Well, we had a few seconds of panic on Good Morning Indiana.  I was reading a story when I noticed the monitor behind me… which was supposed to show video… was black.  When I finished the story, I noticed the prompter was blank, as well.  The story Dan was supposed to read wasn’t there.  Paul just walked up to the set and we decided to talk about the weather.  Our producer then told us, via our earpieces, that we had lost everything.  Dan looked down at our anchor desk computer and noticed that the rundown was blank.  I just gave Paul my signature wide-eyed… “let’s just keep going” look and Paul launched into the forecast.

Everything we do is now computerized.  The rundown outlines what’s coming up next and includes scripts and video information.  If it is blank, our computer is blank… and Dan and I are left with blank looks on our faces.  The problem was quickly found.  One of our producers was trying to get the 7:22 news cut-in ready and accidentally erased the 6 a.m. rundown.  We quickly switched things back and the show went on as planned.

I guess it just shows how vulnerable we really are.  Even though we’re a news operation in a major city, one wrong knock on a button and we’re reduced to telling knock-knock jokes.