News returns for Las Vegas NBC affiliate, hit by global tech outage
Las Vegas’ NBC affiliate and its parent company were caught in a worldwide Microsoft outage overnight, resuming full operations by sunrise.
KSNV Channel 3 and sister station The CW Las Vegas dropped local programming about 10:25 p.m. Thursday. That’s when local news coverage halted on The CW. There was no 11 p.m. newscast. But the newscast returned at 4 a.m., with anchor Kim Wagner telling viewers about their ongoing problems.
The station’s technical snags seem just an indication of what has been reported overnight as a major tech crisis worldwide. A report on CNBC International TV posted on YouTube at 12:40 a.m. reported that confirmed U.S. cybersecurity company CrowdStrike has suffered a widespread outage after attempting a systems update, causing the crash.
The company told NBC the crisis was impacting businesses globally. Microsoft’s cloud services were among the services affected.
KSNV aired paid infomercials — repeating a LifeLock cyber protection system, ironically— in place of its late-night local programming.
KSNV General Manager Larry Strumwasser said at about midnight Thursday that engineers were working on the problems “even as we speak.”
No other Las Vegas affiliates reported tech issues overnight. Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns KSNV, also reported IT outages at KAME in Reno and KOMO in Seattle.
Domestic and international airlines were grounded for several hours, regardless of destination, among them U.S. carriers including Delta, United and American Airlines, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. International airlines Virgin Australia, Qantas and a half-dozen Indian airlines have also seen disruptions.
In Las Vegas, reports of technical interruptions at Station Casinos resorts Green Valley Ranch, Red Rock Resort, Durango Station and Boulder Station surfaced on social media. Officials were not immediately available to comment on the resorts’ IT status.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.
