City College’s Newscene latest victim of campus flooding (video & story)

For the second time in two weeks, ceiling water floods campus rooms, this time the studio and control room of Newscene.

NEWSCENE_10_5 from Patrick Rickard on Vimeo.

The weekly production of Newscene had to be moved from its studio and control room (pictured) due to a flood on Oct. 5. Photo by Harlan Burnett.

Harlan Burnett and Jonny Rico
October 5, 2018

Newscene cameras
Cameras had to be removed from the Newscene studio after a flood on Oct. 5. Newscene photo.

San Diego City College’s news program Newscene was rained out of its home studio on Oct. 5 due to a flood.

“We had to move everything out of the TV studio,” said Craig Chatfield, a broadcast engineer with Newscene. “HVAC techs said the flood came from the ceiling and they are investigating.”

Professor Laura Castaneda of the radio and television department at City College mentioned her concern over stronger rains yet to come in the upcoming winter months.

“No official Newscene newscast following flood in TV studio,” said Castaneda on Twitter Friday afternoon. “This is a first. Wonder what Dec and Jan rains will bring.”

Despite being displaced, students in the television news production class still managed to produce their weekly news show.

“We did decide to move forward and have our anchors sit a desk in our newsroom with a plasma (display behind them),” said Gonzales, who is also sports editor of the City Times.

According to Chatfield, luck might have been on the side of the Newscene team despite the inconvenience of having to move its broadcast from the studio to its newsroom.

“If the water would have come down a few more feet to the right on the broadcast equipment and electronics, the semester would have been over for TV,” Chatfield said.

Staff in the R building offices of the campus mailroom and reprographics faced a similar problem last week. San Diego Community College Police received a motion alarm alert at approximately 11:46 p.m. on Sept. 24. Faculty and staff arrived on the morning of Sept. 25 to find R-114 and R-115 flooded.