Fire coverage thread

[davideduardo]

There are no police or fire radios at Mt. Wilson. LASO is at Mt. Disappointment.

As I said, when up there it is hard to tell one "mountain" from another. Each little bump in a ridge has a name but really they are all part of one huge formation.

When doing my regular inspections of KLVE when I was, temporarily Chief Operator on two CE transition periods I really could never tell which one was which.

 

[davideduardo]

That's why I provided the quote from Audacy. They say they've had no interruption. They didn't say if they're on generator or not.

Karl said KABC had a generator failure. So their situation is different from everyone else.

But KABC (AM) is not near any of the fires, but in studio and transmitter zones where power outages have been prevalent.

KABC-TV has studios in the Glendale/Burbank "fusion" area. Its TV transmitter is on Wilson, and I do not know if they have any auxiliary transmitter site.

 

[TheBigA]

But KABC (AM) is not near any of the fires, but in studio and transmitter zones where power outages have been prevalent.

KABC-TV has studios in the Glendale/Burbank "fusion" area. Its TV transmitter is on Wilson, and I do not know if they have any auxiliary transmitter site.

We're talking about KABC TV's tower on Mt Wilson.

 

[xmtrland]

Would be interesting to know if Mt Wilson has power or were they running on generator and after so much smoke and such the generator had an issue.

 

[yeoldeschool]

Thanks for clarifying, @TheBigA.

@FledSoCal, that's terrible, and you have my sympathies. All I can say is: if anything drives you off, don't let it be the local government's red tape merchants. With luck, the infamy of this event combined with the amount of push by the citizenry for the removal of all obstacles and B.S. from the rebuilding process will make that part of it the least fatiguing. And as far as where to start and finding quality contractors, TheBigA's suggestion about safety in numbers sounds reasonable to me. Get to know as many of your neighbors as possible and use your collective power to attract higher level, more professional contractors who will take on larger group jobs.

 

[yeoldeschool]

On a lighter note regarding the subject of Mt. Wilson:

While searching another of my online haunts for information about Mt. Wilson, I found the thread below, which has a handful of extremely nice photos of the mountain that might interest the crowd here.

https://forums.radioreference.com/threads/angeles-crest-mount-wilson-no-radio-signal.438134/

All of the images are embedded Flickr photographs and can be right-clicked for viewing at their full resolutions. Very much worth it.

 

[radiofan2023]

Mt. Disappointment.

This is where Tesla owners who wish their cars had AM go.

@FledSoCal hope your decision on what to do goes okay.

 

[Ryan Williams]

Did ABC 7 return to the air yet?

 

[xmtrland]

Yes post #138, around 4:11pm.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Here are some of the updates from Calfire showing ones they are fighting as of this posting.

And now we see news outlets outside of LA cover this one the incoming Trump administration response to the fires.

Fact-checking criticism of California Democrats over fires

The US president-elect has criticised a top California Democrat for challenges fighting the blazes in Los Angeles.

www.bbc.com

Fact check: Why is Trump blaming the LA fires on Newsom's water policies?

Fires in Los Angeles County ignited because of fierce winds and extremely dry conditions. President-elect Donald Trump blamed California water policies for the blazes.

calmatters.org

Mark Gold, water scarcity director for the Natural Resources Defense Council and a board member of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, said Trump’s comments do not reflect California’s complex water supply systems and just fan flames of political discontent.

“Tying Bay-Delta management into devastating wildfires that have cost people’s lives and homes is nothing short of irresponsible, and it’s happening at a time when the Metropolitan Water District has the most water stored in its system in the history of the agency,” he said. “It’s not a matter of having enough water coming from Northern California to put out a fire. It’s about the continued devastating impacts of a changing climate.”

I get where its coming from but at the same time California has to allocate water to other parts of the state for both ecological and the needs of agriculture, cities and yes when other parts of the state have to deal with the same exact issues given that LA County is facing today with wildfires.

Trump appeared to be referring to water imported south from the Bay-Delta, fed by Northern California rivers and snowmelt. But most Los Angeles water does not come from Northern California. It comes via the city’s 112-year-old aqueduct that runs from the Owens Valley east of the Sierra Nevada, not the Delta, as well as groundwater. The city also imports water from the Metropolitan Water District, which relays water from the Colorado River and Delta to numerous local agencies. The city was the main motivating force for the building of the Colorado River Aqueduct in the 1930s.

‘I had to save myself’: details emerge about Los Angeles wildfire fatalities

Death toll rises to 11 as first identifications emerge of Altadena residents killed by Eaton fire

www.theguardian.com

 

[cc333]

This is where Tesla owners who wish their cars had AM go.

Or FM (I read a comment somewhere on RD earlier (I think it was the "Saving AM" thread) that said that new Teslas no longer come with FM or satellite either).

c

 

[angcritic]

Or FM (I read a comment somewhere on RD earlier (I think it was the "Saving AM" thread) that said that new Teslas no longer come with FM or satellite either).

c

Unless something changes very recently, FM is there. I have a 2024. It works really well too because you see all available stations on one screen and the sound is pretty good. 2 models - S and X have satellite antennae. The 3 and Y don't. I have a Y. They recently added Sirius XM to their native apps as streaming but unfortunately don't let you port from an existing SXM subscription. You have to start over.

 

[TheBigA]

Unless something changes very recently, FM is there.

From Tesla.com:

Is anything removed with the Infotainment Upgrade?
Yes. You will no longer have access to AM, FM or Sirius XM radio. The upgraded infotainment system is not compatible with the original radio tuner that came equipped on your vehicle. You will still have access to internet radio and music streaming, including streaming over Bluetooth®.

 

[henry]

I'd normally shrug and say, "Eh. It's 2025, most people never use the tuner."

But man, have I been hitting 640 and 1070/97.1 a lot this week. My phone keeps dying (power outages) so I am trying to fast charge it while I drive, which means no Android Auto (which drains about half as fast as it charges). So I've been reliant on OTA radio. And can't imagine owning a car that didn't at least have an FM tuner.

 

[rustyhodge]

"The upgraded infotainment system is not compatible with the original radio tuner that came equipped on your vehicle."

So they didn't bother to spend the $ on software development to support broadcast radio.

While I don't listen much to broadcast radio in the car when I'm in town, I often do listen on road trips, trying to find those local jewels of smaller-market stations, or LPFM/noncomms. It can really help tune you in to a new place you're visiting (no pun intended).

 

[Mark Roberts]

"The upgraded infotainment system is not compatible with the original radio tuner that came equipped on your vehicle."

So they didn't bother to spend the $ on software development to support broadcast radio.

That use of the word "upgraded" to describe an update that reduces functionality seems Orwellian.

 

[xmtrland]

What I get from the Telsa upgrade is this. We sold you something in your car and have made it obsolete. Whats next the wipers, door locks, window controls?

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

https://ktla.com/news/california/wildfires/palisades-fire-shifts-targets-to-san-fernando-valley-forcing-new-evacuation-warnings-for-saturday/

More neighborhoods are on alert for wildfires spreading to places like the San Fernando Valley, Brentwood and UCLA.

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) – The Palisades Fire, already one of the most destructive natural disasters in the history of Los Angeles, has reached the homes in one of the city’s major population centers.

After burning the iconic Pacific Palisades neighborhood to the ground and attacking beachside communities, the blaze set its sights on the San Fernando Valley, and also spread east toward Brentwood and UCLA.

Images from Sky5 just before 11 a.m. showed a home engulfed in flames in Mandeville Canyon, while the blaze moved toward a neighborhood in Brentwood.

 

[yeoldeschool]

Mt. Disappointment.

This is where Tesla owners who wish their cars had AM go.

I always thought it was named after people's reactions to going up there and actually hearing what's on the AM band for the first time.

Or FM (I read a comment somewhere on RD earlier (I think it was the "Saving AM" thread) that said that new Teslas no longer come with FM or satellite either).

Several months ago, in the threads where the mandatory AM in cars bill was being talked about, I was evangelizing the heck out of the idea that the bill's authors were making a huge mistake not including FM in the mandate. Now, here we are. It's beginning.

That use of the word "upgraded" to describe an update that reduces functionality seems Orwellian.

I know, right? It's like the corporate marketing world stumbled on an old Soviet psychological warfare manual and decided shameless gaslighting would be the latest and greatest new way to push product.

Back in my IT days, everyone I knew in the field, myself included, would habitually, cynically re-word Microsoft's advertising sporge to always replace the word "upgrade" with "downgrade" in casual conversation. "Has corporate forced you to downgrade all your machines to Windows 8 yet?" It was our way of coping with the constant onslaught of their messaging that things were getting better while, according to of our senses, they were only getting worse.

 

[Tibbs4]

Man. This is all just heart-breaking and gut-wrenching. I live in Brentwood, TN now, but spent some time back in the 80's living and loving life in Brentwood, CA. Have nothing to add, other than make sure everyone references those pics above of Mt. Wilson. There is nothing like LA. Praying/hoping that "we" get a dang break and things don't repeat from this devil fire.