Weather broadcast takes a turn when forecaster discovers touch screen on live TV

WLS-TV meteorologist Greg Dutra, left, and anchor Terrell Brown during a live broadcast on Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. Photo by WLS-TV

As ever-changing as technology is, it can still spring up on us at rather peculiar times. Even, it seems, on live television.

Greg Dutra, a meteorologist with WLS-TV (ABC7) in Chicago, was delivering the morning forecast Thursday when he got a startling lesson in techie broadcast studio accoutrements.

He good-naturedly turned an awkward little tech-gaffe moment into an amusing little TV bit.

Just like any other day at work, Dutra was forecasting the weather when all of a sudden he touched the digital screen displaying the weather map behind him -- and it, well, moved.

It was a rather serendipitous moment for the 15-year weather veteran.

"Oh, I moved the map ... I didn't know I could do that!" Dutra said while live on air.

"This is a great day!" he added as he tootled with the map's features, zooming in and out.

His colleague, news anchor Terrell Brown, was also on the set and was so excited that he had to test it out as well. "I gotta try it!" he said.

"This wasn't in the training manual," Dutra jokingly said later on Twitter about the incident, "when I discovered the TV is a touch screen while on-air."

Many viewers thought it was hilarious and couldn't get enough of it. Dutra and WLS shared the funny segment on social media, and many viewers quickly chimed in.

"Too funny!" "Greg, this is hysterical," "Hilarious!" some folks commented after the TV station posted the broadcast on Facebook.

"This was priceless this morning," remarked Sandi Oswald on Facebook.

"A big kid with a new toy. Him and Terrell are about to be fighting over it now lol," another commented.

Dutra's humorous clip even gained some national attention when it got picked up as a Play of the Day on ABC's Good Morning America.

Some viewers were just glad to know they aren't alone trying to navigate new tech. "You made some seniors really happy today! It's not just them that hasn't caught on to new technology," Barbara Devereux commented.