By Laura Young
Managing Editor

In the words of Tim Bass, 40/29 program director, "We don't know what happened."  It's been a week since 40/29 lost its broadcasting abilities in this area, and Bass said he is still not sure when the equipment will be up and running again.

Bass stated that at midnight on June 12 when the conversion went into affect all the equipment was working.  "Then at 10 p.m. on Saturday during the news everything just quit working," Bass said. "We had a total collapse of our system. The transmitter on top of Cavanal Hill simply blew. It had nothing to do with the weather, as some thought, and it has nothing to do with the digital conversion. We had been transmitting digitally from that transmitter for the last 7 years. It's just a fluke that this happened when it did."

 

"Yes, I've had better weeks," Bass stated. "We purchased a $35,000 piece of equipment to fix the problem. It turned out that was not the problem. We have flown engineers in from all over the US and they can't figure out what's wrong. We even have the manufacturer of the transmitter here and he can't tell us what's wrong. Our engineers have tried everything. It's a week later and we're still in the diagnostic stage. This may require a new transmitter to be built."

 

Bass said he is not sure when the problem will be fixed but the station is putting in a smaller transmitter this weekend in hopes that some viewers in the area will be able to watch.  "This is a temporary fix," Bass said. "It's a very small transmitter compared to what was up there and only those in the immediate Poteau area will be able to view us over the air. We don't know about the Suddenlink customers or those with Dish or DirectTV. They may be able to get us. We just don't know." Bass emphasized that fact that anyone with the new digital converters should not be concerned about their equipment.

 

"It's our equipment that failed," Bass said. "When we get the problem fixed if you were able to get us before, you'll be able to get us again - we're just not sure when that will be for everyone." He added that the problem only affected the KHBS station in Fort Smith, Ark. KHOG in northwest Arkansas  was not affected.