WFIE Anchors (Mostly) Keep Cool During Earthquake

The anchors at WFIE Evansville did a pretty good job of not running around screaming like frightened schoolchildren as an earthquake struck southern Illinois while they were on the air yesterday. Bryon Douglas was doing the weather as the set started to shake. "We’re hearing some shaking here," he said nervously, then alternated between thinking it was an earthquake and thinking it was trains rolling by. (Uh, should a meteorologist really be completely blindsided by an earthquake?)

Visibly unnerved, Douglas kept his eye on the ball long enough to deliver the forecast, then joined Beth Sweeney at the anchor desk. For her part, Sweeney was clearly concerned that the set’s lighting would crash down on her head.

Michael Malone

Michael Malone, senior content producer at B+C/Multichannel News, covers network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television. He hosts the podcasts Busted Pilot, about what’s new in television, and Series Business, a chat with the creator of a new program, and writes the column “The Watchman.” He joined B+C in 2005. His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Playboy and New York magazine.