Lightning strikes Colorado TV station

DENVER, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- A direct lightning strike at a TV station on Colorado's Lookout Mountain temporarily knocked out coverage of a Denver Broncos game, a station manager says.

Dennis Leonard, the general manager of the Fox 31 TV station at Lookout Mountain, said coverage of the Broncos' football game Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was disrupted during a area storm, the Rocky Mountain News said Monday.

"We took a direct hit," Leonard said. "It knocked out both our analog and digital transmitters."

Leonard said the strike knocked out coverage of the game for nearly an hour and prompted at least 100 calls from upset viewers wanting to catch the NFL contest.

But Leonard told the News that most callers calmed down once he explained the unfortunate situation at the station.

"Once people understood it was out of our control, they were so incredibly polite," he said.