• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Was EAS activated in New Orleans?

R

rugrats1

At the Michigan Buzzboard ( http://mibuzzboard.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5749 ), a poster asks, in a thread about hurricane broadcasting in New Orleans:

> Are you telling me there was NO EAS activation in New Orleans during this?

The question is -- was the EAS activated in New Orleans or the Gulf Coast in the days before or following Katrina?<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by rugrats1 on 09/05/05 10:04 PM.</FONT></P>
 
> At the Michigan Buzzboard (
> http://mibuzzboard.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5749 ), a
> poster asks, in a thread about hurricane broadcasting in New
> Orleans:
>
> > Are you telling me there was NO EAS activation in New
> Orleans during this?
>
> The question is -- was the EAS activated in New Orleans or
> the Gulf Coast in the days before or following Katrina?
>

If you read the board up there...Here are the facts:

No EAS activation..Usually EAS is activated when something happens that no one is aware of like a tornado or such...WWL 870am/WLMG 101.9 are the stations in New Orleans for that.

ALL the radio stations in New Orleans are NOT on... at least 4 from what we can tell are off the air as they are in the hardest hit areas for Hurricane Katrina... Others are off the air due to no power (lack of fuel at generators probably) as most of the broadcasters were on after the storm in one way or another BUT water got in after the storm and may have done damage to these same transmitters

Information was starting to be read over radio and tv 36-48 hours before the storm as it is normally done but full on coverage doesn't usually happen before 24 hours before.

All stations on FM (other than a few of the "jukebox" lower power stations and KHEV 104.1 that had just flipped Gospel) have at least 1 local talent on air that I'm aware of... Most companies pooled their talent together from their own sister stations and broadcast over all of the sister stations. With so much information needing to get out and Entercon not having another home in Louisiana, they and CC are sharing studios at CC's cluster home in Baton Rouge

Also if stations didn't break for coverage of the hurricane, they loose listeners and break one of the main purposes of radio according to the FCC "To serve the public interest".... Some broadcasters could technically have stations loose their licenses at renewal if they prove the station wasn't living up to it's duties...

RFLA
 
> ALL the radio stations in New Orleans are NOT on... at least
> 4 from what we can tell are off the air as they are in the
> hardest hit areas for Hurricane Katrina... Others are off
> the air due to no power (lack of fuel at generators
> probably) as most of the broadcasters were on after the
> storm in one way or another BUT water got in after the storm
> and may have done damage to these same transmitters

While the studios for nearly all of the stations are in New Orleans itself, most of the transmitters are on the west bank, and high and dry, but without power from the grid. But that will change in the next few days as it gets up and going again. I checked the satellite photos and found all the towers that I know about still standing, and none had water around them. Even WSMB, in a low-lying area of Algiers, was dry with both towers standing.
I have not been able to see if KKND's 960' tower down near Reggio is still standing, however. It was in the direct path of the eye, and only built to withstand a cat 3. I remember it well, as I was one of the builders in 1987.
 
> The question is -- was the EAS activated in New Orleans or
> the Gulf Coast in the days before or following Katrina?
>


What possible good could it have done? By Sunday afternoon anyone with a functioning brain was aware of the incoming hurricane and had left town or hunkered down to ride it out. What could EAS with its duck-fart attention tone
possibly have told the residents of New Orleans that they didn't already know?
Most radio and TV stations, as I understand it, had already gone to wall-to-wall coverage. EAS would have been redundant at that point.

About the only thing EAS is good for is tornado warnings in areas that occasionally see tornadoes. And maybe Amber Alerts, although many stations could make that much more effective with their RDS encoders. Aside from that, it's quite useless for anything else.

KL

<a href="http://home.nc.rr.com/gttyson/lastradio.html">The Last Radio Station<a>



<P ID="signature">______________
</P>
 
Was it activated when the levee(s) broke? I think it would have done a lot of good since it was not necessarily anticipated.




> > The question is -- was the EAS activated in New Orleans or
>
> > the Gulf Coast in the days before or following Katrina?
> >
>
>
> What possible good could it have done? By Sunday afternoon
> anyone with a functioning brain was aware of the incoming
> hurricane and had left town or hunkered down to ride it out.
> What could EAS with its duck-fart attention tone
> possibly have told the residents of New Orleans that they
> didn't already know?
> Most radio and TV stations, as I understand it, had already
> gone to wall-to-wall coverage. EAS would have been
> redundant at that point.
>
> About the only thing EAS is good for is tornado warnings in
> areas that occasionally see tornadoes. And maybe Amber
> Alerts, although many stations could make that much more
> effective with their RDS encoders. Aside from that, it's
> quite useless for anything else.
>
> KL
>
> The Last Radio Station
>
 
> Was it activated when the levee(s) broke? I think it would
> have done a lot of good since it was not necessarily
> anticipated.

Nope...Why? One it could be reasonably expected... That and the tones are meant to get people's attention..remember, every one's attention was already on the radio due to the storm... why alert on something already in discussion?

RFLA
 
So everyone was glued to the radio? Nobody just had the radio on in the background, doing something else and weren't paying attention...but would have listened and turned up the volume to listen if the EAS was activated? Here in the midwest, if a station is already talking about a tornado on the ground it doesn't mean that the EAS isn't activated when the warning goes out. If there is a Flash Flood Warning, the EAS is activated...if this wasn't a flash flood I don't know what is. Also, the EAS is for State and Federal officials to give "official" information. Why just rely on local announcers to comment(not that WWL's coverage was inadequate).


> > Was it activated when the levee(s) broke? I think it
> would
> > have done a lot of good since it was not necessarily
> > anticipated.
>
> Nope...Why? One it could be reasonably expected... That and
> the tones are meant to get people's attention..remember,
> every one's attention was already on the radio due to the
> storm... why alert on something already in discussion?
>
> RFLA
>
 
> So everyone was glued to the radio? Nobody just had the
> radio on in the background, doing something else and weren't
> paying attention...but would have listened and turned up the
> volume to listen if the EAS was activated? Here in the
> midwest, if a station is already talking about a tornado on
> the ground it doesn't mean that the EAS isn't activated when
> the warning goes out. If there is a Flash Flood Warning,
> the EAS is activated...if this wasn't a flash flood I don't
> know what is. Also, the EAS is for State and Federal
> officials to give "official" information. Why just rely on
> local announcers to comment(not that WWL's coverage was
> inadequate).


I was listening all Monday morning to WWL and no EAS tones went off... Garland Robinette talked about some breached levees and where but I don't think anyone knew the severity at the time.They were still worrying about the winds and the thrashing the hotels were getting... the flooding was starting to hit home when a woman called garland Robinette and told him somebody better come and see about them cause they were in the roof of the house....

Also I can't do a political comments anymore (as per Big Tymer) but seeing the chaos that was New Orleans, you think state and federal government was ready to give "official" information? And the National weather service was having problems I would say..But anyhow 870am is suppoed to be the EAS channel as far as I know for New Orleans and no tones went out as far as I can remember.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom