Irma’s Gone, But Far From Over
• We also caught up with John Rozz, PD of Sun Broadcasting Classic Rock WARO (94.5 The Arrow) and Alternative WXNX (93X), both located in the heart of the hard-hit Ft. Myers/Naples, FL area. As Rozz explains to RAMP, “WARO was one of only two stations in the market — the other was WINK-FM — to make it through Irma without going off the air! Arrow remained on generator power until it ran out of gas around 2am last Thursday. We were off the air for approximately nine hours because the road leading to the transmitter was under six feet of water!” he said. “Luckily, the water did not get into our transmitter room. WARO used a 10,000-watt emergency remote transmitter to stay on the air until Saturday, when we returned to full power.
Rozz continued, “93X did go off the air during Irma and remained off until last Wednesday at noon. The road leading to that transmitter site was not only under water, but numerous trees were also down, making it impassable. We are currently running on generator power and our fingers are crossed the road is cleared in the very near future!” [Ed. note: moments after Rozz sent this update, he hit me back with this late-breaking news: “As I type, 93X just went off the air — I think we finally emptied our back-up generator fuel! I’ll keep you posted!”]