The criticism wasn't solely directed at the EAS failure. It was more broadly about the fact that during a power outage amid a major catastrophe, there was no emergency information being broadcast by any local radio station at all.
And back in the era of newspapers, they would have waited until the next edition came out.
Small markets have the disadvantage of depending on nearby larger markets for news, too. So the issue is whether coverage would have been any better in 1960 or so.
There are really two issues here: emergency advice/warning/notice to nearby residents and then straight news coverage. The immediate issue is the first one regarding warnings and evacuation. Today, the best method for that is through cellular phones. At the time of the incident, around 9 PM, radio listening is typically less than 3% of all people, so night radio coverage is not particularly useful. As it was the 8th derailment in 5 years in the area, it was not seen immediately as anything other than "same old same old". It took a while to realize that toxic chemicals were spilled and by then it was nearly midnight.
It turns out all of Minot's major radio stations were owned by Clear Channel, which at the time was leading the radio industry's movement toward replacing staff with automation, so there was no one in the building to answer the authorities' frantic phone calls when EAS failed.
Were they not owned by Clear Channel, they most likely would not have been on the air at that hour of the morning, and there would have been nobody there to turn them on and do a report. And, like essentially all smaller market stations that did run 24 hours a day, they would have been automated and, likely, using one of the remote services for logging and the like.
Even if there was somebody at one of the stations, they would have been a board op or a caretaker and unable to do any kind of report.
Critics rightfully asked, if Clear Channel had not owned all of Minot's five commercial stations — if they each had been locally owned and operated — wouldn't it have been five times more likely that first responders would have been able to reach at least one of them, connect to a real person, and tell the public what to do next?
And the answer, as I just detailed, is "no".
Keep in mind this was in 2002 when radio automation wasn't as widespread as it is today, but Clear Channel was a pioneer in using it to cut staff and costs. Emergency alerts were not yet being delivered to cell phones and it would be five years before the first iPhone was introduced.
By the mid-50's nearly every significant station had hard drive based computer controlled automation. A vast majority of smaller market stations used a satellite delivered music format, going back to the 80's.
I supervised my owner's first excursion into mainland US ownership in 1988, an AM and FM in Lake City, FL. From 6 PM to 6 AM both has satellite formats and remote logging and control. During the daytime, except for an AM drive and PM drive local news block and a phoned-in community calendar at noon (all mixed with music) there was generally just one person there during office hours.
That was nearly 35 year ago, and a decade and a half before the Minot incident.
Radio automation using tape on reels and in carts started being widely used right after the FCC mandated separate FM programming in the late 60's. Back then, someone had to be there for the logs and to change tapes... usually a college student who did their class work between reel changes and log entries.
Radio was still considered the primary source of information during an emergency, and the outrage over its failure in this situation was well warranted.
Again, in Minot the stations would not likely have been on the air, and if they were, they would have been taking satellite formats with remote monitoring or a caretaker who could not do any kind of reporting.
Now we have a similar incident in Ohio. It's unclear from this thread whether EAS was activated or local radio stations responded immediately with breaking news updates. It seems doubtful that either of these things occurred but everyone has become so accustomed to the lack of information via radio during an emergency it seems to elicit more of a shoulder shrug today. Fortunately, as bad as this incident was, it seems to have been less life threatening than the one in Minot 21 years ago where the chemicals being released were even worse.
Were a station in Youngstown to have become aware, it would have had to have news staff available and would first have had to find a way to verify the information. Today, stations get lots of fake news reports done as pranks or to further an agenda.
With radio revenue off over 60% since 2000, only in huge markets is there local news coverage all day long.
Let's go back nearly 60 years when I had 3 AM/FM combos and 2 stand-alone FMs in a market of over a million. I had no news department; if there was breaking news at any time of the day, we would have either continued to play music or done a simulcast of the government radio station. That's because, with over 40 full signal stations in the market, there were just 3 or 4 that had any kind of news department and my station at that time had no ability to cover news.
Finally, how soon were Youngstown or Pittsburgh TV stations on the story? Did they interrupt network or syndicated shows for a report, or did they hold it for the next regular newscast? News is one of the remaining profit centers for local TV and big local stories are their specialty.
