Ailing Satellite Creates A Failure To Communicate Pagers Quiet, TV And Radio Feeds Lost After Mishap

The “bird” engineering lingo for telecommunications satellites had fallen.

And Dick Kunkel had about 30 minutes to figure out where his National Public Radio programming would come from.

“It was hell,” said Kunkel, general manager and president of KPBX 91.1 FM, Spokane’s public radio station.

The $250 million Galaxy IV satellite operated by PanAmSat - one of about 50 telecommunications satellites surrounding Earth - was the root of the trouble. It shut down Tuesday afternoon with problems that engineers have yet to explain or fix.

As a result of the shutdown about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, pagers around the country were mum, some television and radio feeds were lost and even some elevator music was shut down.

OK, so it wasn’t all bad.

The problems caused plenty of consternation for an estimated 90 percent of the 42 million pager customers around the country.

In Spokane, it wasn’t quite as dire.

All five area hospitals use in-house paging systems with land-based local transmitters, plus land-based paging systems that are limited to much of Eastern Washington and North Idaho, said Denis O’Farrell, who manages telecommunications systems for the hospitals.

Spokane police and sheriff’s deputies had the same insulation against the satellite snafu, with independent land-based paging systems.

Attempts to reach nationwide paging companies on Wednesday were met with apologetic automated messages, busy signals and several stressed-out “no comments.” One company, SkyTel, said it had arranged for a backup satellite to serve its 1.3 million customers.

PanAmSat planned to move another satellite in Galaxy IV’s place by next Wednesday, so dish coordinates on earth would not have to be switched. Another satellite, Galaxy IIIR, was set up mid-day Wednesday to pick up the slack for the malfunctioning satellite.

While many in Spokane simply figured out other ways to contact people, the situation teetered on disaster for Kunkel. It was a problem for numerous NPR stations nationwide, including six in West Virginia that went off the air.

When the satellite transmissions went dead Tuesday afternoon, KPBX lost its feed for the afternoon business news program “Marketplace.” A pre-taped classical music program bought time until 4 p.m. when the regional news had to air, Kunkel said.

An Internet feed was used as a backup for the satellite, but its download speed couldn’t keep up with live audio.

The station then popped in prerecorded interviews for filler. After more than an hour - during which the station painstakingly downloaded by Internet - the decision was made to go back to an Internet feed of the popular show “All Things Considered” at 5:35 p.m.

To solve the problem, Kunkel turned to Ron Valley, director of engineering at KSPS-TV Channel 7. From the roof of the station on South Regal, Valley arranged for the station’s satellite to pull down the NPR signal. He then rigged it to a microwave beam and relayed the signal to the KPBX dish on Monroe Street. It worked, but the quality suffered, Kunkel said.

To get clearer sound, Channel 7 arranged for the radio station to get a more direct feed through a second audio channel from the TV station. This morning’s news came across smooth, Kunkel said. The PBS TV station agreed to help until the satellite is repaired.

The re-route cost is being paid for by National Public Radio.

“Engineers like a challenge,” Valley said. “When (KPBX) called, I said give me two minutes and I’ll call you back. We were just really glad to help.”

Area TV stations generally had better backup plans. KREM-TV switched to an alternate satellite in a hectic 30 minutes and didn’t lose any news.

KHQ TV-6 lost its weather feed and 60 to 70 percent of its syndicated programming, including “Jeopardy,” “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jenny Jones.” The station typically uses six to 12 satellites a day, so it simply rerouted the feeds through other satellites without down time.

But live local news from vans, which must be scheduled a short time in advance, may be tougher to come by with the shrinking spectrum.

“Anytime a satellite disappears, everything else is that much more crowded,” said Jim Elder, KHQ engineering manager. “Everybody’s scrambling to find space in the sky.”