Effects on broadcasting from the storm of 08/23/2023

[SomeRadioGuy]

Just to prove some of you wrong and that radio isnt a vast wasteland, i have two examples for you

Freak May snowstorm knocks out power to nearly 15,000 of the 30,000 residents in Laramie, WY when heavy wet snow took out trees and branches.

Most stations are without power.. but KLMI-FM is on the air with an auto fail over generator at the studio that starts up in less than 60 seconds even though UPS will hold the studio and rack for 10-20 minutes. A Battery back up at the on channel booster site is available and texts go out if mains power is lost and the battery back up goes on over there.

If all hell broke loose and the on channel booster loses power, theres a SHTF 300W transmitter and one bay antenna on the roof of the studio. (The main rarely loses power but is terrain shadowed from the city)

Whos in the studio at 1030 at night on the air giving out info in his PJ's? The owner.

I'm on facebook keeping an eye on social media posts from locals people, governments and stuff

Where I am now... flooding is a problem when the river starts flowing again. it happened 2 years ago here and I was new to the job still, barely 6 months in.. i was on the air several times between 9 and 1130pm relaying information called into me by our city administrator and state cop, then I went to bed.

I was then on the air on and off at least twice an hour between 6am and 3pm with details on what was flooded, impassable, and other information. Didn't care who or what was on the air, I'd fire off a news sounder and let it play a few seconds to grab peoples attention and then go on air with whatever info I had.

This past spring I was on the air just past midnight when water was just starting to make it on the road off the south end of our runway when our state trooper called me to let me know. Then I hopped on my ATV to head down and take a picture.

There are many radio stations who still provide this public service and many who don't. Radio responds to what its audience wants, needs and advertisers will pay for. I do see some average joes complaining now and then about a lack of coverage, but mostly.. its radio geeks complaining about what radio isnt doing.

And then they use that slanted opinion to paint a broad brush.

I will NOT work for any stations who won't let me do and wont be a part of coverage like I described above. Which is why I'm still here after 3 years, because i get to do what I feel is right.

If our tower at KSKO were to collapse or some other failure, I have 75 feet of cable, a back up transmitter and one bay dipole and i could get KSKO back on air in about 2-3 hours, maybe less as long as I had an internet connection

 

[radiofollower]

This is part of the discussion that the state of radio today is the inevitable evolution of choices made over the years by the listeners, the owners and the regulators. And that is the crux of the ongoing discussion of the changes in the industry since the 1990s, which is a type of chicken-and-egg scenario. Is it the choices made by the owners that forced listeners to make the choices they have, or is it the choices the listeners were already making and foreseen to make that forced the owners to make those choices?
Since we can't press the "reset" button and go back and change history or technology, we will never know what could have been. It is what it is right now. And that is a realistic and practical outlook for survival in any business. However, we certainly can speculate as to where audience and ownership and regulatory choices are taking the entire realm of modern communications and suggest how that may be tailored to best serve our needs going forward. "We will always have Paris."

I recall during the historic blizzard of 1978, WMMS stepped up their storm coverage dramatically. I recall the jocks on the phone with various city and state officials. And this is in the days when it was only WMMS-WHK in common ownership without WTAM to glom on to and take their coverage/personnel. I remember that they picked up the GM in his car via a mobile phone (no cell phones in those days) describing the impact on the city. They were not a news station, but understood the gravity of the situation and rose to the event. Today, any of the Cleveland iHeart FMs would probably just patch in WTAM or use their personnel, but what of the Audicy, Salem and Urban One stations? Do they even have newsrooms anymore, much less have actual humans on board most of the time?

 

[CleveRadioInsider]

I am in total agreement with you! What has happened to Public Service, taking care of your community. Not only is it the fault of the FCC, which has changed over the years about stations serving the community, but also the EAS system. When the power goes out, how do you know what is happening with the weather. I remember during the Blizzard in Ohio in 1978 being on the air, 24 hours a day when folks in the county lost power, below freezing temperatures, and our AM got permission to broadcast 24 hours during this emergency. Now days, that would not happen. Lack of weather coverage during any storm is not acceptable, but what can be done about it?

Just think that was in

Just to prove some of you wrong and that radio isnt a vast wasteland, i have two examples for you

Freak May snowstorm knocks out power to nearly 15,000 of the 30,000 residents in Laramie, WY when heavy wet snow took out trees and branches.

Most stations are without power.. but KLMI-FM is on the air with an auto fail over generator at the studio that starts up in less than 60 seconds even though UPS will hold the studio and rack for 10-20 minutes. A Battery back up at the on channel booster site is available and texts go out if mains power is lost and the battery back up goes on over there.

If all hell broke loose and the on channel booster loses power, theres a SHTF 300W transmitter and one bay antenna on the roof of the studio. (The main rarely loses power but is terrain shadowed from the city)

Whos in the studio at 1030 at night on the air giving out info in his PJ's? The owner.

I'm on facebook keeping an eye on social media posts from locals people, governments and stuff

Where I am now... flooding is a problem when the river starts flowing again. it happened 2 years ago here and I was new to the job still, barely 6 months in.. i was on the air several times between 9 and 1130pm relaying information called into me by our city administrator and state cop, then I went to bed.

I was then on the air on and off at least twice an hour between 6am and 3pm with details on what was flooded, impassable, and other information. Didn't care who or what was on the air, I'd fire off a news sounder and let it play a few seconds to grab peoples attention and then go on air with whatever info I had.

This past spring I was on the air just past midnight when water was just starting to make it on the road off the south end of our runway when our state trooper called me to let me know. Then I hopped on my ATV to head down and take a picture.

There are many radio stations who still provide this public service and many who don't. Radio responds to what its audience wants, needs and advertisers will pay for. I do see some average joes complaining now and then about a lack of coverage, but mostly.. its radio geeks complaining about what radio isnt doing.

And then they use that slanted opinion to paint a broad brush.

I will NOT work for any stations who won't let me do and wont be a part of coverage like I described above. Which is why I'm still here after 3 years, because i get to do what I feel is right.

If our tower at KSKO were to collapse or some other failure, I have 75 feet of cable, a back up transmitter and one bay dipole and i could get KSKO back on air in about 2-3 hours, maybe less as long as I had an internet connection

I wouldn't call myself a radio geek or anything like that. I worked in the business in mid 90s it was starting to die then and saw it for what it was worth and got out into another profession. But if you're doing what you're saying good for you and your audience. It is unfortunately the rarity now not the norm. Kudos to you.

 

[davideduardo]

Who cares if they are white or not. It is not a crime to be white People of all colors predominantly don't even listen to the radio anymore.

No, just 85% of all adults in the US use radio every week for at least some amount of time. Let's not awfulize the situation with "facts" that are not true.

It is podcasts,youtube and whatever they pull up on their phones. I can't remember the last time I've listened to anything on terrestrial radio.

OK, and there is a growing percentage of people who do that. But many people, in fact a huge majority, do use some form of radio. Just less than in the past, and often on new media streams or channels.

The medium is dead.

Yet radio will bill around $13 billion in revenue this year.

And what you are forgetting is that "radio" is not just the AM and FM signals we know of historically... it is the streaming of nearly every station in the country (and all the significant ones) which is part of the audience for traditional "terrestrial" radio.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Just think that was in

I wouldn't call myself a radio geek or anything like that. I worked in the business in mid 90s it was starting to die then and saw it for what it was worth and got out into another profession. But if you're doing what you're saying good for you and your audience. It is unfortunately the rarity now not the norm. Kudos to you.

I do it and then some.... we far exceed any public service requirement past and present, listeners depend on us. We dont have to maintain a public file anymore either but anything that went in there was genuine and not done just to pay lip service. We Far exceeded anything required of the public file in terms of anything remotely related to public service/community involvement filings or anything like that.

I wouldnt say what we do is a rarity, but it isnt the norm.. its somewhere in between.

 

[davideduardo]

This is part of the discussion that the state of radio today is the inevitable evolution of choices made over the years by the listeners, the owners and the regulators. And that is the crux of the ongoing discussion of the changes in the industry since the 1990s, which is a type of chicken-and-egg scenario. Is it the choices made by the owners that forced listeners to make the choices they have, or is it the choices the listeners were already making and foreseen to make that forced the owners to make those choices?

It was radio reacting to what research determined listeners wanted. No significant station in at least a top 100 market did not do some kind of proprietary research.

Since we can't press the "reset" button and go back and change history or technology, we will never know what could have been. It is what it is right now. And that is a realistic and practical outlook for survival in any business. However, we certainly can speculate as to where audience and ownership and regulatory choices are taking the entire realm of modern communications and suggest how that may be tailored to best serve our needs going forward. "We will always have Paris."

Any industry works based on the amount of revenue available and the number of players going for that money. Docket 80-90 ruined local service in most of the markets under #100 and affected many larger ones like Houston, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Dallas and the like. Too many stations, no increase in revenue means cuts in staff and services.

 

[CleveRadioInsider]

No, just 85% of all adults in the US use radio every week for at least some amount of time. Let's not awfulize the situation with "facts" that are not true.

OK, and there is a growing percentage of people who do that. But many people, in fact a huge majority, do use some form of radio. Just less than in the past, and often on new media streams or channels.

Yet radio will bill around $13 billion in revenue this year.

And what you are forgetting is that "radio" is not just the AM and FM signals we know of historically... it is the streaming of nearly every station in the country (and all the significant ones) which is part of the audience for traditional "terrestrial" radio.

85% of people use the radio and yet when I go into work most people talk about the podcasts they listen too, what music they streamed I very rarely hear anyone talk about what they heard on the Mark Nolan show or Wills/Snyder. Whatever ad revenue they are bringing in is because of the streaming. I truly can't remember the last time I've turned on an AM or FM station in my vehicle when driving nor do I know any of my friends that do so. Will radio survive? In some form or another but today we can all be broadcasters with podcasting there is no art form to it anymore. Anybody can go sit on their couch and broadcast something now. If people want to listen to radio stations have at it. I just don't see the appeal of one jock on 50 stations.

 

[thenetwork]

Just to prove some of you wrong and that radio isnt a vast wasteland, i have two examples for you

Freak May snowstorm knocks out power to nearly 15,000 of the 30,000 residents in Laramie, WY when heavy wet snow took out trees and branches.

Most stations are without power.. but KLMI-FM is on the air with an auto fail over generator at the studio that starts up in less than 60 seconds even though UPS will hold the studio and rack for 10-20 minutes. A Battery back up at the on channel booster site is available and texts go out if mains power is lost and the battery back up goes on over there.

If all hell broke loose and the on channel booster loses power, theres a SHTF 300W transmitter and one bay antenna on the roof of the studio. (The main rarely loses power but is terrain shadowed from the city)

Whos in the studio at 1030 at night on the air giving out info in his PJ's? The owner.

I'm on facebook keeping an eye on social media posts from locals people, governments and stuff

Where I am now... flooding is a problem when the river starts flowing again. it happened 2 years ago here and I was new to the job still, barely 6 months in.. i was on the air several times between 9 and 1130pm relaying information called into me by our city administrator and state cop, then I went to bed.

I was then on the air on and off at least twice an hour between 6am and 3pm with details on what was flooded, impassable, and other information. Didn't care who or what was on the air, I'd fire off a news sounder and let it play a few seconds to grab peoples attention and then go on air with whatever info I had.

This past spring I was on the air just past midnight when water was just starting to make it on the road off the south end of our runway when our state trooper called me to let me know. Then I hopped on my ATV to head down and take a picture.

There are many radio stations who still provide this public service and many who don't. Radio responds to what its audience wants, needs and advertisers will pay for. I do see some average joes complaining now and then about a lack of coverage, but mostly.. its radio geeks complaining about what radio isnt doing.

And then they use that slanted opinion to paint a broad brush.

I will NOT work for any stations who won't let me do and wont be a part of coverage like I described above. Which is why I'm still here after 3 years, because i get to do what I feel is right.

If our tower at KSKO were to collapse or some other failure, I have 75 feet of cable, a back up transmitter and one bay dipole and i could get KSKO back on air in about 2-3 hours, maybe less as long as I had an internet connection

I once worked at an FM station "somewhere in NEOH" (that shall remain nameless) about 20-some years ago. Their coverage area was a good 50 mile radius or so, which easily covered 5-7 counties.

When severe weather started to trigger weather warnings in our western-most coverage area, I would mention the watches and warnings, the areas affected and the direction the storms were taking during the breaks.

One time, my anal-retentive Program Director pulled me aside and told me "Only mention the weather warnings that are for the county THE STATION is in". Nevermind that the station was less than 15 minutes away from at least 3 other counties.

So we couldn't alert listeners who could easily pick us up in other counties to take cover (if necessary) or to prepare the station's county that severe weather was just over the county line heading this way??? No, he basically told me to stick with the months-old worn out liner cards and stick with the format.

I had to really bite my tongue and lip during the one staff meeting when he said "If someone here can do a better job than me, come take over the meeting". He was one of the worst radio bosses I worked for, despite doing two different stints there.

 

[davideduardo]

I just don't see the appeal of one jock on 50 stations.

And yet that is why in much of the world... most of Europe and Latin America among the areas... radio is doing much better than in the US because one "station" is on dozens or even hundreds of transmitters covering the whole country. Each station is located in the "main city" of the nation, such as London or Madrid or Lima or Santiago or Sao Paulo and the talent has access to writers, producers and lots and lots of artists and celebrities. The host or hosting team on those national stations is among the best in the nation.

This can be compared to the late-night TV shows on the networks. Going back to Steve Allen and Johnny Carson, TV realized that a major host in an entertainment center would beat local shows in Cleveland or Tulsa or Orlando. Radio has not figured this out yet, although we are close with Seacreast, Charlamagne Da God and Bobby Bones. But none of those is in every single national market like the night TV shows are.

 

[tvnut]

I do it and then some.... we far exceed any public service requirement past and present, listeners depend on us. We dont have to maintain a public file anymore either but anything that went in there was genuine and not done just to pay lip service. We Far exceeded anything required of the public file in terms of anything remotely related to public service/community involvement filings or anything like that.

I wouldnt say what we do is a rarity, but it isnt the norm.. its somewhere in between.

Well done! I'm sure the community thanks you.

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

Well done! I'm sure the community thanks you.

look us up on social media and the web, 7 hours a day of local programming.. we do the most insanely local things you can think of

The town considers us an essential part of emergency response to a disaster....

 

[CleveRadioInsider]

Hopefully in Florida they see the value of radio during the current Hurricane and future Hurricanes. Even if you have zero local programming someone earlier mentioned simulcasting a TV station. For some reason years ago during a Tornado I remember WTAM simulcasting Channel 3's coverage of Tornado warnings.

 

[johnbasalla]

The medium is dead.

Until a number of stations of some significance sign off-the-air for good, the medium is not dead.

 

[snowdog88]

Until a number of stations of some significance sign off-the-air for good, the medium is not dead.

Agreed. The medium isn't dead. It's listener base, however, is.

 

[tvnut]

Agreed. The medium isn't dead. It's listener base, however, is.

Let me check my pulse. ... Nope, still alive. And you?

 

[davideduardo]

Hopefully in Florida they see the value of radio during the current Hurricane and future Hurricanes. Even if you have zero local programming someone earlier mentioned simulcasting a TV station. For some reason years ago during a Tornado I remember WTAM simulcasting Channel 3's coverage of Tornado warnings.

iHeart, often maligned and insulted, put a number of its Florida Gulf Coast stations in a little network and is running hurricane and relief news.

All stations do not have to cover the storm... or any event. Just as the beauty parlor does not have to sell cement mixers, all it takes is one or two stations providing information.

But the NAB should do a campaign that says "whenever there is an emergency and all else fails, you will be glad to have a radio".

 

[davideduardo]

Agreed. The medium isn't dead. It's listener base, however, is.

Again, 85% of adults use radio every week.

And, as mentioned elsewhere, "radio" is not just AM and FM. It is the streams of those stations and group owners which Nielsen and advertisers consider to be part of radio.

 

[Rusty Muck]

Again, 85% of adults use radio every week.

And, as mentioned elsewhere, "radio" is not just AM and FM. It is the streams of those stations and group owners which Nielsen and advertisers consider to be part of radio.

The pie still exists, only the sizes of the slices have changed in size.

 

[skiwest]

The pie still exists, only the sizes of the slices have changed in size.

And the pie has gotten stale.

 

[CleveRadioInsider]

The most stale pie of all is the sports stations that talk Cleveland Browns 24/7/365. How anyone can listen to that is beyond me