Breaking: Dump truck crashes into WMAR, man barricaded inside

[chrelevator 28]

WJZ is reporting that a man has barricaded himself inside the WMAR building in Baltimore after "repeatedly ramming the station with his vehicle". According to a WMAR meteorologist, the station has been evacuated.

 

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/man-barricaded-inside-wmar-after-ramming-building-with-car_b120889

[MidwestTV 1232]

Wow there are a lot of people teasing and making fun of WMAR for this because they're so lowly rated saying stuff like "no one watches them anyway" and "they should have picked another station." Unbelievable.

 

Hope that they're all ok though. This is surreal. I'm surprised by the coverage from the other stations.

[Samantha 2896]

 

Wow there are a lot of people teasing and making fun of WMAR for this because they're so lowly rated saying stuff like "no one watches them anyway" and "they should have picked another station." Unbelievable.

 

Hope that they're all ok though. This is surreal. I'm surprised by the coverage from the other stations.

 

Exactly.

 

The employees did seem to all get out and they are being bussed to a hotel where reporters can work on their stories.

 

Having watched more than 90 minutes of WJZ's coverage it's interesting to see the choices they've made in reporting. They're not reporting some of the things being said about the man on Twitter. It's also the coverage WMAR has chosen to feature on their website.

[Mrtraveler01 738]

 

Exactly.

 

The employees did seem to all get out and they are being bussed to a hotel where reporters can work on their stories.

 

Having watched more than 90 minutes of WJZ's coverage it's interesting to see the choices they've made in reporting. They're not reporting some of the things being said about the man on Twitter. It's also the coverage WMAR has chosen to feature on their website.

 

Odd question, but how is WMAR still able to maintain their website if they're evacuated from their building? What would the backup plan be when it comes to running a website in a situation like this.

 

Glad to hear that all the employees are ok, but this will definitely be a traumatic moment for them.

[Samantha 2896]

 

Odd question, but how is WMAR still able to maintain their website if they're evacuated from their building? What would the backup plan be when it comes to running a website in a situation like this.

 

Glad to hear that all the employees are ok, but this will definitely be a traumatic moment for them.

 

You can run a website from any computer depending on the CMS. You can't exactly run the station itself without access to master control, and so WMAR is now showing a blank screen.

[Jess 1115]

Are they piping anything in on the cable systems? I mean, are they feeding WPVI or WJLA? I kind of have Action News recording to see if they mention something like that.

[NewsMaster 226]

Reminds me of this incident at KSAZ (then KOOL):

 

[nbc11newsclips 0]

 

Are they piping anything in on the cable systems? I mean, are they feeding WPVI or WJLA? I kind of have Action News recording to see if they mention something like that.

 

or could be feeding WHTM or WMDT?

 

for satellite systems, are they feeding WJLA, WPVI, WHTM, WMDT or a distant network feed from WABC?

[TVIntheDesert 183]

It looks like WMAR is back on the air and streaming, thanks to their sister station over 2,200 miles away in Phoenix (the "ABC15" logo appears on the bottom crawl).

[Samantha 2896]

 

It looks like WMAR is back on the air and streaming, thanks to their sister station over 2,200 miles away in Phoenix (the "ABC15" logo appears on the bottom crawl).

 

Yup, KNXV came in with the assist.

 

What's very interesting is that the guy not only watched the news while in the facility (he was found with a golf club in a second-floor edit bay), but he also answered cell phones in the accounting office.

 

Viewers OTA are seeing a red, spartan "WMAR Please Stay Tuned" slide. Some cable systems have put up their own messages.

[Rusty Muck 4378]

WJW had a similar incident take place, where a troubled man commandeered the entrance to the station building, albeit by himself. He later committed suicide after a lengthy standoff. I was only two years old at the time (1983-1984), so I don't know specifics, but the station had to have been either evacuated or locked down.

 

Of course, as Scripps is centralizing master control ops for all their stations at WRTV, that should prevent something like this from ever happening again (the total loss of a stations programming due to an evacuation).

 

The one big concern I have is, what if an incident like this were to take place at WRTV, and risks taking an entire station group off the air?

[Jess 1115]

Apparently they managed to get World News on the WMAR feed (I'm guessing ABC shows will pass through with no problems?) but they're doing the walkthru via the online stream, which is originating from Phoenix.

 

And, there's that newsvan again:

https://twitter.com/HellgrenWJZ/status/466342577244229632

 

Was at work for much of the incident, though I managed to get 6 and 10 programmed on the Tivo.

[justin2kx 237]

ALERT: ABC2 is back on now thru live stream. http://www.abc2news.com/nct/watch-live-video-man-barricades-self-inside-baltimore-tv-station

[MidwestTV 1232]

 

WJW had a similar incident take place, where a troubled man commandeered the entrance to the station building, albeit by himself. He later committed suicide after a lengthy standoff. I was only two years old at the time (1983-1984), so I don't know specifics, but the station had to have been either evacuated or locked down.

 

Of course, as Scripps is centralizing master control ops for all their stations at WRTV, that should prevent something like this from ever happening again (the total loss of a stations programming due to an evacuation).

 

The one big concern I have is, what if an incident like this were to take place at WRTV, and risks taking an entire station group off the air?

 

These are two good examples where such a situation is incredibly rare. Honestly, WHAT are the chances that any television station will have to be evacuated and cease all broadcast operations? Fairly small in my opinion. However, in the event that it does happen, having a centralized control room would be nice. On the flip side, what are the chances that the station that's the hub for the group's master controls will need to be evacuated/cease all broadcast operations? Even smaller, to me. It would be quite the sight to see an entire broadcast group be unable to broadcast because the hub was unable to do anything at all.

 

But surely they have backup plans just in case such a situation was to occur, right?

[TVIntheDesert 183]

 

WJW had a similar incident take place, where a troubled man commandeered the entrance to the station building, albeit by himself. He later committed suicide after a lengthy standoff. I was only two years old at the time (1983-1984), so I don't know specifics, but the station had to have been either evacuated or locked down.

 

Of course, as Scripps is centralizing master control ops for all their stations at WRTV, that should prevent something like this from ever happening again (the total loss of a stations programming due to an evacuation).

 

The one big concern I have is, what if an incident like this were to take place at WRTV, and risks taking an entire station group off the air?

 

I thought Scripps was going to control equipment located at each station from WRTV, so if they ever had to evacuate, employees at the local station could take control of each of their systems.

 

However, from today's events it appears that KNXV has earned its keep as an "emergency hub."

[ns8401 941]

 

WJW had a similar incident take place, where a troubled man commandeered the entrance to the station building, albeit by himself. He later committed suicide after a lengthy standoff. I was only two years old at the time (1983-1984), so I don't know specifics, but the station had to have been either evacuated or locked down.

 

Of course, as Scripps is centralizing master control ops for all their stations at WRTV, that should prevent something like this from ever happening again (the total loss of a stations programming due to an evacuation).

 

The one big concern I have is, what if an incident like this were to take place at WRTV, and risks taking an entire station group off the air?

 

Leave the individual master controls offline but able to be hooked up at a moments notice I would think.

[Rusty Muck 4378]

Re: the WJW situation I mentioned earlier,

:

[yt]fj8r-GFV_EM[/yt]

Note that the station was still WJKW-TV at the time.

[Samantha 2896]

I am watching the live stream, and we've seen everything, including the edit bay where the suspect holed himself up. He had a window view, too.

 

EDIT: And they're now towing away the dump truck.

[cg41386 132]

I don't know where else to post this, but I watched WJZ's streaming coverage for a while, and need to ask... how have they been able to get away with having such awful, terrible graphics for so long? It's almost like they aren't a CBS O&O at all.

[ToriElectra 292]

Yeah, it's WJZ's creative director (not sure what his name is) that's been stalling graphical progress over there. This whole incident reminds me of one from 1998, where WJZ and WBAL had to evacuate because a bolt snapped on the TV Hill tower (WJZ had to broadcast from WBFF's garage; not sure what WBAL did):

[Rusty Muck 4378]

Yeah, it's WJZ's creative director (not sure what his name is) that's been stalling graphical progress over there. This whole incident reminds me of one from 1998, where WJZ and WBAL had to evacuate because a bolt snapped on the TV Hill tower (WJZ had to broadcast from WBFF's garage; not sure what WBAL did):

K. C. Robertson is his name. And I have no idea why he apparently has so much pull within CBS corporate to reject any and all standardization graphics.

 

Don't get me wrong, I like Chroma Cues, and it is the station's de facto anthem (and a perpetual tribute to Jerry Turner and Al Sanders, at that). But the whole look is straight out of freaking 1998. And the "13" isn't even in the actual Group W font... it's a redrawn version that makes it look even more dated.

[rkolsen 1684]

This is the reason why TV stations need to have a gate in their driveway and a fence around your property preventing access to your station. If I recall correctly they have public parking but their gate is just around the live trucks. I know WBAL has a gate at the bottom of their driveway which surrounds their entire property (which is pretty decent sized and irregularly shaped) - but I'm not sure about WJZ.

 

I wasn't at home during their coverage but I saw that they were broadcasting at 7:30 and the coverage was a joke and it appeared they were using a LiveU unit or some knockoff as their video was probably 4:3 aspect ratio stretched to fill the screen and severely interlaced. I don't know why they didn't use a live truck or their studio cameras as they were reporting from inside the station. As a side note maybe they will finally do upgrades to their station/ set.

 

I don't know where else to post this, but I watched WJZ's streaming coverage for a while, and need to ask... how have they been able to get away with having such awful, terrible graphics for so long? It's almost like they aren't a CBS O&O at all.

 

It almost feels like WJZ is the unwanted step child of CBS because they never get anything from corporate and is left to its own devices.

Exactly.

 

The employees did seem to all get out and they are being bussed to a hotel where reporters can work on their stories.

 

Having watched more than 90 minutes of WJZ's coverage it's interesting to see the choices they've made in reporting. They're not reporting some of the things being said about the man on Twitter. It's also the coverage WMAR has chosen to feature on their website.

What did they say? Was it poor reporting or were they mocking WMAR?

[rkolsen 1684]

Yeah' date=' it's WJZ's creative director (not sure what his name is) that's been stalling graphical progress over there. This whole incident reminds me of one from 1998, where WJZ and WBAL had to evacuate because a bolt snapped on the TV Hill tower (WJZ had to broadcast from WBFF's garage; not sure what WBAL did):

WBAL broadcast from Maryland Public Televisions studios in Owings Mills (about a 20 minute drive from TV Hill). WBAL and MPT have a partnership of sorts on some of the events of significance here like political debates and some general interest events like the Star Spangled Sailabration, which was used to celebrate the bicentennial of our national anthem and flag where there was a parade of tall ships in the harbor and a Blue Angels show. I'm pretty sure they have a rudimentary back up news set there and a secondary studio-transmitter link.

[TVIntheDesert 183]

 

I wasn't at home during their coverage but I saw that they were broadcasting at 7:30 and the coverage was a joke and it appeared they were using a LiveU unit or some knockoff as their video was probably 4:3 aspect ratio stretched to fill the screen and severely interlaced. I don't know why they didn't use a live truck or their studio cameras as they were reporting from inside the station. As a side note maybe they will finally do upgrades to their station/ set.

 

 

 

There goes the "Extreme Makeover: WKBW Edition" budget at Scripps!

 

Speaking of which, It didn't take long for Brian Lawlor to show up at WMAR this afternoon. Was he already in the vicinity (D.C.) to close the Granite deal?

[Samantha 2896]

 

There goes the "Extreme Makeover: WKBW Edition" budget at Scripps!

 

Speaking of which, It didn't take long for Brian Lawlor to show up at WMAR this afternoon. Was he already in the vicinity (D.C.) to close the Granite deal?

 

I read that he was in New York, was going to fly to Cincinnati but instead jumped in a rental car and drove to Baltimore.