Answer the Phone

There was a time when you could call a TV newsroom at any time of the day or night and talk to a live person.

I remember my years working the Assignment Desk and dealing with some of the strangest calls from viewers.

But, sometimes, one of those calls would result in a great news story.

These days, trying to get a live person on the phone in the newsroom is a difficult, if not impossible task.

One Las Vegas viewer noticed that Gray’s KVVU signal was off the air. He tried to alert the station, and it didn’t go very well.

He shared the story in an email to FTVLive:

Scott,

No one in the news department at Fox 5 Vegas answered my off-hours phone call to report on the loss of over-the-air signal with that Gray Broadcasting station during Sunday primetime programming.  

My past experiences has it that the studio crew may not be aware of the OTA signal loss, so I phoned Fox 5 to alert them of the signal loss.

The automated phone attendant did not have a selection for the Engineering department, so I pressed "1" for the news desk, this was at 7:40 PM Sunday.

No one in the news department picked up the phone.  It rang some 30-plus times, then disconnected.  I was surprised there was no voicemail for the news desk.

Fox 5 Vegas seems to be running a lean operation if they lack voicemail for the news desk.  Or, the newsroom dollars could be going to the airline fares for the sports reporters, as in 2023/2024, the sports reporters have been racking up many travel miles with covering away games for the NHL Vegas Golden Knights; the NFL Raiders; and the WNBA Aces.

In addition, Gray Broadcasting dollars could be subsidizing KVVU's subchannel 5.2; the Silver State Sports Network, with televising sporting events of local teams in the college and minor leagues ranks.