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WindStorm Coverage on KIRO-KOMO Radio

A

airwaver

Guest
Power went out for us around 1:06am last night - and it just came back on!

Thought 710 KIRO did an excellent job with the 'live' reports from downtown Seattle,
near the 5-20 bridge, etc - during the windstrorm.

KOMO had good 'neighbor-to-neighbor' coverage and had an outage around 2:10am
for about three minutes, then turned on the generators...
 
KIRO did what KIRO does best, breaking news coverage. Overall a great job. Although by late afternoon with Tony Miner they lost some ground when they had dated information about power outtage numbers. KOMO had the latest/better information in the afternoon.

Hey when there's an emergency and power outtages AM radio has its place. Too bad that's only a few days out of the year.
 
Both stations deserved KUDO's - local, live and relevant. Very few events bond a community like weather or natural disasters - it's cool to see radio doing a great job particularly when TV has no real ability when the power is off.
 
I have to strongly disagree about KIRO.
My power went out on Thursday night and I just got it back this morning.
Friday as I went on the "hunt" for gas. I tuned to KIRO as usual. What a disappointment!!! They had Frank Shiers sitting in for Dori and just doing a show! Turned to KOMO a great job! These guys had me up to date on where there was gas, propane, batteries, etc. tuned KIRO on every once in a while to see if they had coverage - nothing. Sat. I woke needing to know what was going on - tuned to KIRO, again...programming they had Cisco! A gardening show????Really. Again I turned to KOMO. Sat afternoon I did notice Don from Ron & Don was on the air (he did a great job) finally coverage! KIRO, as far as I am concerned was way behind the ball on this one. When you feel isolated, without power,phone or any way to communicate and the radio is your ONLY source, regular programming is not the way to go. KOMO kept me informed and not feeling alone with their neighbor to neighbor coverage even at 1am when I could not sleep. In a disaster this large, KOMO showed they can deliver the goods and KIRO is a "talk" station NOT the "news" station it once was.
sad...
 
Didn't sample KIRO because I was very happy with KOMO. Brian Calvert/Scott Sistek did great job when the storm hit throughout the night, joined by all the other teammates as they called in from various points around. Looped in KOMO shooters who had been out on the streets, etc. Not a thing I wished they had done differently .... and did a great job balancing neighborhood call-ins with the staff reporters, and still generally adhering to the format needs of Traffic/Weather positions. Was kind of proud to be in the biz again on a day like that!!

Normally I'm a huge fan of KING-TV but am somewhat disappointed at how much they are recycling stories, video, etc. There is SO MUCH to cover right now and rerunning stories about insurance claims, etc. at some point may be better served online where less timely. As a guy watching tv with a box full of D-cells at my side, you really want up-to-date info more than anything. To that extent, was frustrated PSE didn't have much PIO presence...Seattle City Light sure did. PSE mostly just issued stat's of how many customers were down and not much in-depth info of "here's what we are trying to do in next 4 hours". They have, at least, put that online...but along with my box of D-cells I have no phone lines (because I can see the main trunk dangling in the street 8 blocks from my house).

Gotta say I have learned a LOT about the way to treat these emergency coverages on-air and online after this and having been thru the deal (still without power/phone ... and, God forbid, CABLE).
 
On my post earlier I was referring to KIRO/KOMO RADIO

KOMO was great! KUDOS
KIRO well I posted it earlier...

can't say much about the TV - couldn't see it
 
Sitting in the dark shivering all weekend around our wind-up radio we barely tuned away from KOMO the whole time. The "Neighbor-to-Neighbor" coverage was exactly the right thing to do. It got beyond the few-second soundbites from PSE and the list of school & street closures and gave us a flavor of what was going on around the area. Well done, KOMO.

Tuned back & forth to KIRO a tiny bit but never fell upon a segment interesting or relevant enough to keep us there through even one break. Sampled a couple of Christmas songs on WARM for a few minutes but we weren't ready for joy or cheer yet.

One little thing that made us roll our eyes. Sunday morning we got our hopes up when we could see the cherry-picker at the end of the street working on lines. Alas, 'twas the cable guys. So all of our neighbors with cable were able to have their cable back on. Except, whoops, no electricity.
 
JustaLissner said:
One little thing that made us roll our eyes. Sunday morning we got our hopes up when we could see the cherry-picker at the end of the street working on lines. Alas, 'twas the cable guys. So all of our neighbors with cable were able to have their cable back on. Except, whoops, no electricity.
Click to expand...


Are you implying that the cable company should follow the power folks around and do their work in tandem? ::)
 
JustaLissner said:
One little thing that made us roll our eyes. Sunday morning we got our hopes up when we could see the cherry-picker at the end of the street working on lines. Alas, 'twas the cable guys. So all of our neighbors with cable were able to have their cable back on. Except, whoops, no electricity.
Click to expand...

As I understand it...utilities have to "release" access to cable companies if they are working in problem areas. So if a pole goes down...power gets first crack at getting the pole back...power lines back....then phone and cable are given the "all clear" to go in and work. So...they really DO coordinate it. If you saw the cherry guy ... probably meant that area didn't have power line issues (even though the lines may not be live where cable guy is working as there could be issues upstream).
 
Unfortunately at our house, we only were able to tune into FM stations. I was sickened at the response of WARM 106.9 (which my wife insisted we listen to for the Christmas music). The disaster was never even mentioned! In fact, several times I heard the DJ say "hope you're having a wonderful weekend"! This is downright criminal! I assume that they had pre-recorded the entire weekend's programming...but why wouldn't the bosses insist that the DJ's come to work to serve the communities they are licensed to serve?? What a miserable performance.
 
BobSakamano said:
... In fact, several times I heard the DJ say "hope you're having a wonderful weekend"...
Click to expand...

Think the only thing worse would be huddling around a wood stove and having KBSG scream in their former positioining "....we make you feel GOOOOOOOD". Then launch into Doors' Light my Fire. That would do it.
 
BobSakamano said:
Unfortunately at our house, we only were able to tune into FM stations. I was sickened at the response of WARM 106.9 (which my wife insisted we listen to for the Christmas music). The disaster was never even mentioned! In fact, several times I heard the DJ say "hope you're having a wonderful weekend"! This is downright criminal! I assume that they had pre-recorded the entire weekend's programming...but why wouldn't the bosses insist that the DJ's come to work to serve the communities they are licensed to serve?? What a miserable performance.
Click to expand...

Bob:
It's beyond criminal...It's just another example of the poor quality of PDs and "Air personailties" that pass as entertainment these days. You have a bunch of jocks who laid down the tracks days in advance. A figurehead "PD" who runs the Selector and loads the Audio Vault and calls it a good day. Worse is ownership who wonders why they can't turn a better profit margin despite all the firings and top that off with sponsors who find that "radio just doesn't draw like it used to". Wonder why?
 
BobSakamano said:

It's beyond criminal...It's just another example of the poor quality of PDs and "Air personailties" that pass as entertainment these days
Click to expand...

Lame for the listeners as well as for the industry, but noblesse oblige....
 
I was without power for over a week (in Kirkland of all places!), and KOMO AM was the only station I found that was more consistent with their reports, and their "neighbor to neighbor" coverage was wonderful. When no other stations were giving info about the power outage or even acknowledging that there were people still w/o power, KOMO was great. I usually don't listen to or watch KOMO, but I truly enjoyed their coverage of the storm.
 
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