A power outage in the vicinity of Duluth, Minnesota’s main antenna farm Saturday evening knocked some local TV and radio stations off the air for about two hours.
“We’re out of power,” Maarja Anderson, a reporter for ABC television affiliate WDIO/WIRT, just before the scheduled 6 p.m. newscast that did not air because of the outage. “Our phones are ringing off the wall.”
The outage, which affected 31 Minnesota Power customers, began at 5:23 p.m. and was fixed shortly after 7:15 p.m.; broadcast stations came back online soon after. Minnesota Power spokeswoman Amy Rutledge told The Duluth News-Tribune the cause of the outage was a failed regulator, which controls voltage.
In addition to WDIO/WIRT, the outage also affected the over-the-air signals of TV stations KDLH-TV (CBS) and KBJR-TV (NBC), though they remained available via cable. Some local radio stations also were knocked offline.
While Duluth radio and TV stations have studios in various locations across town, most stations’ antennas are clustered in the antenna farm above Duluth’s Observation Hill neighborhood that was affected by Saturday evening’s power outage. KQDS-TV (Fox) and WDSE-TV (PBS) appeared to be unaffected by the outage.
See the told The Duluth News-Tribune story here
