East Texas Severe WX Coverage

[C414B]

How was it this past weekend?

Logged onto a few stations' streams only to find regular programming at the height of the storms. Please tell me the off-air was something completely different.

 

[Chuck]

How was it this past weekend?

Logged onto a few stations' streams only to find regular programming at the height of the storms. Please tell me the off-air was something completely different.

It was definitely "something different." We got hit by lightening twice over the weekend; Saturday's storms took out our Internet. Interestingly the new EAS CAP requirement will rely heavily on the Internet for emergency info. That's going to work real swell... ???

Sunday evening's lightning took us off the air by taking out our audio processor/stereo generator. Real fun.

I spend a lot of Sunday afternoon updating our EAS log. There must have been 30 feet of print out with all the warnings and message that we had forwarding since Friday afternoon, when I last did it. I got to repeat the procedure this morning, but this time it had to be 50 feet of print outs.

At least, we are back on the air, and we once again have Internet, but it was a long weekend. I could use some sleep though.

 

[FilioScotia]

At least three stations broke in frequently with live weather updates from their weather caster. It really got annoying after awhile, because I live in Lufkin which is far to the south of the areas that were getting the bad weather.

At least two stations kept the weather alerts on the crawl at the bottom of the screen all day and far into the night.

 

[S McCoy]

KNUE, 96X, Mix, Hot 107.3 and KDOK all ran wall to wall coverage of KLTV weather Saturday and Sunday evenings. As far as I could tell, they scooped everyone else.

 

[old_skuel]

I could not believe the lack of caverage by not only radio stations, but also the TV stations. Channel 7 and the GAP stations are the only ones who did anything to protect the public.

I have DISH and my signal went out in the middle of the storms. KNUE was the only station I had to know what was going on.

 

[hayseed]

Just an FYI: Gap no longer exists....it is now Townsquare Media.

 

[gbranch]

KDOK has been off the air all week. I guess storm damage. Their tower is still up.

 

[Chuck]

KDOK has been off the air all week. I guess storm damage. Their tower is still up.

Storm damage is a big deal out here in East Texas. Sometimes, that is the main priority. We ran on our new generator (at the transmitter) for several hours during all of this. In a previous life, 100.3 would have simply been off the air. I guess that is an improvement. It certainly cost a lot to get in place. I hope we don’t have to use it very often, but I’ve learned that reliable power at out transmitter site seems to be an “option” as far as the electric company is concerned.

At least we were on the air until a lightning hit took out our stereo generator. EAS was busy relaying lots of reports, as I mentioned earlier. I was so busy trying to keep things running, it didn't seem like an opportune time to go on the air live. During that kind of electrical storm, you start to have second thoughts about being the conductor between the lightning and ground....


I suppose that says a lot about the state of broadcasting today. If I thought I could make a real difference, I would have been there. During the storm, my stations' other two employees (great people, incidentally) were safe at home. It was just me. I'd love to have the budget to have a full time news staff, but I'm realistic enough to know that will never happen. The numbers simply aren't there.

Perhaps it is time to look into an agreement with a local TV station for support during these kinds of situations.

 

[DG]

...Perhaps it is time to look into an agreement with a local TV station for support during these kinds of situations.

An excellent idea. Just make certain that the TV weather person can AUDIBLY describe the situation. They're used to TV and may not "get" that folks on the radio can't see the RADAR image they're talking about.

The best TV mets I know do a great job on the TV AND can verbalize the picture for the folks tuning in on the radio.

Something else to consider- during a power failure, most folks will still turn to the radio for news and info about what's going on. Not many folks have battery-powered TVs, especially now that everything is digital.

 

[FilioScotia]

***Not many folks have battery-powered TVs, especially now that everything is digital.***

I would hazard a guess that nobody has a battery powered TV anymore. Not one they're using anyway. We have a small pocket sized battery powered set, but I've been using it as a paper-weight since all the TV stations went to digital. I just can't bring myself to toss it.

Maybe it'll be a collector's item someday. I can see my great-grandson taking it to the Antiques Roadshow and learning it's worth a ton of money. Then he'll take it to that Las Vegas pawn shop -- the one on the History Channel -- and the owner will say it may be worth a thousand dollars, but he'll only give 10 bucks for it.

 

[Garrett]

...Perhaps it is time to look into an agreement with a local TV station for support during these kinds of situations.

An excellent idea. Just make certain that the TV weather person can AUDIBLY describe the situation. They're used to TV and may not "get" that folks on the radio can't see the RADAR image they're talking about.

The best TV mets I know do a great job on the TV AND can verbalize the picture for the folks tuning in on the radio.

Something else to consider- during a power failure, most folks will still turn to the radio for news and info about what's going on. Not many folks have battery-powered TVs, especially now that everything is digital.

They're pretty good at doing that out here in W. Texas!