The tragic Valentine’s Day mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, stunned an entire nation. The news hit especially hard at Florida Sun Studios, as our studio became ground zero for months, continuously broadcasting 24/7 live television interviews.

FSS produced a 30-city satellite media tour featuring two Parkland school journalism teachers who, along with their students, wrote a book, “WE SAY #NEVERAGAIN.” It describes the powerful first-person accounts and reporting by students and editors who experienced the worst mass school shooting since Columbine in 1999.

The day we filmed our media tour, another tragedy struck: a mass shooting at a bar in Thousand Oaks, CA, that left thirteen dead, including many college students. Instead of the planned Q&A talkback about the book, many local news stations interviewing Melissa and Eric asked them their reaction to the breaking news.

Once the news broke, our team quickly confirmed the information and details. Our producers relayed this information to our talent on set as a studio runner ran notes to their desk. FSS’ Director of Communications, Scott Wolfson, prepared the guests with media talking points, speaking to them through their IFB earpieces, which sent them the different stations’ programming audio.

Guided by Scott and the FSS production team, Melissa and Eric smoothly transitioned to the news as it unfolded in real-time. They tied it into their personal stories of surviving the Parkland school massacre.

This change required everyone to think, adapt, and react quickly on their feet in presenting continuous broadcast quality live shots to cities across the country. The Satellite Media Tour format allowed our guests to maximize their overall audience reach, broadcasting via satellite to local stations nationwide (and picked up by all their affiliates as well!). Our intended targeted audience expanded exponentially. News stations across the country and internationally shared the video segments via satellite and through popular social media channels like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

Below is one of our live shots from the satellite media tour we filmed with Melissa Falkowski and Eric Garner that aired on WJLA, a local ABC station in Washington, DC.#MSDSTRONG

#NEVERAGAIN