time question

abc   Tue Jan 23, 2007 6:25 am GMT
The movie is played at 9p/8c
What does that mean?
Guest   Tue Jan 23, 2007 6:33 am GMT
9 pacific time
8 central time
abc   Tue Jan 23, 2007 6:50 am GMT
But isn't the difference between pacific and central TWO hours and not one?
Guest   Tue Jan 23, 2007 1:06 pm GMT
Yes. The broadcast times have a difference of one hour, though.
Lazar   Tue Jan 23, 2007 10:43 pm GMT
<<But isn't the difference between pacific and central TWO hours and not one?>>

That's true; and furthermore, it goes in the opposite direction. 9 Pacific time is 6 Central time.

Here on the East Coast, when they announce the time that a show is going to be on, they'll give the Eastern time, and then the time for the adjacent time zone (Central). So they'll say that the show will be on, for example, "at 8, 7 Central", uttered as one smooth phrase.

So something like "9p/8c" strikes me as doubly odd, because it's not referring to adjacent time zones, and furthermore it doesn't describe the same absolute time. I really have no clue where you'd see something like "9p/8c".
Lazar   Tue Jan 23, 2007 10:46 pm GMT
Sorry, I absolutely spaced out there. I meant to say that 9 Pacific time is 11 Central time. Math has never been my forte. ;-)
PST   Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:05 am GMT
They always do it like that. I don't know why. They'll say such and such a show is at "nine eight central". Which means that it's at 9:00 here. Or "eleven ten central", which means it's at eleven here. I don't know why they don't list the adjacent time zone, which would be mountain time. But they never do... They always tell the pacific time and then the central time zone on all the stations here, and the central is always one hour behind.
abc   Wed Jan 24, 2007 8:28 am GMT
>>I really have no clue where you'd see something like "9p/8c".


"Troy
Saturday, January 27
9:00p/8:00c"

http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/us_framework.jsp?CNTRY=US
Uriel   Sat Jan 27, 2007 8:56 am GMT
It's because so few of us actually live in Mountain Time ... we get ignored all the time!

"Nine, eight Central" simply shows the bias of most newscasts or showtimes -- Eastern is considered the "standard". (That's where the bulk of the US population is centered, after all.) But it also implies that you can extrapolate the other times based on what's been given -- that if it's on at nine on the east coast, it will be on at eight in Kansas, seven in Montana, and six in Oregon -- it's being shown simultaneously across the country, as opposed to being deliberately delayed to make it show at the same hour in each time zone.