If you don't think of radio as a basic information source in day to day activities, you are not going to suddenly find it important or critical during an emergency.
People don't consider streams and rivers sources for drinking water in their everyday lives, but when they're hiking in the wilderness and become lost or stranded, they suddenly do.
I think you and some other regulars here are so discouraged about the public's declining radio use that you've made yourselves believe their preference for its superior entertainment alternatives in good times has somehow removed their memories of its utilitarian uses during bad times. I just don't think the situation is that bleak yet. Listen to
this person from 22:54 to 24:32, for example. You can tell by his language he isn't a radio listener. I've been watching people's vlogs on Youtube from all over the ruins of Helene, and I'm seeing constant examples of residents talking about turning back to radio for local information because of everything else being out. Many were people without and with internet at the time. Here is
another example (9:56 - 10:30, 17:18 - 18:18, 4:30 - 6:03), and
a third example (10:48 - 11:45). I can't remember the channel and video titles of every example I saw because I watch Youtube on a logged-out Roku and without a watch history to review, the number I've seen has mostly blurred everything together for me. But this phenomenon is very real and it appeared to be happening en masse. In other words, I wasn't searching for videos mentioning radio (you can't search Youtube video soundtracks anyway), but an inordinate number of generic post-disaster vlog videos showing up to my searches included people mentioning the radio nonetheless.
Have you been paying attention to these threads?
https://radiodiscussions.com/thread...ound-asheville-nc-following-hurricane.773379/
https://radiodiscussions.com/threads/how-are-the-asheville-stations-covering-the-storm.773356/
They contain some personal accounts and multiple links to articles describing how vital radio was in the week or two post-Helene. One scenario at least two articles described was the fragile cellular networks imploding very early into the event, preventing emergency evacuation order texts from reaching people even as the disaster was getting started. Another article I'll just partly quote, since I can't paraphrase it any better personally: "When cell service blinked out and thousands were left without power and water, people turned to radio. It has not been uncommon, in the days since, to see cars with windows rolled down and doors open, radios blaring as neighbors clustered around to listen." Yet another story described how stations with cut-to-the-bone news staffs pooled all their people together to create a single newsgathering and reporting workforce that they all shared during the worst days. Maybe most pertinent of all, it was revealed in another story still that the power was being restored much more quickly than the cellular service.
Which brings up something important. Although cell companies have portable towers, there's no way they'll ever have enough portables to substitute all the regular ones taken offline in major disasters -- and that's assuming road conditions actually let them get those portables into all their damaged tower sites' footprints. It's also worth pointing out that unlike the landline and power utilities, which have been around since the 19th century and are subject to copious accumulations of public utilities regulations, cellular companies are still largely unregulated, including how fast they must move to restore service. We've only begun to see the beginnings of such regulation in terms of some states now requiring propane/diesel generators. But often, those requirements are minimal (24-72 hours), and in disasters where there are widespread long-term power outages, there won't be enough refueling vehicles to keep all the undamaged tower sites topped off. (They're now estimating 3-4 months to restore power in the worst hit areas!) And in cases where there's also lots of blocked and washed out roads, as happened with Helene, they wouldn't be able to get their fuel trucks to all their undamaged sites even if they had enough of those trucks to do that.
Please check the links in those threads, including the Facebook video link. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised. People who had quit radio found it again in droves during and after Helene.
All I can think of is that they want RX capabilities for the international shortwave amateur bands, since those always light up in disasters with emergency nets. Or maybe the metronome effect of WWV and WWVH helps them quell their existential anxieties and fall asleep at night.
Most members of the newer generations under 35 don't even know what ham radio is. And they certainly don't know about WWV.
No, I didn't mean classic preppers who keep cases of water and have 72 hour kits like the FEMA PSAs say. You're right, that demographic is oblivious to ham radio. I meant
these people, the full readiness demographic that has exploded to about 20 million since Trump, COVID, and the increase in weather disasters.
And, again, we need to look at the buyers. I'll bet that those under 40 do not think of a radio as part of an emergency preparedness kit as they don't find radio useful for information on a day to day basis. The buyers are likely to be older people who are frightened by the recent storms, heat waves, floods and the like.
Well, read the above article. You'll find what it says about the demographic shifts in survival prepping interesting, just from a demographer's perspective. When 20 million "minorities and people considered left-of-center politically" and "self-described 30-year-old lesbians from Indiana" are prepping like only fringe survivalists once did, you know there's a new culture happening. I wouldn't at all be surprised if the high sales figures I found on Amazon aren't going into their hands as opposed to the hands of fearful middle agers and over. From the article: "I'm really surprised by the number of people of color here. I always went to these shows with my family in Indiana and it was just white people who were my parents age. There are a lot of younger people here, too. It's a real change."
I even wonder how long it would take for most of those same under-35's to realize that they might get in the car, turn on the radio and find information on an emergency situation.
I'm going to take "what is a lot less long than they would willingly sit in pitch darkness waiting for their iPhones to show bars again" for $1,000.
Also, see above, where everyone just gathers around the guy with the loudest car radio.
If younger people don't think of "radio" for news and information in everyday life, why expect them to do so when under the pressure of an emergency? I've been in several very severe earthquakes outside the US and a state of panic is not conducive to analytical logic.
Initial panic always segues to somber alertness soon after, restoring that analytical state and the natural thirst for information that comes with it.
One video that popped up on Youtube for me today actually said it took as long as 4 days to get temporary cell towers distributed. That's a lot of time to calm down, and a lot of radio listening in the process.
