Harvey vs. Radio: Radio Wins
The former Hurricane Harvey, which, despite being downgraded to a tropical storm on Saturday made it no less life threatening, as the system, which the National Weather Service termed “an unprecedented event,” has effectively stalled in place over South Texas and is dumping an historic amount of rain on the area. In a dire report, The National Weather Service said, “Rainfall from Harvey could reach 50 inches in some spots, the highest ever recorded in Texas.” At press time, at least five people were reported dead, and the torrential rains were expected to continue through at least Wednesday, which means this situation is about to get worse… as evidenced by this Weather.com map from Sunday afternoon.
As expected, radio stations throughout the affected region swung into public service mode even before the storm hit, and continue to do amazing work as we speak. “What an experience!” said Gino Flores, Operations Manager of Malkan Interactive’s group in Corpus Christi, which was near Harvey’s initial point of impact. “We went live as usual at 6am local time on Friday — KZFM (Hot Z95) and our sister stations KKBA (Rock 92.7) and 1440 KEYS stayed on every hour with our AccuWeather partners delivering the latest info and Harvey updates,” Flores said. “I was up on the roof of our studios doing Facebook Live updates, giving our 286K followers a live look at Harvey. At 5pm local time we began to simulcast 1440 AM on Hot Z95 as Harvey roared down on us. That went on until 7pm, until conditions outside became too dangerous and we decided to shelter in place. We were the only station able to stay on live and local until around 11:30pm Friday, when our transmission line at tower site was snapped from storm.” Flores added, “I must say — it was the most stressful, scary, but rewarding experience in my 17-year radio career!”
On Sunday, Harvey was seriously pounding the Greater Houston area, with many roadways completely underwater, stranding many in their flooded homes. “And we still have days of rain coming our way,” said Chase Murphy, PD of CBS Radio’s KHMX (Mix 96.5)/Houston, who tells us, “All the CBS Radio morning shows have stepped up and volunteered to broadcast over the weekend and do extended shows into this week. We have turned our performance space into a bunker equipped with food, places to sleep, etc., plus the building it equipped with showers and a stocked fridge so if things escalate, air talent won’t be too ‘stranded.’ We’re on top of closings, cancellations and all local community efforts, getting the word out about blood drives, etc.”
