KDVR “no power, no problem.” Photo by Bill Reddick
High winds causing a power outtage shortly before the 5 p.m. newscast didn’t stop Denver’s KDVR from producing a newscast Thursday evening. They went old-school, just short of candelabras on the anchor desk.
“Put the anchors in the newsroom!” news director Holly Gaunt told the staff as they hustled to improvise. At one point, they were prepared to do the whole show on Facebook. “It wasn’t pretty, but somehow we did manage to get on the air,” Hubbard reported later, in the 9 p.m. newscast.
It was no frills, but they got the job done. And the staff understandably broke into relieved applause afterward.
KDVR in the dark, “no power, no problem”
Taking to Twitter, anchor Jeremy Hubbard posted a photo with the tagline #newsoffthe grid. “Power? Who needs power?” he asked. Meteorologist Jennifer Broome posted a picture of herself holding a giant white board, a low-tech substitute for the usual digital graphics. “Vanna White of weather graphics during #newsoffthegrid 5p @KDVR,” she wrote. Photojournalist Ama Arthur-Asmah posted a video of the tech difficulties, with the note, “Brainstorming @KDVR in the dark 4 the 7p CW newscast. We have 2.5 more hours of newscasts today.”
When power was restored, Fox31 let viewers in on the scramble behind the scenes with pictures from the darkened newsroom and a promise that the power supply was undergoing repairs. The newsroom is supposed to stay out of the news, but this (short) story was a reasonable exception.
