Porn movie interrupts morning news broadcast at Hamilton TV

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Porn movie interrupts morning news broadcast at Hamilton TV station
Allison Cross Apr 20, 2012 – 11:52 AM ET | Last Updated: Apr 20, 2012 2:54 PM ET
http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/04/20 ... v-station/


Viewers watching a TV station in Hamilton, Ont., Friday morning noticed the newscasters onscreen were wearing less clothing than normal.

At 9:30 a.m., the CHCH broadcast was replaced with a few minutes of hardcore gay pornography instead of the news, prompting outrage from many viewers and a slew of apologies from the station.

“It felt like an eternity but I think it was on there for about a minute,” said Mike Katrycz, the vice-president of news at CHCH.

“We discovered through quick investigation that it was not (our station), it was one of the cable companies that had patched it. There was nothing wrong with the transmission from (us) … it was a problem at one of the cable companies that was beyond our control.”

Viewers were predictably disturbed, Mr. Katrycz said. It was the first time in his 30 years in the industry that this has happened, he said.

“Of course, we know there are kids out there, there are people who don’t want this in their homes and would never invite this in our homes,” he said.

The gaffe quickly prompted a flood of shocked responses on Twitter. Soon, the hashtag #CHCH was trending in Canada on the social media site.

“Someone hacked CHCH news to play gay porn … And every TV in the gym and (S)tarbucks was set to it,” one person tweeted.

Mark-Alan Whittle @markalanwhittle

CHCH airs gay pornography, flooded with viewers calls, surreal, hopefully someone had the PVR on record. #HamOnt #Porn
20 Apr 12


Susie Braithwaite @S_Braithwaite1

Nothin' like a little gay porn first thing in the morning on CHCH #HamOnt #OMG
20 Apr 12


Alex Kitt @Alex_Ithymic

Someone hacked CHCH news to play gay porn... And every TV in the gym and starbucks was set to it...
20 Apr 12


David M ϟ @daveeech

CHCH airs gay porn for 3 min & it trends. What have we learned? Gay Porn is way better than any of the regular station programming. #hamont


The station later apologized to viewers on the air and posted an apology online. It plans to conduct a full investigation.

Someone at one of the local cable companies had inadvertently switched the CHCH feed over to a more explicit channel, which is what Katrycz saw in his office.

The splicing error was fixed, but not until after the damage had been done. Subscribers to Cogeco and Shaw cable were exposed to the pornographic clip, but viewers watching the over-the-air broadcast weren’t affected.

“We have been doing a lot of apologizing this morning,” Katrycz said.