The "The Night The Screen Went Black" Story

Photo of Channel 8 WGAL-TV in Lancaster, PA.  Notice
all the flat roofs that are part of the building.

It was an ordinary day.  Judge Judy had just ended so I grabbed the remote to turn the TV to our local NBC station, WGAL Channel 8.  The screen was black!  "Don't tell me something happened to our cable again," I said to Carol.  Wasn't more than a couple of weeks ago that we had to have the DVR box replaced, new connectors put in place in our cable box in the basement, a new wall outlet receptacle and a new cable line run from the street to the side of our house.  

This shows the part of the building where the weight
of the snow and ice caused it to start to collapse. 

I hit the "Last" button on the remote and there was the ABC News out of Phila- delphia.  Uh Oh!  Hit the "Last" again and the screen went black.  "Channel 8 is off the air," I said to her.  Carol was sitting on the sofa across from me and she was busy typing something on her iPad when she said, "The roof of the station fell in!" She read the story to me as it appeared on her screen.  Seems that the snow that has accumulated on the flat roof of  the station on Columbia Ave. in the west end of Lancaster City forced evacuation of the building at about 3:30 PM.  The general manager of the station said he heard a loud noise near the second floor newsroom and went to investigate.  

Photo from the Lancaster Newspaper showing the newscasters
standing in the parking lot doing their broadcast in the cold.

He saw that the ceiling had shifted in the  the part of the building that used to be the newsroom.  It was no longer in use, but not wanting to take chances ordered the evacuation of the building, then called the local fire company.  They had no ability to air their news at 5:00 PM so the screen was black.  Their news team of Kim Lemon, Ron Martin, Janelle Stelson and meteorologist Joe Calhoun tried to do a live newscast from the parking lot located along Columbia Ave.    By now I had grabbed my laptop and was watching the event on their website.  

Inspectors travel by bucket which is attached to a crane
in order to check to see if the roof is stable or not.

They were all bundled in heavy coats with a TV truck next to them sending the signal.  WGAL had to piggy-back on Baltimore's WBAL signal in order to broadcast the evening Olympics. .......   Well, that part of my story was last Friday evening. The following morning they brought in a crane with a bucket and pumped accumulated water off the roof.  They placed an 8" x 8' steel I-Beam inside the studio to support the roof.  Then they were able to shovel the accumulated snow and ice from the roof.  That night our TV screen came to life again and the newsroom was back in business again.  Parts of the building are still off-limits until permanent repairs can be made to the structure.  Inspectors made the decision after inspecting the roof from a cage on the crane and making internal inspections.  What could have been a catastrophe remains a problem, but WGAL will still be on the air.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.