WBFO Has Imploded

[SirRoxalot]

The fine folks of WNY knew this was coming. Nobody should have put them themselves in that situation. Radio can't help those people...

We've been through storms before. This was unlike any storm I've seen short of the Blizzard of '77. Unfortunately, we've seen stormed hype too often before. This time, even the forecasts fell short of the reality for many people. People in the snow belts south of Buffalo were likely far better prepared than the people in the city and suburbs in the path of this lake effect event simply because they don't face lake effect of this magnitude. It stays south. In this case, the storm hit the city itself, and it happened fast. I suspect that most people who ventured out into it were completely taken by surprise.

Maybe if you were actually in the area and had a clue about what happens here you might have a glimmer of understanding. As a drive-by critic who NEVER posts anything positive, ignoring you is probably the best course of action for this board.

 

[davideduardo]

They have the system in place for all three BTPM transmitters. I know it, or I wouldn’t have stated it


They have the ability to do this at their three transmitter sites, so my comments are not immaterial, nor would I have made them if I didn’t know this firsthand.

You are talking about technical issues, while the main point has been narrowed down to an executive decision not to even initiate broad coverage of the storm.

This is not a technical issue; it is a management decision which looks very inappropriate for the station, the situation and the market.

 

[davideduardo]

As a drive-by critic who NEVER posts anything positive, ignoring you is probably the best course of action for this board.

Agree. This situation has two aspects. The first, of course, is lamenting the fate of the people who passed due to the storm. The second is questioning and demanding an explanation of the reorganized management structure of the station

 

[CTListener]

This discussion just keeps generating heat, but does anyone else out there give a crap about what radio station did what during a storm that happened more than a week ago? Is there much of an -- or even any -- outrage factor among the 99 percent: the general population of the Buffalo market, minus people who work in radio or who are radio nerds/geeks/whatever and just can't imagine that people exist who don't eat, drink and breathe radio? Who besides Mr. Gleason basking in the Coachella Valley sunshine is that passionate about demanding an explanation from a radio station across the continent that didn't go live with snowstorm coverage? Are relatives of those who died or suffered severe injury during the storm demanding reparation from WBFO? And why just WBFO? Why not expand the grand uprising of the proletariat against their elitist WBUF overlords to ALL the FM stations that didn't provide updates that would have let people stuck after driving around during a blizzard know that it's not safe to be driving around during a blizzard and that their collective gooses are now pretty much cooked?

Yes, I'm as much of an outsider as any of the other drive-bys in this thread, but I'm just trying to look at this through the eyes of pretty much everyone else I know (and remember, I never worked in radio, only in print): people who not only don't drive around during blizzards (in other words, intelligent people, which we need more of) but people who don't wonder why radio stations do or don't do? Maybe all this outsized passion about radio's role in blizzards is a Buffalo thing, in which case I apologize for not "getting it." But still, think about how little the inner workings of radio bureaucracy mean to the average resident of any city and ask yourselves if all this self-righteous indignation is really necessary?

Oh, this just in from Minnesota. Is MPR ready?

No-travel advisories issued as another winter storm sweeps across Minnesota

Dozens of southern and central Minnesota school districts canceled or delayed the start of classes Tuesday, with snow and freezing rain expected in the region. MnDOT reported icy roads, and the Twin Cities airport reported dozens of canceled flights.

www.mprnews.org

 

[SirRoxalot]

I'm a little tired of the people from outside the market who blame people stuck in the storm on ignorance or stupidity. Unless you've gotten hit by a blizzard that barreled into your town and took you from 40 degrees and rain to a whiteout and sub-zero wind chills in about an hour you have no idea what you're talking about.

Some people were simply surprised at the speed and ferocity of the storm. A lot of critical personnel and first responders were among those caught. Hundreds of people didn't make it home, finding shelter or sheltering in place. It would have been worse if a lot of people weren't home for the holidays. Perhaps this article from the local paper will give you a little insight:

'Unlike anything that I've ever seen': How Buffalo's health care workers made it through the blizzard

Across Western New York, health care workers have stories to tell of working during the blizzard. They juggled multiple jobs. They slept in outpatient areas or departments that weren't in use. They also welcomed residents inside hospitals who were seeking shelter.

buffalonews.com

 

[TheBigA]

I'm a little tired of the people from outside the market who blame people stuck in the storm on ignorance or stupidity.

I agree with that. However, people who ignore information given by emergency officials are responsible for their own actions, and can't blame their predicament on someone else. That includes radio. I get tired of people bringing up the 40 casualties, as though radio could have lowered that number. Radio is very limited in terms of what it can do. It can lead the horse to water, but can't make him drink, as they say. Radio can be a companion, and it can do that by playing music or anything else.

 

[Rusty Bridges]

Many of those who died in this lake effect blizzard were traveling between work and home, caught in white outs and flash white outs. The Buffalo News featured stories about about travelers who survived by breaking in to a local school building, saving dozens of lives. The interlopers left the building in meticulous condition, almost better than they found it, and the police called the group's leader a hero, also saying no charges would be filed against him and his fellow blizzard survivors.

The storm's effect on low income and minority members of the community resulted in a significant percentage of the fatalities. These folks needed food and medicine for their families and kids. Unlike suburbanites and those in the the middle or upper class, the poor don't shop for a week or two at a time. They walk to their neighborhood corner store (resembling a bodega) which extends credit to regulars, to buy milk and bread that hold them over for a few days. These victims literally froze to death on their way to or from the store.

Some of those who perished, including a few suburbanites, died as a result of attempting to help their neighbors shovel and plow snow from their doors and driveways.

When commuters/motorists became stranded, local police and fire crews couldn't reach them because of the intensity of the storm and the number on abandoned vehicles dotting the streets.

Were there fatalities that could have been prevented? Yes. But the majority of the lives lost were those who were doing their best to provide and care for their families and neighbors, but became overwhelmed by the snow and the cold. To call victims "unintelligent" is grossly improper and in itself, unintelligent.

As to the interest in this storm as it impacted radio, tv and media ... it's a radio board. The level of interest, awareness and geekery often pins the meter.

 

[CTListener]

I'm a little tired of the people from outside the market who blame people stuck in the storm on ignorance or stupidity. Unless you've gotten hit by a blizzard that barreled into your town and took you from 40 degrees and rain to a whiteout and sub-zero wind chills in about an hour you have no idea what you're talking about.

You don't try to beat a train across a railroad intersection, whether it's a small track maintenance unit, a long, slow freight train, or the Amtrak Acela barreling through on its way down to D.C. All will kill you just as dead if you are stupid enough to be in that intersection at the same time they arrive. Everyone in Buffalo had several days' warning that a major snowstorm was on the way, and they knew the day and approximate time it was likely to hit. How bloody thick do you have to be not to take some food and blankets and such to the office that morning and prepare to camp out at work, or to do your grocery shopping the previous day, or that morning, and get home and hunker down? The story describes an awful event, but frankly, the storm that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald was far more dangerous in terms of sneaking up on its victims. It brewed up completely unexpectedly and there was no reason for anyone on Lake Superior to expect it to be where it was at the time it exploded.

And again, radio can't fix stupid. By the time those people were trapped, radio could do nothing but tell them the obvious, that they shouldn't leave their cars. But who knows if they would have heeded that advice, having been foolish enough to be driving in the first place?

 

[davideduardo]

Everyone in Buffalo had several days' warning that a major snowstorm was on the way, and they knew the day and approximate time it was likely to hit. How bloody thick do you have to be not to take some food and blankets and such to the office that morning and prepare to camp out at work, or to do your grocery shopping the previous day, or that morning, and get home and hunker down?

The problem is that people are so used to "severe storm warnings" and the like that they tend to underestimate the effects after years and years of such warning that resulted in a little rain or a few inches of snow.

In California, everything that contains any kind of toxic or harmful substance must now have a warning on its container or label. Even things that you would have to drink 120 oz of every day for a decade to have a chance of harm have such a label. My reaction is that now I ignore all of those labels as I don't have any idea which ones are for really dangerous materials and which are not. So the effect of excessive rules has been to make the whole set of rules worthless.

 

[tbolt909]

We've been through storms before. This was unlike any storm I've seen short of the Blizzard of '77. Unfortunately, we've seen stormed hype too often before. This time, even the forecasts fell short of the reality for many people. People in the snow belts south of Buffalo were likely far better prepared than the people in the city and suburbs in the path of this lake effect event simply because they don't face lake effect of this magnitude. It stays south. In this case, the storm hit the city itself, and it happened fast. I suspect that most people who ventured out into it were completely taken by surprise.

Anyone taken by surprise only has themselves to blame. On Tuesday, experts were forecasting a Flash Freeze with Blizzard conditions by Friday. They were very clear that conditions would deteriorate rapidly. Spin all you want, but the forecast was dire well in advance. Ignorance isn't bliss...

 

[davideduardo]

This discussion just keeps generating heat, but does anyone else out there give a crap about what radio station did what during a storm that happened more than a week ago? Is there much of an -- or even any -- outrage factor among the 99 percent: the general population of the Buffalo market, minus people who work in radio or who are radio nerds/geeks/whatever and just can't imagine that people exist who don't eat, drink and breathe radio?

The issue here is that, formerly, this station was a go-to local information source and the markets only information FM.

Who besides Mr. Gleason basking in the Coachella Valley sunshine is that passionate about demanding an explanation from a radio station across the continent that didn't go live with snowstorm coverage?

Actually, we have been going through two weeks of disastrous rain and flooding with many local road closures due to flooding and debris, with near freezing termperatures. To our north, there are washed away cars, roads that are impassable, and dangerous landslides.

The storm is so bad that there is talk of it having significantly alleviated the immediate effects of the drought we have had for the last 3 years.

Unfortunately, so many people have been influenced by "severe storm warnings" that they took no cautionary steps.

Yes, I'm as much of an outsider as any of the other drive-bys in this thread, but I'm just trying to look at this through the eyes of pretty much everyone else I know (and remember, I never worked in radio, only in print): people who not only don't drive around during blizzards (in other words, intelligent people, which we need more of) but people who don't wonder why radio stations do or don't do? Maybe all this outsized passion about radio's role in blizzards is a Buffalo thing, in which case I apologize for not "getting it."

It's a "thing" in much of the great lakes. I can recall listening to the radio with my dad as a kid when a sudden storm shut everything in Cleveland down... and constantly checking the radio to see if we could walk the 2 miles or so to the nearest store.

And I can't even describe the need for radio 20 miles NW of Traverse City, MI, on Grand Traverse Bay where in the summer we'd look at the remains of winter shipwrecks.

But still, think about how little the inner workings of radio bureaucracy mean to the average resident of any city and ask yourselves if all this self-righteous indignation is really necessary?

Yes, because that station was, prior to this, a dependable source of storm information.

 

[Mark1981]

Tbolt and CTListener, please step away from this discussion. For those of us who live in Buffalo, our emotions are extremely raw right now. The death toll from the blizzard reached 42 today. Five children died in a weekend house fire. And now a member of our beloved Buffalo Bills is fighting for his life. What we don’t need from you right now is reading that people who were caught in the blizzard were stupid or ignorant. If you have any humanity, JUST STOP! You’ve made your point! Since this is a radio board, let me offer words of praise to WGR today for its thoughtful and respectful coverage of what happened to Damar Hamlin.

 

[SirRoxalot]

People who've never seen it just don't get it. People 10 miles north or south of the storm track had a bad snowstorm, but not a killer storm. This was a rare time that the storm track cut right through the city. A 2 degree shift in the wind direction would have changed the storm track significantly. A blizzard was predicted. The exact track of the storm was not. In this case, the train track actually moved. Unfortunately, it settled in a highly unusual place for a very long time. Unless you've seen it, you just don't get it.

 

[CTListener]

OK, I'm out.

 

[fybush]

I'm 60-ish miles east of Buffalo, a distance that often makes an enormous difference. While Buffalo was paralyzed, Rochester had one afternoon of some blowing snow and icy roads but no snow accumulation.

That said: I've lived through blizzards and concur with what the other locals have been saying. It's very hard for non-locals to understand or appreciate how quickly they can change course and how fast conditions can deteriorate. This one was especially brutal because that band of lake effect snow stayed in place for days, continuing to dump feet of snow while 70 mph winds were blowing.

Yes, broadcasters matter immensely at times like that, and not just to us on the message boards. That goes double for public radio. At least over on this end of western New York, we spend a lot of time during pledge drives talking about being committed to the community for more than just profit, and we mean it. I am very certain we'd hear very loudly from listeners and community funders if we weren't there with coverage during a cataclysmic event like this. And I'm glad to be associated with a broadcaster that has that kind of relationship with its community.

Anyway, yeah, this was a cataclysmic event that paralyzed a market of a million people for the better part of a week. If it's not worthy of intense news coverage, I don't know what would be. It seems like a very weird flex indeed to sit somewhere hundreds or thousands of miles away and try to minimize it just for message board yuks.

 

[Roch989]

The fine folks of WNY knew this was coming. Nobody should have put them themselves in that situation. Radio can't help those people…

Many of “those people,” among the 40 souls lost didn’t “put themselves into that situation.”

It would be a good idea to review these situations and the demographics of those killed.

 

[Mike Sheridan]

Interesting comments all. Mine is simple WBFO dropped the ball, epic fail.

What about the other stations? They have a responsibility as well. Get on the phone get statements from public officials and emergency operations people, shelters, Red Cross and Salvation Army. Make the calls, do the work. You don't have to go out in the storm to cover it and talk about it. Yes take calls from listeners who were caught in the storm and how it affected them. Talk about what the people are talking about.

In the future, listeners will remember where to tune for information during times like this. It has nothing to do with rating points and everything to do with serving the listener regardless of format.

 

[Roch989]

If I were trying to survive a Blizzard, my focus would be finding the nearest shelter. Sitting in my car listening to callers talk about the storm doesn't help. The conditions were so bad, that first responders could not go out. Unless your car was fully stocked with survival gear, sitting inside waiting was not a good option...

Ask a first responder and experts in the matter what they advise people to do who are stranded in their cars in places like Buffalo in situations like this.

They know much more than we do.

Some who ventured out of their cars were found, frozen to death in snowbanks.

 

[Roch989]

You are talking about technical issues, while the main point has been narrowed down to an executive decision not to even initiate broad coverage of the storm.

This is not a technical issue; it is a management decision which looks very inappropriate for the station, the situation and the market.

Correct, but I believe you had expressed what if they couldn’t (get audio) to the transmitter?

I merely verified that they CAN do it. I know!

Regardless, your statement below is 100% true:

“it is a management decision which looks very inappropriate for the station, the situation and the market.”

 

[davideduardo]

Correct, but I believe you had expressed what if they couldn’t (get audio) to the transmitter?

Yes, and that was a valid question until we learned that there was no advance planning and no intention to cover the storm as it appears that the focus of management has changed.

I merely verified that they CAN do it. I know!

But TO DO is you have to want to and pre-plan.

Regardless, your statement below is 100% true:

“it is a management decision which looks very inappropriate for the station, the situation and the market.”

Again, we have no official statement from the current management, but it appears that "the building is leaky" in more ways than one and it sounds like the upper management did not see storm coverage as a priority and did not allocate resources to that area.