Network Switching

At another time, the big excitement of the factory was that they had just installed a huge new computer for one of the major television networks. It was going to take over the job of switching between the network and the local stations. Now that I think about it, I realize how archaic that sounds -- a time when all TV programs were broadcast, not on cable, and they were virtually all offered by one of three major networks

The evening they switchover was scheduled, Don and I watched the show on that network leading up to the moment of the change. When the show finished at 10:00 p.m., in that brief pause between "The End" and the commercial, we heard a man's voice say, "'Balls', said the queen. 'If I had two, then I'd be king.'"

Don and I stared at each other with our jaws dropping open. Apparently, a technician at one of the switching points didn't know he was on the air.