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"Seaview 104.9" becomes a voice of help in SW Florida

The Washington Post reports CC Radio's Easy Listening WCVU-FM "Seaview 104.9" in Punta Gorda, FL is running local programming over five local CC Radio frequencies. Locals came to the station's rescue right after Charley hit and began repairing the station's lost roof. Now, the station is giving back in kind, with live and local emergency-relief programming.

Excerpts:

"'There's bottled water at the corner of Harbor and 41'...The round-the-clock broadcasts have been like a step back in time, a time when radio was king. There is no power in Punta Gorda. No television. Spotty phone service. In other words, radio rules. But the reign of Seaview-104.9 and its sister stations has been all the more remarkable because the radio station itself is a victim. Charley ripped the roof off the tiny wooden station and shattered its windows last week but somehow spared the announcer's booth. Within four hours after the storm passed, the station was back on the air.

What has ensued is a kind of reciprocal love affair. The tattered station and its cast of haggard announcers -- many of them with ruined homes of their own -- have directed listeners to the nearest MRE station or ice stand. The listeners have given back by showing up with hammers and wood to build a new roof, at a time when roof builders are almost impossible to find.

The reach of Seaview and other area stations could expand significantly because federal authorities plan to distribute 50,000 radio receivers to storm victims.

The Seaview station sits near the bend in a winding road that leads through a blasted-apart trailer park. Ron Hall, 67, a soft-spoken ham radio junkie with a pile of white hair, monitors the front door. Hall showed up unannounced, driving from his home in St. Petersburg. Now he is a fixture, leaning into a flashing, handheld device that receives information from the emergency operations center and jotting notes to be dashed into the announcer's booth.

There is no use blocking the entrance. The people come in all day. This is community activism meets journalism."