If the hurricane follows the currently predicted track, this will be a weekend for local news and talk radio to shine, especially if New Jerseyans find themselves without power, Internet or TV. So, it will be a chance for NJ-101.5 to show its stuff, and its recently returned PM drive stars to a much bigger audience than usual and possibly gain new regular listeners.
Listening Thursday night, NJ-101.5 was already into "emergency" mode taking calls on what listeners were doing in terms of storm preparation. I was listening in the car on the far northeastern edge of their signal, near Upper Montclair, and when I was leaving a Shoprite, after buying a snack, a guy just entering the store asked me if it was "nuts" in there, with empty shelves and huge crowds at the checkout. I said "nothing like you would expect listening to NJ-101.5." He laughed, smiled and said he had listened too and thought the current situation was being overblown on the radio, at least where we were.
I think it's great that the station keeps people well informed and that they are encouraged to prepare for the worst, but we still had two days to go before the storm and on the radio it sounded like some people were starting to panic.
It reminded me of the time I got screamed and yelled at by the fish manager of a Central Jersey Shoprite. It had just started to snow outside, and this fish guy was almost losing control of himself because the store was not being closed and he would have to drive home ten miles in the snow when his shift was up a couple of hours later. The guy blamed me and others like me who would venture out once it started snowing to get something they suddenly needed. He told me his wife kept calling him because NJ-101.5 kept saying that "a state of emergency had been declared in New Jersey" and I wasn't paying attention to NJ-101.5. You would have thought the radio station should be the final arbiter of all business decisions. I paid attention and it was several hours later before there would be any problems with driving locally, it was a Sunday and the roads had been pre-salted, most of the snow came late overnight.
Tonight (Thursday) the calls I heard on NJ-101.5, from places in their core listening area told of Wal-Marts out of bottled water, milk, bread etc. and of shoppers crowding the aisles. But, the storm is still two days away and not expected to hit Central Jersey until 6-pm Saturday. Stores will get bread and milk deliveries on Friday and Saturday, and will also have time to re-stock with bottled water. No reason to get all cranked up yet.
What was interesting was that the situation sounded more panicked in NJ-101.5s main signal area, than it was farther north where most other media is the same. I wonder if NJ-101.5 going into storm mode had anything to do with the geographical difference in mood?
I'm not saying it would be a bad thing if one station had that much influence in getting people to prepare early, but I wonder if hyping the crisis mode too early and too heavy is the right thing to do? The hurricane is certainly what New Jerseyans will be talking about for the next three or four days, so the station should talk about it. And there were some great tips given on what people should do to prepare for the storm, but two days out some callers sounded more cranked up than normal when we all still have plenty of time to do what really needs to be done before battering down the hatches at home. While getting people out of low lying flood prone areas, and off of barrier islands early makes a whole lot of sense, having everybody else rush out and hoard a months worth of bottled water, just in case, is overdoing it a bit. Yes, a state of emergency has already been declared, but really, are we in a dangerous situation yet?
No doubt, a Hurricane is more serious than a snowstorm, but can a talk station pass along all the necessary storm related information without getting too many New Jerseyans to react like they did when Orson Welles had the Martians landing in Grover's Mills with his War of the Worlds radio drama in 1938? You'll recall that response was a little overdone too.
Listening Thursday night, NJ-101.5 was already into "emergency" mode taking calls on what listeners were doing in terms of storm preparation. I was listening in the car on the far northeastern edge of their signal, near Upper Montclair, and when I was leaving a Shoprite, after buying a snack, a guy just entering the store asked me if it was "nuts" in there, with empty shelves and huge crowds at the checkout. I said "nothing like you would expect listening to NJ-101.5." He laughed, smiled and said he had listened too and thought the current situation was being overblown on the radio, at least where we were.
I think it's great that the station keeps people well informed and that they are encouraged to prepare for the worst, but we still had two days to go before the storm and on the radio it sounded like some people were starting to panic.
It reminded me of the time I got screamed and yelled at by the fish manager of a Central Jersey Shoprite. It had just started to snow outside, and this fish guy was almost losing control of himself because the store was not being closed and he would have to drive home ten miles in the snow when his shift was up a couple of hours later. The guy blamed me and others like me who would venture out once it started snowing to get something they suddenly needed. He told me his wife kept calling him because NJ-101.5 kept saying that "a state of emergency had been declared in New Jersey" and I wasn't paying attention to NJ-101.5. You would have thought the radio station should be the final arbiter of all business decisions. I paid attention and it was several hours later before there would be any problems with driving locally, it was a Sunday and the roads had been pre-salted, most of the snow came late overnight.
Tonight (Thursday) the calls I heard on NJ-101.5, from places in their core listening area told of Wal-Marts out of bottled water, milk, bread etc. and of shoppers crowding the aisles. But, the storm is still two days away and not expected to hit Central Jersey until 6-pm Saturday. Stores will get bread and milk deliveries on Friday and Saturday, and will also have time to re-stock with bottled water. No reason to get all cranked up yet.
What was interesting was that the situation sounded more panicked in NJ-101.5s main signal area, than it was farther north where most other media is the same. I wonder if NJ-101.5 going into storm mode had anything to do with the geographical difference in mood?
I'm not saying it would be a bad thing if one station had that much influence in getting people to prepare early, but I wonder if hyping the crisis mode too early and too heavy is the right thing to do? The hurricane is certainly what New Jerseyans will be talking about for the next three or four days, so the station should talk about it. And there were some great tips given on what people should do to prepare for the storm, but two days out some callers sounded more cranked up than normal when we all still have plenty of time to do what really needs to be done before battering down the hatches at home. While getting people out of low lying flood prone areas, and off of barrier islands early makes a whole lot of sense, having everybody else rush out and hoard a months worth of bottled water, just in case, is overdoing it a bit. Yes, a state of emergency has already been declared, but really, are we in a dangerous situation yet?
No doubt, a Hurricane is more serious than a snowstorm, but can a talk station pass along all the necessary storm related information without getting too many New Jerseyans to react like they did when Orson Welles had the Martians landing in Grover's Mills with his War of the Worlds radio drama in 1938? You'll recall that response was a little overdone too.
