TVNewsCheck has a report on how the tight presidential race will affect TV stations in Columbus. With Ohio’s 18 electoral votes at stake and the full attention of both President Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney, news staff will be up late “tracking and analyzing returns from across the state, watching for problems at polling places and keeping tabs on Republican and Democratic headquarters.”
“We are prepared for anything,” Elbert Tucker news director at WBNS told TVNewsCheck. “That may sound flip, but it’s the truth.”
The stations have rallied all their crews for election reporting, mobilizing satellite and microwave trucks and as well as backpack reporters with bonded cellular systems. The teams will stay largely in-market, dispatched to places like the Democratic and Republican headquarters and the secretary of state’s office.
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“We consider the presidential race to be a local election,” said Tucker. “A lot of eyes are going to be on the state, and we have to be part of that.”
The stations plan on using technology to augment their regular cut-ins and election coverage specials.
The stations will also be providing nonstop coverage on digital subchannels starting at 7 p.m. According to Tucker, CBS News will be simulcasting the WBNS’s nonstop coverage on its website.
But it’s nothing new for Ohio to be in the cross hairs of an election. TVNewsCheck quotes Time magazine in saying residents of the buckeye state have voted for the winning candidate in 27 of the last 29 presidential elections.
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