When 1150 was 5 kW non-directional day time from that location their signal was just adequate for most of the SFV. However, their nighttime 1kW non-directional signal was so weak in the central and west SFV it was barely usable due to a lot co-channel and adjacent channel interference. On the bright side back in the day when they went 5 kW directional at night, their signal was much more favorable particularly in the south portion of the SFV as it was measurably stronger than their 5 kW non-directional daytime signal.
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Any format flips on the horizon for LA?
- Thread starter 30james
- Start date
Great point. Which leads me to another point only briefly touched on here. How many radio stations even provide immediate news in the event of a disaster? Sure, in the largest cities you have all-news outlets. But disasters aren't limited to Nielsen's top markets. I know tornado clusters have ripped through less-populated parts of the midwest, power went out, people turned on battery-powered or car radios desperate for life-saving info-- yet heard nothing but music. IIRC, some angry listeners wanted their congressmen to have the FCC investigate.
Depends on the disaster. Some stations do the weather disasters because they are predictable. Mass shootings aren't, and it takes time to get reporters to the site. There's usually a delay between when something happens and when we know about it. When the mass shooting hit Buffalo, three radio stations provided long form coverage. The reality is a music station isn't going to have qualified staff to handle a disaster, so they're better off staying with the format. You want to have someone qualified reporting on a story, not just a local DJ. Which is why most stations have deals with the local TV news team. Usually the local public station will be the most predictable for coverage, just because they have qualified staffing.
The FCC eliminated most of their news requirements in the 70s & 80s. So it's really not an FCC matter. The Minot train wreck in the early 2000s may be what you're talking about. There were congressional hearings. The disaster happened at 2AM Sunday morning. Local police and emergency staff called the main number of the radio station rather than the designated emergency number. Even then, the station was able to call in its news director who was on the air within an hour of the disaster. The congressional hearings concluded that the radio station was not at fault, and that the train should not have been traveling in a populated area without advance warning.
It might take a humongous staff -- but would involve merely temp employees -- to turn one or two of those super-directional, shoehorned stations into an All-2022 Election Feedback format.
Guaranteed response and many words-of-mouth reactions and ratings for the next three-month trends.
The Radio Locator lists 123 flipping signals in the market, 76 of them considered 'local'. There has to be an avail for such a venture.
And on November 9th, they could start in with an all-Holiday music format.
Guaranteed response and many words-of-mouth reactions and ratings for the next three-month trends.
The Radio Locator lists 123 flipping signals in the market, 76 of them considered 'local'. There has to be an avail for such a venture.
And on November 9th, they could start in with an all-Holiday music format.
Sounds more like KPCC.
LA has two heritage stations that have that covered.
Speakin of only 90 days ish till we KOST w Santa
Egads, it’s still summer.
And there is more to the Minot chemical spill.
The local and area authorities could have activated the Emergency Alert System, and "taken over" the signals of the Clear Channel stations in the market. However, they were poorly or improperly trained and did not know how to do that.
The emergency system has been set up for many years to be activated by civil and government authorities, not radio stations. In fact, stations themselves don't activate the system "on their own".
Even back when that incident occurred, many if not most smaller market stations used satellite delivered formats or automated ones and generally had nobody at the station after office hours and definitely nobody there in overnight hours. The system was created around 1996 to replace the EBS system with precisely a structure that took into account that many stations were not staffed during certain hours of the week and to have a better control system in the hands of civil authorities.
Like Minot, there are are often questions of why the EAS system was not activated, at lest regionally, following the 9/11 attacks. The response is that there was no useful immediate information which would help the situation and thus no need for an EAS activation.
Quite often, and this came out during the congressional hearings, the fault lies with local emergency officials. The Homeland Security Act, passed after 9/11, put local emergency officials in charge of handling local disasters. They were given billions of dollars in federal money for staffing, equipment, and training. Radio was told it had to take a back seat to those officials. So if you wonder why radio isn't more proactive during disasters, the reason is because of the DHS.
🤔
I didn't realize that before fall of 2001 the law of the land stated that radio was in charge of handling local disasters. Because that means I was derelict for the first few years of my career!
(I realize this isn't what you meant, but couldn't resist poking a bit of fun)
Bravo!
This is a multi-part problem. First, government officials often prefer working within their own system and not having to share authority and responsibility with civilian entities... in this case, broadcasters. And broadcasters, as a group, can be outspoken and opinionated which disturbs some government managers who like a different system.
Then there is the issue that broadcasters don't all have the same opinion about things and they actually enjoy defending personal causes. Of course, this is how we often find the best solution.
Again, the old adage that "a camel is a horse built by the government".
Many believe that the EBS and EAS, the successive heirs to CONELRAD, were way to influenced by the military due to the heritage fear of a nuclear attack rather than the reality of dealing with floods, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, chemical spills and earthquakes.
Actually the adage is "A camel is a horse built by committee." I've seen the same errors made by big broadcasters as I've seen by big government.
That saying is attributable to both government and committees. Both work on a consensus of good, bad and mediocre ideas rather than finding the most outstanding single concept and running with it.
Government excels at camel-building. Nearly every Congressional bill is laden with individual senator's pet projects and amendments, added in order to win each one's support for the overall project.
And, yes, broadcast groups that got too big with multiple hierarchical levels also falls victim to this syndrome. Today's corporate radio is nothing like the kind of radio that McLendon, Storz, Storer, Kluge and the like created 60 or so years ago.
It's called compromise. That's how the US was formed. Right now, the congress has lost the ability to compromise. That's why they can't pass a budget or an immigration bill. Each side wants it their way.
Nothing wrong with camels. They may be ugly and stink, but they provide good transportation in some areas.
And the failure to compromise on states' rights produced the Civil War
Just like petroleum based asphalt paving works in some areas, but is horribly impractical in areas where camels thrive. Yet the governments in those areas insist on paving as if we were in Indianapolis.
I have viewed various Midwest tornado coverage videos from local tv stations on You Tube and many tv anchors and weather people are saying “welcome to those of you joining us on 94 FM”or whatever it might be and they try to do an audio description of what the radar map on tv is showing
That's really the most efficient way to proceed. No need for a hundred different stations all doing the same thing, because they're all using basically the same information from the same source.
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