Power Failure Causes Blackout During Channel 9 Laker Telecast

Channel 9 viewers and KLAC listeners were left in the dark by technical difficulties at the worst possible time during the Lakers’ double-overtime loss to the Utah Jazz on Monday night.

With six seconds left in regulation and the score tied 81-81, Utah’s John Stockton was falling out of bounds trying to call a timeout. At that exact moment, everything went blank.

Channel 9 was without a picture for about 12 minutes, from approximately 7:50 to 8:02 p.m., before picking up the local Jazz telecast with play-by-play announcer Hot Rod Hundley. Channel 9 got its own feed back a few minutes later. By that time, about three minutes remained in the second overtime.

TBS, which also was televising the game, did not lose its feed.

Pat McClenahan, Channel 9’s vice president in charge of sports, said the failure of a power panel at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City caused the blackout. He said usually audio can be retained via a phone line, but that also went dead. Viewers could hear the recording one hears when a phone is off the hook: “If you’d like to place a call, please hang up and try again.”

McClenahan said TBS was plugged into a different power source, but KLAC, when a game is simulcast, uses Channel 9’s production truck to transmit its signal.

Susan Stratton, the executive producer, told McClenahan, “I’ve never felt so helpless.”

Stratton could not be reached for comment after the game, but her husband Dick said, “She was very upset.”

Chick Hearn did not mention the technical difficulties until after the game, and the Channel 9 news provided only a couple of highlights of the game immediately afterward. Anchor Alan Massengale said the production staff did not have time to put together a complete highlight package.

What happened to Channel 9 is reminiscent of the “Heidi Bowl” in 1968, when NBC switched to the children’s movie “Heidi” and missed the final 1:05 of an Oakland Raider-New York Jets game--and the Raiders scored two touchdowns to win.