Bad Weather Days

[foldap]

How would you confirm announcements of closures of schools and businesses THAT ARE AND NOT CLIENTS?

 

[PTBoardOp94]

I wouldn't bother. In 2022, no one is waiting by the radio at 7:00am for the list of school closings like I did when I was a kid.

Especially in a market as big as Houston, it would be enough to say "most schools and many businesses will be closed on Thursday due to the conditions, for a more detailed list check with our media partner KXXX-TV channel 49."

 

[CTListener]

I wouldn't bother. In 2022, no one is waiting by the radio at 7:00am for the list of school closings like I did when I was a kid.

Especially in a market as big as Houston, it would be enough to say "most schools and many businesses will be closed on Thursday due to the conditions, for a more detailed list check with our media partner KXXX-TV channel 49."

No, "For a more detailed list, go to kxxx.com/closings."

 

[foldap]

NOT IN HOUSTON MARKET. THOUGH CAN HEAR HOUSTON STATIONS IN AREA.

 

[ThatVoice22]

How would you confirm announcements of closures of schools and businesses THAT ARE AND NOT CLIENTS?... NOT IN HOUSTON MARKET. THOUGH CAN HEAR HOUSTON STATIONS IN AREA.

This post seems to be asking about confirmation of announcing facility closures, based on status as Clients and Non-clients. Guessing that means radio advertisers and non-advertisers.
"If" announcements are actually necessary, do so for both to support existing clients and help the non-clients so they might be more likely to become clients someday.
> Long-winded closure announcements are boring and potentially problematic. If they contain one incorrect element, most goodwill is lost, also humorously stated as, "One 'aw-sh-t’ wipes out a thousand attaboys."
> Follow PTBoardOp94 and CTListener's input, refer to a separate site or source, whether in Houston or not.

 

[ZantennaG1]

This feels like the place to bring this up, although it feels a little off topic. TV stations in particular seem to bet pranked every once in a while, but the best one was in the Early 2000's when a whole bunch of students discovered a flaw in the reporting system, and then the TV station would run the spoofed "school closings", whose names were often inappropriate, but there was also a nice reference to Tommy Tutone's song, so LOL.

 

[Cordelia Chase]

I wouldn't bother. In 2022, no one is waiting by the radio at 7:00am for the list of school closings like I did when I was a kid.

Dittos...nowadays, schools have access to the cellphone numbers and email addresses of every parent. Information like weather-related closures or school emergencies is sent directly to parents in mass texts or emails. Surely businesses have the same contact info and would be able to reach clients the same way.

Ah nostalgia...the days of a kid in Hampton Roads, VA having to listen to a station like the old WTAR AM and waiting for the venerable Paul Henning, or a member of his news team, to read a lengthy alphabetized list of school closures are long gone.

 

[Mikey Radio]

Dittos...nowadays, schools have access to the cellphone numbers and email addresses of every parent. Information like weather-related closures or school emergencies is sent directly to parents in mass texts or emails.

Agreed. Back in the day a few stations I was with used to send certified letters to the superintendents of school districts and the principals of smaller private or parochial schools in their listening area with the station's admin number to call and a specific 2 word "password" they had to give in order to report a delay or cancellation. For the most part it worked OK and we never had any surprises or false reports using the password, but we did have a number of times when school kids would call the regular song request lines, trying to lower their voices to sound like adults and reporting cancellations. Lol.

Now with modern technology and notification methods, as was stated above, most every school has the cell numbers of the parents and students and sends out text alerts or use other methods to notify them directly of a delay or cancellation (and a myriad of other things). I still see TV stations with lists of delays and closings for snow, severe cold, water or power outages and other reasons, but as was previously stated, parents and kids no longer need to set an alarm extra early to run to the TV or radio to see if school is cancelled or delayed, or watch the 11:00 news in hopes that school will be cancelled or delayed already for the next morning when bad weather is expected. Then again, many districts don't have cancellations - now with each student having a tablet or laptop, they simply switch to remote learning on those particular days.

 

[stan]

All this is true, plus the use of voice tracking and syndicated programming makes it less likely that there would be a local staff there to insert these announcements anyway.

 

[ZantennaG1]

used to send certified letters to the superintendents of school districts and the principals of smaller private or parochial schools in their listening area with the station's admin number to call and a specific 2 word "password" they had to give in order to report a delay or cancellation.

Good idea.

but we did have a number of times when school kids would call the regular song request lines, trying to lower their voices to sound like adults and reporting cancellations. Lol.

🤣

 

[BamaTX]

Dittos...nowadays, schools have access to the cellphone numbers and email addresses of every parent. Information like weather-related closures or school emergencies is sent directly to parents in mass texts or emails. Surely businesses have the same contact info and would be able to reach clients the same way.

Yup.

In regards to students being immature; someone hacked Magnolia ISD website and Facebook page about a year ago. Parents received a lot of unsavory, disturbing, and racist text messages on their phones. It was suspected that some students gained access to a careless administrator's laptop as a senior prank.