Re: WTAG coverage of Fire

[Mike Thomas <nostatic@earthlink.net>]

I was on the air at WXLO that night after midnight.  I listened into WTAG for
part of the ride in.  They were still running Judy Jarvis after 11pm.  There
were no local break-ins that I heard.  When I drove home Saturday morning, they
were in their "morning magazine" format.  They did have a reporter on the scene
at the fire, but they were also running lifestyle "puff pieces" and other
non-relevant news.  There was just passing mentions of the I-290 road closure.
I was not impressed.

At WXLO, I tried to drop in relevant information about the fire overnight.
Basically I kept people informed about the road closings around the fire scene
and urged people to stay away from the area.  Since the firefighters were still
listed as missing at that point, I simply sent out best wishes to the families.
I knew this was going to be a big story when at about 3am I got a call from
WXLO's BBC "twin" station in Worcester, England (on 104.6FM BTW.)  I wound up
being a guest (between songs on XLO) on their local "breakfast show" and
provided some actualities for their news department.  Kinda cool, but sobering
as well considering the circumstances.

Mike Thomas
WXLO & Mediabase 24/7


"Michael D. Malone" wrote:

> In regards to WTAG's coverage of the fire.  They dropped the ball big time
> on the evening of the 3rd.  I could see the fire from my home base, and
> turned them on to see what they had.  In a word nothing...An Icecats game.
> About 9:00 PM, I called WTAG and asked the guy running the board why WTAG
> had no coverage.  He seemed completely unaware of the fire and even more so
> unconcerned, even after I told him it looked like at least 2 firefighters
> were dead and others were missing.  His reply "I just work here".  I
> suggested he better call the News director pronto...I listened off and on
> for the next couple hours or so and heard nothing, although I heard they my
> have had reports on after the 11PM hour...
>