With all the natural disasters and weather events that occurred this year, most of the regional boards are filled with complaints from listeners indicating that most of the local stations did not provide any critical information regarding the events happening in their listening areas such as road closures, floods, traffic hazards, etc. It seems like the modus operandi for most broadcasters is to continue with automated music or syndicated programming (outside of morning or afternoon drivetime hours when stations have local hosts).
It seems like radio transmitters have become nothing more than distribution points for content owners and are not used for providing critical information to local communities (contrary to NAB messaging). How are people able to find reliable stations on the dial that provide critical information, especially when driving through unfamiliar areas or at times without cellular internet coverage?
In Canada, the government provides a public database of radio and TV stations that provide emergency information across the country. It's similar to Radio Locator, but has more features and the focus is on emergency alert stations. It even has AM daytime and nighttime contour maps. Does anybody know if a similar database exists for the US market?
Several decades ago, the AM clear channels were established as regional superstations and people knew from muscle memory to tune to those stations when traveling through those coverage areas. In modern times, the prevailing wisdom (on this board) seems to be to tune in the local all-news station. However, these stations only exist in the largest media markets and they tend to only cover news in the immediate urban area (even the clear channels whose signals propagate for hundreds of miles).
So far, the "best" list of stations I can find is this list of EAS Entry Point Stations. Is there anything better available?
It seems like radio transmitters have become nothing more than distribution points for content owners and are not used for providing critical information to local communities (contrary to NAB messaging). How are people able to find reliable stations on the dial that provide critical information, especially when driving through unfamiliar areas or at times without cellular internet coverage?
In Canada, the government provides a public database of radio and TV stations that provide emergency information across the country. It's similar to Radio Locator, but has more features and the focus is on emergency alert stations. It even has AM daytime and nighttime contour maps. Does anybody know if a similar database exists for the US market?
Several decades ago, the AM clear channels were established as regional superstations and people knew from muscle memory to tune to those stations when traveling through those coverage areas. In modern times, the prevailing wisdom (on this board) seems to be to tune in the local all-news station. However, these stations only exist in the largest media markets and they tend to only cover news in the immediate urban area (even the clear channels whose signals propagate for hundreds of miles).
So far, the "best" list of stations I can find is this list of EAS Entry Point Stations. Is there anything better available?
