If Hanna threatens Savannah, who will step up?

[upstate29651]

The current NHC track shows a possible landfall here on Friday, so will WTKS &/or WBMQ step up to the plate and go wall to wall 24-7, as New Orlean's WWL has done? How about the FM's?

Sadly, I think we will all be greatly disappointed. I remember how the Adventure radio group shined during Floyd's close shave in 1999, and the incomparable WHTK when Hugo hit. I also recall a dearth of info when the St. Pat's blackout happened earlier this year.

So the question will be: which cluster will step up & show TRUE community service, instead of simulcasting Sonny Dixon's innane ramblings? For those in local Savannah radio that read & post on these boards, I challenge you to post your plans here on how you will cover the storm & provide needed LIVE information to the community.

Time to seperate the mice from the men....

G

 

[Bongwater]

The current NHC track shows a possible landfall here on Friday, so will WTKS &/or WBMQ step up to the plate and go wall to wall 24-7, as New Orlean's WWL has done? How about the FM's?

Sadly, I think we will all be greatly disappointed. I remember how the Adventure radio group shined during Floyd's close shave in 1999, and the incomparable WHTK when Hugo hit. I also recall a dearth of info when the St. Pat's blackout happened earlier this year.

So the question will be: which cluster will step up & show TRUE community service, instead of simulcasting Sonny Dixon's innane ramblings? For those in local Savannah radio that read & post on these boards, I challenge you to post your plans here on how you will cover the storm & provide needed LIVE information to the community.

Time to seperate the mice from the men....

G

Wasn't there an old song called "Hard-Hearted Hanna(h), The Vamp Of Savannah"? I know Nancy Sinatra did a rendition of that song on one of her Reprise albums from the '60s.

WWL is the most amazing example of how to do local hurricane coverage RIGHT. Hope Savannah radio can learn a few things. If not, just put this song on REPEAT function and get the hell out of Dodge.....

 

[FilmCritic3K]

The current NHC track shows a possible landfall here on Friday, so will WTKS &/or WBMQ step up to the plate and go wall to wall 24-7, as New Orlean's WWL has done? How about the FM's?

Sadly, I think we will all be greatly disappointed. I remember how the Adventure radio group shined during Floyd's close shave in 1999, and the incomparable WHTK when Hugo hit. I also recall a dearth of info when the St. Pat's blackout happened earlier this year.

G

I remember that coverage in 1999 during Floyd. Adventure, now Triad Broadcasting, was on-the-spot and wall-to-wall and really did a fantastic job.

I too, Guru, hope that if Hanna hits us (which of course I hope it doesn't), one of the radio groups does a bang-up job of relaying info minute by minute, 24/7.

 

[JackieSteele]

Wasn't there an old song called "Hard-Hearted Hanna(h), The Vamp Of Savannah"? I know Nancy Sinatra did a rendition of that song on one of her Reprise albums from the '60s.

Indeed there was. I was thinking about that this weekend. Well that, and the inevitable instance where someone on one of the cable nets will think it is hilarious to put up a lower third that says "Hanna Savannah" :-X

 

[1900radio]

You think the folks in Savannah radio will give out their plans so others can steal? I guess someone has never been in the biz.

 

[smedge2006]

You think the folks in Savannah radio will give out their plans so others can steal? I guess someone has never been in the biz.

This sentence is a gut-buster. If a station or group in Savannah had (or was willing to expend) the resources for wall-to-wall coverage, they would be doing everything they could to let people know their plans, with promos, web site mentions, etc. etc -- so that people would LISTEN to them. Stations wouldn't fear a competitor "stealing" their plans because that would mean going out and hiring a bunch of talent capable of handling hurricane information, something not likely to happen in the span of a few days.

No sort of wall-to-wall coverage is likely because there are no people with those skill sets in Savannah. The last radio reporter probably got downsized out of his/her Marantz cassette deck years, if not decades, ago. "News" on so-called news talk stations consists of the morning drive guy (the only local daypart) riffing off that day's paper or the Drudge Report.

My guess is that Savannah radio will patch in the TV station, or set up Selector, and run for the hills.

 

[Powell]

Hard Hearted Hanna ....the vamp of Savannah..... written by Johnny Mercer...
one of the founders of Capitol records.

He also wrote My Sugar is so Refined.


Powell

 

[justphil2.0]

You think the folks in Savannah radio will give out their plans so others can steal? I guess someone has never been in the biz.

More like "you" have not been in the biz very long. Smedge is VERY correct.

 

[charlestondxman]

Savannah, with only two local talk shows, both in the morning, would not have as much of a ability to produce good storm coverage, unless it was a really major storm that hit there.

Adventure has a tie-in with WSAV for everything, and they would probably simulcast SAV unless it was a major storm.

Clear Channel has WTOC at its side, and even during Fay, Mark Robertson at 98.7 the River was updating school closings and the like.

However, the rest of the stations would have to go on their own, and I've heard some of those stations, and they are not very good with local storm coverage, like during the St. Patty's Day blackout.

Savannah/Hilton Head has it much worse than Charleston, as really, they only have 630 and 1290 for local news, while Charleston has Clear Channel, Citadel, local Kirkman, and Apex who are all big into being in the community.

 

[JackieSteele]

Hard Hearted Hanna ....the vamp of Savannah..... written by Johnny Mercer...
one of the founders of Capitol records.

He also wrote My Sugar is so Refined.


Powell

Holy cow. Like frickin' Nostradamus of the low country.

*starts searching for other premonitions of doom for Savannah in his song titles*
*makes note to run like hell if I see a bunch of frat boys unbuttoning their pants on a barge on River Street* ;D

 

[BarryATL]

I was in Lake Charles, LA for six weeks after Rita. I arrived 12 hours after the hurricane. There are two clusters there: Apex and Clear Channel.

Apex: Wall-to-wall coverage. Initally, they were broadcasting the audio from KPLC because their studios were not rated for a cat 3 storm and flooding was predicted. The hurricane happened in the middle of the night. By 8 AM Apex was live and local rotating out which station was on the air because of a diesel shortage at the transmitters. 24/7 for weeks and weeks. One of their AMs was rebroadcasting WWL because Katrina evacuees were still around Lake Charles.

Clear Channel: They evacuated and left all of their stations on auto-pilot. For two days after the hurricane they were still broadcasting music and ALL of the stations were giving time checks that were several hours off. Finally, the diesel ran out at the studios. Some of the transmitters stayed on for another 24 hours until the diesel ran out. The staff finally returned over a week after the hurricane.

Apex got all kinds of praise for what they did in cooperation with KPLC. For a small town neither station had the crew to keep going 24/7 so they cooperated and the public was served.

Is this a trait of Apex as a company or just the local staff in Lake Charles?

 

[BarryATL]

MISTAKE:

Clear Channel is not in Lake Charles. I meant Cumulus. Sorry.

Also, Apex has since sold the Lake Charles cluster. However, during the time of Rita and Katrina Apex did own the cluster that now belongs to Gap.

 

[upstate29651]

You think the folks in Savannah radio will give out their plans so others can steal? I guess someone has never been in the biz.

More like "you" have not been in the biz very long. Smedge is VERY correct.

Smedge is correct. 1900radio is clearly clueless. It's not about "stealing plans" from other stations. I'd go out on a limb & be willing to be that the station groups have plans in place for such an event. But sadly, most will lean on the local TV stations & simulcast their feed, instead of placing warm bodies behind the mics, which is what needs to happen.

Hanna is becoming less of a threat here locally...but there's still Ike & Josephine....

G

 

[JRobbins]

Hi. Just wanted to take a moment to give an opinion. Every media outlet in Savannah and Hilton Head stepped up their game in response to the threat of Hanna. You could go to just about every station, radio or TV and get some great coverage on what was going on with the storm. I applaud the collective effort to serve the community and the listening/viewing public and my hope is that we will all continue to challenge ourselves to improve and do better with each weather event that comes our way because, in the end, it is the neighborhoods we work and live in that benefit directly. NICE JOB!

Robbins

 

[upstate29651]

Hi. Just wanted to take a moment to give an opinion. Every media outlet in Savannah and Hilton Head stepped up their game in response to the threat of Hanna. You could go to just about every station, radio or TV and get some great coverage on what was going on with the storm. I applaud the collective effort to serve the community and the listening/viewing public and my hope is that we will all continue to challenge ourselves to improve and do better with each weather event that comes our way because, in the end, it is the neighborhoods we work and live in that benefit directly. NICE JOB!

Robbins

I recognize that this is your opinion, and these are some nice platitudes, but let's get real. Yes, I agree 100% that all local broadcasters need to challenge themselves to become better & better as each event passes. My sticking point is that our area is prone to severe events. I have heard better in the past. While Hanna was a dud, I fear that a sense of complacency will (or has) set in on all Savannah broadcasters, radio & TV alike. As I stated before, some groups think they can get info or a simulcast from the local TV & they're good to go. Problem is, Savannah TV is so horrendous & not as in touch with the community as some may think. I think that Savannah radio broadcasters, on whole, take the "cheap" way out by not having warm bodies behind the mics, not "ripping & reading" information as it breaks, and not interacting with the listening public by taking calls.

I guess we'll see when the next threat comes at us.

G