Friday, May 25, 2007

RADIO (WCHL Commentary)

Do you have one of those XM Satellite radios? If you do, you probably were a little perturbed when you experienced an outage earlier this week. Hearing about their satellite being down and then hearing the story on TV about the ominous 2007 hurricane season made me wonder; if the predicted number of named storms and number of hurricane days is anywhere close to accurate, it’s going to be an interesting season!
Remember the ice storm back in December of 2002. Fortunately, WCHL had just returned as a local station and was able to provide 24 hour information and updates for those of us who had working radios. What would have happened if we had to depend on a satellite signal for our local advisories and updates? Sure, if you had a battery operated TV or a generator, you got news and updates from the TV stations, but it was regional. Hearing our mayor and town manager projecting calm and competent leadership as they provided advisories and updates was really reassuring.
Sadly, I think we will face another crisis of that sort in the future and it may come during this hurricane season. Now is the time to get ready by doing what the emergency preparedness folks have suggested. Go to the Orange County webpage and check out their advice. Having a working radio and extra batteries is one of their suggestions. I don’t know about you, but my family and I will most definitely be tuned to WCHL 1360 in order to stay informed. Satellite radio may have the music you want but it sure won’t have the local information that you really need!

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