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August 18, 2003
Back from the Blackout
*As we go to press (so to speak) Sunday night, the Blackout
of 2003 is well on the way to the history books: power is back
on across the region, and the radio and TV dials are back to
normal.
But it's worth a moment to update our Friday
recap of how broadcasters from Long Island to Cleveland handled
the power failure - and to offer some lessons to broadcasters
looking to make sure they don't go dark the next time the power
goes off.
We'll start with the market-by-market look at who stayed on
and who didn't:
New England: "Unscathed" is the word for
most of the six New England states. While there were some reports
of power glitches causing brief outages for stations in Springfield
and Hartford, the lights stayed on almost everywhere else, rendering
the blackout less a local crisis than an interesting national
news story. The exception was southwestern Connecticut, where
scattered outages took a few stations off the air, including
WSAH (Channel 43) in Bridgeport.
Long Island: Most of the station clusters went into
simulcast mode - at least those still on the air (WLIE, WGSM,
WGBB, WRIV and WNYG were all noted off the air early in the outage.)
We've heard good things about the coverage heard on Barnstable's
stations (a simulcast of WKJY, WHLI, WMJC and WBZO); on Clear
Channel's WALK AM/FM; on Jarad's WLIR and WXXP; on Cox's WBLI
and of course Paul Sidney's coverage on WLNG out on the East
End.
New York City: Up here at NERW Central, we spent much
of our dark evening listening to the outstanding coverage on
WCBS, which pre-empted the Yankees game to stick with news. WCBS
was one of a handful of stations to stay on without significant
interruptions; WOR kept its entire staff going through the night
at its 23rd floor studios overlooking a darkened Times Square
- and its transmitter site stayed up on generator power for more
than 24 hours (on the old Continental 317, not the newer Harris
- and with engineer Tom Ray going on the air to talk about the
situation, then staying on by accident giving out the transmitter
phone number!)
Bloomberg's WBBR is designed to stay on the air no matter
what (two generators, two separate transmitter facilities, a
UPS and a backup studio at its New Jersey transmitter site),
and it did. WABC stayed up and running with only minor technical
glitches; its programming was less smooth, however, as it moved
from the scheduled Sean Hannity show, to news broadcast from
the ABC network radio facility on West End Avenue, back to Hannity
(who planned to send affiliates a taped "best-of" show
but ended up going live to the nation with blackout coverage)
from the WABC studios, and into the night with Steve Malzberg
and Monica Crowley mixing news and rumors.
Less fortunate broadcasters included WFAN, which had trouble
getting its generators working at its Astoria studios and its
High Island transmitter and was off the air until just before
the Yankees game, which it then picked up from WCBS, the Mets
having been blacked out at Shea. WFAN then simulcast WCBS overnight
before running a best-of Imus show on tape from the transmitter.
Later Friday, Jody McDonald drove to Philadelphia to do the midday
show from sister WIP - and then Chris "Mad Dog" Russo
did five hours of live talk from the transmitter site, with no
phones! WFAN was back to Astoria in time for Friday night's Mets
game.
WINS lost power late in the afternoon at its New Jersey transmitter
site, returning later in the evening with coverage that was simulcast
on WNEW, which went "Blink"less from its auxiliary
transmitter at the WINS site.
Of the other AMs, WMCA had generator power; WSNR lost its
Russian programming but ran the Sporting News feed; WNYC had
STL problems on the AM side for much of the blackout; WWDJ was
on and off; WEPN was running on generator power, mixing some
live programming with the ESPN network feed - and WQEW was off
completely until Friday afternoon.
On the TV side, the Empire State Building was mostly dark,
as only a handful of stations had generator facilities in the
cramped transmitter spaces there. We've already noted that WCBS-TV
(Channel 2) maintained its tradition of always being on in a
crisis - but we neglected to note that WNBC (Channel 4) also
had a generator at Empire that enabled it to stay on the air
until 1 AM, when its live coverage (from the emergency studio
6C at 30 Rock, and later from a sixth-floor balcony) ended and
the station shut down the generator overnight to move to its
auxiliary facility at the Armstrong tower in Alpine, N.J. WABC,
WPIX and WNET were all on from Alpine, it appears; WNYW and WWOR
were off the air until late Friday when power was restored at
Empire. (And Pax's WPXN stayed on the air from its New Jersey
transmitter site with infomercials and Pax programming...) One
more note: Cable TV news is not a useful medium in a blackout
- and Time Warner's New York 1 proved the point, going off the
air when the power (and cable) went out and staying off through
midday Friday.
On FM, the Emmis stations (WQHT, WRKS and WQCD) stayed on,
though we're not sure if they were using Empire - where they
do have a generator - or their auxiliary site in New Jersey.
WQXR stayed on as well; WBAI, WCAA and WBLS remained off until
Empire's power was restored. Clear Channel's five New York stations
proved the value of their 4 Times Square backup site yet again,
keeping signals on the air from there even as they tried to get
studios up and running. For much of the afternoon, WHTZ, WKTU,
WAXQ, WWPR and WLTW carried WNBC's audio - and later, WAXQ's
Bob Buchmann broadcast from the transmitter site. WNYC-FM also
made use of its 4 Times Square transmitter, moving studio operations
from the darkened Municipal Building to the Sirius studios uptown;
Spanish Broadcasting's WSKQ and WPAT-FM were less lucky, losing
studio power and eventually getting back on the air with a simulcast
of one of SBS' Miami stations.
Infinity's WXRK and WCBS-FM used their auxiliary site
at 1515 Broadway - and WCBS-FM turned to weekender (and New York
veteran) Pat St. John as its main blackout talent. With power
still on at his New Jersey home, St. John went on the air via
ISDN, with engineers rolling the music and spots from the studio
- and stayed on the air all night, catching a break for Dan Taylor's
morning show (extended to noon) before returning to the mike
for the afternoon shift Friday.
And ABC's WPLJ remained on; we're not sure if it was from
Empire with a generator or from Alpine, though.
Hudson Valley: We hear many stations went dark up and
down the valley; WRNQ, WPDH and WGNY-FM were noted on throughout
the blackout.
Albany: The Helderbergs transmitter site apparently
kept its lights on, providing TV and FM service to the state
capital; we did hear reports of outages at some of the surrounding
rimshot sites. Clear Channel's WGY was fully staffed, with its
coverage also being heard on its FM sister stations.
Utica: On the TV side, WKTV's transmitter stayed on;
generators restored power to its studio by 6:30 or so. We haven't
heard much about radio in Utica during the blackout yet.
Syracuse: TV stayed on here, thanks to plenty of generator
power; we were able to see much of WIXT's coverage through the
evening thanks to the absence of our local channels 8 and 10
(and we understand WIXT was also seen on cable as far away as
Pottsville, Pennsylvania, where cable headends trying to see
New York's WWOR ended up inadvertently DXing instead.) Clear
Channel's WSYR, WHEN and WYYY simulcast news and information
early on, and we hear WSEN was off the air; Galaxy's WTKW not
only remained on the air but picked up an accidental Canadian
simulcast when the Radio-Canada CJBC FM transmitters in Belleville
and Peterborough, normally fed over the air from the CJBC 99.5
transmitter in Kingston, picked up a trop-enhanced WTKW signal
after Kingston went dark.
Rochester: Not much to add to our Friday summary; WXXI-TV
was off the air again for part of Saturday, though it's not clear
whether that was blackout related or not.
Buffalo: While we didn't see its signal from Rochester
(where our antenna was stuck in the wrong direction), WIVB did
stay on the air thanks to the generators at its Colden transmitter;
we understand WKBW was also on nonstop as well. On Grand Island,
only WNLO and WKSE had power, while WNED and WUTV were dark for
the early hours of the blackout. And as noted earlier, WGR and
WBEN both offered good coverage of the blackout's early hours.
Toronto/Hamilton: While AM stations in both cities
weathered the blackout well (we heard excellent coverage on Mojo
640, 680 News, CHML and CFRB, among others, with CFRB getting
particular notice for staying on nonstop), the FM and TV signals
in Toronto were having trouble all night Thursday and all day
Friday, with the CN Tower apparently off the air much of that
time. That meant backup sites - primarily First Canadian Place
- for most of those signals, with several (including CHIN-FM
and CJRT) going completely dark for lack of a backup. CKFM (when
it was on the air) and CJEZ simulcast CFRB, while CHUM-FM used
its low-power auxiliary service to carry audio from sister cable
news service Citypulse 24, enabling it to reach viewers - make
that listeners - without power, TV or cable. TV coverage was
disrupted on both the CBC and CTV because of generator problems
at the studio end as well.
Ottawa/North Country: TV stayed on in Ottawa and Kingston
- we know, because our antenna was pointed that way and we saw
CBOT, CJOH on several transmitters and CKWS, the latter going
on and off at times. CHUM's CFRA was the major news source for
Ottawa, simulcasting on CKKL for a while as well. WSLB/WPAC in
Ogdensburg, Canton's WRCD/WYSI and WGIX in Gouverneur were off
for a time, reports North Country correspondent Mike Roach; he
also saw Hamilton's CHCH on his cable system while CKWS was off.
And we saw Watertown's WWNY and heard WFRY on the air from up
there.
Outside NERW-land, the brunt of the blackout fell on Cleveland,
Toledo and Detroit; in Cleveland, WTAM led the way with coverage
simulcast on the Clear Channel FMs, while Infinity's WXTM and
WNCX went live from their transmitter sites and Salem's AMs were
silenced by generator problems at their studios. Generator problems
kept Clear Channel's Akron FMs off the air (though WKDD Canton
was on with a WTAM simulcast), so Rubber City's WAKR/WQMX/WONE
simulcast was the place to turn there. In Toledo, we hear most
of the city's radio dial was silent in the early hours of the
blackout - and in Detroit, WJR and WWJ were the twin voices of
news, with many of the city's FM stations off the air when the
power went off.
So what should broadcasters remember about the blackout of
2003?
For those (your editor included) too young to have lived through
the 1965 blackout that marked the last time so wide a region
was left powerless, last week reminded us of a lesson that outage
should have taught: there is still no better medium than broadcast
radio for getting information out quickly and widely in the absence
of power.
Here at NERW Central, we have roughly eleven battery-operated
radios within an arm's reach, and it was natural to reach over
and turn one on as soon as the lights went off. Within just a
few minutes, WHAM and WROC had already filled us in on the dimensions
of the outage - and over the next few hours, everything we heard
about this huge news story came to us through the speakers of
those radios. With the local TV dial dark, even to those with
battery-operated TVs (we have two here), and the Internet inaccessible,
even the best TV coverage and most complete Web sites made no
difference as the sun set and things got dark; the newspapers
were comprehensive, but not until the sun was already up the
next day and the crisis was over.
As you'd expect, then, we now think very highly of the radio
stations that had the resources in place to provide the coverage
on which we depended. That's not just generators at the studio
and the transmitter, though; as important as the engineering
preparations are in times of crisis (and we hope some engineers
are having an easier time getting their budgets for generators
and UPS systems approved this week - and that stations everywhere
are taking a good look at how well they're prepared to stay on
the air in an emergency), it does no good to have a signal on
the air if it's not providing useful information.
Too many of the signals we found on the air in the early hours
of the power outage were of no use when we needed them most -
and many of those were part of the national and super-regional
religious networks we've often criticized in this space. Regular
readers of this column know that we're not opposed to automation,
voicetracking or satellite formats in principle, but we
also firmly believe that there must be someone around to override
the automation in a crisis, especially one that begins at 4:10
on a workday afternoon, even if it's only to switch to a TV simulcast
(which is actually quite valuable during a blackout.) Otherwise,
it's very obvious who's a "real" radio station - and
who's just a satellite dish or a PC and a transmitter.
On with the rest of the week's news:
 *In
MASSACHUSETTS, John "Ozone" Osterlind is taking
an involuntary two-week break from morning duties at Entercom
talker WRKO (680 Boston) after learning the hard way just where
the boundaries to his "bad boy" act lie.
Early last Tuesday morning (August 12), Osterlind and co-host
Peter Blute were reportedly discussing the Palestinian situation
when Osterlind suggested that the solution would be to eradicate
the Palestinians. That was too much for station officials (though
afternoon host Howie Carr can refer to "towelheads"
without penalty) - and Osterlind was sent to the beach for two
weeks, with a variety of guest hosts filling in.
Across town at Clear Channel, it's taking at least two jocks
to fill the very big shoes left behind by Dale Dorman at WXKS-FM
(107.9) - Artie the One Man Party and Romeo are alternating two-week
shifts in afternoon drive at Kiss 108, and no permanent replacement's
been named for that airshift, or for the work Dorman did as operations
manager at Kiss.
Down on Cape Cod, Steve (McVie) Solomon gets to stop making
the commute up 495 to Superadio, where he was VP/programming;
he's now staying put on the Cape as director of operations for
Qantum's WRZE, WCIB and WPXC.
In Worcester, WNEB (1230) is changing hands: a financial dispute
between the principals of Grace Broadcasting and debtor Windsor
Financial Corp. of Florida has resulted in those principals signing
the license over to Windsor. (NERW wonders what this will mean
for their ability to make the payments on the purchase of the
former WBPV 90.1 Charlton...)
On the TV dial, WFXT (Channel 25) has set Sept. 22 as the
debut date for "Fox 25 Morning News" with Jodi Applegate,
Gene Lavanchy and Doug ("Virgin Boy" - and we bet we
won't hear that nickname on TV) Goudie. Over in Springfield,
Trinity is selling W67DF to Hartford's WFSB (Channel 3), apparently
to provide a better CBS signal to the Massachusetts side of its
market.
*In NEW HAMPSHIRE, Pax's WPXG (Channel
21) in Concord gets permission to boost its power, from 1.51
megawatts to 2.3 megawatts, with a directional antenna.
*In MAINE, WOXO (92.7 Norway) PD Eric
Marenghi leaves the station - and the business - which means
Jeremy Rush gets the promotion to PD. (We hear sister station
WTME is looking for a news director as well.)
Up north, DTV is on the air at Presque Isle's WAGM; the new
WAGM-DT is running just 3 kilowatts on channel 16, so we doubt
it's being seen very far from Mars Hill.
Sorry to report the untimely death of Brian McGarry; the former
WGAN and WMGX personality died in a car crash on Tuesday (8/12)
at age 53.
*The first of the flood of translator applications
are getting processed by the FCC, including one in VERMONT:
Northeast Gospel Network's application for 101.7 in Woodford,
relaying WNGN 91.9 Argyle NY, will be open to petitions to deny
until August 26.
*A RHODE ISLAND broadcaster was buried
Saturday in Providence. Greg Delmonaco went from the Ocean State
to stints with Sabre's stations in Elmira/Corning and Muncie,
Indiana - and then to Archway Broadcasting in Columbus, Georgia,
where he was general manager at the time of his death last Monday
(8/11). Delmonaco suffered a heart attack; he was just 51 years
old.
 *A
NEW YORK morning team is no more: Albany's Brian
Cody, Ellen Rockwell and Big Ray cited "philosophical differences"
when they parted ways with WFLY (92.3 Troy) last week, and for
once we believe the phrase. Cody and Rockwell (husband and wife
in real life) tell the Albany Times Union's Mark McGuire
that the station wanted to take their show to an older demographic,
keeping them from doing some of the wilder bits for which they'd
become known. No replacement has been named yet.
Across town, WKKF (102.3 Ballston Spa) PD Rob Dawes and his
wife Trish had a particularly adventurous blackout - she went
into labor and delivered their first baby, Alexis Nicole! (With
Baby Fybush #1 on the way in just a few weeks, we can only imagine
what an experience that must have been...)
In Syracuse, WAQX (95.7 Manlius) PD Bob O'Dell has departed
95X, citing, yup, "philosophical differences." No replacement
has been named yet.
And in New York, the big news - before the blackout, anyway
- was the sudden dismissal of WQXR (96.3) chief announcer/morning
host Gregg Whiteside. The 25-year veteran of the New York
Times' classical station was suddenly off the air last Tuesday,
telling the papers that he was fired for a remark he'd made to
a co-worker in a station hallway. What did he say? Neither Whiteside
nor the Times are telling, and the whole thing seems more
than a little strange to us...
*In NEW JERSEY, the move of WSNJ-FM
(107.7 Bridgeton) to Pennsauken now has actual engineering data
attached to it: the plan calls for the new WSNJ-FM to operate
on 107.9 from the WKDN (106.9 Camden)/WTMR (800 Camden) tower
on Mount Ephraim Avenue in Camden, running 1900 watts at 156
meters from a single bay mounted below the WKDN antenna. The
signal will cover Pennsauken - and will just happen to city-grade
all of Philadelphia, too...
Meanwhile on the LPFM front, WUPC-LP (102.3 Arrowhead Village)
signed back on at 8:45 PM Wednesday (Aug. 13); engineer Neal
Newman had noticed that the station was in the wrong place when
it first signed on last year - which led to WUPC hiring him to
find a new site and apply to make it legal! WUPC is running Spanish-language
religion, we're told.
 *Don
Imus is changing stations in PENNSYLVANIA's biggest market,
as he loses 50 kilowatt WPHT (1210), which is moving afternoon
host Michael Smerconish into morning drive, apparently to clear
the way for a live run of the Sean Hannity show in afternoons.
Imus will be heard on lower-powered daytimer WWDB (860) once
Smerconish makes his move.
Over on the "Main Line" between Johnstown and Altoona,
WFJY (1470 Portage) has signed off; it's being moved into the
Pittsburgh market, where it will slide down the dial to 660 and
operate from the WWNL (1080) towers, likely with a new format
and call letters.
 *A familiar
station identity is back in CANADA, where Corus pulled
the plug on "Energy 93.1" up in Barrie, Ontario - replacing
it with soft AC sounds as "The New CHAY 93.1." The
CHAY calls never legally disappeared from the powerful station
north of Toronto, but they haven't been used much on the air
recently; the move leaves just one remaining "Energy"
station from Corus' chain, the 103.1 facility in London.
Over in Stratford, new CHGK (107.7) has been testing all week;
it'll sign on for real soon as "Mix FM," a sister station
to CJCS (1240), which will stay on the air.
In Hamilton, CIWV (94.7) applies for a big power increase:
"The Wave" wants to go from 3600 watts to a directional
11.39 kW at 136 meters, and it has a good excuse - with the amalgamation
last year that greatly expanded the city limits of Hamilton,
it needs the power to fully cover its community of license!
And in Toronto, some staff changes at CFXJ (Flow 93.5): Nicole
Jolly moves up from marketing director to VP of operations and
marketing, while Wayne Williams gets a promotion from music director/assistant
PD to PD and Justin Dumont gets promoted from music coordinator
to music director.
That's it for another week; here's hoping your lights stay
on this week!
*Calendar Update: Tower Site
Calendar 2003 is now sold out for individual purchase!
We're hard at work on Tower Site Calendar 2004, which will be
even brighter and better - but if you absolutely have
to have the 2003 edition, all is not lost. A very small quantity
of calendars are still set aside for subscribers, so if you haven't
subscribed yet, now's the time. Make your 2003 NERW subscription
pledge to support NERW/fybush.com at the $60 level or higher,
and you'll get this lovely calendar for free! How can
you go wrong? (Click here to
visit our Support page, where you can make your NERW contribution
with a major credit card...)
And keep an eye on this space for 2004 calendar details; we'll
start pre-ordering around Labor Day, which is less than a month
away (yikes!)
NorthEast Radio Watch is made possible by the generous
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2003 by Scott Fybush. |
