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Hurricane Ida

R

Ryan Williams

I'm listening to WWL from my living room in Central Texas. At night, 870 has always had a pretty strong signal over here.

Anyone in the metro area want to give station report? Who's still on the air? Anyone doing local radio coverage besides Audacy? Are the other clusters piping in tv audio? With the power out in most metro parishes now, I imagine not many are actually able to even watch their tvs.

Praying for all who are in the storm's path. Stay safe y'all.
 
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SiriusXM is carrying TV-on-radio Weather Channel coverage ("Just take a look at this damage!") but is only putting it on one of its internet-only channels, meaning many subscribers either aren't paying SXM enough to have this channel in their subscription package or are stuck with no power and no internet access, only an SXM satellite receiver that can run on batteries but can't receive the channel. Such regard for its customers in flyover country! If a Cat 4 slammed into NYC, coverage would be on every channel.
 
CTListener said:
SiriusXM is carrying TV-on-radio Weather Channel coverage ("Just take a look at this damage!") but is only putting it on one of its internet-only channels, meaning many subscribers either aren't paying SXM enough to have this channel in their subscription package or are stuck with no power and no internet access, only an SXM satellite receiver that can run on batteries but can't receive the channel. Such regard for its customers in flyover country! If a Cat 4 slammed into NYC, coverage would be on every channel.
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In the past SXM has cleared that channel for non-subscribers for severe weather coverage
 
Iheart in New Orleans is playing WVUE Fox 8 audio. Cumulus and WWNO/WRKF are airing WDSU. Audacy is simulcasting WWL across its stations. Iheart in Baton Rouge is running WVLA. Some of the stations that I can hear are off include:
88.3 WRBH
88.7 WOTB
90.7 WWOZ
91.3 WNLS
92.3 WZRH
92.9 WBOX
94.3 WTIX
94.7 WYLK
99.5 WRNO
100.3 KLRZ
101.1 WNOE
102.9 KMEZ
104.1 KVDU
104.5 KWMZ
104.7 WJSH
105.3 WWL-FM
106.7 KKND
107.5 KNOL
690 WQNO
800 WSHO
830 KGLA
1320 WRJW
1600 KLEB
 
CTListener said:
We're going in circles here. The channel for this storm is ONLINE ONLY. No radio can receive it, active or inactive. SXM used to put weather emergency coverage on a satellite channel available to all, but no more.
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Yes, this is a very important point. It makes ZERO sense to put the Weather Channel’s Hurricane Ida coverage on an online only streaming channel when the entire city of New Orleans and surrounding communities have no power and the only cell phone provider with any sort of service is Verizon. T-Mobile and AT&T both have little to no coverage right now so an online only channel does people effected by the Hurricane ZERO good. If the station were at least on the satellite, people could listen in their cars or on portable units. It’s all just a publicity stunt by Sirius XM and The Weather Channel to show they care and doing something for people in need when in fact they are providing the people who need it the most nothing when they have no power or internet to listen to an online only streaming channel.

On the other hand, I have been listening to WWL’s coverage on AM 870 and they are doing a fantastic job of providing wall to wall 24/7 coverage taking calls with little commercial interruptions. A lot of people are calling up saying that they have no internet and no power and the only way they can get information is from their battery powered old-fashioned radio. If anything, this disaster (and others) shows the value of old-fashioned AM radio in getting information out to the people in times of an emergency when there is no power and no internet.
 
Isn't WWL-AM one of the most fortified transmitter sites in the country?

I owned a business in Houma during Katrina and as luck would have it, also one in Lake Charles. Which means I left Katrina issues to go deal with Rita. I listened to a lot of WWL during those two or three months. During the worst of Katrina, I seem to remember there was a time that WWL-AM was the only thing on the air out of New Orleans.
 
ContinuousWave said:
More pics of Vacherie by myself...looks like they will rebuild it

Vacherie pics - Google Drive

drive.google.com drive.google.com
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It may be a long road ahead. I am a little surprised that iHeart wouldn't take the opportunity to attempt a "downgrade" of KVDU closer to the market. With KJIN also being in Houma, it is probably possible. Metairie doesn't have a "first aural service" (it's not technically a city).

The collapsed tower is almost 40 miles from downtown. The aux license is probably better than the "real" one in most of the populated inner parishes.

WZRH appears to have a tougher path being the only aural service for Laplace.
 
In an ideal world, WWL-870 would be your go to source of emergency info, much like asugeorge1 says, (considering that it's a 50kw clear-channel who can be heard in the entire gulf), and then having KGOW and WSB for backup.
 
ZantennaG1 said:
In an ideal world, WWL-870 would be your go to source of emergency info, much like asugeorge1 says, (considering that it's a 50kw clear-channel who can be heard in the entire gulf), and then having KGOW and WSB for backup.
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Isn't that pretty much the way it is? People know WWL is the place to go. There was even a puff piece in the Washington Post a few weeks back about how it is the "hurricane station". They do a really great job.

My understanding is that in addition to 870, 105.3 did not lose service during Ida either.

This is just an aside, but i was in the area in the spring and i was struck with how much better 105.3 sounded compared to 99.5. The audio was much cleaner with better processing and less distortion.
 
Ryan Williams said:
Isn't that pretty much the way it is? People know WWL is the place to go. There was even a puff piece in the Washington Post a few weeks back about how it is the "hurricane station". They do a really great job.

My understanding is that in addition to 870, 105.3 did not lose service during Ida either.

This is just an aside, but i was in the area in the spring and i was struck with how much better 105.3 sounded compared to 99.5. The audio was much cleaner with better processing and less distortion.
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Well that's good to hear. I was mainly replying to the post https://www.radiodiscussions.com/threads/hurricane-ida.739832/post-6418635 about SiriusXM's recent unreliability, but I did figure people did know about WWL.
 
ZantennaG1 said:
In an ideal world, WWL-870 would be your go to source of emergency info, much like asugeorge1 says, (considering that it's a 50kw clear-channel who can be heard in the entire gulf), and then having KGOW and WSB for backup.
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Can KGOW be heard in New Orleans? I wouldn't have thought so... they're highly directional at night and probably not strong enough days
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
Can KGOW be heard in New Orleans? I wouldn't have thought so... they're highly directional at night and probably not strong enough days
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That was a bit of a typing error. I meant KGOW nights, but good daytime candidates would be 560 KLVI Beaumont and 1030 KCTA Corpus Christi, thanks to them both being right on the water. As far a local alternative, why not 640 KTIB?
 
Ryan Williams said:
It may be a long road ahead. I am a little surprised that iHeart wouldn't take the opportunity to attempt a "downgrade" of KVDU closer to the market. With KJIN also being in Houma, it is probably possible. Metairie doesn't have a "first aural service" (it's not technically a city).

The collapsed tower is almost 40 miles from downtown. The aux license is probably better than the "real" one in most of the populated inner parishes.

WZRH appears to have a tougher path being the only aural service for Laplace.
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I think KVDU has 2nd adjacent KWMZ blocking it from moving south. Back in the early 2000s there was an application to move 104.1 closer to NOLA on a 1500 foot tower. I think WZRH would have the easier time. It could move to the master antenna on the west bank and still put a 60dbu into Laplace.
 
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