Ka-POW

Last night (Monday, October 8, 2007) was dramatical excitement as a powerful thunderstorm knocked the local TV-news for a loop right in the middle of their newscast.
What news we watch is recorded, so when the news was live at 6 p.m. I was out walking the dog.
I could hear it coming; thunder in the distance.
WHAM Channel 13 is based in deepest, darkest Henrietta, and my MyCast weather-radar had the storm right over it.
Announcers would get rattled as giant thunderclaps boomed overhead. You could even hear it.
All of a sudden, Ka-POW, right in the middle of a stand-up news report.
“Are we still on?” the reporter timidly asked.
“Technical difficulties; please stand by.”
The station had not been knocked off the air, but their entire building was without power.
15 minutes slowly passed (I just boomed through the tape).
Suddenly we got showered with all the ads that were supposed to be sprinkled throughout the news.
Then the anchor was standing in the newsroom, lit by impromptu floodlights, holding a tiny lapel mic.
Suddenly it was just like old times. Back-and-forth the anchor swung his microphone, trying to continue the stand-up report that had been interrupted.
Thankfully the anchor is our age, so he knows to aim the mic at whoever is talking.
Prior experience from long ago. Who knows if the young pups would know?
The station was on their backup generator. All their glitzy graphics and satellite-links were vaporized.
It was kind of like that at the mighty Mezz. A thunderstorm would roll over and zap the power, and the standby would kick on. But all it drove was our ‘pyooters and the press. No lights; no AC.

“Deepest, darkest Henrietta” is a rather effusive and obnoxious suburb of Rochester.

The “mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired almost two years ago. Best job I ever had.