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KOGO AM 600 -- WHAT AN EMBARRASMENT

jprg said:
It was a ratings booster for them so why not go wall to wall coverage for the outage. A no brainer
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Do they even do ratings for overnights? If you listened, you know that by about 10-10:30 the "news" was pretty much that power was slowly coming back in segments of the county - they had also hit the water issue for certain areas pretty hard - and there was really little reason for the average person to keep listening.

"It's bedtime, the power's slowly coming back, there's no looting in the streets and the news has nothing new to report...I'm going to bed."

There were a lot of sidebar stories that didn't develop until morning, things like people who'd been stuck in elevators, sewage spills, etc., but at 10PM those were not relevant to most people's lives (although TV news being what it is, they would have sent a news bimbo out to stand in front of a dark building and tell us they are on location at the site where someone was stuck in an elevator and rescued four hours ago).

Again, I'm not a fan of Cliff, but considering he has the only news department in town (KPBS has an alleged news department but they never report anything that's relevant to real life) he did a pretty good job of keeping the county informed about the important stuff on a continuing basis. I have no doubt that if there was no power at 5AM Friday, they'd have been back to work covering all of the very real problems that would have created.
 
jprg said:
It was a ratings booster for them so why not go wall to wall coverage for the outage. A no brainer
Click to expand...

It's rather likely that the PPMs in SD, which have to be docked each evening, would have been discharged by the time midnight went by (yes, there is a time margin in the charge, but not all get charged every night). Beyond that, who would wear a meter during a power failure?

We'll see in a couple of weeks, of course.

I'd like to think that KOGo did what they did because that is what their format requires, and they did what was appropriate.
 
Beyond David's dissertation on South American energy conglomerates, I agree with Lopaka. I'm no fan of KOGO under any circumstances, but their news content, left to it's own devices, is excellent, and KOGO did a good job with the blackout coverage, especially since KPBS wasn't an option. It was the KOGO and KPBS staffs first time working together, of course, so there was some awkwardness, but given the situation it's to be expected.

I almost always listen to KNX in Los Angeles for news, since they're the only news-only outlet in the region without obnoxious Rush Limbaugh impersonators sucking up the air between the quarter-hours, and as time went on they focused more and more on the story, especially as national news picked it up. My wife wanted to hear something a little more local so I reluctantly moved the dial to KOGO, and while the calls from Bob in Lemon Grove and Tim in P.B. are boring and aren't news, I thought Cliff did a very good job stretching things out between calls as the evening wore on, calmly and non-hysterically going over the details (he's a pro, so natch), and as importantly, providing that credible tone which many news professionals lack today. Cliff also did a nice job of keeping an air of calm, positive reinforcement, with the idea and sound of "we're all in this together," a smart and responsible tone in these situations. Well done Cliff.

And since the topic of energy options has been broached on this thread, if the grid had been designed to rely up localized solar substations, you never would've had this problem in the first place. Southern California's sun is as good as the sun in Arizona, and it's ridiculous to use coal to fuel anything in the southwest when solar is so obviously, and cheaply, abundant and reliable. But someone's doing well bringing coal by train to the southwest, or building massive power lines when every home, every box store (especially), every building in Southern California could have solar panels on them. We'd all be pushing out into the grid, though I'm sure David will have some reasons as to why environmental regulations are death and solar is impractical, etc.
 
mukilteo526 said:
And since the topic of energy options has been broached on this thread, if the grid had been designed to rely up localized solar substations, you never would've had this problem in the first place. Southern California's sun is as good as the sun in Arizona, and it's ridiculous to use coal to fuel anything in the southwest when solar is so obviously, and cheaply, abundant and reliable. But someone's doing well bringing coal by train to the southwest, or building massive power lines when every home, every box store (especially), every building in Southern California could have solar panels on them. We'd all be pushing out into the grid, though I'm sure David will have some reasons as to why environmental regulations are death and solar is impractical, etc.
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I'm going to write a country song called "The Sun Don't Shine at Night" for you.

Solar is a "now" power source. It can not store energy for the night or peak demand. While ideas have been tried to store solar via hot water or hot liquids of other kinds, the efficiency is low and produces $0.40 a kwh electricity.

The Four Corners site burns coal. It brings coal in on a dedicated rail line that comes from a short distance to the north. It does not bring coal from Kentucky or the east, which seems to be your implication. The coal is cheap, accessible and the generator was built when this was the best option...

The "other" Arizona power brought in is from Palo Verde, outside Phoenix. It's clean nuclear, and available at night, too. An additional source of SoCal power is the Hoover Dam hydro plant... clean, but expensive to build and fraught with environmental concerns that would paralyze such a project today.

Solar is very expensive, still. I got 4 bids and have had them updated from time to time for a Coachella Valley home with a flat roof. I could cover maybe all my daytime needs in winter, but only about 50% in summer, and none at night. The cost would be over $30,000 after subsidies, and it would take 10 to 12 years to amortize the cost, assuming no repairs or damage. As we can see from the subsidized solar panel company bankruptcy last month, there is still no successful economic model for private homes or businesses to use solar save for people with sufficient money and desire who will "eat" the difference to be more socially responsible; most people don't have that luxury.
 
mukilteo526 said:
And since the topic of energy options has been broached on this thread, if the grid had been designed to rely up localized solar substations, you never would've had this problem in the first place. Southern California's sun is as good as the sun in Arizona, and it's ridiculous to use coal to fuel anything in the southwest when solar is so obviously, and cheaply, abundant and reliable. But someone's doing well bringing coal by train to the southwest, or building massive power lines when every home, every box store (especially), every building in Southern California could have solar panels on them. We'd all be pushing out into the grid, though I'm sure David will have some reasons as to why environmental regulations are death and solar is impractical, etc.
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Well, if you've ever worked on the permitting process or so-called renewable energy sources - and I have - you'd know that the roadblock to solar, wind and hydro energy is.... "environmental activists." And let's face it, the common retort of the obstructionists is "localized solar" where we have house top and neighborhood solar generation, something that is so unaffordable that it has no connection to current realities (although I did read just yesterday that the Chinese are really bringing down the costs of solar electric panels, so there's some hope).

But, hey, maybe we can install hot air collectors in radio station studios and generate power from that.
 
The solar generating project in Imperial Valley is currently blocked by the Quechan Indians (Yuma area) because
the site may have bone fragments; a 'spiritual' site.
2 retailers that have rooftop solar panels(Santee) are Staples and Kohl's. Check Google.
Regardless, several stations had no way to deliver programming even though the generators were on at the
transmitters; KCBQ, KECRKPRZ.
 
We did start talking about energy here so....environmental restrictions may have slowed establishment of new power plants but its important to remember that there was plenty of juice on the grid when this event occurred. The KOGO reporters continually emphasized this. Far more damage was done to supply by deregulation, the Texas speculators routinely tied up supply and caused shortages to drive up prices to us and their own profits, the record is very clear, we even have them on tape laughing about ripping off "that California grandma". As an environmentalist I agree sometimes things get carried to needless and unproductive extremes, but by the same token, who among us would want to live downwind from a coal fired power plant. Who would want your own children breathing that. In this country we do have the political and legal power to protect ourselves from poisons in the environment, that is not a bad thing. We have a lot more opportunity to protect our interests than the people of China do, or the USSR did (google Mayak for just one example), and maybe some South American countries too, that opportunity has always made America, as Ronald Reagan said, "the shining city on the hill".
 
I don't understand why San Onofre was shut down for so long. It seems to me that once the problem was located and isolated, San Onofre should have come back on line and could have supplied some power, maybe 50% within a few hours.
 
radio-darn said:
There were a lot of sidebar stories that didn't develop until morning, things like people who'd been stuck in elevators, sewage spills, etc., but at 10PM those were not relevant to most people's lives (although TV news being what it is, they would have sent a news bimbo out to stand in front of a dark building and tell us they are on location at the site where someone was stuck in an elevator and rescued four hours ago).
Click to expand...

How many people in San Diego county would have viewed that since the power was off county wide. I watched a saved copy of the MLB game with the AAA Padres visiting Phoenix and the only viewers were the sapless souls watching on MLB that had power.

Radio, in this case, proved to be the go-to point for news and information as we had a WTF moment and news from the utility was very sparse -- and reports of power plants blowing up were misinterpreted.

As for San Onfre coming back on line "quickly". The present power generation grid does not permit any power plant doing that. They go off line for safety reasons, and coming back on is not flicking a switch at master control. It has to be coordinated. What was scene viewed at other generation plants can be described as a cough or belch of smoke.

Meanwhile, there may be a qualified electrician named 'Sparky' in Arizona looking for a high capacitor job.

In all, KOGO did what the charter of an EAS station: deliver news and information. Take that and a glass of backflow water and drink it! ;-)
 
Both KFMB and KOGO did fine jobs, but listening to Cliff Albert loving the sound of his own voice gets old after a while. KFMB was NOT just simulcasting Channel 8's audio they went back and forth as Channel 8 had breaking news. 760 also talked to listeners and helped people find gas food and other supplies. KOGO stopped coverage at midnight. I didnt get power back until 2 am, so I stayed on KFMB because it was clear that they went from the moment of the outage well into their morning show with breaking news.

KOGO should have done a great job it has it's own news room and reporters, 760 has channel 8's resources. 2 very different stations and very different approaches. Neither bad KOGO and KFMB are both great stations.
 
The power went out at about 3:40. KOGO stayed on the air. 760 didn't show up for another hour or more. For my money, I would rather listen to Cliff than dead air.
 
Things happen, they got it back on the air within an hour. With traffic out to Santee at 4 pm they were lucky to get it back on that soon.
 
Of course there is a difference between off air and dead air. However, anyone who was listening to 760 had to go elsewhere to get any information.
 
Hard to believe Midwest(KFMB) won't put in the necessary gear for auto-on generator activation, or at least remote generator control via internet connection.
 
Big 121 said:
Hard to believe Midwest(KFMB) won't put in the necessary gear for auto-on generator activation, or at least remote generator control via internet connection.
Click to expand...

Sometimes stuff fails. I had to jump start a studio generator off of the GM's car once. Good times.
 
jprg said:
KOGO did something right err, I mean "correct" for a change. Well they tried anyway.
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Cliff did a marvelous job of hogging the mic and grandstanding. They must be so shorthanded that they couldn't get a couple of folks to cover 12n until 5 am? Oh heaven forbid, Overtime!
Phil Farrar and LaDona as well as the folks behind the scenes did a great job.
 
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