Broadcasting Telecasting (Jul-Sep 1960)

SERVICE AS USUAL Radio, tv help save lives in hurricane For broadcasting stations along the East Coast, it was public service as usual during Donna's turbulent visit last week. The all-out broadcast effort was credited with saving countless lives and avoiding even greater property damage. In the course of covering the big story, stations suffered their share of the bruises, too. Two damage reports to Broadcasting last week: ■ Around-the-clock coverage by WTVT (TV) Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla., was interrupted for 12 hours when Donna ripped off the roof of the station's transmitter house, smashing transformers and flooding equipment. Amount of damage was not immediately ascertained. ■ A $15,000 loss was sustained by the new 50-kw WINQ Tampa, Fla., when the hurricane toppled all three towers of the station's three-element directional array for daytime operation on 1010 kc. The towers were blown down Sept. 1 1 as the eye of Donna passed within five miles of the Plant City site. The station had just completed equipment tests and had filed a request for program authority when the storm hit. The 265-ft.-high towers were sheared off at the concrete footings. Station management hopes to have new towers up in four to six weeks. A success in the midst of disaster The first radio defense network received its baptism of fire last week and came out of Hurricane Donna boasting success. For three full days, operating on a 24-hour-a-day schedule, the Florida fm defense network fed hourly Weather Bureau advisories to all broadcast stations in the state of Florida. The fm network, established in July of 1958, comprises eight key stations whose broadcasts are monitored by all radio stations in Florida except those in the Panhandle section in the northwest section of the state. Weather Bureau advisories were fed by the Miami headquarters to WVCG-FM Coral Gables. These were broadcast immediately and were picked up off-the-air by other stations in the chain— WCKR-FM Miami, WFLA-FM Tampa, WQXT-FM Palm Beach, WHOO-FM Orlando, WNDB-FM Daytona Beach, WRUFFM Gainesville and WJAX-FM Jacksonville. All immediately broadcast the information which was heard not only by their own listeners, but was picked up and broadcast by the more than two-dozen am stations which monitored the fm network. In addition 150 other bulletins were broadcast throughout each day in three different languages. The fm disaster network operated at top capacity until 6 a.m. Sunday when Donna left Florida on its way north. It is estimated that more than 25 men manned the network for the life-saving three days. Power failures at some cities caused stations to throw in their standby generators. One of these occurred in Coral Gables, the site of the key station in the network. John T. Rutledge, WVCG-FM Coral Gables, chairman of the defense network, said Thursday that a meeting to evaluate the network's operations was scheduled to take place Friday in Orlando. Along and adjacent to hurricane alley, stations started their storm coverage more than 10 days ago. Two Florida tv outlets, WLOF-TV Orlando and WFGA-TV Jacksonville, had news personnel aboard the Navy hurricane hunters that flew into the eye of Donna off the coast of Puerto Rico. As the hurricane inched northward, After Donna ■ Portions of the roof on the transmitter house of WTVT (TV) Tampa-St. Petersburg lay in the flooded field below the smashed transformers. Station returned to the air with reduced power in just 1 2 hours. local stations fed on-the-spot reports to other radio and tv outlets throughout the country while maintaining aroundthe-clock news and service to their respective communities. Many established "Hurricane Centers" to relay instructions from city and state authorities, to carry latest weather bulletins and to serve as clearing houses for whatever needs were required locally. WFLA-AM-TV Tampa-St. Petersburg augmented its service with Spanish translations of its newscasts and, on some of its telecasts, utilized an expert in the sign language to simultaneously convey reports to the 1,000 deaf persons in the area. Donna also permitted three Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Co. stations (WBTW [TV] Florence, S.C., and WBTWBTV [TV] Charlotte, N.C.) to put their new hurricane watch into operation. Plan, devised just the week before, called for 15 of the stations' personnel to be on the alert to go to pre-designated points in the Carolinas for spot reporting. In addition to the major radio and television networks, the following also reported their hurricane service to Broadcasting: WKWF Key West, Fla.; WTVJ (TV) and WCKT (TV), both Miami; WPOM Pompano Beach, Fla.; WFMY-TV Greensboro, N.C; WTAR-AM-TV Norfolk, Va.; WDMV Pocomoke City, Md.; WPEN and WFIL Philadelphia; WERE Cleveland; WDRC Hartford, Conn.; WKNB West Hartford: WBZ-WBZA Boston-Springfield and WBZ-TV Boston. 86 (THE MEDIA) BROADCASTING, September 19, 1960