SMS messaging used in emergency broadcasting situation

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Last week snow and ice storms swept through Kentucky and left many areas in complete devastation.  Kentucky Farm Bureau needed to get on the air immediately to alert the public where to call for emergency claims and other critical information. In Paducah, the buyer wanted to run on Bristol Broadcasting’s WKYQ-FM and WDDJ-FM. The station’s phone, fax, e-mail and website were all down due to the storms.


Regional Reps announced their VP Joe Hearn was able to track down a cell number for station GSM Jamie Futrell. Jamie was on the air but with limited power, and there was no way to get him the schedule or the copy that was to run with all of the station communications being down.

Regional Reps Account Manager Mandee Kalinowski sent the schedule and copy via SMS text message to Jaime’s cell phone…no easy feat considering each text had to be under 160 characters.  Mandee texted Jamie Futrell his (:30) script in 3 parts, as well as the spots and order traffic.  Jamie was able to run the spots for Kentucky Farm Bureau due to our creative last minute idea on how to get his orders to him.