A Chain of Error

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A Chain of Error

A common characteristic of many man-made calamities is a chain of human decisions, actions, or inactions that lead to the final disaster.   Each “link in the chain” is actually a missed opportunity for someone to stop the march towards disaster.

Take for example an ill-fated twin engine aircraft: 

(Link 1) The mechanic adds oil to the right engine, but fails to tighten the oil cap.

(Link 2) The pilot trusts the mechanic, and so neglects to make a proper preflight check.  Therefore the defect goes undetected.

(Link 3) Shortly after takeoff, oil spews from the engine causing engine failure.  The surprised and panicked pilot pulls the wrong control.  Rather than secure the stricken right engine, he has killed the perfectly good left engine rendering the plane powerless. 

The crash happens moments later.

Note that there were three opportunities to prevent this disaster; all three missed.

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Following a notorious on-air incident, WKRP-TV paid a huge fine and nearly lost it’s broadcasting license.  In detailing the cause of the incident, The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) investigation report used the term “a chain of error”.

(Link 1) Against his better judgement, Albert Loveland, the General Manager of WKRP-TV hires the buxom, pretty, but untalented Jenny Rich as a news personality.  This event is explained by the simple fact that Jenny’s father owns WKRP-TV.  Mr. Rich mollifies Mr. Loveland with a new video van.

(Link 2) Since the new video van requires a driver/camera operator, Jenny connives to have Titan Johnson hired.  She fails to mention that Titan is her boyfriend, so Mr. Loveland is unaware of this important detail.

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Even though he owns the station, Mr. Rich is unsuccessful in convincing his General Manager to assign major news stories to his daughter.  Her centerfold body, her pretty face, and her “come hither” smile combine to make her popular with male viewers, but she has a squeaky voice and tends to flub her lines. So Jenny, her van, and her driver/operator are relegated to traffic reports and minor “color” news stories. 

The fateful day started as normal:

Twenty minutes before the start of the afternoon news, Jenny and Titan park on a major highway overpass where Jenny will give a traffic report in each of the two segments of the afternoon news.  Titan raises the microwave dish and establishes a video link with the studio.  Due to inclement weather, Jenny must give her report from a chair in the rear of the van.  Titan has already set up the camera inside the van, so all is ready. 

As it turns out, the waiting will be longer than usual today, because a “breaking story” has pre-empted Jenny’s first traffic report.  Now there will be a 30-minute wait until the second news segment. 

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(Link 3)  Showing commendable caution, Titan throws a towel over the camera to keep it from transmitting the little games he and Jenny play in the privacy of the van when gifted with idle moments.  Jenny gets a cheap thrill from not wearing panties whilst on TV, so that’s one less barrier for Titan.  Titan need only raise Jenny’s skirt above her tiny waistline to access his favorite anatomical parts of his willing girlfriend.  Their little petting session quickly morphs into a “slap & tickle” session, which devolves into a fun spanking game.  The chair comes in handy.  All goes well until, unnoticed,  one of Jenny’s long flailing legs kicks the towel off the camera.

(Link 4) Properly concerned about signal loss due to the rain, the microwave operator back at the TV studio picks this moment to check the video from the van.  Naturally, he is delighted and captivated by the unexpected yet kinetic view of Jenny’s beautiful bare bottom, so he watches the show rather than killing the link as he should have done.  By remote control, he turns on the microphone so he can hear the action.

(Link 5) None of this would have been a problem, had not the video board operator been slightly  dyslexic.  Intending to run a 60-second political ad, which was to come from source “01",  he unfortunately keys in “10", the address of the new video van.  The TV viewers in the entire metropolitan area find themselves watching Titan spank Jenny’s shapely but rapidly-reddening bottom.  In Titan’s defense, most of the thousands of observers agree that it wasn’t really a serious spanking.  Jenny’s squeals were interspersed with laughter.  However, a few hundred killjoys  complain to the FCC.

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Although the video board operator’s mistake was corrected after a few seconds of bedlam in the studio, the genie was thoroughly out of the bottle.  Thousands had been recording the afternoon news for later viewing.  Within hours, that footage of Jenny’s fun spanking was a worldwide Internet viral hit.  Proving that there is no such thing as bad publicity, WKRP-TV’s ratings soared.  That happy result seemed to get them in even more trouble with the FCC.  After all, this was no simple “wardrobe malfunction”!

Naturally, the government bureaucrats had to be satisfied, so somebody had to be sacrificed.  Unfairly, it was the person who never wanted to hire Jenny in the first place.  Yes, Mr. Rich fired  Albert Loveland.

Obviously, this created a vacancy at WKRP-TV.  With gorgeous and popular Jenny newly installed as the news anchor, the station was so successful that an idiot could run it.  So in a bit of strange nepotistic logic, Mr, Rich felt confident in selecting his new son-in-law, Titan Johnson, as the station’s new General Manager.  Miraculously, Titan had finally found his slot in life.  Under his care, WKRP-TV thrived.

Titan’s first order of business was to soundproof his new office, where the young couple would sometimes disappear for hours at a time.  What happened inside the office was hardly a mystery however.  Like many things at WKRP-TV, that soundproofing was far from perfect.

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