2011 seems to have already been a busy and crazy year for natural disasters. However, you'd be hard pressed to find a radio station anywhere in the country that has not been ready with backup systems to stay on the air and detailed plans to inform listeners. When a tornado swept through Massachusetts last week, killing a handful of people, the Clear Channel cluster was ready to deliver. We wanted to be sure to recognize the Clear Channel cluster. Here's what they did.
On Wednesday, June 1 Clear Channel immediately simulcasted our entire AM storm coverage broadcast on the following stations WHYN-AM, WHYN-FM, WRNX and WPKX. On Wednesday, June 1 Clear Channel Springfield?s news director, John Baibak, and afternoon jock, Kevin Johnson, took calls from listeners until Midnight. In addition to dozens of calls from area residents, the Governor called Clear Channel?s WHYN-AM exclusively to speak with Baibak to tell listeners what to do and where to go.
Through Thursday, June 2 WHYN-FM, WRNX and WPKX had full storm coverage, no music all coverage until the end of morning drive. While WHYN-AM, the ?News Talker? opened up airways to local politicians and area charities. The broadcast included calls from:
Mayor Sarno of Springfield
Mayor Kanapic of Westfield May
Mayor Gibson of West Springfield
Governor Deval Patrick
Lt. Governor Tim Murry
Senator Scott Brown
Congressman Richard Neil
Rick Sullivan Secretary of Environmental Affairs
Rick Lee Head of the Red Cross
During the call with Lee, he also cut a 30 second spot to tell Springfield residents where to get help and how to donate to the Red Cross. The spot was on air by 10 a.m., with one airing per hour every hour on all four stations.
Clear Channel also took care of listeners by utilizing the Internet. Clear Channel began posting storm information on Wednesday, June 1 at 3:00 p.m., and included home page alerts. Information was also posted about area shelters and where and when outages occurred. WHYN sent an e-blast on Wednesday, June 1 about the storm that included photo galleries, videos and dedicated pages.
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