Props to 84 whas for live coveragee of the 2008 louisville ky windstorm

[hotpatrick2004]

I was very surprised to be flipping stations and expected there syndicated programs on and heard fracene i had no idea it was that bad till i heard her and tried to go out i live in lower cresent hill by the dirty kroger and they were closed due to know power tried to drive to st matthews but lots of limbs down and some power lines went back home and wow did not know it was that bad till i flipped on whas.

As much as a hate rain i much rather have heavy rain then all that wind my god. It was worse then santa anas are in southern california!!!

 

[radiorob2.0]

Let me second that. They did well today.

 

[The King Bee]

As much as I generally dislike Clear Channel stations and programming, I too have got to give them credit for pulling together an informative, helpful special report on the windstorm yesterday.

WHAS-AM had dropped the ball on recent emergencies such as the Bullitt County train derailment last year...it seems, however, that they've learned from that and had an effective plan in place this time so it wouldn't happen again.

(Name it like a "Dragnet" episode..."The Big Breeze")

 

[know-it-all]

Yes - while we were off the air yesterday it was "great" to hear Francine talking about how sad it was that the flags and flower pots were blown over at Valhalla (sp). She spent like an hour on that topic, only to be bumped by the topic of not letting your horse eat any of the downed black cherry trees(wasn't that a song)! Real useful stuff!!!

 

[greg.hahn]

I was very surprised to be flipping stations

Why were you surprised to be flipping stations? I would imagine you to be the type that does that often.

and expected there syndicated programs on

So you thought you'd flip and see which syndicated program it was?

on and heard fracene i had no idea it was that bad till i heard her

So hearing fracine makes it really bad?

and tried to go out i live in lower cresent hill

Didn't you hear fracine telling people to not go out? You musta flipped stations before you heard her say that.

by the dirty kroger and they were closed due to know power

I'll take know power over no power any day!

tried to drive to st matthews but lots of limbs down

Curses! Foiled again!

and some power lines went back home

So the power lines had gone out too?

and wow did not know it was that bad till i flipped on whas.

You mean the downed limbs, downed power lines, and know power didn't clue you in on that? Good thing fracine was on then!

As much as a hate rain i much rather have heavy rain then all that wind my god.

Amen to that!

It was worse then santa anas are in southern california!!!

When was then?

 

[The RadioFan]

Besides WHAS, props also goes out to Greg for keeping the four Cox stations solid throughout this weather event. They didn't miss a beat. 790, 970, 88.9, 91.9, 101.7 and 102.3 were also solid. 88.5 took a small hit for a few minutes around 2:30pm and then it was back and steady. 89.3, 90.5, 97.5 and 100.5 took a brief power outage in the evening. Otherwise, they were solid. 98.9 FM had a brief outage during the early afternoon. 99.7 took a few hits but it was on air throughout most of the storm. 104.3 took several hits during the afternoon but it returned to air within minutes each time.

 

[Kitrocks]

I second that, Radiolover. More props to Greg and those that were out and keeping things on the air and going, rather than those giving such great advice like" if it smells, don't eat it."

 

[kyscott]

Besides WHAS, props also goes out to Greg for keeping the four Cox stations solid throughout this weather event. They didn't miss a beat. 790, 970, 88.9, 91.9, 101.7 and 102.3 were also solid. 88.5 took a small hit for a few minutes around 2:30pm and then it was back and steady. 89.3, 90.5, 97.5 and 100.5 took a brief power outage in the evening. Otherwise, they were solid. 98.9 FM had a brief outage during the early afternoon. 99.7 took a few hits but it was on air throughout most of the storm. 104.3 took several hits during the afternoon but it returned to air within minutes each time.

The hits you were hearing was probably the shore power feeds taking hits, but not long enough to fire up the genset. And it could have been the gensets themselves switching back and forth.

 

[greg.hahn]

I second that, Radiolover. More props to Greg and those that were out and keeping things on the air and going, rather than those giving such great advice like" if it smells, don't eat it."

It's easy to look good when not so much goes wrong. I had it pretty easy. Some dishes were blown out of alignment and I lost power and internet.

Don from Mainline is the guy that deserves the props. He had a disaster. His STL tower was taken down, and 4 of his 5 stations with it. He worked all night Sunday while I slept in my bed.

 

[William_Yeager]

I noticed WDJX's signal was still sick this afternoon, but it was still coming in Shelbyville.

 

[Craven707]

If Greg ever quits his engineering job, he could get a job as an interpreter for HotP. ;D

 

[kyscott]

Don from Mainline is the guy that deserves the props. He had a disaster. His STL tower was taken down, and 4 of his 5 stations with it. He worked all night Sunday while I slept in my bed.

Didn't that thing fall a few years ago, too? The way that thing was thrown up on top of the Seelbach, it was just a matter of time before it started giving them troubles.

 

[greg.hahn]

Don from Mainline is the guy that deserves the props. He had a disaster. His STL tower was taken down, and 4 of his 5 stations with it. He worked all night Sunday while I slept in my bed.

Didn't that thing fall a few years ago, too? The way that thing was thrown up on top of the Seelbach, it was just a matter of time before it started giving them troubles.

Yeah, that all started with the split up of Jacor. Cox got half of Jacor and kept the building. Blue Chip got the other half, and got the Marmaduke building, which Clear Channel held the lease on. The move out of the Blue Chip stations was anything but smooth. There was too much to do in too little time. So if that tower was put up poorly, it's not too surprising.

It did fall a couple of years ago, and Don re-did the mounting by anchoring it to the parapet. It was way better than it had been. But in this storm the parapet gave away. The only reason 102.3 stayed on is that it is so close the antenna doesn't really have to be aimed.

I'm sure the new mounting structure will be done correctly. Episodes like this make station owners and financiers realize how serious a single point of failure like this can be. This is when they tend to avoid the question, "What is the economical solution that will probably get us by?" and instead ask the correct question: "How can we avoid this in the future?"

 

[50000watts]

Hey Greg,

I really enjoy reading your posts on the various threads. You have the ability to explain things concisely and bring up really good points. Keep posting!

 

[kyscott]

Yeah, that all started with the split up of Jacor. Cox got half of Jacor and kept the building. Blue Chip got the other half, and got the Marmaduke building, which Clear Channel held the lease on. The move out of the Blue Chip stations was anything but smooth. There was too much to do in too little time. So if that tower was put up poorly, it's not too surprising.

I remember Jerry Snapp telling me stories of having to move down the street, and quick. I think he said that Cox and Blue Chip got to flip for who got the Marmaduke building and they kept flipping the coin until Blue Chip lost.

It did fall a couple of years ago, and Don re-did the mounting by anchoring it to the parapet. It was way better than it had been. But in this storm the parapet gave away. The only reason 102.3 stayed on is that it is so close the antenna doesn't really have to be aimed.

Considering how close the transmitter is, you could hang a wet noodle on the end of the feedline and they would stay on the air....but then again, it would have probably gotten blown away. As I recall, the owner of the Marmaduke (woof) building actually owns the tower and leases the space from the Seelbach. Not that it makes the situation better, but it prevented us from getting anything done because he would have to pay for it.

I'm sure the new mounting structure will be done correctly. Episodes like this make station owners and financiers realize how serious a single point of failure like this can be. This is when they tend to avoid the question, "What is the economical solution that will probably get us by?" and instead ask the correct question: "How can we avoid this in the future?"

I suggested getting something like the BE Big Pipe radio. Putting everyone on it and shoot it to the 800 Building. From there shoot to the individual transmitter sites since there are no line of site issues there like there is at the Fourth Street studio to the transmitters. I was vetoed because the Optimods would have had to been moved to the transmitter sites. The dish for the Big Pipe can be mounted low to the building, or to the wall. That can shield the dish and would have prevented the wind from tearing the hell out of it.

The Fourth Street site is so bad for microwave paths, let the Medinger tower and Kentucky tower buildings get a little wet from rain or fog condensation and you can see the signal strength on DJX's receiver start to drop. Several times it faded out! One day, MJM started to cut out on us, after checking the studio and transmitter end, I went to the roof to make sure the dish was still pointed east. That's when I saw them starting to put the sides on the new building at Jewish Hospital....right in our path! We had just installed a Moseley four channel Starlink STL for DJX, so I grabbed MJM's STL transmitter and dish and Pete Boyce and headed to the Knobs to move MJM's STL path.


What did I know, I was just an engineer that liked to spend money. ???
[/quote]

 

[radiorob2.0]

I was surprised to hear local coverage on WHAS. Thank God they took the initiative.

Here in Owensboro, at its worst, it was wind gust above 70 mph. Radio coverage of the storm was pathetic. The best you could find during the the storm (10am-1p) was WIKY Evansville. They do not cover Owensboro but at least I could get an idea of what the hell was going on.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

I don't listen to Owensboro radio often, but I had the impression that 105.7 and the other stations in that cluster had a fair news department.

False?

 

[radiorob2.0]

I don't listen to Owensboro radio often, but I had the impression that 105.7 and the other stations in that cluster had a fair news department.

False?

Nothing against the one person news department of Cromwell, but only so much can be done. The same goes for Regent.

During the peak of the storm, Owensboro radio was on auto pilot. WIKY Evansville was talking about storm, though nothing specific about Owensboro. Following the storm, Joe Lowe did an hour on WOMI but that was it. Beyond that, it was NASCAR and auto pilot radio as 75 percent of Owensboro and Daviess County had no electricity. Cromwell did do a few breaks but it was generic information, noting specific. Also, their recorded weather forecast still had "High Wind Warning" verbiage long after the storm was gone. Meanwhile across town, two days after the storm an entire one minute news update was devoted to new enrollment figures for WKU and not one word about the storm as there were still homes without electricity. But this is standard procedure, much like every major news event you wait for the Messenger-Inquirer to arrive on the doorstep or update on-line since they are Owensboro's only news source. Our television comes out of Evansville and they cover Owensboro if there is room. Owensboro radio, as I said, is one person reading stories out of the M/I and news releases. The closest we have to a real radio news department on a local signal is Western Public Radio, but they have a regional focus.

Again, I don't blame the radio news people, but I do blame those who run things. Regent's Bill Stakelin and Cromwell's Bud Walters will each brag about how their stations "Serve the Community". In reality, they simply clean out the cash drawer and use the money elsewhere. Until about fifteen years ago, WVJS had a full service news department of the same quality of a WHAS or a WVLK, but that was eliminated. So now we fend for ourselves.