Many have asked about the status of your friends and colleagues in the flooded areas of Southwest Washington. I have been in touch with most of the stations in Centralia/Chehalis and the Grays Harbor areas to find out how they are doing and whether WSAB can be of any assistance. I thought you would be interested in an update. Here are excerpts from their responses. _John DiMeo (KELA/KMNT, Centralia/Chehalis):_ "We took about five feet of water inside our building. That's about 2 feet more than back in 1996. All staff is OK. One did lose his home. We got KMNT on the air almost immediately via our xmtr site up on Crego Hill. KELA is still out, but we're hoping to get that back up by Friday. Bicoastal (our new owners) are bringing in 5 engineers from other markets to assist. I have already enlisted the services of a good general contractor. (Thank God for flood insurance!) Tough start for our new owners. The deal just closed on 12/1." _Derek Shannon (KITI-AM/FM, Centralia/Chehalis):_ I have not communicated directly with Derek, but with one of his business partners. KITI is only a couple of miles up the road from KELA, and KITI had a foot of water flooding their building. Both stations were off the air for about 12 hours on Tuesday, but both are back on the air now. _Cameron Bierle (KACS-FM, Centralia):_ "90.5 KACS is on the air, and has stayed on for the most part. Went off for a few hours due to a power outtage. KACS is working with the Lewis County United Way, The Ranier Chapter of the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army in relief and recovery efforts through our KACS Cards for the County campaign. We'd welcome other media participation too. It's a very simple and effective program we worked on with Cards for Katrina following the gulf states disasters, and then Cards for the Cowlitz last year." _Dona Rosi (Morris Communications, Aberdeen/Hoquiam):_ "We have 3 of our 4 stations on the air, not KWOK. We are trying to get propane up to our generator at the KXXK site which will run out in about 12 hours. Other than that, were keeping people informed. Hopefully power will be restored in the next day or two." _Bill Wolfenbarger (Jodesha Broadcasting, Aberdeen/Hoquiam):_ "Thanks, Mark. It's been a mess, but slowly we're climbing out. KSWW-FM is on air at low power with gas generator fillups every 6 hours. KJET-FM is on air from booster site with fillups every 3 hours. KBKW will remain off air until power is restored to the site. It is problematic due to high water and limited coverage. We have focused on providing wall-to-wall coverage of road closures, PUD stuff, gas availability, resources for showers, shelters, food, stores open, etc. from 6a-6p on KSWW and KJET. KSWW was totally off Monday and Tuesday, but went on air Wednesday morning after gnawing through about fifty trees over the access road to the transmitter. Would have been much better if the KSWW propane generator had not died Monday morning. KJET was off from about 11 am Monday until Tuesday morning. KJET Raymond main transmitter has been off since Monday.
The good news is Pacific County just got some power. The bad news is the transmitter won't fire by remote control and I have no idea if I can get up that road yet. We had no power at the studio until Wednesday morning but did a decent job of reading in the dark and getting a signal out. Would have been much better if our entire digital phone system had not died at the initial power surge. Hard to receive calls when you don't know they're calling. It's been replaced now and all phone lines are up and running. I'm sending this note at 1:50 AM Thursday. I'm in between gasoline runs. Our newsguy Dave has had reports on air within the past hour about the flooding situation in Aberdeen which thankfully has not happened as was feared. We're doing okay. Not much sleep but people seem to be happy that we're providing the info..." _Joel Hanson (KLOG/KUKN, Kelso):_ "We are fine. KUKN was down Monday morning for a few hours. A tree knoked out the coax from the transmitter to the antenna. Lucky for us no real damage and a quick fix. Hope everyone else makes out as well." WSAB has offered its assistance in any that we could be of help to all of the affected stations. We've had no requests yet. It is very impressive that with these stations struggling to simply stay on the air, they are still making an extraordinary effor to serve their community with emergency information and anything else they can do to help their listeners. Mark Allen, Esq. President & CEO Washington State Association of Broadcasters 724 Columbia Street NW, Suite 310 Olympia, WA 98501 Ph: (360) 705-0774; Fax (360) 705-0873 wa-broadcasters @ earthlink.net http://www.wsab.org (Dec 6 via Ben Dawson, WA, DXLD) ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ _______________________________________________ IRCA mailing list IRCA@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/irca Opinions expressed in messages on this mailing list are those of the original contributors and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the IRCA, its editors, publishing staff, or officers For more information: http://www.ircaonline.org To Post a message: irca@hard-core-dx.com