Some CC Radio/New Orleans stations back to regular programming
CC Radio New Orleans has four of its seven FM stations in New Orleans back to regular programming. WQUE, WNOE, WRNO and WYLD continue to originate programs from the United Radio New Orleans studios at Clear Channel in Baton Rouge. CC's WYLD-AM, WODT-AM and KHEV-FM continue to air United Radio of New Orleans programming with Entercom's WWL-AM, WTKL-FM (now on 105.3) and WSMB-AM.
Entercom is also back to regular programming on Bayou 105.3 (moved to Oldies WTKL's 95.7 frequency because the 105.3 site was underwater), WLMG Magic 101.9 and WEZB B-97.
Houston station used text messaging Hurricane Rita alerts
In the frantic days leading up to the landfall of Hurricane Rita, Susquehanna's KRBE-FM Houston offered to deliver Hurricane alerts via text messaging across cell phones to their listeners, enabling this information to be delivered "anytime, anywhere", regardless of whether a person was near a radio or a computer.
Overnight, KRBE and their text messaging partner, HipCricket, deployed a custom service that has sent in excess of 80,000 messages in the past week to Houston residents who opted in to receive Hurricane Alerts from KRBE.
CEO of Susquehanna, David Kennedy said: "This is a remarkable story. As we strive to find ways to better integrate ourselves into the lives of our listeners, this experience has proven that there's a clear role for text-messaging. Thanks to our great folks at KRBE and our friends at HipCricket."
KRBE personnel invited listeners to opt-in for alerts. Thousands of listeners opted in over the days leading up to the hurricane's landfall. Alerts were then pushed out to their phones as new information became available.
Hurricane state broadcasters still clawing back
As of 9/28/05, 29% of the radio stations in the four states hit by the one-two Katrina-Rita punch were silent, and 16% of all television stations were still off air. Hardest hit was Louisiana, which had made it back over 80% on air when Rita smacked the state's radio functionality back down below 60%. According to an FCC chart, on the day Katrina hit - - 8/29/05 - - 65% of radio stations and 79% of television stations were operating in the four states, which include, in addition to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas. That number is misleading, however, since Texas missed out on that storm and was operating at 100%. Louisiana, on the other hand, was at 62% radio/61% TV; Alabama was at 48%/50%; and hard-hit Mississippi was at 12%/40%. By 9/23, overall capacity was up to 89%/93%, only to drop to 69%/77% after Rita hit. Mississippi and Alabama were spared this time, but Louisiana went back down to 57%/75%, and Texas dropped to 75%/68%. 9/28 numbers are 59%/79% in LA; 79%/100% in MS; 96%/100% in AL; and 79%/82% in TX.
Journal joins the crowd of Katrina victims
Multimedia corporation Journal Communications did not have the misfortune of operating radio or television properties in New Orleans. It does, however, have the misfortune of operating a printing plant there. Journal has determined that the plant - - which it has used to print niche publications and for general commercial printing work - - is damaged beyond repair. It will close the facility, taking an estimated hit of nearly 3.5M dollars. Journal's Steven J. Smith said that long-standing weakness in the industry contributed to the decision. Salvageable equipment will be transported to other Journal facilities in the area. That, along with continued weakness in advertising at both the broadcast and print divisions, have caused the company to revise its guidance downward. It had called for net Q3 income of 14M-16M. It now says the result will likely be on the low end of that spectrum.
TDGA 2005-2006 salary survey gets underway
TDGA, The Traffic Directors Guild of America, has launched its 5th Annual Salary Survey encompassing Traffic, Continuity, Office and Business personnel, using an online survey form to speed ease of completion and calculating results. The non-union membership association boasts some 5,000 participants and last year gather data from over 2,000 individual Radio and Television stations and Television networks. Many major group operators and multi-station clusters use it for guidance in budget planning, and it's proven to be invaluable when job applicants get to the topic of compensation. "Everyone benefits," continued Keene, "we're determined to keep it a win-win situation for employee and employer alike. And our privacy policy makes it literally impossible to identify an individual station, group or person. TDGA asks for identity, only to the point of verifying the completeness and clarity of answers. Once accepted, the e-mail identity goes into a special non-traceable database to permit TDGA to send via E-Mail) a PDF version of the final report, usually released in January of each year. We release a condensed synopsis to the broadcast trade press, but only participants or TDGA members can access the complete report.
To participate in the survey: http://www.pddesigns.com/tdga/tdgasurvey.html.
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