[BC] Radio on Remote Control - NOT

[Gary Peterson]

" 1. the local law enforcement had an EAS encoder, but it was
not set up.
          2. when they called the station, they did not call the right
number.
          3. they did NOT send a car to the station to do something as
                  simple as "knock on the window"
Barry Mishkind "

This reminds me of the morning, a few years ago, that the local meat packing
plant caught fire.  Apparently, there was concern that a large ammonia tank
might rupture.

1.  Local emergency management had an EAS encoder.  It was fully functional.
It would have interrupted our stations (2 FMs and one AM), had they chosen
to use it.  They didn't.  I've never gotten a reasonable explanation why.

2.  Local emergency management called local NWS and had them issue an alert
to prepare for evacuation of the area.  NWS ran two failed alerts,
consisting of duck farts, followed by two minutes of dead air and more duck
farts.  They're pretty good with "perfect Paul" weather warnings, but had
little experience with issuing warnings of this nature.

3.  The station's studio staffing, at the time, was around fifteen persons.
This was around 8:30 AM.  Each station was live.  No one knew what the heck
was going on.

4.  The duck farts and dead air lit up all eight phone lines, continuously,
with listeners wanting to know what was going on.  If emergency management
tried to call, their chances of getting through were slim.  We couldn't even
call out.  Every time the hook was pumped, another caller was on the line.

5.  Finally, emergency management sent a fax (about 30 minutes later) to the
cluster with the possible evacuation warning.  By chance, a sales person
went to the machine, to fax something, and saw the message.  It was promptly
photocopied and went on-air on each morning show.  If our Senator's
Washington office had been sending one of its 30 page, "look at all the
wonderful things I've done for you" faxes, we might not have gotten the word
until much later.  The information would have gotten out much more quickly
if all the stations in town had been running unattended and the system that
was in place had been used.

The ammonia tank didn't rupture.  There was no evacuation.  Had the worst
happened, I wonder if we would have become a whipping-boy as Clear Channel,
Minot was.

Gary, K?CX
Rapid City, SD