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Indy tornado

B

bigtime

Was WIBC the only live radio non-stop source of information on the Friday night storms? Their reporters seemed to take a long time in gathering the details on the heavy damage, but they may have had a hard time just getting there through the storm.

Kevin Gregory & WRTV did a great job of covering the storm AND the spelling bee which was won by the Hoosier student. What consultant told the tv stations to use the word "track" as many times as possible? "Our super-track radar is tracking the storm as we keep track of the damage in our tracking center". They all started using that term about 4-5 years ago. Some focus group must have liked that term and the word "chopper". They never call them helicopters, always "choppers".
 
bigtime said:
Was WIBC the only live radio non-stop source of information on the Friday night storms? Their reporters seemed to take a long time in gathering the details on the heavy damage, but they may have had a hard time just getting there through the storm.

Kevin Gregory & WRTV did a great job of covering the storm AND the spelling bee which was won by the Hoosier student. What consultant told the tv stations to use the word "track" as many times as possible? "Our super-track radar is tracking the storm as we keep track of the damage in our tracking center". They all started using that term about 4-5 years ago. Some focus group must have liked that term and the word "chopper". They never call them helicopters, always "choppers".
Click to expand...

I was listening late Friday night. WIBC was the ONLY station (out of the following: WFBQ-WJJK-WNTR-WYXB) even mentioning the storm. B-1057 did air the EAS alerts. Other than that, everyone of the other stations was on auto-pilot.
KUDOS TO WIBC! For all the flack over the switch, they were listenable clear to Scottsburg,IN when I lost them. I loved the story of a woman whose horses bolted from the storm, then 20 minutes later, a caller calls in and says "I saw Ruths' horses...". I didn't listen to ZPL or KLU, to give a review, and the AM's were....AM, static filled and unlistenable.
 
Excellent observations. This is a good topic, and I haven't decided where I stand on this. Obviously there are very few live evening personalites in Indy, and evening is when a lot of the severe weather is going to hit. Are we making a huge mistake in radio by surrendering to TV this service we used to perform, or is this cause so lost that it's not worth the effort? And who'd tune to a music station for weather anyway? My gut tells me we're saving a few bucks by voice-tracking, but making a long-term mistake. If we're pretending to be live but don't even mention the tornado blowing through our town right now...well, we're blowing our live facade forever. Taking the immidiacy out of radio, which was one of the best things we had going.
 
Heck, WIBC covered the tornado warning in Tippecanoe County with periodic cuts to Brian Wilkes at 7:15 before I got called into work for the weather. Talk about edge of the market. They were still on the air with live coverage from 42nd and Post when I got off early Saturday morning.

Definitely a better showing than Atlanta radio (and particularly WSB) had back in March.

I haven't checked the state EAS plan lately: is WFNI still one of the LPs for part of the Indy market? Or did that responsibility move to WIBC?
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
Heck, WIBC covered the tornado warning in Tippecanoe County with periodic cuts to Brian Wilkes at 7:15 before I got called into work for the weather. Talk about edge of the market. They were still on the air with live coverage from 42nd and Post when I got off early Saturday morning.

Definitely a better showing than Atlanta radio (and particularly WSB) had back in March.

I haven't checked the state EAS plan lately: is WFNI still one of the LPs for part of the Indy market? Or did that responsibility move to WIBC?
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Listening to WIBC, they were segueing into the EAS. The way it sounded to me, they were the primary. This is because they were NEVER cut-off from the programming. B-1057 was airing the EAS 10-15 seconds behind IBC, and it was Joe Wambaugh (sp??). I lost them at 2:15 am, and Simpson and the gang (including Stan Lehr from the apartments that got leveled) were still on. I told my wife, when stuff happens with the weather, WIBC is the station to listen to.
 
PTBoardOp94 said:
I haven't checked the state EAS plan lately: is WFNI still one of the LPs for part of the Indy market? Or did that responsibility move to WIBC?
Click to expand...

At WEEM Pendleton, we receive our tests from WFNI & WFMS. However, when an alert is triggered, we sometimes get the WIBC news voices (so maybe they are relaying the WIBC broadcast to WFNI and out to the EAS?) instead of the NWS (or sometimes even both). We just run anything that comes to us on EAS...better to be safe than sorry I guess.
 
Was just curious to know if any stations in Lafayette carried the weather there? Not even sure if anyone is live in the evenings. TV18 did it's usual stellar, "the sky is falling, board up your windows and kiss your a** goodbye" routine. Alarmists, innacurate and just simply bad. They should be called on it somehow. The Indy stations professionalism outshined them by miles.
 
It is good for WIBC that their reputation proceeded their coverage.
Even for a "new to FM" station people knew where to turn.

It is nice to see radio working.
 
1316wwood said:
Was just curious to know if any stations in Lafayette carried the weather there? Not even sure if anyone is live in the evenings. TV18 did it's usual stellar, "the sky is falling, board up your windows and kiss your a** goodbye" routine. Alarmists, innacurate and just simply bad. They should be called on it somehow. The Indy stations professionalism outshined them by miles.
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Indianapolis: Nielsen market #26. Lafayette: Nielsen market #189. Not saying the station needs to be "sky is falling" but if the Indy stations DIDN'T do a better job than Lafayette, I would think somebody in Indy would be looking for a new gig. Lafayette is in my mind a "training" market. A place to learn. Hopefully not make too many mistakes, but learn from the ones that are made. By the time you make it to Indy, your standard of perfection is much higher. (at least one would hope.)
 
1316: I was listening to WKOA and WAZY when the first tornado warning was issued around 7pm (flipping back and forth between them and WIBC). WKOA had a live jock who was giving updates. They weren't exactly meterologically sound updates, but he did get the information from the NWS in there.

Far as I could tell, WAZY was completely on auto-pilot.
 
The WIBC institution aside, Steve Simpson deserves kudos for spending the evening & all night there, knowing that he had to be at work for Saturday Morning Open Phones at 6AM. That man is dedicated fully to the station and the community...a true asset.
 
gr8oldies said:
No doubt WSHW in Frankfort was in wall-to-wall weather panic mode.
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;DGood call Brad...and I'm sure ol' Vern was on the phone constantly with the on air people. ;D
 
What..what..what...there was 20 mile an hour winds in Evansville...why isnt that on the air?..you're stupid...you're incompetent! Last time I was in that area during a tornado it was Russ, a guy named Shan, and people calling in.
 
Our local TV weather men here in Columbus, Ohio mentioned the sever weather
Indy was experiencing on the 10PM and 11PM news. Switched to WIBC-AM and noticed that Steve Simpson was breaking in for EAS announcements during
ESPN programing. Would have like to hear how WIBC-FM handled the severe
weather but WIBC-FM is not audible on the radio here and I don't own a computer.
 
1316wwood said:
Was just curious to know if any stations in Lafayette carried the weather there? Not even sure if anyone is live in the evenings. TV18 did it's usual stellar, "the sky is falling, board up your windows and kiss your a** goodbye" routine. Alarmists, innacurate and just simply bad. They should be called on it somehow. The Indy stations professionalism outshined them by miles.
Click to expand...

They ARE an Indy station. Master Control is at CH 8. Owned by 8.

Now tell me why the Indy stations are so much better when it should be the same??
 
The news talent is still in Lafayette as far as I know. WDTN in Dayton's master control is also at Channel 8 in Indy but I wouldn't call WDTN an Indy station.
 
gr8oldies said:
What..what..what...there was 20 mile an hour winds in Evansville...why isnt that on the air?..you're stupid...you're incompetent! Last time I was in that area during a tornado it was Russ, a guy named Shan, and people calling in.
Click to expand...

And to think, I'm still in the business 26 years later with WSHW as my first radio gig...what's wrong with me?!?!?!? ::)
 
Thanks a lot Brad...I'm not getting rich but I'm back doing what I love.
 
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