Chicago anchor turns to toss to live shot — finds himself facing a giant breaking news graphic instead

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Brad Edwards, the newly appointed anchor of WBBM’s primary newscasts, was caught in an awkward on air toss.

• Edwards kicked off the early April broadcast standing next to a large video wall with a “breaking news” graphic on it.
• He then introduced the reporter joining the broadcast live from the scene.
• Edwards then turned to face the monitor, as if he was expecting the reporter’s live image to be shown there, as the station sometimes does when tossing to live shots.
• However, the control room had punched up a two-box with Edwards in the left box and the reporter to the right, so Edwards’ turn actually had him “talking” to the breaking news graphics and facing away from the reporter in the double box layout.
• Such slipups are common in live television production — especially during breaking news — and it’s not clear from the shot if the reporter’s live shot was supposed to appear on the video wall but a technical glitch or human error caused the two box to come up instead.