October 21, 2010

Tonight on Good Question, several viewers have noticed that the start of KAKE News At 6:00 sometimes cuts off Diane Sawyer and ABC World News before Diane has a chance to say goodbye.

Many have asked, why are we doing that? It’s a good question.

Everything we do in broadcasting is timed to the second. ABC tells us and all ABC affiliates, the outcue or end of World News is at 5:58:30, not around 5:58:30, but exactly at 5:58:30.

We trust that they will end at 5:58:30, so we set our “automatic start clock” to take control and roll our news open at 5:58:30.

But lately, ABC is going over 5:58:30. It’s a live newscast, so if it’s not 5:58:30, we don’t know when it’s going to end and they don’t call us to give us a heads up. When 5:58:30 hits, our news starts, even if Diane Sawyer hasn’t yet said goodnight.