Radio never warned me (regarding Spfld tornado)

[Bill Welch]

I was in a car the night of the tornado and WMAS was carrying the audio 
from one of the TV stations I believe it was WWLP.

For the most part WHYN partners with CBS3 in Springfield for their 
afternoon newscasts which becomes very obvious taht it is taped when you 
hear the exact same thing every time they "update the news" Or you see 
the CBS3 ancho on TV at teh same time you are hearing his voiuce on the 
radio.

WHYN has had a slogan going into their newscast for a while "See it 
tonight, read it tomorrow or hear it now" but hearing it now over in 
over is not news.

When Congress and the FCC did away with the rule of 7 is when localism 
started downhill there was no real incentive to compete when you would 
be competing with yourself.

When AM FM and TV combos existed they could share the resources and 
expenses across all the station.s Other than WBZ are there any combos 
left and are the resources shared so as to make a difference?












Kevin Vahey wrote:
> Springfield radio should at least work out something with ch 22 or 40
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Dave Doherty"<dave@skywaves.net>
> Date: Sat, 11 Jun 2011 19:55:57
> To:<kvahey@gmail.com>;<billohno@gmail.com>;<boston-radio-interest@lists.BostonRadio.org>
> Subject: Re: Radio never warned me (regarding Spfld tornado)
>
>    
>> You CAN NOT plan for a tornado or earthquake...
>>      
> Fukushima is a perfect example of such thinking. Memorials exist many
> kilometers inland and many meters higher of a tsunami over a thousand years
> ago.  These signs were ignored because it happened so long ago, and a safety
> assumption was made because the likelihood of a recurrence within the
> projected lifetime of the plants was small. Yet the earthquake happened
> within the lifetime of the plants, and the tsunami overwhelmed the
> assumption as well as the plants.
>
> Violent weather and seismic events have occurred nearly everywhere on the
> planet.  We need only look back about 50 years to the Worcester disaster in
> the 1950s to see that tornadoes do occur in central Mass.  Agreed, they are
> rare; but they do happen, and on the scale of centuries, they happen fairly
> often.
>
> You don't need to project the actual location and severity to make a
> disaster plan.
>
> You do need to set up "meet-up" locations for your family and your
> employees, students, and/or co-workers.  These should include phone numbers,
> email addresses, and websites like Facebook, but they should also include
> physical locations, some far away. (My family knows that if all else fails,
> they should head out to our camp in the Adirondacks.)
>
> As for what broadcast stations can do...
>
> EAS has a variety of codes, and any station can be programmed to forward
> alerts matching those codes.  My stations automatically and instantly
> broadcast tornado and tsunami warnings, amber alerts, and other specifically
> chosen types of alerts.
>
> Work out agreements with other local broadcasters in the area. Nobody can
> predict who will be on or off the air, but we all can agree that everybody
> who is left standing will broadcast the audio from the best available
> source. It may be by radio relay from a backup exciter at somebody's studio,
> by Internet, or by cell phone, but somehow, it will get through if we plan
> it in advance.
>
> Arrange for backup transmitter locations, official or not.  The FCC is great
> about responding to requests for temporary transmitter locations in disaster
> scenarios, but it is best to have aux sites licensed in advance.
>
> Have disaster plans written up, including scripts containing advice to
> listeners with regard to various disaster scenarios.  Be sure that the
> entire staff - including management, sales, volunteers and interns - is
> thoroughly educated and knows the basics of opening a microphone and
> speaking on the air. Your traffic clerk might be the only one capable of
> getting to the station.
>
> Hoping to open a dialog here...  Other ideas???
>
>
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