I can't say I was particularly impressed with the radio coverage of the tragedy in Surfside. The morning of the disaster WIOD was doing a segment with Bloomberg on the cost of cell phone plans and WLRN was in regular national programming. If that's what I can expect from our local news radio stations when a catastrophic event takes place in my own backyard I'll stick to TV.
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Surfside Radio Coverage
- Thread starter strangelove
- Start date
It seems WLRN radio is doing a decent job in recent days, at least in the afternoons, of providing coverage and airing some pretty in-depth interviews, etc. While I didn't listen to any Miami area stations the morning after the collapse happened, I was a bit surprised that no national TV news stations were offering live coverage at that point...But then again, I think it's a bit tough to cover this particular tragedy 'round the clock. It happened in the middle of the night, so not many witnesses to interview, there are only so many human interest stories to be told by and about the people who escaped or those who knew people that are missing, and the search, rescue and recovery work is extremely tedious and slow moving. 1 full week after the whole thing happened I believe they'd only recovered a few more than a dozen casualties. So far any guesses about a possible cause are just that...Guesses.
In looking at the coverage and stories on various websites, it's mostly all the same information, details and stories, all rehashed and retold.
In looking at the coverage and stories on various websites, it's mostly all the same information, details and stories, all rehashed and retold.
But this was the morning that it happened and even going to a TV simulcast would have been better than running spots and regular features. It reminded me of the time WIOD went to spots during a Hurricane Irma update from NBC 6 and the anchor actually called them out for it on the air. I guess there's only so much that can be done with diminished resources but I personally don't care about cell phone plan prices or the latest from Washington when a human tragedy is unfolding in my community.
From outside the Market I have been watching the streaming coverage on Local 10 WPLG. They have done an outstanding job!
I'm from way outside of the area, but have been following coverage closely. YouTube clips I've seen featuring an investigative journalist named Jim Defede were quite informative. He did a pretty good job of explaining construction and architectural concepts in layman's terms...
That's why radio is no longer the go-to place for urgent coverage, just conspiracy theory talk shows.
I always found it shocking during hurricane coverage that iHeart stations simulcast TV rather than all simulcast WIOD, their own "news" sister station. I guess they had no confidence in their own staff.
If they even have a staff. They have the morning show and then Brian Mudd is piped in from West Palm but I'm sure their local news is farmed out to Total Traffic or other iHeart stations. I once knew someone who worked there and they were doing local news updates for other iHeart stations all over the southeast.
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