Other stations in the affected region -- the projected path -- got accolades for their coverage, from various Radio-Info forums.
No one truly could be surprised by WLNG's performance ..... live and local and in complete traditional and consistent stride with what they have been doing for decades.
Two other 'non blowtorhces' were in northern New Jersey.
WRNJ Hackettstown and WGHT Pompton Lakes were in that winner's circle, too.
As far out as we are (near Hazleton) WMGH 105.5 Tamaqua surprised a lot of folks with excellent coverage. Ordinarily, they are a music-heavy A/C but stayed live and local. Over a million people in PA lost power for a while, too. Even the state Capitol of Harrisburgh, near where the fragmenting 'eye' passed, was in emergency conditions. Within that conical projection of the storm's path were at least four nuclear plants, for example.
None of those four extraordinary stations are market giants. We need more of them.
One would expect that with the desolation brought by the superstorm -- a dead-on forecast for a full week preceeding, incidentally -- that some of the larger stations should get off their biscuits and prep for the next one. And being without power because of weather in January is a different story altogether than in October.
No doubt, power company officials have swapped notes and ideas and plans since. They would have been stupidand negligent otherwise. Radio in general also needs things to be put more in place at a more urbane level. For millions, radio was all there was.
WCBS's signal was probably the most suitably situated one of all for the area affected. They stayed on, and the ratings certainly reflected that, but if their tenuous High Island site went out, Good Night Shirt.
Supervisors from each of the counties in the New York 'book' (and in other 'books') should get together and plan for a severe weather system for radio -- maybe one assigned station per county -- to step up. All resources from the county get funnelled and tweeted and phoned to that central localized spot ..... plan, swap, communicate, inform. We've seen how each of the counties were affected in different ways.
The recent weather dramas have been quite bizarre at times. And we all know that there always will be 'a Next one'.
