WPCNR MEDIA AGE. By John F. Bailey. August 18, 2008: The White Plains Cable Commission will take up the matter of a overhauling the control room of the White Plains Public Access system at its September 30 meeting, WPCNR has learned. Executive director Jim Kenney said the system had become “too fragile due to the increased number of connections over the years.”

The latest such disruption in Channel 76 cable casting occurred Friday evening when there was no audio for any of the shows cablecast that evening. White Plains Week the timely news roundup show will be specially cablecast on Channel 76 today at 4 P.M. and in its regular slot at 7 P.M. It can also be seen at 11:30 P.M. this evening. And  you can wake up with White Plains Week at 7:30 A.M. Tuesday morning. Other possible make goods for other shows without audio have not been scheduled as yet.

There has been disagreement among the members of the commission as to whether the aging system, installed in 1992, augmented and built up over the years as the station has expanded. Two Commission members, Mary Ann Keenan and Milagros Lecuona have recently called for a consultant to come in and analyze what needs to be done to eliminate the periodic disruptions in cable telecast quality in the Government Access Channel 75 and Channel 76 that have resulted in audio loss, poor picture quality on a sporadic basis not only the public access outlet 76, but also affecting the live telecasts of Common Council meetings. One council meeting was not televised at all this past spring due to a breakdown.

Jim Kenney, the Executive Director of the “White Plains Network,” Channel 75, Channel 76 (“The Spirit of 76”) and the education channel 77, attributed the periodic interruptions to the age of the system that has made it more susceptible to glitches over the years. “The whole Verizon conversion has made it more complicated, but the problems first surfaced with the Cablevision modulater problem (in 2007)."

Kenney said, “The system needs a complete overhaul.” He said, in order to execute a redesign of the system, “rebuilding from the ground up,“ the cable operation would have to shut down for a week or more. He also noted that he hoped to have an estimate of the cost of upgrading the system by the September 30 meeting.

He attributed Friday’s audio outage to “something coming loose, and we have no idea what it was.”