‘What’s going on with ABC news 36?’ Lexington TV station hit by ‘catastrophic’ outage
Lexington’s ABC news station WTVQ 36 has been hit this week with “catastrophic technical issues” that have impacted locally produced shows.
Miranda Combs, ABC 36 news director and morning news anchor, said that on Monday a Spectrum server went down and the internet services went out for the building on Man o’ War Boulevard.
“That negatively impacted many operations in the newsroom and the station,” Combs said. She said it caused “a ripple effect” on the systems.
And viewers began to notice; many posted online to the effect, “where’s the news” and “What’s going on with ABC news 36? We miss seeing you, Dillon and TG,” one viewer said in a post to ABC 36 meteorologists T.G. Shuck and Dillon Gaudet.
We miss you too, Jane.
We hope to be back on Hulu and YouTube TV very shortly! https://t.co/68q4WWIkKS— Dillon Gaudet (@GaudetWeather) December 6, 2023
Combs said that while the reporters were able to gather news, they couldn’t put the scripts on teleprompters or transfer video, among other things.
And some viewers, who watch on Hulu for instance, might not have been able to see the station, she said.
“We’ve been on the air, reading from scripts but you may have seen a lack of video,” Combs said. “I applaud our staff, they’ve been amazing. They really stepped up. It makes me tearful.”
Comb said the station has internet back up today and is working to get other equipment back online.
“We hope to be back up in the morning,” she said.
According to posts on social media, news and other local shows including “The Lee and Hayley Show” have been unable to record new episodes.
On Wednesday, The Lee and Hayley Show posted on Instagram that it was unable to tape the show for the second day in a row.
“The TV station where we record our show has had catastrophic technical issues this week and thusly we are unable to record new episodes,” the show said in a post. “It is beyond our control and we are desperate to get new shows going again and we’re hopeful that will happen by the end of the week!”