Radio Rises Above Irma’s Wrath

The state of Florida was badly battered but still standing as Hurricane Irma continued on its relentless path up the west coast of the state, its storm surge flooding Naples, Marco Island, Ft. Myers, the Tampa Bay and Orlando areas. By Sunday afternoon Irma had weakened slightly to a Category 2 storm, but the damage was already done, and more than two million people were without power.

Throughout the Irma’s assault, Florida broadcasters representing iHeartMedia, Beasley Media Group, CBS Radio, Cox Media Group, Entercom and others were doing an amazing job of keeping their listeners informed and safe, while staffers went above and beyond, as usual, camping out at their posts and catching naps as they could while Irma raged just outside. iHeartMedia dispatched Elvis Duran and Froggy to Miami to contribute to the cluster’s coverage, joining Enrique Santos, Papa Keith, Doc Reno, Jimmy Cefalo and Manny Munoz, along with coverage from WIOD, WHYI, WBGG, WMIB, WMIA and WZTU personalities. Elvis and Froggy will be doing the show live from Miami this morning.

We were particularly concerned about the employees of Beasley Media Group, based in Naples, FL — which had taken a direct hit from Irma and was experiencing a massive storm surge yesterday. Yesterday afternoon we received this update from Heidi Raphael, Beasley VP of Corporate Communications, who told us, “Our stations in Fort Myers remained on the air, which is remarkable, given the strength of the hurricane. Our building is currently sustaining flood damage and our team is dealing with it now. We don’t know yet as to what the extent of it is. Our people, who were without much sleep, were very brave and did an amazing job. We will provide you with additional updates as we receive them.”