WLUK GM: Fox admits it goofed Satellite switching problems kept the Packers off the air for a few minutes Sunday By Ray Barrington News-Chronicle A few weeks ago, WLUK-TV Channel 11 general manager Jay Zollar was on the phone with football fans who were angry because the station had cut out of a Chicago Bears game with just two minutes to play to catch the start of a 3:15 p.m. Green Bay Packers game. It’s not his call; NFL TV contracts require all of a team’s game to be shown in its home market. So if Green Bay kicks off at 3:15, the station must be showing the Packers at 3:15. “I’ve had to deal with fans who wanted us to stay with the other game, and I’ve told them we will not miss the kickoff of a Packer game,” Zollar said Monday — the day after Fox 11 did just that. Fox 11 did not broadcast the start of the Packers game at San Diego Sunday. Not that it was the station’s fault. Zollar contacted Fox Sports in Los Angeles on Monday and was told problems in the network’s satellite switching center had affected not only Green Bay, but the entire state and other games as well, including Dallas and Washington. Of course, it didn’t help that Fox 11 finally got the Packers feed just in time to see the team kick a point after the game’s first touchdown — which it had missed. “Unbelievable,” said Zollar. “I’ve been at WLUK for five years and that hasn’t happened at any time.” Dan Bell of Fox Sports, contacted by Zollar, said “basically, it was a technical glitch. Our intentions were to have the Packer audience see the finish of the compelling game between the Rams and Seattle. We wanted to show as much (of that game) as we could. “We had a switching problem in Los Angeles. We really didn’t want Packer fans to miss a minute of their game and we won’t let that happen again.” Zollar said “pandemonium” at Fox Los Angeles led to the lack of a planned switch to the Packers game. “We take two different (satellite) feeds from Fox if there’s going to be long coverage of the first game,” Zollar said. “It ran as it was supposed to. We called Fox while it was going on ... to say you’re supposed to switch the satellite and it hasn’t been done.” It was reminiscent of a 1968 incident in which NBC dropped out of a game between the Jets and Raiders with a minute to go and the Jets apparently about to post a 32-29 victory. The network wanted to show the movie “Heidi,” which had been heavily promoted. The switch came just before the Raiders scored, recovered an onside kick and scored again, winning 43-32. To top off the night, the network ran a “crawl” with the final score on top of a key dramatic moment in the movie. Since then, networks have let games run over, delaying Sunday programming for up to an hour. The game was later voted one of the NFL’s “10 most memorable games” in an Internet poll. Not that Zollar needed the history lesson. He had been on the control board at WFRV early in his career when the station left a NASCAR race just before it finished to show a local movie. “When we went to a local break, people went ballistic. The phone rang and rang,” he said. He estimated he talked to “about 90” fans Monday about the Packers incident.