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Clear Channel drops the ball

MarcB

MarcB

Clear Channel dropped the ball when it came to coverage of today's tornado in Springfield. They were carrying Howie Carr out of Boston on WHYN 560 AM instead of covering the tornado. WHYN's studios are on Main Street in Springfield, ground zero for the tornado.


By the way anyone know how coverage was handled on WARE 1250? Their studios are in Palmer, Mass and I heard Palmer got hit too.
 
WAQY-FM 102.1, a.k.a. Rock 102 is talking about the tornado as we speak. It's after 7 PM, preempting the Nights with Alice Cooper. Their DJ said at least 20 people are hurt and there's a possible fatality. I can't receive any digital TV signals from Springfield, so I'm simply going on WWLP's website right now otherwise.
 
It seems that the Clear Channel FMs did nothing either. Kix, Mix, and RNX were all just running regular programming. I don't even think I heard a traffic report. Four people are dead and thirty three injured because a tornado hits your market and you don't have the staff to handle it? Nice work Clear Channel Springfield!
 
MarcB said:
Clear Channel dropped the ball when it came to coverage of today's tornado in Springfield. They were carrying Howie Carr out of Boston on WHYN 560 AM instead of covering the tornado. WHYN's studios are on Main Street in Springfield, ground zero for the tornado.


By the way anyone know how coverage was handled on WARE 1250? Their studios are in Palmer, Mass and I heard Palmer got hit too.
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I don't know if WARE covered it but I can tell you I heard downtown Monson is a mess. The roof of the Adams IGA was heavily damaged and the steeple was blown off one of the churches. I have a camper at a campground there. Crossing my fingers.
 
After 6pm, WHYN AM & FM were covering the tornado with a simulcast and continued at least into the 7pm hour - I was a little surprised they didn't rely on CBS 3 Springfield for a wall to wall simulcast. WPKX was either on reduced power or off the air - WSKQ 97.9 was audible in Colchester, CT. WMAS had WWLP 22's coverage. WAQY's Bax and Bob Kester took calls.
 
I am able to get to get Channel 40 on my over the air 7 inch digital TV and was able to see Springfield's tornado live as it happened. I was unable to stay by the TV and radio this evening because of hockey. WMAS 94.7 was giving emergency information and a traffic report at 5 pm. At 7 pm a garbled inaudible weather alert was being aired simultaneously on WTIC AM & FM and WKSS. At 11 pm WHYN FM 93.1 was airing a press conference, music on WMAS 94.7 and WAQY 102.1.
 
I give the Award to Pat Kelly on WLZX lazer 99.3. He was taking Live phone calls of any reports. I feel like it was the way I handled the Freak snowstorm on WXCI back in January with Traffic reports. I was listening to WLZX on the internet stream to get information on the storm. I also went Storm intercepting today In NY,CT and NJ it was a big "bust" for me
 
A little after 10PM I was going out to pick up a friend and I put on KIX 97.9 and they were simulcasting WHYN 560 AM. Whoever was on said they were simulcasting on all the Clear Channel stations MIX 93.1, WRNX, KIX 97.9, and NewsTalk 560. They were taking calls from listeners who were sharing their experiences along with the current conditions in their neighborhood. I switched over to MIX 93.1 because they were coming in better than KIX. At 11:45 when my friend and I got out of Denny's MIX was back to music.
 
KML-224 said:
Good luck UNCLE TODD...callers to WAQY-FM said a campground in Brimfield, MA is gone. :(
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you might want to youtube Brimfield MA tornado. Unbelievable Damage.
 
Hot 93.7 spending a lot of time covering it this morning. The regular morning show is on, but people are calling in. Nice job, 'ZMX.
 
The 5 Zimmer stations in Joplin, MO are still doing wall to wall coverage of the tornado. Their news coverage sounded great for a small market station. For this storm, looks like Rock 102 had the best coverage.
 
I thought WAQY did a great job this morning with the Bax and O'Brien show. They took calls throughout their show and attempted to describe some video footage they were watching off the internet. They said they were on generator power in the studio and that they had no cable TV and not a single free outlet to charge their cell phones. I don't know if they were on generator on Provin Mountain in Agawam.

WPKX, also out of Provin Mountain, sounds terrible today with noticeably lower volume and no HD.
 
SoNo said:
It seems that the Clear Channel FMs did nothing either. Kix, Mix, and RNX were all just running regular programming. I don't even think I heard a traffic report. Four people are dead and thirty three injured because a tornado hits your market and you don't have the staff to handle it? Nice work Clear Channel Springfield!
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It's Minot all over again... :eek:
 
DToTheJ said:
SoNo said:
It seems that the Clear Channel FMs did nothing either. Kix, Mix, and RNX were all just running regular programming. I don't even think I heard a traffic report. Four people are dead and thirty three injured because a tornado hits your market and you don't have the staff to handle it? Nice work Clear Channel Springfield!
Click to expand...

It's Minot all over again... :eek:
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Uhhhh.... did you read the thread? CC simulcast coverage on all four stations.
 
reelyreal said:
DToTheJ said:
SoNo said:
It seems that the Clear Channel FMs did nothing either. Kix, Mix, and RNX were all just running regular programming. I don't even think I heard a traffic report. Four people are dead and thirty three injured because a tornado hits your market and you don't have the staff to handle it? Nice work Clear Channel Springfield!
Click to expand...

It's Minot all over again... :eek:
Click to expand...

Uhhhh.... did you read the thread? CC simulcast coverage on all four stations.
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The original point of this thread was to criticize the fact that at a little after 5PM Wednesday as all this was going down WHYN was running a regional syndicated talk show out of Boston. I will however give them credit where credit is due for them having coverage much later on all 4 stations. I don't know what time coverage started, but they were on from at least 10PM until at least 11:30PM. 10PM is when I went to listen to KIX when I was going out with a friend. 11:45 is when we got back into the car and I heard MIX playing music.
 
They were on by at least 6pm according to Glenn on this thread. Anything before that only would have come from the EAS anyways. Yes, it would have been nice if every radio station were live and local all the time, but I think any coverage pre-tornado would have been just reading what the EAS was telling the jock.
 
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