Bill Burr

COVID-19 Newsroom

News now.

As you probably noticed, it's not just here at fox 24 news now broadcasting from our homes, but our prime time newscast has had to make major changes.

We would like to welcome in bill burr, 6:30 and 10:00 news anchor for fox 24, and good to see you my friend.

>> good to see you too.

>> it looks quiet over there.

>> this is how we have been doing the news since this pandemic kicked into high gear, i guess the middle of march, late february, something like n i'm stand north newsroom right now, and typically on an average day, we would have 20, 25 people in here, and even 30 people sometimes.

But right now, it's just me and my colleague, caroline.

And i'll step out of the shot so you can take a look.

Thursday the newsroom.

And it's totally, totally empty.

Hi, caroline.

>> we love caroline here at fox 24 news now.

And caroline and i had a desk near one another at some point in time, but i know that newsroom well.

And typically, you see a lot of people come missing and out and photographers going into their edit bays, and a lot of activity and now its quiet.

So where are people, and how is this working?

Is it working well for you?

>> it's working as best as it can i think, lately a and basically everyone is working from home.

Our field reporters that you see during the newscast and our photographer, they're all working out in the field.

Occasionally, they will do some reports from their home.

But by and large, they're out in the field in their news car.

>> we have technology that allows us to work in remote locs and it's more intense than if we were to do satellite interviews with a lot of people.

But however, we're also seeing co-anchors, one at the studio and one at home.

Our co-anchors john lewis in the morning and -- they have been statement as well.

How many people are in the studio when you're there, bill?

>> there are two when i'm there at 6:30 and 10:00, it's going to be me and the production assist and that production assistant is making sure that the lights are turned on and the camera is aimed towards me and that person is also running the teleprompter, and again, i'm a solo anchor at 6:30 and 10:00, and like you said, in the morning show, one week, one will be home and the other will be in the tv station, and visa versa the following.

>> that's fair, and of course our w weather forecasters, the meteorologists, are they doing it from home?

>> dave and sonya are doing it from home.

Although we had the tornado outbreak, it's my understanding that dave williams did come into the tv station, and l.

We have the weekend meteorologists, they were both here.

On the air at that point, but they wanted to be here to have better access to the equipment and the radar.

They are working from home and have access to almost everything.

But in terms of times of dire weather crises like we had during the tornado outbreak, we had to have somebody come in.

>> to ask caroline this question, but is she wearing a mask when they go out into the world to stay safe?

>> our crews are staying safe, and i don't know if they're wearing masks, in case we want to wear them.

And there might be certain circumstances where they're going to wear a mask.

I ordered one personally for me before they wore them, so i have it in case i have to have it, and we're just taking extra precautions.

We're doing more stories via skype and via zoom.

>> and you're doing such a great job of it, bill, and you're discovering the world and we're so appreciative that you're staying safe.

We'll check in with you at home with cookie and tinkerbell sends her love.

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