Three Beasley employees and two Cox employees have tested positive for COVID-19. PD Orlando Davis and DJ’s Broderick Scott and Jose Fernandez work for Beasley’s WILD 94.1. Mike Calta and his morning show co-host Anthony Polichemi work for Cox’s 102.5 The Bone. All five have tested positive.
According to The Tampa Bay Times, Calta plans to keep doing his show live with everyone working remotely from their homes. The paper also reports that Beasley sent out a staff memo last week that an employee tested positive. At that point, Beasley closed all of its stations in St. Petersburg to all but essential employees.
Florida has been fairly aggressive at reopening its economy. It’s unknown where any of the employees came into contact with someone who had the virus.
Davis, Scott and Alvarado do not work on the air together but they do use the same studio. Davis told The Times that with more staff coming back, with more people going back out and joining society, it just seemed like it wasn’t as controlled as it was when we were on lockdown and on minimal staff. I don’t know where that patient zero came from. I just know that in succession, (the other DJs) were kind of the domino effect. Luckily we haven’t had any more happen. Everybody else is getting negatives.”
