Syndication Under Combat Conditions
• It’s always challenging for a syndicated show to launch a new affiliate station — even under normal operating conditions. Naturally, that task has become unimaginably difficult in the face of the COVID-19 crisis.
The situation became especially dicey this week, as Rover’s Morning Glory, based at iHeartMedia’s WMMS/Cleveland, prepared to welcome its newest affiliate, Rock sister WXZX (105.7 The Brew)/Columbus — just as iHeartMedia was forced to close its Cleveland facility due to a possible employee coronavirus exposure. With the entire complex shut down, and absolutely no staff on premises — not even board ops — all shows were forced to broadcast from alternate locations. This was especially challenging for Rover’s Morning Glory, as the show has a large cast and crew and is syndicated to 16 affiliates and simulcasts RMG-TV.
“Once we found out the studios were shutting down, we only had about 16 hours to get all the show members up and running from their own homes,” said Rover (pictured, upper left). “It’s tough to get eight people together with audio and video from eight different locations… and we were starting from scratch.” That included raiding the show’s mobile tour bus studio, “Rolling Glory One,” for equipment and working with iHeart engineers to make sure satellite operations would continue with no one in the building to manage the broadcast.
In the end, we are pleased to report that Monday’s show went live without a hitch (mostly) and formally welcomed 105.7 The Brew into the Rover’s Morning Glory family under some truly unique conditions.
While iHeart’s Cleveland studios are now open to essential personnel only, Rover’s Morning Glory continues to operate remotely with just a board op and phone screener at WMMS. “We’re not operating at 100%,” said Rover, “But neither are the thousands of other businesses and people affected by this pandemic. We’re all doing the best we can to help each other out, and look forward to coming out of this stronger than ever before.”
