“It helps protect the gear. You can’t get these mics wet."
Better to be safe than sorry.
A Florida reporter had already rapt viewers squinting at their televisions when her microphone appeared on the screen.
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That’s because Kyla Galer of WBBH had a condom covering the mic during her broadcast from the rainy, gusty outdoors.
Galer was in Fort Myers, Fla,. reporting on Hurricane Ian before it hit landfall when viewers became distracted by the little rubber bubble at the top of her microphone.
While many viewers questioned the use of the prophylactic (some calling BS, others saying it was distracting), others found it hilarious.
“That’s an above average-sized microphone,” one person tweeted.
Another added: “Good luck with the expense report.”
A third person wrote, “Thank you for practicing safe reporting!”
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Galer took to her Instagram stories to defend the condom use.
“It is what you think it is. It’s a condom,” Galer explained. “It helps protect the gear. You can’t get these mics wet. There’s a lot of wind and a lot of rain, so we gotta do what we gotta do and that is put a condom on the microphone.”
Jeff Butera of WZVN shared a close-up shot of Galer’s protected microphone, backing up the Emmy-winning reporter.
“WE PRACTICE SAFE HURRICANE REPORTING,” he began his tweet.
“Yes, it’s a condom,” he continued. “Nothing better to waterproof a microphone. My Waterman Broadcasting colleague @kylagaler has been fielding lots of questions, haha.”
He added: “Moment of levity in this nasty storm…#HurricaneIan.”
Hurricane Ian, one of the most powerful to hit the U.S. mainland in recent years, has left over 2.7 million people without power as it battered Florida’s Gulf Coast and leaving many residents – who either could not leave their homes or chose to tough it out – trapped in their homes.