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Florida Radio Preparedness for Irma ?

Update CBSN is simulcasting WINK News for audiences outside of Florida. I knew CBSN staff had Appearances on the WFOR News
For Miami updates but other parts of Florida CBSN is simulcasting other CBS Affiliates in Florida until further notice.
 
I assume some if not most radio/TV stations in Miami, Key West, Naples-Fort Myers and West Palm Beach are off the air. Naples got the direct hit and Miami still has 72% without power.
 
frankberry said:
Directional stations are not permitted to go omni at full power under any circumstances. they may run daytime power/pattern only.
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Section 73.1250(f) of the Commission's Rules, allows for "an AM station to operate with its daytime power in the event of an emergency."

This ability to continue to operate with daytime power and antenna pattern at night can allow a station to fully serve its community in times of emergency. In other words; if a station is ND during the day, it may operate ND at night during an emergency, however, a broadcaster taking advantage of this provision needs to observe the requirements of the rule. First, it must notify the FCC that it is operating under this rule within 48 hours of beginning to do so. If the station causes irreparable interference to another station, it may be forced to curtail such operations. Also, the operation must be on a noncommercial basis (to limit any financial incentive for a station to abuse this provision).
 
crainbebo said:
I assume some if not most radio/TV stations in Miami, Key West, Naples-Fort Myers and West Palm Beach are off the air. Naples got the direct hit and Miami still has 72% without power.
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I don't think that's true. I only saw a few isolated reports of radio or TV stations being off the air. One was in Key West. The other was WLRN in Miami during the height of the storm. AFAIK, WIOD Miami stayed on throughout the storm.

In fact, I see that WLRN was only off for about 3 hours yesterday. They returned at about 4PM.
 
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I saw the same thing. Apparently the folks who own the station in Key West decided to evacuate before the bridges were closed.
 
crainbebo said:
I assume some if not most radio/TV stations in Miami, Key West, Naples-Fort Myers and West Palm Beach are off the air. Naples got the direct hit and Miami still has 72% without power.
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As Kelly said, that did not happen.

The best example is WSVN_TV, Channel 7. It's the most news-oriented station in the market, but it is located on one of the Bay Harbor Islands on the causeway between Miami Beach and the mainland. They have generators, and huge fuel storage capability and kept on the air throughout, including feeds to one of the cable networks.

I know of only one stations that BigA did not mention which was off a few hours due to a non-hurricane technical issue and did not return until driving to the transmitter site was possible.

Stations in larger markets and those in smaller ones subject to storms almost always have generators and some sort of backup plan. The bigger issue will be some days down the road when stations running on generators need to have their fuel tanks refilled; only if other services are up and running will that happen.
 
Kelly A said:
I saw the same thing. Apparently the folks who own the station in Key West decided to evacuate before the bridges were closed.
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Is this WKIZ? I heard that this AM, with 3 towers in a little bay off the ocean, closed down due to the threat of flooding so that they could put the transmitter up on crates to keep it from getting wet.

Monroe County has 40 stations and translators for just over 77,000 people, so certainly there was no lack of service.
 
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Wow - I'm surprised. 130 mph winds in Naples, storm surge in many other regions and millions without power - and yet the transmitters are still running. This wasn't the case during Katrina/New Orleans at all! WWL was the only big 4 station on the air during the storm IIRC. WDSU had both analog/digital transmitters knocked off.
 
Two Florida stations that WERE on DAYTIME power/patterns last night that I clearly heard here in Central KY were:

WBOB-600 out of Jacksonville (690 NOT heard here)
WRUF-850 out of Gainesville

I heard nothing from Miami's 560 or 940, two stations which have been received here in previous hurricanes. Nothing from Tampa's high power AM was noted, as well.
 
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