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1. Dan_Packard
   

   admin
   Posts: 168

   We're in the midst of a huge band of severe thunderstorms, a rare occurrence in Portland. Amid the heavy rain and wind blown tents and amusements on the Portland waterfront for the Rose festival, a few Portland radio stations are covering Mother nature in action.

   AM 1190 KEX is fielding listener calls along with live news coverage of severe lightning, fallen trees and power lines. It was funny hearing Jim McClaren reading the news and then his computer suddenly losing power and consequently the script he's reading. AM 620 KPOJ and Z100 are simulcasting their sister, KEX.

   KXL is simulcasting KPTV channel 12 news while supplementing reports from its own news department. Over at AM 860 KPAM, Victoria Taft is taking calls from area listeners and their storm reports.

   I'm sure the engineering staffs are having fun trying to keep their stations on the air and the studio-transmitter links connected. I heard KXL's carrier drop off a couple of times. Electricity is blinking on, off, or in between (brownouts), across the city.

   Posted on June 4, 2009 - 05:50 PM #
2. missing_kskd
   

   vacuum tube
   Posts: 3,041

   Just got home!

   Coverage was very nice! I sampled the radio hearing lots of good coverage, live, local, interactive.

   Well done people! Love it.

   

   Posted on June 4, 2009 - 06:49 PM #
3. Listener_Pete
   

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   Posts: 2,674

   Good for them, that makes good use of the media - inform the public about severe weather.

   On Comcast cable there were about 3 warnings in the late afternoon. When the alert is on it impossible to switch stations...

   In Aloha, we experienced some very high winds and some rain, but no hail.

   Posted on June 4, 2009 - 06:54 PM #
4. Craig_Adams
   

   Radio historian
   Posts: 2,132

   I was listening in my car coming home and KEX with "The Mark & Dave Show" had continuous storm coverage and were simulcast on K103, Z100, K-Hits & KPOJ. Only the "The Brew" & "Jammin" continued their music formats.

   Posted on June 4, 2009 - 07:01 PM #
5. littlesongs
   

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   Posts: 501

   KEX did an excellent job as always, but it was strange and sad to hear breaking news without Brooks Burford, Mark Workoven or Janine Wolf reporting the details. In addition to the stations Dan mentioned, the simulcast was also carried on K-Hits and K103.

   Plenty of high winds, rolling thunder and lightning here in St. Johns. Thankfully, it was all over an hour ago without any hail or sheets of rain. I just took a walk around the neighborhood and saw some tree limbs down and the usual orphaned garbage can lids.

   I am curious to see if the reports of funnel clouds in the valley will be confirmed by actual footage or by reviewing the radar. I certainly hope everyone made it through safe and sound.

   Posted on June 4, 2009 - 07:07 PM #
6. oregonradioguy
   

   junior diode
   Posts: 11

   Coverage down the Valley was also very good. KGAL / KSHO had quite a bit of local coverage right at the start of the first NWS warning. They would cut in to their regular programming for 10-15 minutes at a time with updates on where the weather issues were and things like that. Because I work in a basement office with no windows, it was great to know what was going on outside.

   Posted on June 4, 2009 - 07:38 PM #
7. paulwalker
   

   vacuum tube
   Posts: 848

   Yes! This is what radio does best. If radio is to survive beyond syndication and imported voice tracks, this is how it will happen. Live, on the spot reporting of local events.

   It seems in the past couple of years there has been almost a cop-out line circulating through the industry...listeners don't care if it is local, they just want to be entertained. I strongly dispute this notion. Listeners will care about live and local, IF we provide it them.

   Posted on June 4, 2009 - 08:16 PM #
8. missing_kskd
   

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   Posts: 3,041

   No doubt.

   People were SPOT ON today too! Delivery was good, content was good, interaction with listeners was good, and ignoring a few gaffes, production was good. Traffic reports made sense. People were calling in telling their stories... E-ffing YES!

   {arguably production was good too as the gaffes just let people know the day was hot, with stuff going on, and pressure to get it done --all good)

   I loved my drive home today. Normally I like it.

   I actually felt nicely connected. By the time I got home to chat with everybody and share experiences, I was there with them. Normally, I'm not! There just isn't much on the radio, or it's not easily found, or something. So then it's catch up time, not connected time, not relevant time.

   Today was not that day.

   Thanks everyone. Thanks for that pang I felt hearing my normal show was pre-empted. Thanks even more for doing it in a way that hooked me up with the events and entertained and informed me during my travels! Stuff was happening, some of it mattered to me, and I got to know about it, when it mattered, not as part of some follow up later on where it's just largely noise.

   Posted on June 4, 2009 - 08:27 PM #
9. Craig_Adams
   

   Radio historian
   Posts: 2,132

   Radio did a SUPERB job today because this storm happened on a weekday afternoon when stations were fully staffed. We can't depend on emergencies happening just during regular business hours. We had a wind storm about a month ago on a Sunday afternoon that knocked out power and downed trees. A station that will go nameless had nothing on even during its news and since the National Weather Service missed seeing the storm coming, there was nothing out of the ordinary on the weather report.

   Posted on June 4, 2009 - 09:09 PM #
10. Andrew
    

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    Posts: 947

    Coverage on KEX was great - unfortunately I was forced to listen to it on KPOJ. OK, I get it: big storm. If I want to learn more, I CAN TUNE INTO KEX MYSELF. Why force everyone on several stations to listen to it? Wouldn't it have been sufficient at commercial breaks to inform listeners on 620AM that there was live coverage over at 1190AM? Are there really people who can pick up 620AM who can't get 1190AM? I doubt it.

    Posted on June 4, 2009 - 09:31 PM #
11. Craig_Adams
    

    Radio historian
    Posts: 2,132

    Andrew: I believe they do this so you're not going to switch stations. As a KPOJ 620 listener, You might have tuned up the dial and stopped at KXL 750 or KPAM 860 before getting to KEX 1190. Then when coverage ends, you're on a competitor station and you might stay. This way the coverage ends and you're on their station.

    Posted on June 4, 2009 - 10:36 PM #
12. missing_kskd
    

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    Posts: 3,041

    I thought it was a nice promo.

    Lots of people found out about the excellent KEX coverage today.

    Posted on June 4, 2009 - 10:43 PM #
13. e_dawg
    

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    Posts: 108

    I'm disapointed that KXL have to simucast KPTV News. Why can't KXL use their own reporters instead of simucast KPTV. KEX, (hands down) have the best news radio coverage when it comes to severe weather storm.

    Posted on June 4, 2009 - 11:06 PM #
14. Andrew
    

    vacuum tube
    Posts: 947

    OK, Craig, makes sense - except they are assuming that if I DON'T want to listen to storm coverage, I'll keep listening. Instead, I may switch stations looking for non-storm coverage or just turn off the radio altogether. I'd think that encouraging people who want storm coverage to listen to 1190AM would make more sense. I for one have both as presets anyway so no dialing to get between them.

    Posted on June 4, 2009 - 11:32 PM #
15. MarkAndrews
    

    tough transistor
    Posts: 85

    As someone who has had NWS training and certification as a storm spotter, and since such a weather event in Oregon is a rarity, this is NEWS... I'm just thankful to hear that stations rose to the occasion. Radio is usually at it's best when something is breaking "now"...All that simulcasting going on was to make sure short-staffed stations could get the word out to their respective audiences.

    When I lived in Portland, I remember seeing three lightning flashes and hearing five thunderclaps. The talk at work the next day was "Hey, did you get a load of that thunderstorm last night?" "YEAH! That was really something, wasn't it?"

    Down here in the desert, it's a little different. Some places will get a short shower, and others will get a royal downpour...very hit and miss. And we do the same thing: "Did it RAIN at your house last night?" "Well, no, but I DID smell it!" (Sometimes you smell the rain, but it evaporates before it hits the ground.) The TV weather wizards go nuts, too. But that's what we get for having hot summers and maybe 7-1/2 inches of annual rainfall...

    Just be grateful that Oregon doesn't normally get weather like Oklahoma...Now THOSE are thunderstorms and then some! When tones sound on radio or TV in advance of a weather warning, EVERYTHING stops and you pay attention...Your very survival through a violent spell of weather could depend on it.

    Posted on June 5, 2009 - 12:09 AM #
16. skeptical
    

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    Posts: 1,512

    Here's something to think about . . . when the weather went wacko, we turned on our TELEVISION set! Didn't even think to listen to the radio -- something I might have done 10 years ago. Sad, eh?

    Posted on June 5, 2009 - 12:16 AM #
17. motozak3
    

    vacuum tube
    Posts: 366

    Okay, I need to fix up my old radio and put it back on the bike.......

    I was running a delivery downtown (Vancouver) on Wednesday and got caught in the dust storm just before the rain started......horrible for my asthma so I had to get indoors. So I pulled in to the Red Lion at the Quay and had lunch (late lunch; it was about 4:30 or so by then) and had to call my cousin to come and get me and my bike. NOT going to ride back to the flat when it is thunder and lightning out!

    Damn me for being so stupid tho!!

    Posted on June 6, 2009 - 03:14 PM #
18. hwidsten
    

    vacuum tube
    Posts: 303

    I think it is great that there are Portland area stations and those smaller market stations outside the metro that broke away from regular programming to warn their listeners about the storm situation. I think it is too bad that anyone had to write anything here about stations that did not.

    Reporting breaking news/weather events first is something that once belonged exclusively to Radio, and somehow we let the TV guys begin to take that position away from us in some markets. The thought that a News or Talk station has to simulcast with a television station during severe weather makes me crazy.

    In the last several months we've been doing a lot of self-examination to see what things we can do to raise our profile in the community. We've decided that one of those is to go on the air as soon as we can when there is a fire reported, bad weather getting close, etc. In other words, we're going back to the old days when stations broke into programming immediately, and then billboarded the event until a reporter got there and had a chance to do a live report from the scene. It is shades of Gordon McClendon's News philosophy, and it sounds great.

    I have a good friend who, when reminded about something his stations did for a long time and then stopped, has this saying: "It worked so well, we stopped doing it." Well, we're doing it again.

    Posted on June 7, 2009 - 04:45 PM #
19. Waynes World
    

    vacuum tube
    Posts: 137

    I don't know why more of the AM channels don't cover the TV news like KOIN has at 87.8 or wherever that is. its the logical solution for a station that is not doing well. someone at work could hear the news on his radio or on his car on the way home.

    Posted on June 7, 2009 - 07:21 PM #
20. jr_tech
    

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    Posts: 600

    "KOIN has at 87.8"

    That will be gone next Friday when KOIN-TV turns off its analog transmitter...

    Posted on June 7, 2009 - 08:09 PM #
21. missing_kskd
    

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    Posts: 3,041

    Well, we're doing it again.

    +5 "Go Get Em!" @ hwidsten

    Posted on June 8, 2009 - 08:21 AM #
22. Darktemper
    

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    Posts: 729

    92.3 just had an emergency severe weather warning located 20 miles North of Detroit. Sounds pretty bad down here, I wonder if it will head our way?

    Posted on June 9, 2009 - 03:47 PM #
23. Alfredo_T
    

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    Posts: 1,414

    I don't know why more of the AM channels don't cover the TV news like KOIN has at 87.8 or wherever that is.

    What you hear on 87.75 MHz is the actual channel 6 sound carrier; it is not a simulcast, as many people seem to think.

    Posted on June 10, 2009 - 12:08 PM #
24. jimbo
    

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    Posts: 391

    "What you hear on 87.75 MHz is the actual channel 6 sound carrier; it is not a simulcast, as many people seem to think. "

    Anyone who doesn't know that probably shouldn't really be posting here.

    Posted on June 11, 2009 - 09:51 AM #

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