Saturday, March 24, 2001

By Eric B. Pilgrim
Stars and Stripes

It’s time to save daylight once again, time to enjoy the light longer into the evening and go to bed before the sun does.

But not everybody will experience this change at the same time.

Clocks in Europe and Russia will spring ahead on Sunday, although Russian clocks will jump forward two hours.

Most clocks in the United States stay put until April 1.

Clocks in Egypt won’t jump until April 27.

Israel decides when it will jump from year to year, April 6 this year.

Iceland won’t jump at all.

Among the effects Americans overseas will see from the time change is a shift in radio and television programming originating in the States.

Some shows will keep their programming locked on clocks in America. Others won’t.

Live shows on TV and radio won’t be affected, but not necessarily all taped shows.

For instance, Paul Harvey will tell the rest of the story one hour later for one week.

Then there is the problem of CNN Headline News.

When viewers normally catch the news at 10 p.m., they are watching the 4 p.m. version in New York.

All next week, viewers will still catch the news at 10 p.m. Central European Time, but it will be the 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time version of Headline News.

Viewers will miss the closing stock prices on Wall Street, which lately have been setting, not rising.

This is because the exchange closes at 4 p.m. EST each day — which for that one week will be 11 p.m. CET.

Confused?

Roger Williams from AFN-Europe attempted to explain.

"A lot of our evening radio shows will be skewed by an hour, such as Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura Schlessinger," Williams said.

"That’s because they come to us in real time, so there’s nothing we can do about that."

The prime-time evening shows on AFN-Europe won’t be affected, he said.

However, the Today show and live sporting events will.

For the Today show, Williams said AFN will air children’s programs from 1 to 2 p.m. to fill the gap when the program normally starts.

That will put the show into the 2 to 4 p.m. slot, with another hour of children’s programming following afterward.

All live sporting events, including the NCAA basketball tournament, will be shown as scheduled — they will just start one hour later than normal for European viewers.

If this didn’t clear things up, the confusion should only last for one week.

For detailed listings of the changes, visit the AFN-Europe Web site at: www.afneurope.army.mil.

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