WTAG and Ice Storm

[Scott Fybush]

Dan.Strassberg wrote:
> Which means props to Clear Channel. which as everybody here probably
> knows, has taken it on the chin repeatedly for lapses in the past in
> emergencies in other parts of the country. Now, does WTAG's
> performance herald a new leaf? Or is the company trying to atone for
> past problems elsewhere that it claims were incorrectly reported by
> competing media and then became urban legends that refused to die? Or
> is this the impact of the company's new private ownership, which had
> the reputation of not caring about radio except for the $$$$ it could
> bring in? 

Or is it possible that the Minot affair really was both misreported and 
atypical?

My local CC news-talk AM, WHAM (which, it should be noted, is my main 
competition in my WXXI role), has never failed to be there for the 
community in times of severe weather. It stayed on the air nonstop 
through the ice storm we experienced here in 1991 (which dwarfed the 
not-insubstantial present storm in MA/NH), and it's been there for every 
storm since. (It also never left the air during the 2003 blackout, as I 
recall.)

CC (which, it should also be noted, is an employer of mine, by way of 
its being the parent company of Inside Radio, for which I edit The Radio 
Journal) has probably spent more than any other broadcast group over the 
last decade in bringing older AM sites up to modern engineering 
standards, installing backup transmitters and auxiliary towers, and even 
stationing several self-contained emergency stations (containing 
crank-up towers, frequency-agile transmitters and rudimentary studio 
equipment) in locations around the country so that its signals can get 
back on the air even if their facilities are completely destroyed.

This predates both of the big disasters of the last decade, 9/11 and 
Katrina.

On 9/11, the only World Trade Center-based FM station that stayed on the 
air was the one owned by CC, 103.5 WKTU, because CC had invested in an 
auxiliary site at 4 Times Square to keep its FMs on the air in case of 
disaster. (Since then, CC has also built a complete off-site 
studio/office facility at an "undisclosed location" so that it can stay 
on the air even if its Manhattan studios are unusable.)

During Katrina, it was Entercom's WWL that got most of the attention for 
its emergency service, as well it should have - but the guys at WWL will 
be the first to tell you that they were able to stay on the air in large 
part because Clear Channel had an emergency facility available in Baton 
Rouge, complete with satellite uplinks to get programming back to 
whatever transmitters could stay on the air in New Orleans. The 
emergency simulcast that was heard over every working radio facility in 
New Orleans in the days after Katrina came from that CC studio plant in 
Baton Rouge.

It was CC, largely in the person of the late John Paoli, who fought like 
hell against really nasty NIMBY opposition to make sure KFI in Los 
Angeles could be restored to its full signal after its tower collapsed. 
KFI's ratings didn't take a hit during the more than 3 years the station 
was operating from the 25 kW short tower that remained (and that tower 
was itself a sign of good emergency preparation!), but John and his 
bosses believed in the importance of a full regional signal from a tall 
tower. It wasn't cheap, but it got done, even as CC was going through 
the throes of privatization.

They're far from perfect - no broadcaster is, and CC in particular has 
always had a great deal of autonomy from market to market - but at least 
in my experience, there's no "atoning" going on here...just one of the 
most competent engineering teams in the country continuing to do what 
it's long done well.

s