From Conservative Talk Format to All Katrina
By SARAH MCBRIDE
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 6, 2005; Page A19
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112593946786731856,00.html?mod=todays_us_marketplace
Last week, as Hurricane Katrina slammed into New Orleans and cut off
electricity, battery-operated radios served as the only source of
information for thousands of stranded people.
Yet as most of the city's broadcast outlets were temporarily silenced by
technical problems or the decision to send staffers to safety, WWL-AM, a
conservative talk-show format, was the only local radio station able to
report on the havoc in New Orleans, thanks to its strong signal, an
emergency studio in another location, and its own journalists on the scene.
WWL, owned by Pennsylvania-based Entercom Communications Corp., quickly
abandoned its usual fare as residents, often unable to get through to 911,
called the station instead. Program hosts became emergency advisers,
helping panicked people plot escape routes and alerting authorities to
their locations.
By midweek, WWL found itself getting national attention from an interview
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin gave to WWL host Garland Robinette. In a
freewheeling 13-minute conversation, Mayor Nagin criticized the national
response to the crisis and said President Bush and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen
Blanco should "get their asses moving to New Orleans." He then broke down
in tears and hung up. Television and radio stations across the country
rebroadcast the interview, and the president flew to New Orleans the next day.
WWL's ability to continue broadcasting was vital for stranded listeners.
Nekosha Bryant, 29 years old, ripped the radio and battery out of her car
and tuned in as she waited on her roof for help. Imani Sutton, 34, threw
her radio into a supermarket cart and wheeled it, along with other
supplies, to the convention center, where she and her family listened
around the clock. "That's all the information we have," she said.
One woman called to ask how to get six children out of her house when water
was almost at her neck. The hosts told her to tear down a door, load the
kids onto it and float them to the roof. Their fate is unknown. "You just
feel helpless, because you give people advice, and locations, and you don't
know if they got rescued or not," said Ms. Newman.
On Thursday evening, a woman called the station from Algiers in Orleans
Parish. Her 8-year-old daughter had just finished their last bottle of
water, and they had no electricity. Distraught, she asked the hosts how to
get to Houston. They told her to wait until daybreak, and then walk to a
town called Gretna, in Jefferson Parish, and take shelter in a high school.
After a commercial break, the announcer's first call was from Jefferson
Parish's president, Aaron Bouchard, who said he had closed his borders to
incoming traffic, even pedestrians. "Jefferson Parish is no promised land,"
he said. "There is better food and better supplies in New Orleans. We don't
even have the Red Cross here." He suggested the woman walk to the nearest
police station and get a ride to the Superdome.
Meanwhile, the station itself was scrambling to stay on the air. On
Tuesday, water from a broken floodwall lapped at the lower stories of the
station's downtown headquarters, threatening its operations.
Programming director Diane Newman and other staffers reacted quickly: The
station alternated broadcasts between its downtown office and its small
emergency studio located in a local government building in a part of nearby
Jefferson Parish that wasn't flooded. WWL has used this makeshift station
during past hurricanes. The station was able to broadcast on three of
Entercom's six signals in New Orleans -- if one signal went dark for a
while, listeners could find the program by switching to another Entercom
signal on the dial. Most other local stations -- which mainly play music
and lacked the resources for extensive news reporting downtown -- don't
have as many signals as Entercom in New Orleans and don't maintain
emergency studios.
Later in the week, WWL expanded its reach by cutting an unusual deal with
rival Clear Channel Communications Inc. In a joint venture dubbed United
Radio Broadcasters, the two companies share staff and studio facilities.
WWL was also busy trying to save its own staff from the station's downtown
studios. During the hurricane itself, WWL news director Dave Cohen and two
other staffers broadcast from the emergency studio, alternating with
colleagues at the downtown site, which was stocked with food and powered
with a generator that provided air conditioning. But after the flooding
began last Tuesday, it looked like Mr. Cohen and his team would have to
take over all the programming, as staff members evacuated WWL's main
headquarters. Several dozen people -- including family members of staffers
and their pets -- had gathered there to ride the storm out. Some, like Ms.
Newman, made it out by car.
A few others were shuttled out by a helicopter chartered by Dick Lewis, the
regional director for Clear Channel, which was trying to rescue one of its
own employees. By Thursday evening, a bus accompanied by three armed guards
and two sheriffs picked up the last staffers at the Entercom offices downtown.
On the business side, Entercom's national news and talk programming
director, Ken Beck, and his counterpart at Clear Channel, Gabe Hobbs, were
trying to come up with ways the two broadcasters could help each other.
Mr. Beck offered Entercom's New Orleans programming to Clear Channel,
which, with only sports and music stations in New Orleans, didn't have the
same news resources as Entercom. But Mr. Hobbs came back with a better
offer: the two groups would share staff and resources and serve the
hurricane-stricken area jointly out of Clear Channel offices in Baton
Rouge, La., about 75 miles away. Entercom jumped at the opportunity and
began directing its displaced New Orleans staff there.
"It was a little weird having conference calls between our company
programming and engineering staff and exchanging information that not long
ago you wouldn't have dreamed of sharing with a competitor," says Mr.
Hobbs. The shared arrangement even included temporary living quarters --
relocated Clear Channel and Entercom staff are bunking in recreational
vehicles parked behind the Clear Channel building in Baton Rouge.
Both companies have had problems with transmission and transmitters, but
the united broadcast continues to operate. Clear Channel trucked in fuel
for its transmitters' generators from Florida, where the company keeps gas
and diesel stockpiled because of the frequent hurricanes there. Entercom
said the WWL transmitter has enough fuel for a month.
Now, most of the WWL staff have reassembled in Baton Rouge, where they are
expected to remain for months, even if the joint on-air broadcasts don't
last beyond a few weeks. Entercom and Clear Channel hosts are on the air
together, talking to local officials and fielding calls from listeners,
many of whom are still tracking down relatives, looking for supplies and
wondering when electricity will be restored.
Financial details will be worked out later. "We have a handshake agreement
on this," says Mr. Lewis of Clear Channel. "No one has said, 'Count the
money.' Everyone has said, 'Get the best quality information out there you
can.' "
Link: http://www.wwl.com
================================
George Antunes, Political Science Dept
University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204
Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927
antunes at uh dot edu
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