular "technical difficulties." I know the 11/5/72 Redskins-Jets game wasn't shown at all because a TV cable was deliberately cut--the byproduct of a nasty CBS technicians strike--and couldn't be repaired in time. According to the 11/6/72 New York Times, the game was supposed to be broadcast on 90 affiliates, so it was indeed a huge game. In it's place, the Bears (3-3-1) - Lions (4-3) game became the big early game.
Technical difficulties weren't the problem during the opening week of the '78 season; the installation of Pope John Paul I caused many viewers to miss most of the first half of the 1:00 (Eastern) games.
Game 3 of the 1986 NBA Finals in Houston was played during the midst of an electrical storm that knocked the picture out for the first 6 minutes of the 4th Quarter. Even though the video was on the fritz for the 3rd Quarter before going out in the 4th, Dick Stockton waited nearly 3 minutes to adjust to a radio play-by-play.
During the great blackout of 2003, the Browns hosted the Packers in a nationally televised preseason game with most of Cleveland still in the dark.
A partial list follows:
*2008 - Picture went in-and-out during first half of Temple-Kansas college basketball game. (ESPN2)
*2008 - About five minutes of the Nationwide Series race in Mexico City, Corona 200, was not seen because of an electrical outage. (ESPN2)
*2008 - End of NASCAR Nationwide Pepsi 300 at Nashville Superspeedway was not seen on DirecTV due to problems on the receiving end. (ESPN2)
*2007 - Mid-American Conference football championship game began with picture but no sound. Stan Verrett and Jesse Palmer called the game from the studio. (ESPN2)
*2007? - Picture went out during Oregon-Oregon State hoops game. (Fox Sports Net)
*2007 - End of NASCAR Busch Series Food City 250 was not shown due to a switching error that eliminated the path from the track to the satellite uplink. Kasey Kahne won the race. (ESPN2)
*2002 - Picture went out during Virginia Tech-Miami football game. Reason was not explained. (ABC)
*2002 - No sound at Duke-Maryland college hoops game between 90 seconds to go and 20 seconds to go in regulation. Blue Devils won in overtime. (ESPN)
*Early 2000s - Picture went out during Lakers-Jazz NBA game. KCAL had to simulcast Jazz telecast for a few minutes.
*1994 - Picture went out during Notre Dame-USC football game. Network showed picture supplied by Prime Ticket, with studio announcers from New York City. (ABC)
*1992 - Orange Bowl between Miami and Nebraska, picture went kaput due to weather. Gayle Gardner and Paul Maguire called the game from New York with picture from NHK in Japan. (NBC) This is the one that started the thread.
1980 Raiders@ Broncos NBC lost picture for 20 minutes.
The 1992 NCAA Basketball Tournament East Regional First Round in Greensboro, NC suffered numerous power outages due to tornadoes and heavy rains in the area. The Missouri vs. West Virginia game in particular lost electricity more than once.
How has this thread gotten this far along and nobody has yet mentioned game 6 of this year's ALCS? a.k.a. the Steve Harvey game.
Another one I heard about was the one in 1986 during the Notre Dame-USC game, when John Carney kicked the winning field goal, and CBS didn't show it live because they had gone to commercial, which had gone so long that they started play without the network.
12/14/03-Fox accidentally stays with nationwide bonus coverage of early SEA/STL game well into doubleheader late game window (including a postgame interview with Marshall Faulk) causing everyone getting GB/SD to miss the Packers' opening drive and first touchdown.
Here in Albuquerque,technical glitches are commonplace in sports telecasts.
Right before the second half kickoff of a 2006 UNM-New Mexico state football game in Las Cruces, KRQE News 13 lost power in their cheap local satellite truck,instead of using the big guys' trucks to televise the game throughout New Mexico and Colorado and west Texas.
They never returned to the game. No explanation was given. They went to about 12 commercials for car dealers and casinos instead,before having the station's news anchors fill time with a bogus news update,until they could find some reruns of "Jeopardy!" and "Wheel of Fortune" to fill the slot until their 10 PM news came on...about 3 hours later!
Except for a hard-to-read crawl explaining the "technical difficulties",there was no invitation for viewers expecting football to switch to the radio broadcast or an online feed via the UNM or NMSU websites.
KRQE hasn't aired a UNM football or basketball telecast since. Wonder why?
The 3 elderly Alex Trebek fans in Portales, Raton and one-horse towns throughout the state were rejoicing at the glitchfest, so they could watch their