Fisher Plaza: Fire in the hole!

[kyliebastel]

If Kylie isn't mistaken don't they loop the "don't use the telephone" announcement between Official News & Information? 

And after the big one hits (not talking about an earthquake) don't "they" restrict ON&I to top of each hour and tell everyone to turn their radios/TVs off in the intervals between to conserve power?* (In which case dead air or a looping announcement would presumably be okay ...) ... Come on gang, is Kylie right or is Kylie right?!  Inquiring minds wanna know! LMAO!  

* Kylie thinks that's a mistake, BTW. Better to have everyone focused on The One Eye (that's the TV [credit Kerouac] you pervs!) than out lootin' and rapin'. ACK!  Idle hands are the devil's workshop ... and Kylie's playground! LOL!

[Darth_vader]

Whoa--looks like someone forgot to take their Ritalin today...........

[kyliebastel]

Whoa--looks like someone forgot to take their Ritalin today...........

OH no you di'nt! LMAO! 

J/K - Vader, you know I love ya, hon. How're Connie and the kids?

[BarryATL]

I had two business in Louisiana.  One was hit by Katrina and the other hit five weeks later by Rita.  The maket leader in New Orleans, WWL, has a complete back-up plan.  The radio and TV operations move to Baton Rouge when something happens to New Orleans.  They have an agreement with Louisiana Public Television for use of their studios.  WWL-AM was on the air from Barton Rouge for a few days until all the stations formed United Radio Broadcasters of New Orleans.  During the height of Katrina, WWL-AM was the only thing on the air.

In the smaller marke of Lake Charles, when Rita hit Apex Broadcasting Group (now Gap) moved out of their studios to the hospital.  The local TV news operation, KPLC, was providing the audio to all of the Apex stations for the first 12 hours.  The TV news operation used a portable microwave transmitter with a small dish set up on a microphone stand pointed out a window of the hospital toward the small tower next to their studio which then bounced the signal directly to the transmitter.  No switching or anything fancy.  One camera.  One microphone.  One hospital telephone that was a speaker phone.  With those few items, KPLC broadcast for the first 12 hours of Rita coverage.  KPLC TV lost their transmitter after about six hours but stayed at their posts because the audio was still going out over two of the Apex radio stations.  At dawn Apex broadcasting and the KPLC news crew moved into the KPLC studios and started a seven day live broadcast marathon.

Bottom line, all of these stations are used to hurricanes.  The maket leaders in each market (New Orleans and Lake Charles) has a plan to keep the stations on the air even if their cities flood... which is exactly what happened in both cities.

Now.. here is what happens to stations that do not have a practiced plan.  Cumulus stations of Lake Charles left all of their stations on automation and evacuated when Rita hit.  They did not return for about 10 days.  The stations all stayed on the air until the diesel ran out at each transmitter.  For a couple of days while we had no power, water, sewage and the National Guard pratrolling the steets Cumulus was broadcasting automated music that kept giving out the time that was six hours off.  The local press and a lot of the local residents definately remembered who was there for them during the worst of times.

[TheBigA]

Cumulus was broadcasting automated music that kept giving out the time that was six hours off.  The local press and a lot of the local residents definately remembered who was there for them during the worst of times.

That may be, but right now, Cumulus is #1 in Lake Charles.

[SeattleObserver]

If anyone wants to hear the "hum" of KOMO 1000, a friend of Linda Thomas' (the News Chick) was able to air check both the sign off after the cell died and the sign on of the resurrected station.

http://istillloveradio.blogspot.com/2009/07/seattles-komo-radio-goes-old-school.html