The Lakeshore PBS broadcast transmitter suffered an extreme power surge during a lightning storm rendering the transmitter unrepairable. This resulted in Lakeshore PBS being off the air for all viewers who view this station via antenna and to all television service providers with the exception of Comcast due to their fiber infrastructure. This outage impacted approximately 40% of the 3.4 million households we serve.
As a result, membership contributions dropped off significantly. Lakeshore PBS is enormously grateful to those donors who stuck by the station, and all those that have contributed to this station over our 30 year history. It was through their generous support that Lakeshore was able to have the funds in reserves to cover the initial costs of repair, but the huge outlay of funds has created concerns as we move forward. The total overall expected loss of revenue is approximately $719,450. This includes cost of repairs, equipment and membership contributions. Insurance will cover some of this total, however at this time we can only anticipate less than half the total amount.
To be fully transparent, the following are the out of pocket costs to the repair and a timeline of the chain of events relating to the loss of service;
The initial loss of service took place on Monday July 16 at approximately 1pm and returned to operation on the lower power loaner transmitter with the completion of the tower work on Monday October 1 at approximately 6pm. This work allowed us to return to broadcast operations at low power, which allowed us to broadcast our signal over-the-air and to reach the head-ends of Dish Network, DirecTV, AT&T, and Metronet.
- Transmitter replacement / installation – $268,224
- Engineering services and materials – $6,182
- Initial tower climb / repair (1 Day) – $5,040
- Old transmitter removal – – $5,280
- Transmitter tuning and system sweep – $6,250
- Electrical installation – $15,910
- Architectural and engineering drawings – $2,485
The station went off the air again on November 27 with ice in the tower cable causing disruption of service. Additional costs incurred to repair the damage at the top of the transmitter are projected as follows:
- Second tower climb / inspection repair – $72,000
- Transmission line materials – $12,180
- Engineering services and materials – $6,035
This work allowed us to return to broadcast operations at low power, which allowed us to broadcast our signal over-the-air and to reach the head-ends of Dish Network, AT&T, and Metronet on March 27th. While we are hitting the DirecTV head-end, they are denying carriage as it is below their acceptable signal strength for carriage.
The total of the above numbers, $356,380, represents out of pocket costs to return to full operation.
The above does not take in to account loss of revenue and loss of viewers from our extended outage which is estimated as follows:
Estimated lost revenue from donations July 16, 2018 through Oct 1, 2018
- Three year average (same period FY’s 15/16/17) $188,165
- Actual donations FY18 $70,736
Loss of $117,429
Estimated lost revenue from donations Nov 27, 2018 through March 27, 2019
- Three year average (same period FY’s 16/16/17) $392,000
- Actual donations FY19 $146,436
Loss of $245,600
Total estimated donations lost $363,000