March 3 (Bloomberg) -- A federal regulator today called for an investigation into why an Alabama television station lost its signal as the CBS News program ``60 Minutes'' aired a segment questioning the jailing of a former Democratic governor.

An equipment failure at WHNT in Huntsville caused the eight- minute outage during the Feb 24 broadcast of the almost 14-minute segment on Don Siegelman, said Pam Taylor, a spokeswoman for Local TV LLC, which owns WHNT and is in turn owned by investors led by the private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners.

``Was this an attempt to suppress information on the public airwaves, or was there really a technical problem?'' Michael Copps, a member of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's Democratic minority, said during an address at a Washington policy luncheon. ``The FCC needs to get to the bottom of this.''

Copps said he had asked FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, to begin an inquiry but hadn't heard back.

FCC spokeswoman Mary Diamond said the agency had no immediate comment.

Siegelman was convicted of bribery in a case whose handling has drawn criticism from Democrats and Republicans.

After fixing the technical problem that beset the 6 p.m. program, WHNT aired the entire segment at 10 p.m. that evening and again the next day at 6 p.m., said a statement from News Director Denise Vickers posted on the station's Web site.

To contact the reporter on this story: Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 3, 2008 17:17 EST