Yesterday MnDOT announced it will be ending it's 15
year partnership with Mpls School Board's KBEM radio
by March 2005.
For those unfamiliar, MnDOT broadcasts traffic reports
direct from the Traffic Management Center on KBEM's
frequency (88.5mhz) during the AM & PM rush hours
every 10 minutes, offpeak reports at 11:30, 12, 12:30
& 1pm. During major incidents, usually road
closures, DOT staff can break into KBEM's programming
and broadcast continous reports for as long as
necessary. DOT's overhead message boards are used to
direct drivers to tune to 88.5 if they are within the
incident scope.
As part of the deal, MnDOT paid for a higher powered
transmitter & better location to increase KBEM's
coverage area (well over 7 county area and into
Wisconsin).
Budget savings are the stated reason for cutting the
partnership. (Because DOT is funded by the gas tax,
it's actually not impacted by the State budget
deficit, the cuts that Commissioner Molneau has put in
place are to pay the interest on the $500 million bond
being used for some of the current new road projects).
I'm sure this is one more set of news that the Mpls
School Board didn't want to hear. I would also
assume this means that Mike Mauren and Don Zenanko
will be laid off from KBEM. It also means you'll
need to go to commercial radio sources for your
current traffic info (usually a 10 second soundbite
wrapped into a 30 second ad).
John McClellan
Keewaydin
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