BG24 News, the student-run news source, is still on the air thanks to a little help from its friends at
WBGU-PBS.
The station lost crucial pieces of equipment when a water pipe burst Jan. 7 in West Hall, and inundated
its studio with water.
James Barnes, the technical support coordinator, said at first the damage didn’t look so severe. Cleanup
crews for instance did a good job cleaning the exterior of the video switcher. Then he opened it up for
further inspection he found water throughout. It’s just one of several pieces of equipment that was
damaged. The operation’s three cameras and an audio mixing board were also destroyed.
The station was able to move its four-day a week and one lab class newscasts to the PBS station.
At this point the insurance company and university are still discussing a settlement. Barnes said he
wasn’t sure when the station would be back in its West Hall studio.
Much of the equipment damaged has to be specially order.
Barnes said that whatever equipment that will be purchased will replace what was damaged and not be
upgraded.
The station will get a new studio in spring, 2016 when the renovation of South Hall as the new home for
media and communications is completed. While some of the new gear may have a use there. The new studios,
Barnes said, is be much more advanced. "The studio in there will be a fully digital studio,"
he said. To buy cameras to fit would be pointless since they wouldn’t work with the existing analog
equipment that wasn’t damaged.
Barnes said last week he couldn’t speculate on the cost of the damage or when the station’s production
will return to West Hall.
BG24 will continue with four newscasts a week, three live and one recorded. The shows are broadcast
Monday through Thursday on Time Warner Cable channel 5 at 5:30 p.m.