ORLANDO, Fla. – The only broadcast, podcast and teleconference studio of its kind in Florida is open for patients in the hospital.
“Imagine the first time you’re seeing what you want to do in your future, seeing it in a hospital,” Anthony Grier, the broadcast coordinator for Seacrest Studios at Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, said.
Since December 2020, Grier and his team have been hosting a morning newscast that they broadcast internally to patients staying at Arnold Palmer Hospital.
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“We had one that wanted to be a director and she was just amazed,” Grier said.
Because of the pandemic, much of the participation inside the new studio has been virtual. Including the grand opening with founder and television personality Ryan Seacrest. Orlando Health Arnold Palmer is one of only 11 pediatric hospitals in the U.S. chosen by the Ryan Seacrest Foundation to have one of the studios.
“How amazing is it to go to a hospital, as a kid, and be excited?” Grier said.
Grier’s morning broadcast has hosted several celebrity guests, but one returning group with the seal of approval from patients has less star power. The Pacific Marine Mammal Center helps to rehabilitate and release seal pups back into the ocean.
“A lot of times in sea lions’ case they’re running down the beach and then they porpoise in the water afterward and so it’s exciting to see and I think that it gives a lot of people hope in their situations,” Kirsten Donald, Director Of Education, Pacific Marine Mammal Center.
Grier said whether seals or celebrities, the studio allows kids staying in the hospital to be kids.