WPTF and WUNC - Rock you like a hurricane...and an earthquake!

[B Lewis]

It is a surprise that no one has mentioned this on this board, but I am sure the topic is no surprise to anyone on the board. A few days ago, North Carolina felt the effects of a 5.8 earthquake, with an epicenter near Richmond, Virginia. Well, to anyone, who has spent time on the west coast, 5.8 is laughable. But, we east coasters are accustomed to a ground that is not moving when we are in a state of sobriety. What I am getting at here, in North Carolina, an earthquake is news. People are curious about it. I was working at an NPR station a few years ago, when we had a tremor. People where calling the station asking if I knew why the ground was shaking. I actually was thinking someone at the station was screwing with me. The station was in a gigantic building in a main business district. Trucks going by often shook the ground, so I didn't even notice it. I went to the Geological Service site, to find there had been an earthquake. On the next local break during NPR's "All Things Considered", I went live and took calls from listeners, to find out who felt what and where. I took calls through two segments of All Things Considered; about 25 minutes.

So, after the other days shaker, I went to WRDU...Rush was on. I went to WTIB (Greenville)...Rush was on. I went to WUNC. They, at least mentioned it during their local breaks and covered it on their local news minutes later. I went to WPTF, and Bill LuMaye was taking calls and was doing an awesome job covering the quake. It is a shame that such a great station has lost it's ratings...really because of the loss of Rush and Hannity. Yeah, they are heavy hitter talk shows, but there was I time that I thought the FCC granted licenses for broadcasters to serve ' the public interest'. Fortunately, WPTF was doing just that. I don't know what it would take, but I would sure like to see WPTF get its numbers back. Maybe shifting it cloer to a WCBS style all news format, but I realize that is an expensive format to execute. It will be interesting to see how Raleigh stations stack up wken it comes to coverage of Irene. If the storm does become a real issue for The Triangle, I am sure that WPTF (and probably WUNC) will kick A%%, when it comes to coverage.

 

[ncscradiogeek]

I am glad WPTF still acts as a good broadcaster.

 

[disgruntled]

don't usually chime in here anymore after moving to albemarle, but it is worth noting that wztk had a prolonged earthquake discussion that day during aft drive. i get their signal fairly good in my car, and tuned in approx. 4:30. The weatherman was talking about it. (It seems like more of a geologic event, rather than weather, but he sounded reasonably knowledgeable.) don't know if wsjs was talking about it but i dont usually listen to them beyond morning drive, if it all

 

[turkeydance]

well, i missed it entirely.
that day i was On The Road,
listening to my car radio, and
not only was the quake not
mentioned on that station...
the only way i knew was
a text from my wife.
(obviously, the bumps and curves
of the road kept me from feeling it)
that's really 'sorry' as my Mama would say.

 

[knowsdown]

Was tuned to 101.1 WZTK and they had ABC news on ten minutes after the quake and they were all over it and then they did a local news segment giving even more info as they did the rest of that afternoon. Per the weatherman talking abut quakes, they mentioned that he was also a certified hazardous weather and phenomenom expert too. I felt that their coverage was way above the average news event blurb. Did the earth move for you too?