What You Don't See Makes Me Awesome

You know... I can't call myself a "Television God", and not show you some proof. Time for talk is over. Here... Let me show you something...
What you're going to see is a local break that is scheduled during "CBS NEWS Up to the Minute". This, of course, is licensed to them, and should they want to sue me, all I can say is that I don't have any money. Each hour of the 2 hour program has 2 local breaks, and an alternate, should you need to use it. They occur at 25:00 and 55:00 (2:25. 2:55, 3:25, 3:55.) I talk about PSA swaps and Promo Swaps in a previous post called, "Back To The Grind" Check it out!
I wanted to show you one, so you could really see what it looks like. I could explain it for an hour, and you still may not get it. This break, because I know when it's scheduled, is given a clock time, so it runs automatically. I actually dial this "in" time back by 15 frames (half a second), so I don't catch the beginning of the PSA and look sloppy. Will it clip what I'm leaving? Maybe, but that will look way better than the other way.
Check it out! The bottom screens are CBS Network. You will see that they go from programming to PSA, and back. The top screens are our local break. We play a paid spot, then some PSAs and a promo for our news. When we go back to news, the switcher takes network, while the local spots stop, and cue the next element.
Sorry about the shaky hands, as I drink lots of coffee. And that high pitched hiss?? That's the motors for all the equipment, as well as the A/C in our small temporary space. (See... "A Change is Gonna Come")

So... Why would they do this? It's odd to put commercials over commercials. Why do they do that?
They do this so that, even if you don't have advertisers for the program, you can still run great CBS programming. Some stations may find it hard to sell advertising time at 2:25 in the morning. This helps them maintain programming. The days of stations going to color bars in the overnight are gone. All CBS Morning News, as well as the late shows, do this. "CBS This Morning" actually has alternate programming during some breaks. Each hour does have required end breaks, that a station must fill, as network goes to black.
Hopefully this explains it better than my words. If you have any questions, never hesitate to ask me. I love talking about my job.
Sometimes these swap breaks come unannounced, or with very little warning. A 5 second bumper is a wonderful thing.
I hope I don't get in trouble with my boss, for posting videos of all our "Secrets of TV", or for posting all sorts of copyright infringement. Make sure you check out our great local advertisers!