Radio Dark in Columbus due to storms..

[gabigley1]

How dose this storm compare to the wind to strike Central Ohio back in September of 2008.
That was just high winds from the remnants of Hurricane Ike.

Patience, power in short supply - Frustration mounts as homes stay dark
Columbus Dispatch, The (OH) - Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Author: THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

As widespread power outages stretch into a fourth day, people seem to be getting antsy.

In central Ohio, about 250,000 American Electric Power customers had no power as of 11:30 p.m. yesterday. That's down from about 425,000 without electricity at the peak, although the company's coverage areas overlap outside the seven central Ohio counties.

Yes this is one of those situations that WWCD would benefit if they still streamed.. The 102.5 transmitter is in a rural area and without a generator it's very easy to have it go off air.

If I recall correctly, WWCD was not significantly, if at all, affected by the wind storm of 2008.
That was back when WWCD was on their tower site in Grove City, which is now owned by tOSU.
Maybe now they will bring back streaming? They probably wish they had kept streaming going
now.

 

[xmusicmatt]

If I recall correctly, WWCD was not significantly, if at all, affected by the wind storm of 2008.
Maybe now they will bring back streaming? They probably wish they had kept streaming going
now.

Yea -

In fact yesterday at the height of the storm about 5:30pm I scanned the entire FM dial and 101.1 WOSA was still airing classical music while even their sister 89.7 NPR WOSU-FM was off air briefly (no carrier).

 

[xmusicmatt]

Quick scan of the FM dial at 4:00 pm:

91.5 off air
91.1 dead air
98.3 / 102.1 off air
103.1 off air

 

[knowbetter]

Radio One stations are back up -- according to their facebook page they had a power outage at their studios .

well, a generator was put in when they moved, but...

 

[dawg4life]

Power 107.5 doesn't seem to be broadcasting in stereo tonight so they might be having issues.

 

[xmusicmatt]

Power 107.5 doesn't seem to be broadcasting in stereo tonight so they might be having issues.

I wonder how many if any of the transmitter sites in town are on Genny.. Guessing none are at this point since most do broadcast from a few central locations.

 

[Nu_Roo_2]

Of course.. the saddest thing about this (but not surprising) is if you tuned to WNCI, or any of the big FMs this morning you heard "Best of morning shows" ... no one would have known the power was out for almost 200,000 people in the Columbus area alone...

I agree that's the saddest part. Same deal when there were hundreds of thousands without power due to an ice storm five (??) years ago before and lasting through Christmas. I recall even WTVN doing its wall-to-wall Christmas-day music as if nothing was happening.

 

[xmusicmatt]

91.5 is back on air this morning.

 

[dawg4life]

Of course.. the saddest thing about this (but not surprising) is if you tuned to WNCI, or any of the big FMs this morning you heard "Best of morning shows" ... no one would have known the power was out for almost 200,000 people in the Columbus area alone...

I agree that's the saddest part. Same deal when there were hundreds of thousands without power due to an ice storm five (??) years ago before and lasting through Christmas. I recall even WTVN doing its wall-to-wall Christmas-day music as if nothing was happening.

I think it was in 2005. I was without power for over a week. I remember I used up all of my firewood in the fireplace trying to keep the house from freezing and the pipes from busting. That was a really cold week.

Actually that was the first big ice storm then there was the other one in 2007. I didn't lose power from the 2nd storm.

 

[the marv]

I know newsradio 103.9/Am 920 were giving people updates on it friday when it hit.

 

[chad43358]

I know newsradio 103.9/Am 920 were giving people updates on it friday when it hit.

Perfect timing for the new station to show us what it's all about. I didn't listen as I could no longer pick up 103.9. The atmosphere was all jankity janked. 103.9 was unlistenable, but 104.1 out of Muncie, Indiana, of course 104.3 just North of Marysville, and 104.5 WQKT Wooster were all loud and clear.

 

[Josh_Cols]

In my neighborhood most folks have a automatic backup generator wired into their house; mine is a 50kw Kohler with a Chevy V-6 that runs off natural gas and it powers the entire house; it ran for 23 hours. If residential backup generators are becoming more affordable and common place (not quite as common as central air), its amazing how many broadcast facilities do not have any sort of provisions for power outages at the studio or transmitter sites. A friend of mine in Auglaize county told me in that part of the state several Clear Channel stations in Lima were off the air as well as both locally owned, Celina radio stations.

If I recollect correctly the FCC was proposing a couple years ago that all cell phone carriers have backup power at all their cell sites and central stations; Sprint and T Mobile threw a fit, where AT&T and Verizon had most of their sites on backup power. IM not sure what became of this proposal, but you would have thunk years ago the FCC would have mandated backup power for all full power broadcast stations.

 

[knowbetter]

In my neighborhood most folks have a automatic backup generator wired into their house; mine is a 50kw Kohler with a Chevy V-6 that runs off natural gas and it powers the entire house; it ran for 23 hours. If residential backup generators are becoming common place, its amazing how many broadcast facilities do not have any sort of provisions for power outages at the studio or transmitter sites.

it's called lets me cheap, although i am guessing there is a maintenance issue with some of these places. Your home system is impressive, much more than the average person needs... (as I say as I am still on generator since Friday, and expect to be on it through at least the sixth!

 

[wilson1000]

only cc station off was kiss 93.9. all other were on. maverick had 92.1 and 107.1 off

 

[michiana_media]

The huge mess on N. Hamilton Rd. is right by where the tower/transmitter for 104.9 is at. AEP is saying it will be 5-7 days before power is back on... I would guess they are on a generator.

 

[xmusicmatt]

In my neighborhood most folks have a automatic backup generator wired into their house; mine is a 50kw Kohler with a Chevy V-6 that runs off natural gas and it powers the entire house; it ran for 23 hours. If residential backup generators are becoming more affordable and common place (not quite as common as central air), its amazing how many broadcast facilities do not have any sort of provisions for power outages at the studio or transmitter sites. A friend of mine in Auglaize county told me in that part of the state several Clear Channel stations in Lima were off the air as well as both locally owned, Celina radio stations.

If I recollect correctly the FCC was proposing a couple years ago that all cell phone carriers have backup power at all their cell sites and central stations; Sprint and T Mobile threw a fit, where AT&T and Verizon had most of their sites on backup power. IM not sure what became of this proposal, but you would have thunk years ago the FCC would have mandated backup power for all full power broadcast stations.

Clear Channel Columbus has backup I am sure at their 5th ave location... I know the WBNS Tower site does too for the FMs.. Radio One apparently did not have a backup generator working Friday night as all 3 of their stations went to dead air breifly.. I know 104.9 the river has generator.

Most cell phone towers do have backup generators and driving around town I saw AT&T had also put in place smaller generators at their vRAD terminals that run the UVerse service to keep those vRAD's powered after the batteries drained.

The stations that suffer are the HD OVER AIR Channels.. None of the TV stations in town appear to have generators for their Over Air Broadcasts.. Friday night WOSU-TV, ABC6 and FOX28 were all off the air for a while. WOSU was dark until sometime Saturday. [I guess local TV hopes that everyone has Time Warner cable which has fiber connections to the stations].


Btw, Kudos to AM 920/ 103.9 .. They were giving various updates Friday evening during the storm (I flipped by as I was scanning the dial for stations off air).

Worse thing I heard.. was tonight (Sunday) when round 2 came thru.. WNCI had recorded "Thunderstorm warnings" from WTVN News .. and whom ever inserted the track into the Nexgen failed to see the VoiceTrack next... so the WTVN Update aired.. then a Voice track with "TMZ Sleaze" with no mention of weather played before commercials... sounded kinda lame for the LP-1.. If your going to be automated at least "try" to sound live..


Scanning the dial this evening.. The only station I found dark was still 103.1.

 

[Josh_Cols]

only cc station off was kiss 93.9. all other were on. maverick had 92.1 and 107.1 off

He mentioned 107.5 was off; maybe he mis-takened it for 107.1? I was told T-102 was in and out and hit or miss for awhile as well; heard this from folks near Minster / Ft. Loramie; could T-102 have been on their AUX and the signal was too weak to pick up 30 + miles away from Lima? Apparently in Auglaize and Mercer county info was hard to come by cause power was out, cable TV was down, land line phones were down, and cell phones are still spotty.

 

[Josh_Cols]

In my neighborhood most folks have a automatic backup generator wired into their house; mine is a 50kw Kohler with a Chevy V-6 that runs off natural gas and it powers the entire house; it ran for 23 hours. If residential backup generators are becoming common place, its amazing how many broadcast facilities do not have any sort of provisions for power outages at the studio or transmitter sites.

it's called lets me cheap, although i am guessing there is a maintenance issue with some of these places. Your home system is impressive, much more than the average person needs... (as I say as I am still on generator since Friday, and expect to be on it through at least the sixth!

My home system is "overkill" but I wanted a liquid cooled generator. I can only imagine the Columbia bill for natural gas for those 23 hours. We lost power again for a little while again today. I personally will not own a home that doesn't have a automatic standby generator. My house in Parker, Colorado also has a identical unit installed that has gotten us thru a few blizzards over the past several years.

Funny thing about radio station generators, out in Denver a few years back I remember market leader KYGO was transmitting from their low power AUX site for days cause their main transmitter site on Squaw Mountain lost power, the diesel generator fired up like a champ, but a few days into the outage and the weather still impassible the fuel ran out and the site went down, taking down 2 high power FM's, and 2 TV stations. Also during the storm lots of Denver FM's who transmit off Lookout Mountain and Mt. Morrison lost their STL's so you could flip up and down the dial and literally hear very little. It was actually kind of eerie in a way.

 

[xmusicmatt]

The huge mess on N. Hamilton Rd. is right by where the tower/transmitter for 104.9 is at. AEP is saying it will be 5-7 days before power is back on... I would guess they are on a generator.

All considering how close their tower is to that mess.. I am pretty sure they are / or was on generator power at the transmitter site (I do know they have a generator at their tower location -- they put one in when they moved to that tower site).. [They also have a generator at the studio site off Johnstown Rd].

 

[knowbetter]

My home system is "overkill" but I wanted a liquid cooled generator. I can only imagine the Columbia bill for natural gas for those 23 hours. We lost power again for a little while again today. I personally will not own a home that doesn't have a automatic standby generator. My house in Parker, Colorado also has a identical unit installed that has gotten us thru a few blizzards over the past several years.

I spent a while in Colorado myself, so I can really relate to what you are saying, My generator is a Honda, inverter style, which is the top of the series, and is very circuit board friendly. No more blown up electronics for me! I do prefer a self fueled generator though, just that comfort zone thingies. If I could afford what you have, I'd do it, but I would always have a backup.

Funny thing about radio station generators, out in Denver a few years back I remember market leader KYGO was transmitting from their low power AUX site for days cause their main transmitter site on Squaw Mountain lost power, the diesel generator fired up like a champ, but a few days into the outage and the weather still impassible the fuel ran out and the site went down, taking down 2 high power FM's, and 2 TV stations. Also during the storm lots of Denver FM's who transmit off Lookout Mountain and Mt. Morrison lost their STL's so you could flip up and down the dial and literally hear very little. It was actually kind of eerie in a way.

Spent a few nights stuck on Green Mountian myself <LOL.