Getting clips to play at the right time during television programs is a science, one that is occasionally broken by an intern hitting a wrong button or the cable company getting some of its wires crossed. The latter recently happened to a Canadian local news channel and the results ended in what was basically a worse-case scenario.
On Friday, TV station CHCH located out of Hamilton, Ontario was working through the morning news when the signal was interrupted by hardcore gay pornography during a three-minute stint. The event occurred around 9:30 a.m. and if anyone in the studio was not fully awake before then, they were after as they scrambled to put an end to sex scenes that had not even originated in the station. Later Friday, CHCH came out to apologize, with director Mike Katrycz even offering an on-air apology for an event that was, regrettably, out of the station’s hands.
”First of all, we would like to apologize to our viewers. This was a problem that originated not here at CHCH but at a cable company. Apparently, some of the lines had been cut and in the splicing back together, unfortunately some inappropriate content went to air.”
It really sucks that CHCH was put into the situation to have to apologize, but hopefully the incident is isolated and the cable company that aired the program will get its act together. The Canadian broadcasting regulation, the CRTC is currently investigating the incident, but I highly doubt the local program will get fined for something that was so entirely out of its control. What a way to start out a Friday, though.
