I was on the air at 90.3 The Core, WVPH-FM during the hurricane. I am really glad I served the public by just being there. I had thought about being on the air during the hurricane since it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity (hopefully). I figured it’ll be much more interesting than sitting at home watching the wind blow, and I would be much more useful on the air. I’m a weather geek, I saw this storm on one weather model on October 21, before it even formed. I understood the meteorological aspects of it. I also enjoy contributing to the Jersey Shore Hurricane News facebook page about local incidents. That Facebook page is a treasure trove of information, and I could broadcast what people are reporting on there in real time, since other media outlets wouldn’t do so, which would keep people informed if they’re unable to access that page.
I realized just how valuable local radio is to our community during an emergency. As the power lines on the Livingston campus are underground, the power stayed on through most of the storm, hours longer than it did in the surrounding communities, plus the station could stay on for a while after the power went out. We stayed on longer than 1010 WINS and NJ 101.5.
Throughout the day I was airing damage reports and flooding, road closures (every road closure I had heard about, I reported it as soon as possible). I was also analyzing the weather radar and National Hurricane Center advisories and letting everyone know what to expect in our area. If tornado warnings were issued for our area like during Irene, I would be much more informative and timely than the EAS (it was completely uninformative during the hurricane, it never went off). I was focusing on the areas within 15 miles of our transmitter, where 90.3 The Core would be heard on a battery powered radio indoors. I know that there were just too many emergencies going on all over the NYC metro area, and I had to focus on what was happening within our coverage area that was critical to our listeners, and not dwell too much about the NYC crane collapse, Breezy Point fire, barrier islands underwater. I had to announce road closures, flooding, and other stuff for the people driving around during the hurricane. I had to describe the weather radar to let the listeners without power know what to expect in our area, announce current weather conditions in the local area, and monitor the water levels along the Raritan river to notice if it was approaching flood stage. This is the advantage of local radio, I could deliver better localized coverage than the NYC stations could. There were too many street closures as trees fell and waters rose for a major NYC news outlet to keep up, but announcing road closures is extremely important for those who were driving around during the hurricane. I could ask listeners to call me for information about their route and inform them personally which roads are closed. People had a lot of questions and needed someone to answer them, and that's what I did.
My best report was announcing the mandatory evacuation of Keansburg within a minute of the order being issued. Immediately after announcing that, I got a call from someone in Keansburg who thanked me for potentially saving his life. The power’s out, NYC radio wouldn’t announce an evacuation of one NJ town over and over like I did, therefore I kept emphasizing the need to evacuate. I had been looking at pictures of beach towns being flooded, and expected that Keansburg would look like that. Keansburg wasn’t the only town that had issued a mandatory evacuation on short notice, other towns within our listening area did too, and I helped get the word out to the public via the station.
I realized that I had potentially thousands of listeners relying on me to keep them updated. I got most of my information from Jersey Shore Hurricane News, listener calls, police department websites, and many other sources. I had over 100 phone calls during the storm, many of them informing me of their observations, thanking me for being there, even a few song requests and compliments of my music format. I felt like I was their companion, helping reduce people’s fears by informing them what to expect from the storm, and playing relaxing soft AC music (probably the only time I'd play hours of soft AC on this station). The storm shelter at the Livingston gym was playing 90.3 The Core, probably because it’s located right under our tower and also because of my storm coverage. It was hard for me to keep up with all my information sources, answer the phone calls, and satisfy my own curiosity of the storm. I feel like I did a great job keeping my listeners informed, I obviously couldn't handle a bigger coverage area all by myself. I'd gladly do it again and I'd recruit other people to help me next time (hopefully there isn't a next time). If I hadn't gotten the idea to be on the air at my college station during the hurricane, no one else would have done it, and we'd play automated music and be useless to anyone seeking information about the hurricane. I did this as a public service because I felt that would be the best use of my time, but a side benefit could be new listeners who discovered 90.3 during the hurricane and liked what they heard (although the regular format isn't soft AC).
After the backup power went out, I tuned around the radio dial to listen to coverage on other stations. NJ 101.5 was off the air, 1010 WINS was on 92.3 Now, WCTC was off the air, Magic 98.3 was automated. WCBS 880 was on Fresh 102.7, the other music stations didn't seem to have as extensive coverage as I did on 90.3, and there surprisingly weren't any TV simulcasts on radio. I wish more stations with a similar coverage as us decided to do what I was doing. For example, all the NJN affiliates could have been doing independent coverage on each station, rather than simulcasting. Other college stations could have had staff members doing what I was doing on their stations. From what I read, the stations on the NJ shore dropped the ball by not breaking format and doing local coverage.
