“What is wrong with my TV set!?”

SABC viewers expressed their “shock” and “confusion” this morning when popular morning lifestyle, news and current affairs daily, Expresso failed to go on air at the usual 06h00.

“Did Bob the dog chew the wires?” wondered some viewers via social media (as captured by News 24), while one, clearly near panic, noted:

What is wrong with my TV set? I can’t watch Expresso because it is not broadcasting!

The cacophony of confusion mounted, “Where ARE you guys?”, “Are you guys running late today!” and even,

By the time the show comes back on I’ll be at work. What a way to start my day. I feel incomplete…

Apparently, a technical glitch forced the programme to begin its broadcast half an hour later than usual. Viewers were treated to a selection of sombre dirges from the SABC’s music catalogue in the interim.

Later, after the SABC got its act together and served frantic viewers a fresh shot of Expresso (sigh, really? –Ed) the programme producer, Paul Van Deventer, released an apologetic statement explaining the incidents of that morning:

Expresso got off to a late start this morning – and not because the presenters overslept – but rather due to a technical gremlin creeping in. 10 minutes before Expresso was due to go live, the final control room had not yet received sound due to a technical error, which meant the show was only able to go live at 06:26.

While this has never happened before, this is live TV and issues can occur from time to time. Our apologies to our loyal viewers – we hope the rest of the show made up for the delay… To add a bit of humour to the situation, when the show did go live it started with the presenters in the bed on set pretending they had overslept.

Fair enough, it’s live TV, and I guess shit happens.

Then again, starting the morning feeling complete is important, and, take it from me, there is another way to get all the news and current affairs skinny you need each day, and not fall foul of that cash-strapped Hindenburg, the SABC.

Why not give South Africa’s most popular online radio station with deskbound listeners a try? It attracts over 50 000 listeners per hour during peak times, is available online, via your Android phone, iPhone and Blackberry, in your car, and you’ll even be able to get it in the air on Mango when they launch inflight Wifi. No need to sit and wait for your morning news and entertainment to come to you (technical glitches dependent, it seems), now you can take all the news, current affairs, sports and lifestyle vibe you need with you wherever you go.

2ov.fm. Check it out.

[Source: Channel 24, WordPress, Expresso Show]