Maintenance on NPT’s Broadcast Tower

PrintNPT’s broadcast tower is currently undergoing structural maintenance. NPT will be unavailable to some viewers during this time. Viewers who watch NPT using an antenna and subscribers to Dish Network, DirecTV and some smaller cable companies will be affected. AT&T Uverse and Comcast subscribers should not be affected.

We apologize for the inconvenience. If you have questions, please contact NPT at 615-259-9325.

In the meantime, you can watch many of our programs including Tennessee Crossroads, Volunteer Gardener and PBS NewsHour through our online video portal, the PBS app on mobile devices, Roku and Apple TV.

Poldark fans please note: You will be able to watch Sunday’s episode online at http://video.wnpt.org/ beginning Monday morning.

 

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233 Comments

Lost satellite service early this morning… today. Not cool. Need my NPT, BBC Nightly B & Charlie Rose. Can’t stream through apple. What gives. Please send outage info. Times dates ect. Appreciate you all even more. I am an NPT member

Hi, Stephen: Maintenance on the tower is expected to continue for the next five to seven days. Again, we are sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks for supporting NPT.

With the now endless fund raising the endless begging leaves a very small
window for actual programming yet
this tower maintenance must interupt
that small window I for one would
like to see the books to see where
all those donations are going I know
my next donation will be Delayed
“5-7” “days”

We get Charter, please update when we will be able to watch NPT again. Not been on since the 15th. I am missing my cooking shows!

Michelle Jones
What is the status of the antennae repair as of Friday Morning 10-21-16? Am eagerly awaiting being able to watch regular programing on Air Antennae. Best regards.
Jean and Arion Cole

We are cord cutters to and we miss all the great shows 5 to 7 days now I’m reading 10 or more you don’t mind sending me all that paperwork for pledges and I have pledged but you all should have notified all the viewers that this was going to happen thanks for your help in this matter Tommy Scott

Seven days and counting. Why would you become a member of a local station you cannot receive via digital antenna? This has created a big hole in our television viewing.

Digital antenna viewers are usually able to watch the station; this is an exception and one that should remain a 40-year anomaly.

Was this outage an expected event , and was it announced on the channel ?
I’m also an NPT member, and am missing my Last of the Summer Wine, and what about Sunday’s airing of Poldark, where can I view the episode.
Disappointed to say the least.

Thanks for supporting NPT, Josephine. The tower maintenance is necessary to ensure the future transmission of NPT; our transmitter must be off while workers are present on the tower to ensure their safety. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience. Meanwhile, you should be able to watch Sunday’s episode of Poldark online at http://video.wnpt.org/ beginning Monday morning.

The availability of the crew determined the start of this required maintenance on our broadcast tower.

Not only that but Hamilton , America . Show I wanted to see most ever since it was announced.. going to miss it. Not everyone can watch online. And we cord cutters depend, appreciate public tv more than people who have cable. This is the worst timing ever. Should been done before season of new shows started..

Unfortunately we could not specify when the maintenance would begin or we certainly would not have picked this season. As for Hamilton’s America, we are going to re-air the program Thursday, Oct. 27 at 8 p.m. on our main channel.

My wife and I have been supporters of NPT since we moved to Nashville. We are surprised that this outage was not announced ahead of time. It is even more baffling that you apparently have no idea how long it will last.

This is required and necessary maintenance that will be completed as quickly as possible and that will ensure the continued functionality of the tower. The availability of the crew determined the start of the work; the weather will affect the duration of it. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience and we ask your patience.

If you’d like an engineering explanation, please call the station Monday (615-259-9325) and ask for Kevin Crane or Dale Baker.

Mr.’s Crane and Baker might be a bit upset at that reply. I expect they have more pressing duties than answering the phone all day long, giving out the same information over and over again.

Perhaps one of then would care to provide an online explanation. It would save time…both theirs and ours.

I checked with Messrs. Crane and Baker before posting, but here is an engineering response: NPT’s transmitter tower, like many towers in the U.S., is more than 40 years old and in need of refurbishing. There are only a few crews in the country qualified to do this high-altitute work, and they go from state to state working on towers and antennas and responding to emergencies such as fallen towers, which does happen now and again. The crew working on the NPT tower started by checking all the high-tension guy wires holding the tower up and replacing any corroded parts. Then they started climbing the tower and checking all the joints, replacing rusted and corroded bolts and sections. As they got closer to the top, NPT’s transmitter power output was reduced and finally turned off for the safety of the workers. The next task was to remove the old WKRN analog antenna from the top of the tower, as it was no longer in use. This changes the towers height, which meant that all the lights on the tower had to be moved to comply with FCC & FAA regulations for tower height. Finally, the tower will get a new paint job that will, with any luck, prevent corrosion and keep the NPT tower in good condition for another 40+ years.

Hey,
I’m missing my Newshour, Charlie Rose, etc. Can I help with the painting? I’ll bring my own brush. You supply the paint. I want you back on the air ASAP. Thanks for what you do.

It is baffling to me the way that this was handled. Even with not knowing the exact date when the crew would be able to start, I am sure that the station had at least a general idea. Therefore the station could have easily put out notices on the station, as well as press releases to advise of the impending maintenance. If this was an emergency maintenance situation then that would explain some of the “no notice”, but press releases could still have gone out. I’m sure all of the other area stations would have been helpful in getting the word out.

We posted information about the impending maintenance on our blogs (as of Sept. 22), in our weekly enewsletter, on our webpage and on social media.

You could have sent all the members an email before this happened. Poor management…. You sound like a politician trying to cover up. When is it going to be back up? You have no trouble finding us when you need pledges.

Thanks, John: Your suggestion is one voiced by quite a few viewers and it is clear that the mention of the impending maintenance should have been placed in a more prominent place in our weekly enewsletters, etc. We cannot state when our signal will be further available to all our viewers because the length of the maintenance depends on a number of factors beyond our control–one of those being the weather–but we are hopeful we will be back on the air for everyone within 10 days.

With respect, some of us are folks who do not participate in blogs, enewsletters, webpages, or social media. In the future, could you please run a crawl at the bottom of the screen or have a figure like Beth Curley make an announcement between programs? Thank you.

Very sorry to be without my NPT. I’ve been a subscriber since the 80s. Was this announced over the air at all? Were there PSAs on NPR? I too would have liked to know this was coming. Streaming is okay for serial television but it doesn’t work for news. Was there any consideration given to live streaming? I miss my Shields and Brooks!

We posted information about the impending maintenance on our blogs (as of Sept. 22), in our weekly enewsletter, on our webpage and on social media. I will pass along your suggestion about sharing the information on-air. Meanwhile, you can watch PBS NewsHour segments and shows online at http://www.pbs.org/newshour/. (Incidentally, we are not affiliated with NPR.)

Have supported NPT for years (decades) and second the comments in which others have asked: (1) was this a *scheduled* maintenance? and if so: (2) was this announced ahead of time? If it was an emergency, then of course it couldn’t have been announced prior to the work. But if it was NOT an emergency, then it is astounding that you would nor or could not have gotten the word to your viewers, just by putting an announcement on air occasionally. You are not answering the question. Saying thanks for supporting NPT isn’t an answer, it’s an evasion. I’ve also just spent time uselessly trying to reprogram my TV….

We are very sorry about this inconvenience–and we certainly do not enjoy being unavailable to part of our viewing audience. While we did provide information about the coming maintenance via our website, blog post, social media, etc., as you (and many other commenters) have pointed out, on-screen announcements would have been the logical method of communication. We will take that into consideration in future.

Reading the downtime information on the website confirmed what I assumed this week : that I was receiving no WNPT on 8.1 or 8.2 due to necessary maintenance.
I have read all the posted comments & concur with them : we could have gotten some advance notice without very much thought process involved in providing it. I do applaud Michelle’s diligent answers to our favorite public television station’s loving public @ large.
I will renew my membership , which has long lapsed due to my financial shit-u-ation , in the very near future. It won’t be a whole lot of money , yet we all know that every bit helps.

WFW & OrEO in Sylvan Park

I religiously watch all things Masterpiece on Sunday nights. How will I be able to watch this Sunday’s offerings? And no, I can’t watch it online, due to data restrictions in my rural area.
I hope you will make arrangements to show these episodes again on NPT 2 within the next couple of weeks. I think that is a reasonable request.

We generally repeat Masterpiece programming during the subsequent week or so after the Sunday night broadcast, so once your signal returns, check our schedule page at http://www.wnpt.org/schedule to see about catching up on your shows. Our programming department is also working on a plan to accommodate those viewers who will have missed episodes.

We’re hoping to be back on the air to all our viewers within seven to 10 days. We’ll revise that estimate when we can.

Thanks for letting us know that you are considering making up lost programming in future… please get a completely detailed schedule out when that decision is made,… thanks, Michelle!

I am a monthly financial supporter. If the station is going to be off the air for several more days, change your screen announceme.

I’m going to pass your question to our engineering department and either they or I will get back to you (or I’ll post the response Monday).

I scrolled through and still didn’t see an explanation why wkrn is still broadcast but npt is down even though both share the same tower. Why didn’t npt approach wkrn about broadcasting on an alternate channel. How can one station not broadcast due to safety of the crew on the tower but another can. Just odd.

Thanks for the heads up. Now, if y’all would start broadcasting the Create network after this, like all the other PBS affiliates in the state, that would be great.

Thanks for this info B.B. I wasn’t aware APT owned Create network. I suspected Nashville would be missing out on something, I just wasn’t aware of what it was until now. Do you know if they broadcast it in Cookville?

NPT and other public broadcast stations air American Public Television shows (which are also aired on the Create Network) as well as PBS programming. So if there is a show on Create that you are interested in seeing, send an email to Justin Harvey, our director of content, at jharvey@wnpt.org.

WNPT assumes that all of your market can stream programs in the interim. This is not true for many in your surrounding rural audience. Yes, I can stream, as long as I don’t mind frequent and lengthy buffering. My area, about 75 miles southeast of your studio, does not have high-speed/fiber optics access, and according to an AT&T representative, probably won’t until after hell freezes over. This is not an uncommon reality for those of us who inhabit “Tennessee Crossroads” territory–as the FCC frequently points out. While I understand the need for maintenance of your infrastructure, I would have appreciated advance warning via your primary medium. Like it or not, that medium is still old-fashioned television for many of us outliers. — P.S. Even if I were to disconnect my satellite service, over-the-air transmission reception of Nashville stations is just a blur.

You have made a very good point about getting the message on the air, one we will certainly take to heart. Thank-you for taking the time to share your thoughts and this information.

Going out on a limb here, but I’ll just bet that the crews and materiel were very much available a couple of weeks ago during your “fund raising” shows……there is no force – natural nor man-made – that can ever stop those shows. There are some of us viewers who welcome taping many of the Saturday shows….I would think that a nice gesture would be to rerun them this week in the post-midnight time frame, so we could at least tape them for later viewing.
Just a thought.

The maintenance was something we knew was coming and once we knew it would begin in late September, we provided that information online and through social media and our weekly enewsletter. I will pass along your suggestion about the Saturday shows to our programming department.

You deleted my post? Censorship on a “public” broadcasting station…..there was nothing offensive there…..very scary, indeed…….

Your comment wasn’t deleted, just waiting to be read and posted by a human on this lovely autumn weekend.

I use an antenna and recently moved the TV. So I’m happy and bummed. It’s not me, it’s you. Good luck and be safe. See you when you get back.

Glad trouble is on your side and not ours. Also glad it is a maintenance thing you can handle and will be stronger in the long run. Have missed you but glad to know only going to be 5 to 7 days. Praying for the safety and quick success of the brave maintenance crew.
Thanks again for your great programs. See you soon we pray.
We are NPT Members as well

WNPT you hang in there. I certainly will. Over the years and the wonderful programming you have more than proven it time and time again. Things change viewers! new and more modern equipment and the latest technology, i PERSONNALY HAVE HAD MORE ENTERTAINMENT THAN INCONVIENENCE

Thank you JoAnn Grooms for the first positive post from a viewer. Get real people. WNPT is doing everything humanly possible to give the viewers the best signal for their fabulous programming. Please let them do their part to keep the workers safe. Please be patient.

So is it just going to be down for about a week? Glad you have where and when we can see Poldark. I would hate to miss that. Sundays I will be missing everything: Globe Trekker, California Gold, Rick Steves, Antique Roadshow. I got this antenna thing because I am on a fixed income and can no longer afford cable tv. I hope its available soon.

This is my second attempt to post a comment, so I’m very aggravated now. I put in the wrong captcha code because the stupid thing is unreadable, and it deleted my entire comment. I’ve had a message from directv on my screen most of the day simply saying there were technical difficulties and to check back periodically. I don’t read your blog, I don’t just check your website for reason at all, and I don’t follow you on social media. I’m sure not many people do any of those things. I finally got very annoyed after waiting all day for the channel to come on and googled to see if I could figure out what was going on. You could have put announcements on TV where people might actually see them instead of continually advertising shows that we can’t watch. Watching on an iPad mini in my lap is not going to happen, even if my stupid Comcast internet would cooperate and allow me to stream without constant buffering. In my 54 years of life, I’ve never seen a TV channel be off the air for 5-7 days. That seems extreme.

Good point about not seeing a TV channel being off the air for that long. On 9/11 all the New York TV stations were taken down when the World Trade Center collapsed. They were back on in a few days at alternate locations. And that wasn’t a planned outage! Seems like poor planning on NPT’s part.

Our programming department is looking into rebroadcasting some of the shows you will have missed. Dare I say it? Stay tuned.

Thanks for pointing that out, Sara. Nashville Public Library also has a great selection of other PBS programming, including NOVA, Nature, etc. You can request DVDs online and have them sent to your preferred branch for pickup.

Our programming department is looking into options for rebroadcasting Downton Abbey and other favorites once we are again available to all our viewers.

Thanks MiChelle for kindly providing all the details in your responses. It’s always fun to have the job of responding to folks when they are upset, but you have no way to fix the problem. :/ While I miss my public television shows, I am REALLY glad to know this isn’t a permanent situation. I second what someone suggested earlier…. seriously wish Create was added to the NPT channels line-up. Had it where I lived before and really miss it. 🙂 Thanks again

Did you seriously just send us an email telling us that we wouldn’t be receiving programming, followed by a listing of all the great new episodes we won’t get to see? And as for this post from three weeks ago, I don’t recall it being prominently featured in previous emails. At the very least, you could have found a way to schedule maintenance for weekdays and let your marquee weekend shows run as planned. And by the way, there’s nothing “free” about your online streaming.

Hi, Susan: Two-thirds of our viewers are still able to receive our signal; also, as we do not know exactly when those who are currently not able to watch us will be able to do so again, it still makes sense to provide information about upcoming shows. Meanwhile, you are correct: though the blog post was included in recent enewsletters (in the right-hand column under the “Blog” heading), there was not a note in the introduction. That’s partly because we did not know exactly when our signal would become unavailable to some of our viewers. In hindsight, yes, a heads-up in the introduction would have been a good idea.

Thanks for the update, Ms. Jones; we didn’t receive the newsletter, for some reason and were puzzled to see the off-air note on our DirecTV menu. Now we know what’s up!

Seconding, or thirding, or fifteenthing, the suggestion to re-air some pre-empted shows during the overnight hours when you can. We miss ’em but can DVR them and still enjoy!

Here’s to the repair crews finishing safely and soon – hopefully before next Friday night at 8, because we have a houseful of “Hamilton” fans who love it almost as much as we do NPT.

Thank y’all for your fine work. We’re fortunate to have a station of NPT’s quality!

Many of our shows re-air in the overnight hours and on subsequent weekdays on NPT; with any luck, you will be able to catch up on some of them. Others will be available for online viewing. Our programming department is also looking into ways to schedule encore broadcasts of some of the more popular programs such as Poldark and Hamilton’s America. (We’re also very excited about Hamilton’s America!)

So do you think it’ll be back on in time for the Hamilton doc?? I’m a serious Hamilfan and I’ve been looking forward to this since I heard about it. Fingers crossed that the crew gets the job done. I don’t want to miss My Shot to see it. Good luck ????

Hi, just want to point out that there wouldn’t be so many unhappy people if public television were not the best programming on the air! Unfortunately, maintenence is a fact of life, and although we hate losing almost a week of watching, I’m sure most of the shows will be rerun soon. I’d much rather have maintenance for a short time than have a major problem down the line. Good luck and remember all the irritated comments you have been getting are there because we love NPT! Thank you!

Don’t know of any tower crews that work through the night. So unless they had to take the antenna down, Why wouldn’t you be on the air after sun down?

Hi, Ed: Believe me we would be if we could, but that is not an option. I’ll have to check with our engineering department for a more detailed answer.

Thanks for making sure that those of us who enjoy your wonderful programming via antenna continue to do so. I will patiently wait, it is worth it.

Hopefully, the signal will be back and better than ever. We have a little one that really misses her children’s programming. We are antenna receivers.

Man, Saturday just wasn’t the same without Tennessee Wild Side and This Old House, and Bob Ross and a few others. I know it’s just TV, and not a necessity to live like good food, a clean house and fresh air and water, but alot of the shows offer a breath of fresh air in that arena of all the poor programming and immoral shows on the other stations. I can know when my kids watch, I don’t have to supervise as closely ! If I can change one thing, I wish old episodes of Mr. Rogers Neighborhood could be played at minimum once a week. I’ve read what an effect he had on so many lives of all ages for the good ! We could use him with all that’s going on in our world today ! Thanks for all your hard work NPT !

We don’t understand how a “communication” organiztion doesn’t do the most obvious communication about your outage and post info about upcoming loss of service….many of us don’t do blogs, social media, or check web sites for info about loss of service…I called TDS 2Xs, they had no update information. The screen notice hasn’t changed since the outage began. How hard to post a little information there???
I’m venting here and not saying anything others have not posted, but as long time PBS and NPR contributor here and in other places we’ve lived, I had to express my astonishment, frustration, and disappointment in how this has been handled.

Hi, Sandra: If you’re referring to Hamilton’s America, that will air Friday, Oct. 21, at 8 p.m. and will be available for online viewing the next day.

This outage is intolerable.

Are you telling me that i must now go to my neighbor – that same one that asked me all those questions while i was crawling precariously on my roof installing an antenna and beg to watch npt from the cable company? The same cable company that i mocked (i still have to get internet from them) and bragged about get out of their clutches with OTA TV…..except for npt dues of course.

Intolerable!

on a lighter note, a little better notice would have helped. I think some input from engineering would be good. i used to think that npt shared a tower with wkrn. it would seem that they would be down as well if workers can’t be on the tower with a signal.

sunday night & npt is a big deal in my house. sure, i can stream tomorrow, but it won’t be the same. just don’t forget about us antenna geeks. npt is about the only channel “worth watching”. we get a little testy when we can’t get it.

Hi, Bryan: We do share a tower with WKRN and our engineers, with whom I will check tomorrow, can provide an explanation about why our signal is unavailable to some viewers. Meanwhile, if you are watching TV with your neighbors, just remember to take popcorn.

Michelle, you have a lot of patience to answer the same questions over and over! I miss my shows but I will watch it online.

Bummer, missing the season premiere of ‘The Durrell’s of Corfu’. When will it be shown again…also, have PBS App on ROKU but cannot watch without NPT Passport…what is it & how do I get signed up?

Hi, Judy: you’ll be able to see the shows through the PBS App and online at http://video.wnpt.org/show/masterpiece/ tomorrow without Passport. (Passport is a member benefit that provides on-demand access to the PBS video catalog, including previous seasons of Masterpiece and other programming.)

What a disappointment. Living in the Nashville area has been a bust in so many ways & here’s another! My area has only one choice for cable – TDS – a small cable company so
I will be missing my Masterpiece favorites on Sunday, Oct. 16, as wekk as a week of programming.

If I were back in FLA, CA or WI there would be no interruption. I’ve donated to NPT in the past, but not anymore! What a small town operation – NPT didn’t even have the courtesy to let it’s supporters know with a broad range announcement….a blog in September? What a joke….you don’t deserve financial support because NPT doesn’t respect it supporters.

Please tell me the Masterpiece programs will be rerun after the tower is repaired. Watching them online is not an option for me.
Thanks

Just a quick tip to some viewers that may benefit from this…remember, just like in the days before cable and satellite, we routinely adjusted our antennas and channel swapped to see what was out there.
Well, I just did a quick scan on my set and found WHIQ out of Huntsville broadcasting a very strong signal on OTA channel 25.1. Just finished watching Masterpiece in wonderful HD.
I’m in north Spring Hill, and the signal was extremely strong and clear. Perhaps some viewers in this area (south of Nashville), may be able to receive WHIQ and watch some of the offerings while WNPT gets the maintenance on their antenna completed.
Just an idea, and it may work well for some of you.

Glad I found this blog to explain to my 90 year old mother who loves NPT why it is not working. She has been very distraught. I am in Texas and she is in Nashville and does not have cable TV. Please do not assume that all your supporters have access to the internet or mobile apps to catch up on past episodes either. Advanced notice would have made this smoother from what I gather in the other posts. Good luck on your maintenance repairs and come back soon!

I didn’t know about the tower maintenance until I lost the signal for NPT. NPT is missed in my home.
Why wasn’t the outage posted on the WNPT.org website.
I don’t do social media, so posting somewhere else did not help me.
Don’t have cable, DISH, or a smart phone (so no app).
I receive the signal thru OTA.
Long-time NPT member.

Hi, Margaret: there was a message on our website, blog and our online schedule page, but we understand that many people did not see that information. We hope to soon be back on-air for all our viewers, Margaret.

I would like to second the suggestion to replay the Saturday morning and afternoon episodes that were missed this past weekend and looks to be out for this coming weekend sometime during the late night time period. As an addendum, if the replays take place, please notify via email, website and on air what the schedule will be so folks can setup DVRs to record.

Miss channel 8 programs. It would help if some mention was made as to when it might be back on the air. I am sure many people are wondering.

Hi, Owen: We don’t know for sure for sure when our signal will once again be available to all of our viewers, but rest assured we will shout it from the rooftops–and share that info via more practical ways–once we know. Right now we think it will be within 10 days, but of course are hoping the maintenance will be completed sooner.

I would have thought the firm plans for rebroadcasting programs unavailable to a significant portion of your viewing audience would have been determined and in place long before the maintenance period.

Hi, Jon: Those plans depend on how long the signal is unavailable and what has been missed in the interim.

was not expecting this… went outta town for few days, come back to watching my regular shows on Npt, but nothing there. plz get it fixed..

They’re off the air because frontline spilled the beans on what we’re doing in Syria with the Russians. I expect they’ll be back on with selected programs omitted from the re-broadcast schedule. hmm… maybe there is a conspiracy DJT

Dear NPT,

I love you. And so, as a subscriber, I forgive you.

But why, oh why, the week of the finale, pilot and first season of Last of the Summer Wine? I’m not the only one waiting for this. And whenever LotSW gets pre-empted in any way, it is just skipped over. You have to wait a year to see it again.

BTW, why do you scramble the episode order whenever you get close to the end of the series? What harm is there in airing them in episode order?

Thank you for so patiently answering viewer questions.

I’ll pass your concerns along to the programming department to see if there’s anything that can be done once tower maintenance has been completed.

Thanks, MiChelle. You are the soul of patience in this situation!

It would be awesome if you could pick up Last of the Summer Wine where it left off, or at the finale so fans can see it finale and start over with the pilot.

FYI, I am another member viewer who only knew there might be downtime because I always print the monthly schedule on the website (and I use the 24/7 schedule online a lot). I agree that it would have been helpful (and not sent viewers into a state of shock!) if announcements had been made on air as well as online and social media. Some of us just don’t have time or inclination to devote to monitoring blogs and websites for notices like this – even some of us who aren’t grumpy old Luddite curmudgeons. LotSW inspires us to stay young as we grow older!

I hope you’re back on the air soon and that the folks doing the work stay safe.

They say that HD signals don’t pixelate, but I use a high-power, multi-directional antenna to watch in Murfreesboro near campus and to watch in Nashville near Zanies. I get NPT, but then the hero is about to announce the killer and — squares and bars. Please tell me that the tower repairs will improve your broadcasting and my reception. Fingers crossed and holding my breath.

I love to watch last of the summer wine at night, I was wondering why you don’t have the show on the watch npt app or online? Thank You

Hi, Chip: We have broadcast-only rights for Last of the Summer Wine and thus cannot make it available for online viewing.

I don’t understand why NPT did not BROADCAST the impending interruption and instead posted the information elsewhere. I watch the television. I don’t look at blogs or newsletters, etc. Could have also done announcements on NPR. This was very poorly handled. I do appreciate the swift response I got when I emailed the station, but this was 100% avoidable.

Edited: Use this one.
We are almost half-way the estimated 10 days. Is there an update from engineering on completion? Next time, hire a Project Manager and fire s/he if the provided estimate to completion is within 10 days; that is not how work is performed in the business world.
Thanks.

Folks, lets lay off the attacks and conspiracy theory’s. This sittuation is costing them big money to make things better and more reliable for their viewers. I am sure they are working as quickly as possible. I work in broadcasting and I can back up everything they are saying. You cannot run a high powered transmitter while engineers are on the tower unless you want dead engineers on the ground and you work around THEIR schedule. MiCelle Jones, bless your heart and keep up the good work.

Hey, let’s put some HELPFUL info out there for DirectTV customers. You can catch a lot of these shows on Channel 22 (I think that’s Cookeville Public TV) while the NPT tower is out of commission. Because we can’t catch the re-airing a couple of days later since the tower is still down. Would have been good to know that a couple of days ago before the programs aired at 4:00 AM today. But whatever. Michelle Jones, please don’t feel the need to respond. We DO realize that you are overwhelmed with complaints. And that there are more important things in the world than television. Thanks.

Dear WNPT,
This station is just about the only one that I watch. Still very baffled about why you just didn’t announce it on the station? You spend a lot of time with your pledge drives (I am a contributor), you have very loyal supporters and I am sorry but it just seems strange that you all of a sudden without notice go off the air without Beth Curley coming on the air and instead of asking the loyal supports to give give give she could have taken the time to acknowledge their support and given them a heads up on the station’s need for tower repairs. After all I would imagine that we are the ones who helped the station to be able to repair it? No need to respond, it just seems strange and to be honest, kind of rude.

It is unfortunate, but temporary. So I understand. Looking forward to seeing it back on the air once all is complete.

Apologies: I am not an engineer, so rather than me translating, please call the station at 615-259-9325 and ask for Kevin Crane or Dale Baker if you’d like an engineering response.

I gather from viewing some the lineups more than likely it will be closer to10/28 when the tower will be back up.I’m a shut-in at the moment and I truly love my Last of the summer wine etc.But God Speed to the workers for their safety,THIS should be or true focus.
Thank you for your channel

Nice to see all of us missing our familiar shows. After checking my air antennas on 3 TV devices, I Googled NPT and found the cause.
NPT should feel great to see how much you are missed and wanted by your public. THANKS

To the person who loves to watch Last of the Summer Wine at night. if u have access to the Internet, there are plenty of LOTSW episodes on u tube. Hope this is helpful.

I thought my newly installed antenna was defective! I was on my roof for two days checking and rechecking my system. You don’t think of the ” unintended consequences”. I worked at channel 5 for 25 years and I can see the difference in responsibility to viewers. Your actions only verify to me that government operated means lack of accountability. I’ll factor this in when you ask me for a donation.
Have a nice day!

I understand the need to do maintenance on the towers. However, I would like to emphasize what previous commenters have stated. There should have been an announcement broadcasted on the channel. Many viewers do not have cable nor satellite tv and rely only on an antenna. Also, there are many age groups that do not follow social media or blogs but are regular audiences of NPT/PBS. Some of which do not even have internet access to go to PBS to stream shows. So while it is understandable that this has to happen to continue our viewing pleasures, please keep all of your demographics in mind next time.

We are hopeful that we’ll be back on the air by the, however as weather affects the work, we cannot be certain. Hamilton’s America will be available for online viewing as of Saturday morning and will also be broadcast a few more times in the overnight hours Saturday through Monday. Please consult our schedule at http://www.wnpt.org/schedule/

Although it is an inconvenience that the station is off the air and I strongly feel that some type of heads up notice that repairs were forthcoming should have been announced, we should cut WNPT some slack. There are a small number of specialized companies that do broadcast tower repairs and they stay solidly booked. It is dangerous work. Because the amount of power the transmitter produces, the transmitter must be turned off for the crews to do the repairs. Plus, the weather plays a part when a crew can work on a tower.

Know it was stated that we could watch online the episode of Poldark that was missed due to work on the tower, but that doesn’t help those of us who live in rural areas and do not have enough data with our internet service to do so. Will you rerun that episode once you are up and broadcasting again? A little advance notice of the tower work would have been helpful. We record most of our shows and watch when we have time, so we could have set up to record that episode on the Cookeville station.

I too, truly am at a loss without my favorite station. However, I am a maintenance technician at a local factory and realize that many times machinery can and does fail unexpectedly. (Usually at the most inopportune times.)

I would have hoped that my fellow NPT members would be more patient during this brief interruption, but think of it this way; if the programming weren’t so consistently intriguing, your viewers wouldn’t be quite so upset. So, BRAVO!!

Take the time you need to make the repairs and be safe in the process!!! We miss you terribly and look forward to the excellent programming we have come accustomed to.

Thank you!!

With Channel 2’s antenna so close to Channel 8, I wonder if they have temporarily reduced power to avoid sterilizing the tower workers.

I totally agree that whomever was responsible for giving an announcement to it’s viewers that service will be interrupted whenever transmitter repairs take place, was completely negligent.
Older viewers do not go to websites, blogs, and social media sites to see where their television programs are, they go to the TV……….
Management should be ashamed.

I hope that you aren’t off the air for too long. I am a Senior and cannot afford cable, so
I really look forward to NPT. How much longer do you think you will be off?

Well, thanks so much for letting viewers know that NPT will be off air!! We are members, and the least you could have done was notify us, or run an on air announcement. But, no, we had to find out when we turned on to watch our shows.
I don’t know if we will be renewing our pledge.
Shame on you!!

When will we get our Channel 8 back? It’s been a week today and I am so tired of not being able to watch it. Surely it should be corrected by now. And I agree that notification of this outage was not properly passed along to your viewers.

We look forward to the tower being fixed soon. My kiddos love PBS Kids. They’ve been on fall break for the last 2 weeks and we’ve been missing your educational TV. Thankfully, we have other outlets to view and play PBS Kids shows and games, but I love our antenna. Anywho, I hope everything is going smoothly!

We were looking forward to watching the HAMILTON program tonight (Thursday). Will we be able to watch it online after it airs? Thanks.

It has been over 10 days here. Is there a chance it might be on soon. Sorry for bugging but my daughter is just killing me over not having odd squad when she gets home from school LOL. : )
Thank you

Your daughter has excellent taste–Odd Squad is a fantastic show. We really hope to have it and all the other PBS Kids programs back on air soon. Have you explored the Odd Squad website? There are lots of activities that might keep your daughter entertained in the meantime.

WNPT has now been off for over a week. How much longer will this so called repair take? I agree with others that notice was certainly not given properly. My 90 year old mom is missing so many of her shows and she has no way to watch now. Very frustrating!

We are in the final stages of the maintenance and hope to be back on the air to all our viewers soon.

Fortunately, DISH subscribers in Clarksville (and, probably, elsewhere) can watch WCTE (channel 022), which does not offer channel 8’s full schedule, but does carry most worthwhile programs. Thanks to WNPT for giving me anoth reason not to support them.

You all could have sent an email to all donors. That is kind of a no brainer. Very disappointed in NPT. Have given for over thirty years. It is an important election season and the timing of this outage is terrible. Very disappointed.

Per this thread I should be able to watch the missed episodes of Indian Summers without paying for Passport. But I just tried and the website says I have to have Passport to watch Indian Summers.

Update: Just wanted you to know we are re-broadcasting Indian Summers Season 2, Episode 5 (originally aired Sunday, Oct. 16) on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 11 p.m.; Season 2, Episode 6 (originally aired Sunday, Oct. 23) will re-air Saturday, Nov. 5, at 11 p.m. More re-broadcast information is available at https://blogs.wnpt.org/mediaupdate/2016/10/23/we-are-back/.

Looks like Season 2 episodes are available on http://video.wnpt.org/ for two weeks after the broadcast premiere. For example, Season 2 Episode 5 (which first aired Oct. 16) is available till Oct. 30 without a Passport login.

I certainly hope you will be back on the air for tomorrow night’s “Hamilton.” I’ve been looking forward to that for weeks.

Regrettably, we will not be back on the air for all our viewers tonight. We will show Hamilton’s America again Thursday, Oct. 27, at 8 p.m. Here are other ways to watch the documentary.

I’m not buying the story of Maintenance.No TV station that I ever heard of has been off the air this long for “maintenabce”.I’m sure the station will never come clean with us.If they were they would have done it from the beginning.
You can rest asure they will be up and running for their next “give us money” drive.
Well guess whos NOT going to give them any money anymore…

It’s necessary and required maintenance. We would not inflict this upon our viewers–or ourselves–otherwise.

I have DISH and while I do not have the regular PBS station right now, I do also get the station out of Cookeville. The Hamilton special is airing on there tonight.

Unfortunately we will not be available over the air tonight. We will re-air Hamilton’s America 8 pm Thursday, Oct. 27. See here for online viewing options.

I so miss watching programs with kids, but repairs and safety are important, i want to so thank you making repairs to NPT so i can enjoy for years to come.

I am shocked – absolutely shocked – that NPT somehow managed to find time to do this work outside of pledge week! And, of course, I’m being very sarcastic. There are only two shows that I watch live on any channel … Nature and NOVA. Wednesday evening at 7 PM I discovered this issue. Not a happy camper.

Thanks, NPT … why couldn’t you do this work during beg-a-thon when nobody would care anyway?!? I’m reminded of the old joke about the man who died and, instead of being at the Pearly Gates, found himself in a room with another man and a TV on:

Man who died: Is this heaven or hell?
Other man: Well, all we have to do here is sit around and watch television.
Man who died: Maybe this is heaven then. What are you watching?
Other man: We have no choice – we only get one channel.
Man who died: One channel? This must be hell, then.
Other man: It’s PBS.
Man who died: Oh, PBS is great – maybe this is heaven after all.
Other man: It’s always pledge week…

Obviously can’t give you one since work on the tower is affected by weather. We’re hoping our OTA signal is back by midweek.

I can possibly provide an explanation as to how WKRN is still on the air. When the channel swap was made in the 1970s, part of WDCNs incentive package was new transmitter, new antenna and new antenna location; on the taller WNGE tower.

WKRN (formerly WNGE) built a new tower for their digital antenna. So now WKRN-DT was on the new tower by themselves and WNPT-DT was on the old tower that still held WKRN’s now unused analog antenna. There are two towers at that site.

You can copy & paste
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.0472365,-86.8301497,50m/data=!3m1!1e3
into your browser, zoom in if needed and click on the 3D button to see a semblance of the towers. Based on ground scaring and transmission line racks, the tower on the round pad appears to be the newer tower.

I have DISH tv service & have been able to watch some PBS shows on WCTE (channel 22) out of Cookeville,TN . Not all NPT shows are available tho. Better communication with viewers like an onair updated message screen would have been helpful! As they say “hind sight is 20/20”! Thank you!

We’re glad you’ve found a partial solution. (BTW, we don’t have control over the message displayed on DISH.)

“[S]ometime during the week of Oct. 24” does not work out to the original estimate of ‘five to seven days, depending on weather’ from the shutdown date of the 14th. Can you go into any details about what may have caused the delay? The weather has been very cooperative with the exception of Thursday Oct. 20, so there must have been some other complication that has extended the maintenance time.

I am displeased with this turn of events, but knowing what is causing the delay goes a long way toward alleviating some of my displeasure.

The crew missed more than Thursday due to windy conditions on one or two days, which is pushing the work beyond our original five-to seven-day and beyond our revised seven-to-10-day estimate.

There will be a post outlining rebroadcasts of programming when our signal is once again available to all. The Downton Abbey episodes will be shown again during a marathon over the Christmas holiday weekend when we’ll broadcast the series from Season 1 through the Season 6 finale.

Well thank goodness I finally know what’s wrong–I was raising cain with DirecTV and threatening not to pay a third of my next bill, since a third of my TV viewing is on NPT. I have discovered the Nightly Newshour on channel 22 out of Cookeville fortunately. But nothing takes the place of the BBC news. PLEASE hurry back. The CAPTACHA code is preventing my submitting.

Like all of you I’m extremely frustrated that the station has been down so long…by far it receives most of my TV time, and it’s tough being without it. However, I can’t help suspecting that at least some of you whining the loudest have never given NPT a dime of support. I particularly have to laugh at the conspiracy theories and snarky pledge week comments.

Sorry about all of the negative comments. We all miss NPT and are waiting eagerly for the return. We have been having some issues with our antenna but when we lost signal for channel 8 that was the last straw. We bought a new one and put it up yesterday and still no channel 8. I googled NPT and there was the announcement that you were down. I miss Brooks and Shield and their ability to agree and disagree without shouting at each other. If only our politicians could learn from them. I am sorry Michelle has been the one to respond to all the negative comments. My daughter worked in customer service once and she cried after many of her shifts. People did not understand she was just the messenger. Thank you channel 8 for being there all these years and putting smiles on the face of my children and grandchildren.

Thanks for such a positive message! We’re happy to be back on the air now–because putting smiles on faces is a wonderful thing!

We are so missing one of our favorites NPT shows “Indian Summers” We do not have the capabilities of watching through ROKU or Apple aps.

Please tell me that NPT will re-run these once the maintenance on the tower is fixed…

Clearly, somebody dropped the ball very badly when it came to notification of the viewers (and supporters) of NPT both before and during this maintenance episode. Please make a note as to what to do the next time scheduled interruptions of this magnitude are needed: it’s basic business continuity planning. It’s clear from many of the previous comments that at least a portion of the viewership will be reconsidering whether to make a pledge this year. And the number of comments here can only be a fraction of the total of those actually affected. It might go a long way toward smoothing relations with pledge time approaching if there were some *ON-AIR* explanations/apologies in the next few days – and repeated several times so people might have a chance of actually seeing such an announcement.

Ug; hope to have you back soon. Our chief engineer is contacting cable companies and will continue to do so tomorrow.

MiChelle,
Thanks for your attention, patience, and perseverance in addressing this issue! We look forward to having the network back!

So glad you are back. Each night I turn over to the station in hope that it is back. Did so late last night and was very happy too see you were.

It is well into November and I still can’t get NPT. I miss the wonderful shows on your station! I don’t have cable or satellite but was able to watch NPT with an antenna before. If there’s anything I need to do to get the station working again on my TV, please let me know. Thanks for any help you can give me.

We’re sorry to hear that, Barbara. Here are a few things to try. Check all your connections. Make sure your antenna is facing the direction of our tower in Brentwood. Finally, if you’ve rescanned in search of NPT, you may need to scan again in case we were off-air at the time of your previous attempt. If that doesn’t help, please call us at 615-259-9325 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

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