After being displaced from its station in New Orleans Sunday before the hurricane, the WWL news crew that operates channel four in New Orleans trekked seven hours out of the city and into the TigerTV studios in Hodges Hall.
Upon its arrival early Monday morning, WWL immediately started broadcasting from the Student Media studios. Satellite trucks and field reporters scattered in front of University buildings.
The first floor of Hodges became a center of information as producers raced through the control room receiving video feed and phone calls from people closer to the storm.
The floors were lined in unread Daily Reveilles and an engineer’s large, wet, furry dog stayed tied to a door knob.
WWL used the University control room and studio and combined equipment they had brought from New Orleans.
Mikel Schaefer, executive producer, said the broadcast was available to those in the New Orleans area that still had power, on their Web site and on the TigerTV station on campus.
“I’m impressed with the faculty who have held out open arms,” Schaefer said. “The students have been work horses, dedicated to work and basically roughed it out with us.”
Schaefer said there was a prearranged deal between WWL and the Manship School that if the situation ever arose that they had to abandon their station, WWL could use the University’s facilities.
Catherine Tillson, mass communication junior, said WWL used only students to operate the cameras.
Tillson, production manager for TigerTV, said because WWL broadcasted around the clock, students slept in shifts while someone else operated the camera.
Kristy Davis, mass communication senior, said it was a learning experience unlike anything that could be gained in a classroom.
Both Davis and Tillson said they were impressed with how the anchors were able to speak for hours without any type of script.
“It teaches a lot of doing things out of necessity,” Davis said.
Steve Gaudry, a WWL engineer, said satellite trucks from other affiliate stations were used to broadcast.
WFAA in Dallas and KHOU in Houston provided the trucks as well as additional staff.
Contact Ginger Gibson at [email protected]