In Tulsa on Sunday (4/5), the studios of a TV station owned by Griffin Communications reopened, after their closure in response to a positive COVID-19 test by an employee.
Meanwhile, in Pensacola, Fla., a Sinclair Broadcast Group TV station suspended production in its newsroom “for the next several days.”
Two employees at the station tested positive for the coronavirus.
Such is the new emergency facing local television stations across the U.S.
Operations are now back to “normal,” in a coronavirus physical distancing world, at KOTV-6 in Tulsa, with News on 6 originating once again from its broadcast center on Sunday at 5:30pm Central.
Anchor Chinh Doan explained that one of Oklahoma’s newest COVID-19 cases involved a co-worker. As such, the KOTV newsroom and the entire building in which it is housed were closed Saturday for cleaning. “Our co-worker is at home and feeling well,” Doan said to viewers on Sunday.
Griffin’s co-owned KWTV-9 in Oklahoma City produced KOTV’s newscasts on Saturday.
While KOTV is back in its newsroom, those producing news on Florida’s Panhandle for Sinclair-owned WEAR-3, an ABC affiliate, are unable to do so.
As such, WPMI-15 in Mobile, Sinclair’s NBC affiliate just west of Pensacola, is producing WEAR’s newscasts, as of Sunday (4/5). WEAR morning anchor Jared Willets was seen broadcasting from outside of the station’s building.
“Our building is closed, despite our best efforts in following protocol,” Willets explained as viewers tuned to WPMI and WEAR saw the same newscast. “COVID-19 has entered the building.”
Willets thanked the WPMI team for pitching in, noting, “Doing this on such short notice is not as easy as you might think.”
As WPMI’s news producers raced to accommodate WEAR, Sue Straughn — the Senior News Anchor who helms the 5pm and 6pm newscasts and has been a part of WEAR since 1973 — was seen Sunday afternoon delivering the news from a stand-up location with the WEAR building far behind her.
“We will still be bringing you all of your local news,” Straughn promised.
WEAR does not expect to return to its building until Thursday (4/9)
