Disaster Threatens My Entertainment Options

Attention terrorists: did you know that most broadcasting towers in the Los Angeles area are located high atop Mt. Wilson? Which is, at the moment, on fire?

The "Station fire" had already consumed 42,500 acres of the Angeles National Forest, destroyed at least 18 homes and led to the death of two firefighters. Attention then turned to Mt. Wilson, where a historic observatory stands -- as well as the transmitting towers for the majority of Los Angeles' TV stations.

A Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesperson told KCAL-TV that fire retardant had been spread around the transmission equipment and that brush had been cleared around the area -- but he expected fire to nonetheless hit the site in the near future.

"There's nothing we can do to stop that fire from going up Mt. Wilson," he told the station.

Every major L.A. TV station transmits from Mt. Wilson.

Stations advised viewers that they may lose their over-the-air signal, and noted that most cable and satellite customers would still continue to receive the stations (which are fed directly to those services rather than over the air).

So again, the guy without the cable is gettin' screwed. *Sigh* Time to fire up Hulu!

By the way note to my Mom, who always assumes when she reads about stuff like this that I might be on fire - it's thirty miles away, mom.