Salt Lake City, Utah ABC affiliate KTVX is building a Southern Utah Bureau in partnership with Black Desert Resort in Ivins, Utah.
KTVX said it will build a full-time news bureau, called the Black Desert Newsroom, for what, it said, is one of the fastest-growing areas in Utah. The new facility, which will become a permanent fixture at the resort, will be ABC4 Utah’s second newsroom.
The full-service newsroom will include a broadcast center, a weather studio and views from a new 360-degree weather cam.
“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Black Desert on this project,” said news director Nancy Bauer. “Having a 360-degree Weather Cam at Black Desert will allow us to forecast year-round from the St. George metro area. Our Southern Utah reporter will be headquartered at Black Desert, a central location in Southern Utah, and they will be able to quickly travel anywhere for breaking news. What this is, is a real benefit for our viewers — more coverage of Southern Utah, 365 days of the year.”
“We could not be more thrilled working with Black Desert,” said general manager and vice-president Mark Danielson. “We’re going to be expanding and growing and investing in Southern Utah like never before, and Black Desert really makes all this possible.”
“We’ve installed and established a new fiber connection, connecting our facilities in Northern Utah with our new transmission site,” said Danielson. “In fact, we’re building a new transmitter up on Webb Hill out here, which is going on right now, just to expand and increase and improve the coverage. It is a true investment, because we know how important Southern Utah is to the entire state.”
Bauer said additional hires are being made now in anticipation of the bureau’s opening, adding a robust layer of coverage to what ABC4 already does in St. George. As the year progresses, the studio will undergo several changes before the final location is fully equipped in the autumn of 2024.
Black Desert Managing Partner Patrick Manning said the partnership with ABC4 is a win for everyone in Southern Utah.
“Black Desert’s a huge resort, but really it’s about the impact it can make,” said Manning. “It’s leveraging its size to do good for the community, and partnerships like this with ABC4 are just at the forefront of what’s important. We want to be synergistic, we want to be collaborative, and we want to show up where there’s hurt and we want to be able to help.”