TELEVISION Storm hits transmitters; CNN loses power, sound

Other Turner networks were also affected by the lightning.
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
It's a conservative's dream -- CNN goes silent.
CNN lost 14 minutes of audio Monday when "extreme weather" wreaked havoc on the network's Atlanta area transmitters, a CNN rep confirms.
At 1:06 p.m., "The Arab Pulse," a taped town meeting moderated by CNN's Jim Clancy out of Debai, United Arab Emirates, lost sound when lightning scored a "direct hit" on a Turner Broadcasting transmitter.
Also affected were Turner networks CNN International, CNN Headline News, TCM Digital, Cartoon Network, TNT West, TNT-HD, Boomerang, TBS-West and Turner South.
During the sound-out, a "crawl" ran across the bottom of the screen, saying that CNN was experiencing "technical difficulties." Commercials were silent, too.
By 1:10 p.m., audio was restored to all the networks except CNN. It had "audio issues that took longer to recover" and didn't get its sound back until 1:20 p.m., said Turner rep Shirley Powell.
An omen?
"It's just an omen for the Atlanta summer," said Powell, a Los Angeles transplant. "We have severe thunderstorms from April to September. This is what we do every day."
The hour-long "Arab Pulse," shot last week in front of a studio audience, was to be reshown in its entirety at 4 a.m. Tuesday.
In addition, the lightning set off the fire-suppression system at Turner's Techwood facility in midtown Atlanta, causing the staffers to evacuate the building for 15 minutes, Powell said.
It houses offices for all Turner entertainment networks as well as a studio. CNN is in downtown Atlanta.