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East Palestine, OH train derailment - Any radio station covering it?

Theater of My Mind

Theater of My Mind

There are evacuation and shelter-in-place orders tonight in East Palestine, OH, 15 miles from Youngstown, due to a huge train derailment and fire involving hazardous materials. Are any radio stations on the air doing live coverage of this? It's the top story on CNN but I checked "News Radio" 570 WKBN and they are doing an Art Bell Rewind show.
 
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The other thing at play here is that there may simply not be much "breaking news" to report at this point. From what I've seen and read, there was the derailment and resulting fire, they've evacuated everyone within a 1 mile radius of that, there are 2 shelters open and the rail company won't yet let firefighters into the area, as they're not fully certain which sections of the train are actively burning and which chemical(s) may be involved. Most anything outside of that would probably be just rumor and hearsay from the locals.
 
johnbasalla said:
How much different would the local radio coverage be if the accident would have happened on a Tuesday or Wednesday?
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I checked WKBN again today even as local officials were warning of an imminent explosion, expanded the evacuation zone and the Ohio governor warned of a ‘grave danger of death’ near the burning site. The station was still running syndicated talk as if nothing was happening so I think the answer is, it would have made no difference.
 
Theater of My Mind said:
The station was still running syndicated talk as if nothing was happening so I think the answer is, it would have made no difference.
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What time did you listen? Dave Price has been repeating the local evacuation information all day. Yes they ran Clay Travis in mid-day, but with the local news inserts. They have a local talk show on in afternoon drive. Ron Verb is taking calls right now from residents talking about the situation.
 
TheBigA said:
What time did you listen? Dave Price has been repeating the local evacuation information all day. Yes they ran Clay Travis in mid-day, but with the local news inserts. They have a local talk show on in afternoon drive. Ron Verb is taking calls right now from residents talking about the situation.
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Yes it was Clay Travis running in mid-day when I checked. It's good to hear they are on it now.
 
schmave said:
KDKA and WKBN are the only ones that would IMO, and even that is no certainty.
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I doubt KDKA would have much interest in spending the time, resources and most importantly money to cover this in depth. Though Pittsburgh is only an hour away from the site of this incident in East Palestine, OH, few residents there probably can or do tune into KDKA...And KDKA is a Pittsburgh station, concentrated on news and happenings that market.
 
Don't be so sure. Pittsburgh TV stations, which are available in that area, have been there covering just like Cleveland, which is considerably farther. It's only 50 miles away and it's a big story. At the very least, they would have some updates, especially if the fallout or whatever you want to call it begins to affect the Pittsburgh area.
I would be very surprised if no one in that area follows or to some extent relies on Pittsburgh media.
 
Radio$$$man said:
Was the EAS activated?
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That's a good question, and TTBOMK it was not. Keep in mind that since the Homeland Security Act was passed over 20 years ago, all power for communications to the public in an emergency resides with local emergency officials. Theye determine who is essential and who gets evacuated. Not someone in radio or TV. From the minute this accident happened, it was all their responsibility.
 
schmave said:
Don't be so sure. Pittsburgh TV stations, which are available in that area, have been there covering just like Cleveland, which is considerably farther. It's only 50 miles away and it's a big story. At the very least, they would have some updates, especially if the fallout or whatever you want to call it begins to affect the Pittsburgh area.
I would be very surprised if no one in that area follows or to some extent relies on Pittsburgh media.
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Right. So KDKA, an hours' drive from East Palestine, OH will give this the same coverage and attention they'd give any national story, or any bigger story in that general region of the country...But they're not going to do "live coverage" of this derailment event as the OP was asking/suggesting. It's too far outside the Pittsburgh radio market and again, there's just not the interest or listenership of KDKA in East Palestine, OH to justify it. East Palestine is only 30 minutes from Youngstown, OH which is probably where most of their residents get their news and information.
 

NewsNation Reporter arrested during news event on Ohio train derailment​

www.ctpost.com

Reporter arrested during news event on Ohio train derailment

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (AP) — A broadcast reporter was pushed to the ground, handcuffed...
www.ctpost.com www.ctpost.com
A broadcast reporter was pushed to the ground, handcuffed and arrested for trespassing Wednesday while covering a news conference about the derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals in Ohio. NewsNation posted video of correspondent Evan Lambert being arrested in the gymnasium of an elementary school in East Palestine where Gov. Mike DeWine was giving an update about the accident.
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At the end of his news conference, DeWine said he didn't authorize the arrest and reporters have “every right" to report during briefings.
“If someone was stopped from doing that, or told they could not do that, that was wrong,” DeWine said.
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The news conference started more than two hours late and DeWine started speaking at the same instant Lambert had to do a live broadcast from the back of the gym, Preston Swigart, a photographer who was with Lambert, told NewsNation.
Swigart said police officers approached Lambert and asked him to stop talking. Lambert finished the live report but was then asked to leave by authorities, who tried to forcibly remove him from the event, NewsNation reported.
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Mikey Radio said:

NewsNation Reporter arrested during news event on Ohio train derailment​

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Not a surprise to me. As I said, local emergency officials are in charge of these things, not radio & TV. The reporters do what they're told. If the police tell them to evacuate, they have to evacuate. It doesn't matter if they want to report on a disaster.
 
TheBigA said:
Not a surprise to me. As I said, local emergency officials are in charge of these things, not radio & TV. The reporters do what they're told. If the police tell them to evacuate, they have to evacuate. It doesn't matter if they want to report on a disaster.
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I'm not disagreeing, but in this case, after reading about this story from a few sources, it seems the law enforcement officers were also a bit more than overzealous. Governor DeWine's news conference started a few hours late, at the same time this reporter was due to go live. They were in a large gymnasium and at least some in attendance said they didn't hear his reporting from all the way at the far end away from the governor, nor did it distract from the governor's speaking. The biggest distraction was when the cops started yelling and then, ultimately, took this reporter to the ground after he'd already stopped reporting. According to reports, even DeWine didn't "back the blue" in this case and said what law enforcement did was wrong. It'll be interested to see if any charges stick or if they'll be dropped, and if there's any pushback from the network or others.
 
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TheBigA said:
Not a surprise to me. As I said, local emergency officials are in charge of these things, not radio & TV. The reporters do what they're told. If the police tell them to evacuate, they have to evacuate. It doesn't matter if they want to report on a disaster.
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But the issue was "talking while the governor was talking", not failing to evacuate. That is more like repression of news than failing to obey authorities in an emergency.
 
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