• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

COVID-19 Impacts Nexstar Newsroom

RadioPatrol said:
https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2020/3/2/exclusive-coronavirus-impacts-seattle-newsroom


Apparently the GM of KCPQ had to announce that the family member of one of their staff members worked in an area where COVID-19 was reported in Washington State.

Note at some point there will be way more newsrooms across the country that will have to make the same announcement that KCPQ GM and ND are saying here.
Click to expand...




https://www.npr.org/sections/health...-s-new-cases-reported-in-florida-and-new-york


Update now 6 people are reported dead by COVID-19 in Washington State.
 
https://www.robertfeder.com/2020/03/03/four-abc-7-employees-sidelined-coronavirus-concerns/

Now there is a report that Disney has sidelined ABC7 Chicago staff members over COVID-19 concerns.


Four employees of WLS-Channel 7 were kept away from work Tuesday out of concern they may have been exposed to the coronavirus, officials of the ABC-owned station confirmed.

The action was taken “out of an abundance of caution,” the station said, after an ABC 7 reporter and photographer interviewed a food service worker Monday at Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights where a coronavirus patient was being treated.

A second photographer who shook hands with the first one (during a shift change in the news van) was told not to come to work. The wife of the first photographer, who also is employed at the station, was offered the opportunity to stay home with their family and chose to do so.

All four employees were awaiting the results of COVID-19 tests on the food service worker before they are expected to come back. ABC 7 would not confirm the names of the four, citing confidentiality.
Click to expand...
 
https://deadline.com/2020/03/corona...-positive-susan-zirinsky-new-york-1202880034/

Update now CBS News staffers have been affected by COVID-19 fears. Some are reportedly test positive.

With a number of members of the media in America and around the globe already sequestered due to growing coronavirus fears, CBS News today saw two of its own team test positive.

In a memo sent to staff in the last hour, CBS News President Susan Zirinsky made the announcement. The network new boss also told NYC employees to “work remotely for the next two days while the buildings are cleaned and disinfected.” (Read the full memo below)

This does not affect the fabled Black Rock corporate offices in Manhattan, sources tell me. However, that is probably not much comfort to the people who work in the now emptying out of the buildings at 57th Street.
Click to expand...
 
What happens if a county-wide or statewide mandatory quarantine (i.e. Italy) is issued? Would television newscasts be forced off the air and into quarantine (and all news replaced with syndicated shows/infomercials), or are they exempt to provide important information for health & safety, whether through a sealed-off location or from the studio? Living 100 miles from Seattle, I worry about the news teams at all the Seattle stations. We have people like Steve Raible, who albeit retiring in May, are over 60 years old and in the high-risk age for COVID19. I couldn't imagine my news personalities that I trust being off the air and isolated in their homes for 14 days, but they are *people* just like everyone else.
 
crainbebo said:
What happens if a county-wide or statewide mandatory quarantine (i.e. Italy) is issued? Would television newscasts be forced off the air and into quarantine (and all news replaced with syndicated shows/infomercials), or are they exempt to provide important information for health & safety, whether through a sealed-off location or from the studio? Living 100 miles from Seattle, I worry about the news teams at all the Seattle stations. We have people like Steve Raible, who albeit retiring in May, are over 60 years old and in the high-risk age for COVID19. I couldn't imagine my news personalities that I trust being off the air and isolated in their homes for 14 days, but they are *people* just like everyone else.
Click to expand...



And the crazy part is that Local News Staff all over the USA has been dealing with the same issue such as going to the hospital because the CDC and state officials had announced that there was a COVID-19 positive test at that location. Also especially in Seattle they had to report on deaths which were the highest in the nation at the time at one of the hospitals in the Seattle area where the majority of the patients were immune compromised or senior citizens.
 
crainbebo said:
What happens if a county-wide or statewide mandatory quarantine (i.e. Italy) is issued? Would television newscasts be forced off the air and into quarantine (and all news replaced with syndicated shows/infomercials), or are they exempt to provide important information for health & safety, whether through a sealed-off location or from the studio? Living 100 miles from Seattle, I worry about the news teams at all the Seattle stations. We have people like Steve Raible, who albeit retiring in May, are over 60 years old and in the high-risk age for COVID19. I couldn't imagine my news personalities that I trust being off the air and isolated in their homes for 14 days, but they are *people* just like everyone else.
Click to expand...

Okay first: Contracting COVID19 isn't a death sentence for anyone over 60. People with compromised immune systems, including elderly population, are more at risk due to the higher instances of pneumonia forming. That's why if you paid attention to your local news in Washington State, you would see all the deaths so far have been residents from one or more nursing homes.

The well-known news organization I work for, has already developed the staffing plans and ability to run our production control facilities remotely if required. The shows may lack some effects and typical sizzle, but we'll get news on the air.

I'm confident the Seattle stations are working on similar plans, because this is a time when viewers will be relying on timely and accurate news reports. No station that I could imagine, would let this opportunity pass them by.
 
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/n...-be-more-low-fi-now-but-staying-story-1286808

News-side executives from NBC, ABC and CBS talk about how they've kept shows on the air using fewer camera angles, or robotic cameras, and staffers using iPhones and Zoom calls.
Whatever happens, no matter how bad things get, the major three broadcast news networks in the United States will not go off the air.

"We will stay on the air. This is our foremost goal," says Wendy Fisher, vp newsgathering, at ABC News.

"We're going to do whatever is necessary to stay on the air, because we believe that we provide such a valuable service," says Kim Godwin, executive vp news, at CBS News. "If we have to do it from someone's living room, we will."
Click to expand...


Here is more.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom