WWL: The Hurricane Station

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WWL_AM_870_105Ten years ago WWL was the only local commercial radio station left on the air immediately after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans.


Personnel from several radio ownership groups helped WWL and this multi-station owner effort kept citizens informed in the aftermath. “What was usually a local news station had become one of the only ways to learn what was happening as the country’s worst natural disaster unfolded,” reports the BBC.

“Thanks to an ‘unprecedented’ partnership with their competitors, WWL’s content was being heard across the dial on almost all FM, AM and shortwave stations in the New Orleans area.”

RBR+TVBR observation: I remember when WWL station manager Diane Newman picked up her station’s NAB Marconi Radio Award at that year’s radio show. She was in tears, and so were we in the audience, listening to her acceptance speech, about what they went through.