WFLA format in FWB??

[Tibbs4]

That's right! Wouldn't homeowner's insurance cover the new place? It is a nice upgrade.
I guess you saw the old house and raydio station in there. Kinda interesting design, huh?
Mark certainly loved telling "radio execs" to come to his studios and watch their faces.
He's stood the test of time, doing it the right way, when the clowns and clones fall
all over themselves and their fake egos to trash him.

Next question...is Oh Hale still in radio?

 

[Poledo]

Trying to read between the lines on your last post Tibbs, but if I guessed right, Mr. Carter must have lost his house in one of the hurricanes. The majority of people who lost their houses in the recent hurricanes here were horribly under-insured and didn't get nearly enough money to rebuild a house similar to what they had. Most people only had enough insurance to pay off their mortgage and their tax bill, they were left with nothing but a vacant lot after that and some are still making mortgage and tax payments on vacant lots. Hell, I even fell into that category... I had no homeowners insurance and lost my house to Katrina, now I've got a nice acre of waterfront with a boat ramp and a slab. I don't believe I'll be able to afford to build a new house until the economy turns and I can't sell the land for anything close to what I believe it's worth. I'm one of the lucky ones though, I only have to make the property tax payments and my neighbor mows the grass in exchange for use of my boat ramp.

 

[Tibbs4]

Poledo --- Marks house on Little Canal Road (think that's right) burned down a few years ago. His kids
were in the house (he has five kids) and Mark and Renee (his wife) were out. No one was hurt (except
a few animals, sadly). It's amazing that the most professiobnal sounding radio station in Destin was
operating off a computer in a spare bedroom. Talk about brilliant, thinking different and doing it "the
Dave Ramsey" way (debt-free)...

Smart cookie, that Mark Carter. You know he stayed around for a hurricane to monitor the station
and keep information coming while everyone else left their stations? I think, think Gerald Rivera interviewed
him or something. Seems like a story someone told me. Maybe Mark. You ought to call him and introduce
yourself. He's a cool cat....with lots of lives.

 

[Poledo]

Mark Carter made the TV-3 Pensacola News because he stayed on the air through one of the hurricanes (Ivan, I think). They interviewed him about it and I remember him talking about refueling the generator outdoors in the middle of the storm while everyone else in Fort Walton radio had fled. He was the only radio station in Okaloosa or Walton county that stayed on the air throughout that storm. I don't believe I heard another Fort Walton station on the air for at least a week after Ivan. While Fly 92.1 was down 92 Zew was blasting into Pensacola like a local.

I don't know about running a business out of my house... been there, done that, but I guess I'd do it again if I had too. I'm spoiled with luxury office space right now, but I'd be happy with an office in an old FEMA trailer somewhere if money got tight.

 

[Buster Wafflehouse]

OK...This I know for sure. Cumulus was simulcasting all five stations during Ivan from the FWB studios. After midnight the signals went down one at a time until the last signal, 1260, went down about 4:30 am. Bruce Campbell had 4 out of 5 back up by 7am. 8 people broadcast and lived in that building for 4 days. Two jocks passed and recieved info from the Santa Rosa S.D. as all of their communications were out.

Since Alberto, Erin and Opal those stations have always simulcasted during the storms. Sometimes from their studios and sometimes from the EMS building in Shalimar.

 

[Poledo]

That's strange, I didn't think my memories of Ivan were that bad. I remember the TV news story about Seabreeze clearly. I also weathered the storm in Gulf Breeze... every Pensacola radio station went down except, I think, Cat Country which was playing automated through the storm with no news. WUWF kept their carrier up through the storm but lost their STL sometime after midnight. Qantum had been simulcasting WJHG Panama City and all those signals were gone. The day after Ivan we had no OTA TV and only Mobile FM, I can still remember later in the afternoon that one of the Mobile stations said that they just realized they hadn't received any reports out of Florida (for some reason we couldn't make phone calls outside of the 850 area code). The first Pensacola station back on the air was 100.7 with Luke McCoy and Don Parker, but at very low power and hard to receive in Pensacola. The next day Cumulus got 106.1 back up and we finally had local news. Is it possible that Cumulus Fort Walton was on low power? We were pretty desperate for news that day. I was using a superradio, I'm sure I would have found 96.5 or 99.5 if they were on. 105.5, 100.3, and 1260 don't reach over here.

As for the Santa Rosa County communications being down, I remember that well. Verizon was the only cell service that survived, despite the claims made by Southern Linc, and the county was using Nextel at the time. North and South Santa Rosa were cut off from each other and the roads were closed at Hurlburt Field and the Pensacola Bay Bridge, so we were stuck in South Santa Rosa. The first car to drive across the uninspected Pensacola Bay Bridge was a Gulf Breeze Police car on a mission to the nearest Verizon store to get all the phones they had. I was one of the lucky ones in Gulf Breeze with no significant damage so I went to the Gulf Breeze PD and volunteered to help, but by the time I got there every officer that lived in South Santa Rosa county had reported to the Gulf Breeze police chief and they took over the south end of the county, independent and out of touch with the Sheriff in Milton. I wound up on a city work crew clearing streets with a chain saw that day.

 

[Rob]

wow.. this has gone way off topic

WEAR is lame news BUT their news only covers east of pensacola, 5 (CBS WKRG..almost said WTVH), 8 (NBC WPMI) and 10 (fox WALA) cover west of pensacola (mobile only)

Channel 7 out of Panama is now on reduced power until the switch. I think Cox is using microwave to receive that.

-Rob

 

[Poledo]

Let's go a little further off topic. About 10 years ago channel 35 (a WB affiliate at the time, I believe) tried to do a local newscast for Fort Walton, Destin and Crestview. It failed. It only lasted a few months. So I guess you guys don't have much news down in those parts. Strange, considering that ya'll have 4 full powered television stations licensed to the area... and what are they carrying? MyNet, Infomercials, Infomercials, and Tourist Information (i.e. local infomercials). There's a low power in DeFuniak Springs that has been carrying a local news show for years. I think it's got cable coverage in the area too, but I don't know how far out it gets. I have DXed the DeFuniak Springs station (channel 24?) from south Georgia several times, but I've never picked it up down hear on the coast.

So what's the deal with news in the Fort Walton/Destin area. They have a newspaper and a short news show on an AM daytimer with limited coverage of the area. That's it. People down there must like to read. Who needs broadcast media?

 

[nightcrawler35]

Let's go a little further off topic. About 10 years ago channel 35 (a WB affiliate at the time, I believe) tried to do a local newscast for Fort Walton, Destin and Crestview. It failed. It only lasted a few months. So I guess you guys don't have much news down in those parts. Strange, considering that ya'll have 4 full powered television stations licensed to the area... and what are they carrying? MyNet, Infomercials, Infomercials, and Tourist Information (i.e. local infomercials). There's a low power in DeFuniak Springs that has been carrying a local news show for years. I think it's got cable coverage in the area too, but I don't know how far out it gets. I have DXed the DeFuniak Springs station (channel 24?) from south Georgia several times, but I've never picked it up down hear on the coast.

So what's the deal with news in the Fort Walton/Destin area. They have a newspaper and a short news show on an AM daytimer with limited coverage of the area. That's it. People down there must like to read. Who needs broadcast media?

Actualy channel 3 now covers mostly the fort walton beach crestview area news wise. Including the local high school sports. I believe although not certain that they rebroadcast the 5 o'clock news on 35.

 

[Poledo]

Actualy channel 3 now covers mostly the fort walton beach crestview area news wise. Including the local high school sports. I believe although not certain that they rebroadcast the 5 o'clock news on 35.

I left that part out, I didn't think it was significant, but to continue the story... The failed "Local" Fort Walton newscast was done when channel 35 was under an LMA with WEAR 3. What is left of the failed local news became the Channel 3 Fort Walton Bureau. They carry at least one story from that area on every newscast, but they don't carry much... actually no more than the Mobile and Panama City stations carry, but channel 3 may carry the news in more depth. Right now the WEAR 10 o'clock news is simulcast on channel 35, but that won't help anyone once channel 35 kills their analog signal in February, I don't think people in Fort Walton can pick up the digital signal from Channel 35 as they are broadcasting from a cell phone tower at very low power located near Channel 53 and WUWF. The current plan for channel 35's future puts their digital antenna on channel 3's tower in Baldwin county, which will obviously require a nice rooftop antenna to pull in the signal in Fort Walton or Destin.

 

[Rob]

it's too bad 5,8 and 10 don't do FWB (flordia) news..

talk about sucky!

Rob