20 Years Ago

[CrazeeCarroll1]

It is hard to believe that it has been 20 years since hurricane Hugo paid South Carolina a very devistating visit. I remember getting home around 11:30 from Spartanburg Methodist College when things really started getting going. Around 3:15 AM we lost power, but I had my trusty walkman keeping me up todate. The two stations I listened to during that time was WNOK and WPUB. WPUB went wall to wall with coverage from around the county as well as the state thanks to WIS TV who allowed them to rebroadcast their live news feed. For me even as a 19 year old teen heading into early adulthood that one storm really got me enthused about broadcasting. I remember listening to The Morning Rush to start things out and hearing people call in with the accounts of what went on. Once WPUB was up and running I listened to them as well to see how other parts of Kershaw County held up... I remember hearing that the eye of the storm had gone right up lake Wateree which put our part of the county right on the NE side of the storm... There was a lot of talented people who pulled those first 24 to 48 hours off which really impressed me. If anybody was on air during the night of Hugo or had a lot of involvement with getting reports on the air I would love to hear about them... Sorry I have not been active here much lately, but work has been keeping me busy as well as my net station... CC1

 

[charlestondxman]

I heard Hugo was a ridiculous storm even in the Columbia area. Tony Desiere on WSPO yesterday was telling stories about the storm, and how trees were down and strewn thru streets even in downtown Columbia, well over 100 miles away from landfall.

In the Charleston area, only a couple of stations broadcast during the storm: Q107, which signed off at midnight, WPDQ Jacksonville, which stayed on all night, and one or two others. The others were off the air (even WTMA: with Dan Moon's famous saying, "We'll see you on the other side.")

If a storm like that came today, people would not be prepared for it. What are your memories of the storm?

 

[Gatekeeper007]

People were not prepared back then. I was off that afternoon and was talking to some friends about the storm heading toward us, they told me not to worry that we were 60 miles from the coast and that the worst part of the storm would never reach us. I had lived in Florida for 10 years and this wasn't my first storm so I knew better than to believe that. The afternoon was pretty with white puffy clouds blue sky and low humidity, the lull before the storm. Well to say the least the damage all around us was trouble the next morning, the storm had come a shore traveled up the lakes crossing directly over us and turning to the north just 10 miles north west of us. The eye of the storm crossed our area between 12:30 and 1:00am and lasted for a little over 16 min. before the rain and wind returned. Our electric went just before midnight as showers of blue flashes could be seen as the power lines fell and didn't return for two weeks but we were lucky as we were on a main line, it could have been much longer. We live 3 miles from Elloree and 4.5 miles from Santee but neither town could be reached for two days due to down trees. Just three months later during a very cold winter we 8 inches of snow on Christmas Eve, a white Christmas. Yes I remember Hugo and 1989.

 

[Radio-X]

In the Charleston area, only a couple of stations broadcast during the storm: Q107, which signed off at midnight, WPDQ Jacksonville, which stayed on all night, and one or two others. The others were off the air (even WTMA: with Dan Moon's famous saying, "We'll see you on the other side.")

I had heard some of the Beaufort stations were able to broadcast...most likely 99.7 which would have given a decent signal in Charleston.

I also heard Hugo toppled a couple of radio towers. SCETV moved their stations to Awendaw soon after that.

I can't imagine today that there would be no radio stations able to operate in a storm. WWL was able to stay on through most of Katrina and an FM/TV tower operated with diesel power. Of course, we're talking about 20 years ago in an area where hurricanes tend not to visit too often...

Radio-X

 

[rygert]

I had heard some of the Beaufort stations were able to broadcast...most likely 99.7 which would have given a decent signal in Charleston.

[/quote]

WHTK 99.7 did stay on the air, and got some accolades for their coverage after the Hurricane. This was long before the station moved from Port Royal but the signal in Charleston wasn't so bad even then.

I think that I remember WPDQ 690 using their day facilities at night so that they could provide better coverage to the parts of SC that were hard hit.

 

[fortmill]

Q107 did a heck of a job after Hugo, staying on continuously and broadcasting non-stop information and relaying messages between people who had no other form of communication. I lived in Chesterfield Co. at the time and had my undamaged (we had 100 MPH winds there) Wineguard FM antenna aimed at the low country for about a week after the storm and my Pioneer tuner on the now defunct 107.5. Q107 said they were the only Charleston station on the air for about 5 days--I certainly couldn't get any of the usuals, but Q came in great the entire time. I remember how excited they were when the first power came back on in the Charleston area a week after the storm (very small patches in the hospital/Northwoods area as I remember). At one point I remember Q begging for ANYONE to bring diesel fuel to their transmitter site as they were of course operating on generator. BTW, WITV, the SCETV station, was off the air for 6 solid months--they opted to wait for their previously planned Awendaw TX to be completed rather than repair the MT. Pleasant site.

 

[Gatekeeper007]

107.5 transmitter site was at Ridgeville quit a bit further inland than most of the transmitter site nearer the coast and was lucky enough to survive funny thing is that when the cat country owners took over years later all they would do is complain that that site was too far inland to cover Charleston, never made any sense to me as you could pick up 107.5 good on the coast with a portable radio as we did at the beach many times. I always thought Ridgeville was one of the best site for coverage in the low country good height and you didn't waste half your signal in the ocean.

 

[charlestondxman]

That 107.5 signal at the St. George transmitter was probably the best one in SC, and one of the best in the SE. You could hear it pretty clearly in Columbia, Savannah, and Charleston. It also had a great inland signal, probably the best for 60 miles from St. Matthews all the way to Summerville.

Hugo must have been a very bad storm for local radio, as they were showing some of the specials last week for the storm, and they were basically letting anchors like Bill Sharpe and Dan Ashley (TV-2 main anchor at the time), have free reign over stations like WTMA and the FMs.

Charleston was a much different market at the time, and now, I don't know if people would be prepared to do non-stop storm coverage. Back then, even WEZL had their own news department, while now, only WTMA and 94.3 have them, and they don't have more than 3-4 people. Everyone would simulcast them.

 

[artsutton]

That 107.5 signal at the St. George transmitter was probably the best one in SC, and one of the best in the SE. You could hear it pretty clearly in Columbia, Savannah, and Charleston. It also had a great inland signal, probably the best for 60 miles from St. Matthews all the way to Summerville.

Hugo must have been a very bad storm for local radio, as they were showing some of the specials last week for the storm, and they were basically letting anchors like Bill Sharpe and Dan Ashley (TV-2 main anchor at the time), have free reign over stations like WTMA and the FMs.

Charleston was a much different market at the time, and now, I don't know if people would be prepared to do non-stop storm coverage. Back then, even WEZL had their own news department, while now, only WTMA and 94.3 have them, and they don't have more than 3-4 people. Everyone would simulcast them.

WSB(AM-750) in Atlanta devoted many non stop hours of programming to Charleston residents when Hugo hit. In fact, they were broadcasting emergency info when the storm hit. They started it when the station received calls from Charleston residents who were able to tune in The Voice of the South on their battery operated transistor radios.The skywave from WSB into Charleston at night was particularly strong.

Also, I understand a station in the Beaufort area on 106.1 or 106.5...not sure which and maybe the calls were WLOW but at the time Beau Sanders was the General Manager. They were 100KW and were able to remain on the air and even received recognition from the White House for their community service broadcasting during that historic storm.

 

[FeedJake]

I lived in Myrtle Beach during Hurricane Hugo, and was just looking at the hundreds of pictures I took the morning after that monster storm decimated Surfside Beach, Garden City, and the other nearby communities. That was a pretty amazing week.

1989 was the year BEFORE I got into this lovely industry, but I was still VERY much a radio groupie back then. I remember one of the VERY few stations to be broadcasting in Myrtle Beach that night was WKZQ. I still remember Randy Nein was the jock on the air, and they had left the Seaboard Street studio and were broadcasting from the transmitter site. (Back then I think it was in Loris, or close by)

They kept playing "Riders On The Storm," "Riding The Storm Out," and "Rock You Like A Hurricane."

One of my coolest radio memories...I'll never forget the feeling that night...terrified and excited all at the same time...with WKZQ keeping me company.

 

[vchimpanzee]

That 107.5 signal at the St. George transmitter was probably the best one in SC, and one of the best in the SE. You could hear it pretty clearly in Columbia, Savannah, and Charleston. It also had a great inland signal, probably the best for 60 miles from St. Matthews all the way to Summerville.

Hugo must have been a very bad storm for local radio, as they were showing some of the specials last week for the storm, and they were basically letting anchors like Bill Sharpe and Dan Ashley (TV-2 main anchor at the time), have free reign over stations like WTMA and the FMs.

Charleston was a much different market at the time, and now, I don't know if people would be prepared to do non-stop storm coverage. Back then, even WEZL had their own news department, while now, only WTMA and 94.3 have them, and they don't have more than 3-4 people. Everyone would simulcast them.

WSB(AM-750) in Atlanta devoted many non stop hours of programming to Charleston residents when Hugo hit. In fact, they were broadcasting emergency info when the storm hit. They started it when the station received calls from Charleston residents who were able to tune in The Voice of the South on their battery operated transistor radios.The skywave from WSB into Charleston at night was particularly strong.

Also, I understand a station in the Beaufort area on 106.1 or 106.5...not sure which and maybe the calls were WLOW but at the time Beau Sanders was the General Manager. They were 100KW and were able to remain on the air and even received recognition from the White House for their community service broadcasting during that historic storm.

WLOW was 106.9 and 50,000 watts. They didn't get 100,000 watts until several years after that, if then. I remember a CP but I don't remember it being used.

 

[rygert]

WSB(AM-750) in Atlanta devoted many non stop hours of programming to Charleston residents when Hugo hit. In fact, they were broadcasting emergency info when the storm hit. They started it when the station received calls from Charleston residents who were able to tune in The Voice of the South on their battery operated transistor radios.The skywave from WSB into Charleston at night was particularly strong.

Also, I understand a station in the Beaufort area on 106.1 or 106.5...not sure which and maybe the calls were WLOW but at the time Beau Sanders was the General Manager. They were 100KW and were able to remain on the air and even received recognition from the White House for their community service broadcasting during that historic storm.

WLOW was 106.9 and 50,000 watts. They didn't get 100,000 watts until several years after that, if then. I remember a CP but I don't remember it being used.

Beau Sanders was GM at 99.7 WHTK. In 1989, they were 100kw and still a Beaufort-Hilton Head area station, licensed to Port Royal and broadcasting from St. Helena Island. Except during the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo, 99.7 didn't get much attention in Charleston although the signal wasn't too bad. Much later, the station was re-licensed to Hollywood in the Charleston market where it's now near the top of the ratings as WXST.

 

[pokerface]

I was working in Baltimore at the time, and had picked that weekend for a trip home to Orangeburg. I didn't pay much attention to the weather reports, those "meterologists" are all alarmists.

Cruising down I-95, i noticed traffic really starting to thin out around 10pm. I was at the NC/SC border around midnight or so listening to WKZQ when they got knocked off the air, but still wasn't all that concerned, as all i was driving through was light rain. Within an hour or so, it began steadily getting much worse. By the time i got to Santee, the wind was blowing so hard from my right side that it pushed water through the seal of the closed window, and I literally had to crab the car into the wind to keep going straight across the bridge.

It eventually got so bad that all traffic stopped on I-95, and that's where i rode the hurricane out, listening to J.R. Berry (whom I'd worked with at WDXY) stay on the air all night in the beginning of the marathon broadcast that would be the catapault to his getting into TV. When the eye came through several hours later, I drove on to Orangeburg, dodging downed trees and power lines all the way. It was the first time I'd honestly feared for my life (OK, the second. I forgot my wedding day).

And that 107.5 signal was amazing when it was in St. George. When the station became Disco 107 in the late 70s, I was listening to it in Orangeburg, more than 60 miles from the tower site. 107.5 came in much better in Orangeburg at the time than did WNOK FM, even though WNOK's tower was closer.

I worked weekends there after it became Q107, before they moved the studios to Charleston, still broadcasting from Mr. Jones' back yard with the cows walking by the windows.

Once they moved the tower closer to Charleston, it became very difficult to pick up in Orangeburg.

Listening to JR that night made a big impression on me. In 1995, when I was at WILN/Panama City, Opal was bearing down on us, and most of the other stations in town turned on the automation or signed off when they declared a mandatory evacuation. Even though our studios were less than a mile from the beach, I said I was staying, that someone had to "broadcast in the public interest" (besides, those "meterologists" are all alarmists). The rest of my airstaff volunteered to stay with me, we got some supplies and dug in. Of course, 15 minutes after the leading edge of the hurricane hit, we watched as our tower folded up and came down. Oh well ........