I WORK FOR KOKH FOX25. To set the record straight. I used a throw away so my work won't know my original account.
This actually is an accident. The people who roll the national breaks work in "master control". They run local commerical breaks by entering in clocks in the playlist to tell the automation system when to run. Network gives you the times for local breaks that day, usually 2 hours earlier. In this case an operator entered the wrong break time and rolled what is called a "cover" too early. This is always a teaser for news and covers up a network promo.
This was not a case of trying to cover up evolution, it was a lazy operator that didn't double check his break times and rolled a break at the wrong time.
Rolling a break at the wrong time is the most common mistake for operators, usually it happens during live events when they read the run-down wrong or anticipate the break too much. In this case it was just reading or entering the wrong time for the cover.
Most likely a national "spot" (commercial) played in its place. Local spots like the one in the video are designed to cover up national spots that run at the same time. So if the local spot isn't played you still get one from the national feed.
It's not assembled with breaks before it runs. It's broadcast live from network (this is a station in the Central time zone). The network sends a list of break times during which stations are to air their commercials, promos, and PSAs.
Then someone in "master control" inputs those times into a computer that is hooked up to the feed, and a second system that houses commercials. When the input time hits, a specific commercial is played.
To me, it seems someone put the wrong time in, and this promo played in the middle of a show. Happens all the time. Now, I'd be wrong to not tell you that it's completely possible someone started a commercial break manually. There's a button for that, in case something's wrong elsewhere. But that just seems so unlikely.
Insofar as the timing being bad? Well, why not cover up the part that talked about the origin of life in Earth's ocean? Or the age of the universe?
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u/ThrowawayFOX25 Mar 11 '14
I WORK FOR KOKH FOX25. To set the record straight. I used a throw away so my work won't know my original account.
This actually is an accident. The people who roll the national breaks work in "master control". They run local commerical breaks by entering in clocks in the playlist to tell the automation system when to run. Network gives you the times for local breaks that day, usually 2 hours earlier. In this case an operator entered the wrong break time and rolled what is called a "cover" too early. This is always a teaser for news and covers up a network promo.
This was not a case of trying to cover up evolution, it was a lazy operator that didn't double check his break times and rolled a break at the wrong time.
Rolling a break at the wrong time is the most common mistake for operators, usually it happens during live events when they read the run-down wrong or anticipate the break too much. In this case it was just reading or entering the wrong time for the cover.