WAPO:
Tim Qualls, executive producer at Channel 28, said in an interview the ad did not air because O’Donnell’s campaign did not bring a tape to the production studio by the agreed upon deadline. She reserved the time on Thursday, for $2,500, and agreed to bring a tape by Friday at 5 p.m., Qualls said.
“I did not receive a tape until Sunday night at one of my employees’ houses,” Qualls said. “It has nothing to do with us refusing to air it. I just didn’t get the tape by my deadline.”
What the tv guy said was not unreasonable. I’ve worked with Comcast. I know what they used to want, and if they still want what they used to. They make reference to an obscure media format known as “tape”. Unless there was someone at the campaign that knew that this “tape” format was required, they might’ve assumed that a digital file would suffice.
10 years ago, Comcast wanted Beta SP. I happened to be owed favors by a production house with a Beta SP deck, and they made the dubs for me that I would deliver to Comcast.
I have no idea what Comcast in Wilmington(?) wants, but unless they checked all that out beforehand, it’s possible that the Christine campaign did not know exactly how to give them a Beta SP dub quickly.