Alaska quake tv newsroom shaking11/10/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() News staff initially began shooting with their iPhones, putting that video on air. The station began its wall-to-wall coverage of the quake. “Once we were able to do that, we were able to get some newsroom people in there and start shooting,” he says. Kuhlmann and others used ropes to secure facades dangling from the newsroom ceiling. The next priority was the newsroom, followed closely by the production control room. With power restored, the next priority was to re-enter the building with people to operate master control to make sure the station was still on air and keep it that way, recalls Kuhlmann. “We worked all day cleaning up the facility,” says Kuhlman, “just working area by area, depending upon the critical nature and use of the space.” KTVA at first relocated its operations to Studio A before being told that the building was unsafe. However, maintaining its on-air presence was a major effort on the part of Kuhlmann and the KTVA staff. So it was important that we get the news out.” ![]() “Our community in Anchorage was really cut off and isolated with the roads and the bridges being closed down and a lot of areas without power. “The most important thing-outside of our own safety-was to get the news to the public,” says Kuhlmann. However, as time passed, pixelization and tiling began to show up in the station’s video, so Kuhlmann and his crew switched over to KATV’s backup dark fiber STL.ĭespite the quake and the damage, KTVA remained on the air uninterrupted. So, the station’s transmitter remained whole. Ditto for KTVA’s microwave link to its transmitter site 7 miles away in the middle of Anchorage. The station’s large studio on the first floor of the building appeared to be intact. ![]() Fire protection in the room was on a dry system, so it did not suffer any flooding. “Outside of that, everything is seismically braced in that room on an elevated floor, and it rode it out just fine,” he says. The station’s machine room was largely unaffected with the exception of holes punched in the walls by the ceiling-mounted HVAC system as it swayed back and forth during the quake. The building’s natural gas hookup remained intact, was inspected and determined to be safe, enabling the building to be heated. In all, the station replaced about 30 monitors.ĭespite the overall devastation, there were a few bright spots. “As good as drywall anchors are, they don’t survive earthquakes, and all of those screens came down,” says Kuhlmann. Most of the damage to equipment was confined to computer and TV monitors mounted to the walls and thrown off. Regardless of the dents and dings to other cameras and equipment, the station’s technology largely survived and “operated just fine,” he says. “That’s heartbreaking to see such expensive equipment just thrown on the floor,” says Kuhlmann. The quake also toppled two robotic cameras in KTVA’s second floor studio and damaged a teleprompter screen. Newsroom set pieces and supportive facades also gave way and dangled from the ceiling. Soon, the constant soaking from the broken sprinkler heads began to disintegrate the tiles. In the newsroom, the tiles lay scattered atop broken glass strewn about from shattered edit bay doors and walls. In the production control room, the entire ceiling-tiles, supporting grid work and track lights-landed on top of countertops, the production switcher and other equipment. Fortunately for KTVA, most of its operations were located on the second story of the building, so water didn’t accumulate and began to find its way down to the first floor, preventing an even bigger disaster.įallen ceiling tiles were everywhere. The newsroom, common hallways and other areas were drenched as water flowed down from overhead. So, in that period of time there was a lot of flooding,” says Kuhlmann. “Sprinkler heads were broken all over the place, and it took between four and five hours to get them shut off. The quake had tripped the main breaker, and resetting it was quick work.ĭealing with the water from the sprinkler heads that broke proved to be a bigger challenge, however. Once it was clear no one was hurt, Kuhlmann re-entered the building. While there were few station personnel in the building when the quake struck, some 20 to 30 people-mostly employees of other tenants-made their way outside, says Kuhlmann. And we still had a TV station to run.”Īt the time of the earthquake, KTVA shared a 1980s era building in the northeast part of Anchorage with several other businesses, including its parent company GCI. “We got everybody outside, and we waited for somebody to do something or give an all clear,” says Kuhlmann, “but I knew that was not going to come. But despite the quake’s severity no one was injured at the station. KTVA, the CBS affiliate serving Anchorage, Sitka, Juneau and Ketchikan as well as a number of cable systems throughout the region, just happened to be located in a part of Anchorage that took severe damage. ![]()
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