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How are the Asheville stations covering the storm

If I had Channel 13 or Channel 40 on Mt. Mitchell that was incorrect. 13 is on Mount Pisgah and 40 in on a tall tower near Anderson, SC
OTA Radio still giving out vital info 1 week and 5 days after storm hit. Even smaller local radio stations helping. OTA TV same good coverage, but no more wall to wall coverage on TV. On radio, I-Heart running commercials now but still wall to wall coverage . . . I-Heart has done a great job with all it stations tied together.
More people getting power, cell service and Internet back.
 
As of tomorrow the iHeart coverage will shift to 570 WWNC only; 99.9 will go back to music. I believe the other stations came off the simulcast a couple days ago and it has been just 570 and 99.9.
 
Now I am hearing about folks threatening FEMA workers. A friend of the family shared a text (total BS) that FEMA was confiscating supplies. Some people WANT to believe the worst things.

BTW unless FEMA employees physically document damage there will not be any financial assistance. One can only guess in the past folks "faked" damage kinda like the COVID employee assistance scams.
 
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fybush said:
No, there's something very wrong with the Citizen-Times in Asheville, at least its e-edition. (If you subscribe to any Gannett paper, you can read the e-edition of every Gannett paper.)
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newspapers.com has finally given me access to the papers from when Helene hit the area. On the day the storm began dumping rain on the area, there was no local story suggesting anything would happen, but the national story said heavy rain would fall in the mountains. Certainly nothing that would end up being "apocalyptic".

The next day, there is a front page photo showing the French Broad River has flooded the River Arts District and 8 inches of rain have fallen so far. The word "historic" was used. Tomorrow I should be able to see the eEdition for the Saturday.
 
The day after Helene hit the area, there was a front page article in the Citizen-Times about Florida and Georgia and it did mention effects in North Carolina but nothing about Asheville.
 
secondchoice said:
Is there enough "commerce" left undamaged to justify the expense of a printed Sunday newspaper.
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I'm not sure, but I don't think they printed it. The message at the bottom of the front page suggests it was an eEdition only available to subscribers.

Of course, it's eerie not seeing any reference to the storm, especially after the Saturday eEdition (they haven't printed a Saturday paper in years) and the Friday paper did have brief stories or mentioned NC in national stories.

Edit: Okay, the Sunday paper briefly mentions what's happening in NC in a national story, but when you're right there in the middle of it ...
 
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vchimpanzee said:
I'm not sure, but I don't think they printed it. The message at the bottom of the front page suggests it was an eEdition only available to subscribers.

Of course, it's eerie not seeing any reference to the storm, especially after the Saturday eEdition (they haven't printed a Saturday paper in years) and the Friday paper did have brief stories or mentioned NC in national stories.

Edit: Okay, the Sunday paper briefly mentions what's happening in NC in a national story, but when you're right there in the middle of it ...
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The e-edition message appears every day on Gannett papers.

As I noted way upthread, the Citizen-Times finally started putting local flood coverage in the print edition on that Monday.
 
fybush said:
The e-edition message appears every day on Gannett papers.

As I noted way upthread, the Citizen-Times finally started putting local flood coverage in the print edition on that Monday.
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Well, it's not exactly what one would expect from such a disaster. However, ProQuest has been showing page after page of coverage through October. Usually there's one "big" article and at the end of that, a list of headlines and page numbers. Most of the front page had storm news, and the articles were continued inside, but other than that it was a normal looking paper.

Getting back to broadcasting, or at least that could be a part of it, ProQuest has an article about the views of political candidates, and one of them talks about improving methods of communication so people know what to do as such a storm is happening.
 
vchimpanzee said:
Getting back to broadcasting, or at least that could be a part of it, ProQuest has an article about the views of political candidates, and one of them talks about improving methods of communication so people know what to do as such a storm is happening.
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Most of the "wired" communication in this country go through telephone company central offices or the cable company's version of a central office. The cell companies often rent T1s (or faster) from the local phone or cable company. Every phone office I have ever been in is above the 100 year flood plan or are above the storm surge of the largest hurricane to hit that location. The problem is the cables connecting the offices to the world we're damaged or washed away. Another problem if the storm exceed the 100 year levels some offices could get wet. No central office: no phone, cellphone and internet.

Satellite is the only option except for Ham radio assuming you have power. Two way shortwave requires a some training but is not secure.

Another issue with any storm after August, is the leaf trees are slowing down photosynthesis getting ready to drop their leaves so they will absorb very little water compared to summer. Of course anytime there is more than 7 or 8 inches of rain in a 24 hour period in Appalachia there will be flooding.

About half of my Dad's hometown floods about every 20 years. Unfortunately due to the lay of the land they can't move it to another location economically. The Government is supposed to build flood walls but there never is any money for design much less building it.
 
One of the political candidates said, in an article on ProQuest today, that he would have been in the dark without radio.

newspapers.com finally got around to newspaper that had page after page of nothing but Helene. Other news started on page nine.
 
Regarding newspapers, print distribution has been reduced in recent months in favor of digital platforms. For the Gannett papers, the Sunday edition is now a weekend edition printed on Friday and sold Saturdays and Sundays. This includes The Asheville Citizen-Times, The Greenville News, and The Spartanburg Herald-Journal. From McClatchy, The Charlotte Observer has curtailed its print edition to Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays only, and is no longer sold west of Charlotte, in Asheville, Greenville-Spartanburg, and towns such as Hendersonvile, Rutherfordton, and Gaffney. And the Atlanta and Columbia State papers have not been sold in Upstate SC in over 10 years. Disappointed to see the decline of the print product.
 
In Spartanburg, I receive both Charlotte and Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville radio/TV signals. I primarily watched WYFF-4 and WSOC-TV Channel 9 for Helene coverage. Both stations used chopper coverage to an advantage. And even WSOC from Charlotte had live reports from Asheville and the NC mountains the day of the storm and the weeks after. And WBT radio also provided coverage to listeners on 99.3FM.
And of course WLOS had the most wall to wall coverage from Asheville and was simulcast on sister station WMYA-40 which now transmits via the RF30 signal of WYFF-4.
 
Regarding WLOS, they have plans to move their broadcast signal from Mount Pisgah to Pinnacle Mountain, in order to better reach viewers in Upstate SC. Was originally planned for October or November. Also it is a challenge to reach the tower on Pisgah via an antiquated trolley system. But the fact remains there is a null on the SC side to prevent interference with WBTW in Florence, also on RF13. Right now in Spartanburg, High VHF signals from WSPA, SCETV, and a low power WSOC translator from Crowder's Mountain are easier to receive than WLOS.
 
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