I had to check to make sure this wasn't Monday. It's not. Like many of us, one of the first things I do when I get up in the morning is check my phone. I really don't know why, I rarely get messages and when I do it's from my provider wanting me to sign on for new features.
But this morning was different. I had 2 messages from our overnight announcer letting me know our main system for writing, editing, collating and reading newscasts had been down since last night. A panic call to our tech guru just after 4:00 a.m ensued. He tried to boot the system from his home, but couldn't. He then called the service we subscribe to, and was told it could be a while before things are up and running again. In the digital age, this would be nothing short of a disaster.
Fortunately, I'm "old school", and come from an age where we used printers and typewriters and read the news from hard-copy. In fact, almost 20 of the 30+ years I've been doing radio news has been 'analog', so I'm no stranger to "rip and read" newscasts. I don't like it, but I can at least still do it.
We're also lucky to have internet and e-mail services. I've been able to gather information from an emergency back-up system provided by the Canadian Press, and have been getting stories from one of our sister stations, which will tide me over until things are back to normal.
I guess this shows that while technology is great, a wonderful tool, and something I want back ASAP, I can also rely on good old fashioned experience.
TTFN
****UPDATE: Our system has been restored by our tech guru, and it's "business as usual" as of 8:30 a.m my time****
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