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KTRH & KFNC abseteeism...

S

snoman

Guest
Well I don't know about the rest of Houston, but around 11:15 last night, quite a storm blew through the Copperfield area (W/NW Houston). There was dangerous lightning, high winds (sounded like a Tornado at times, and being I grew up in NE Texas, I have been through a couple), heavy rains, and a little hail. The power went out for two and half hours after that. Naturally I grabbed the portable radio to hear some weather info. KTRH was doing the Astros Post-Game show, after a game in which they got crushed 8-3. KFNC was also airing some sports show or another. I heard one weather update on KFNC, and it was the generic Accuweather forecast that said a "slight possibility" of storms. I did not hear one on KTRH. When there is a vast power outtage because of weather , and there was one, and severe weather going on, KTRH management needs to move the Astros Post-Game show over to KBME for those who want to vent about a dreadful loss to the Dodgers, and have a little coverage for those of us that had nowhere else to turn. If you are going to bill yourself as "News", you need to be on top of it, because severe weather is the number one reason people watch the news or listen to the news. Both Clear Channel and Cumulus need to grasp that concept and have people on call. At least have some "weather watchers" that your producer can call and your anchors can do phoners with the listeners in the area, so others in the signal path can be aware of what's going on. We had them when I was in Northeast Texas, and we found them to be extremely reliable. There is more than one way to skirt around the bottomline, if you're not going to have weather people there 24/7. Naturally I turned the radio off at that point and waited it out. Trust, Reliability, & Credibility are the three things people look for in a "News" station, if you don't have those three, you should bill yourself as such. <P ID="signature">______________
Put Down The Cell Phone, and Use Your Turn Signal!</P>
 
When I arrived at The Wave, this morning at 4:55, there were no EAS messages from the National Weather Service. Therefore, it must have been a localized event. I had a lot of rain at my place last night, for a brief period of time. Some may have gotten it more than others. Had there been an alert, I would have seen it.

I do understand your point, though. If someone was at the helm, it would be reported. However, some systems are programmed to pick-up the EAS from the NWS and rebroadcast it automatically, thus not needing an operator on duty.
 
> When I arrived at The Wave, this morning at 4:55, there were
> no EAS messages from the National Weather Service.
> Therefore, it must have been a localized event. I had a lot
> of rain at my place last night, for a brief period of time.
> Some may have gotten it more than others. Had there been an
> alert, I would have seen it.
>
> I do understand your point, though. If someone was at the
> helm, it would be reported. However, some systems are
> programmed to pick-up the EAS from the NWS and rebroadcast
> it automatically, thus not needing an operator on duty.
>

I was on 93Q up until midnight last night, and as the storm blew all around the studio, the National Weather Service would only say that there was a 30% chance of storms after 1AM. Meanwhile the Hazardous Weather Outlook said that there was no chance of any major activity and that no spotters would be needed.

Then you could scroll down on the NWS page and see the radar screen, with red and yellow cells all over the metro. It wasn't fun to drive home in it, and there was a lot of lightning, everywhere. When I left, the radar showed red cells completely covering the area inside the Loop with yellow and red cells around the rest, but the NWS still said there was a 30% chance of isolated showers, "mainly after 1am".

Maybe it was the weather service that flipped on the overnight automation last night, because the view outside the window told more of a story than any of the information you could get from the National Weather Service.

Anybody who just read straight from the NWS wire last night would have sounded pretty foolish. Maybe they're too busy watching Katrina right now in League City, because they missed what was happening at home.

<P ID="signature">______________
...co-moderator of the Satellite Radio, Phoenix, and San Diego boards...</P>
 
I was thinking the same thing driving home a little after 11pm last night. When I left Camp Cumulus in the Galleria, it seemed like it was unnaturally windy, but no rain. I took the long way home (to the Astrodome area) so I could drive by the construction on the West Loop where they were demolishing the old bridge over I-10 (which is why I-10 is closed from Silber to Washington till 5am Monday). Once I started heading east on I-10, I started seeing some pretty bright lightning in the distance. Once I got to the Shepherd/Durham exit, it was a full on downpour. Puddles were starting to form on the freeway, ie. flash flood conditions if it had lasted much longer. And if John was driving home at midnight, it sounds like it did. I saw some SERIOUS lightning bolts all around me down I-10, to 45 South thru downtown, and onto 288. But once I got to the first or second exit on 288, the rain had pretty much stopped. So it must have been pretty isolated around the downtown area for a while. <P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by JarodF on 08/28/05 06:43 PM.</FONT></P>
 
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