Using Facebook Live, the Florida news station offers video coverage of breaking news and analysis.
Facebook Live has enabled WOKV Newsradio to broadcast live breaking news video
Shattering the idea that radio content stops with audio, WOKV, Cox Media’s news radio station in Jacksonville, Fla., is also capturing breaking news on video, primarily by leveraging Facebook Live to provide its audience with visuals that were severely lacking previously.
The station uses video primarily for covering news or traffic, adding depth and insight as well as pictures to the more traditional news coverage listeners get on-air. “When WOKV reporters arrive to breaking news stories, they are expected to show Facebook followers what they are seeing by narrating video on Facebook Live,” said Program Director Rich Jones, who also hosts the station’s morning news show.
WOKV also uses Facebook as a platform for the multiple video feeds it has access to thanks to Cox’s Jacksonville TV stations, the CBS affiliate WJAX and Fox affiliate WFOX. In breaking news situations, WOKV can tap any one of those station’s feeds and instantly share the video on Facebook, Jones said. WJAX chief meteorologist Mike Buresh serves as an editor of WOKV’s Facebook page and wastes no time going on it live when threatening weather looms.
Embracing video has allowed WOKV to expand offerings in other ways, too. For instance, Jones earlier this year hosted a “Stop the Violence” special featuring a discussion with Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry and Sheriff Mike Williams. When Corrine Brown, a former U.S. congresswoman from Florida, was sentenced for operating a fraudulent charity, reporters Stephanie Brown from WOKV and Jenna Bourne from WJAX broadcast a live 13-minute recap.