A hurricane is heading towards Florida’s Gulf Coast and southeastern U.S. again, and it’s time for radio to do what radio does in emergencies like this, which is broadcasting information to all the hand-cranked radios in areas without power. That’s unquestionably valuable, even if it’s also what the radio industry tends to tout as the reason the medium must be protected at any cost. It’ll also be a time when several stations in the path of the storm ignore it and stick with music or syndicated programming, and others just simulcasting the audio from a local TV station, but let’s not trouble ourselves with that issue for now. The radio industry used emergency information as its justification for the ill-fated campaign to require functioning FM tuner chips in all cell phones, and it comes up again and again at conventions and other events as radio’s crowning achievement.
It is. At least, it’s been an important part of emergency responses to hurricanes and tornadoes and wildfires. Minot notwithstanding, as long as there’s a station in town with a news department or a staff that can immediately get information on the air, radio is still an indispensable resource, even in a time when weather warnings show up on your phone. Radio works when the cell phone infrastructure fails, and we can recall the Superstorm Sandy debacle for an example of that. There’s still a need for radio when the wind and rain slam into your home.
But does radio still need all of the service elements it’s traditionally provided, when phone apps that do the same thing are ubiquitous? Traffic reports on the radio pale against Waze, though I will admit that radio traffic reports never tell you to turn left at an intersection where the cross street is six lanes of packed traffic, and a left turn is either impossible or intensely dangerous.
Weather? I have at least a dozen weather-related apps on my phone, several of which send out every statement, watch, and warning for our area and even for some other areas (nothing like getting a tornado warning, only to find out that it’s for an area a two-hour drive away).
Sports? There are other stations for that, and websites, and social media accounts; you can easily follow a game through the search function of X/Twitter alone. Right now, in hurricane season, I don’t feel the need to turn to radio to find out what’s going on. If and when a storm bears down on us, however, the radio goes on; the last direct-hit hurricane I had to ride out (Katrina, when it was a Category 1 drenching Fort Lauderdale), radio coverage, spotty though it was, turned out to be invaluable.
So, there’s that. And there’s the value of having the image of being the reliable source of information when the listeners need it most. There’s nothing in the rule book preventing radio stations from having their own branded news, weather, sports, or traffic apps, either. That’s what TV stations do; a couple of TV stations in South Florida have dedicated weather apps with video reports, something the local news-talk stations COULD do but don’t, so when I need weather information as tropical storms bear down on us, I don’t think of the radio stations, I think of the TV stations whose logos adorn the weather apps. TV stations compete for the weather crown, while radio…. I don’t think I’ve seen a single ad or billboard for any of the spoken word radio stations down here for years.
As for on the air, I don’t know what the minute-by-minute PPM numbers show for “traffic and weather together” or “traffic on the twos” or any other service segment, but a) beware relying on data from a tiny sample, and b) really, could a quick weather report hurt THAT much? Absent proof that a weather report will immediately send listeners to the Scan button, it’s something people at worst don’t mind, and, yeah, you can sell a sponsor tag. Even if the information isn’t entirely necessary to be delivered by radio anymore, having it isn’t likely to hurt you, as long as the station’s forward momentum isn’t affected. Just keep it short.
And with that, I’m going to go back to watching the storm coverage. This one is apparently not going to affect our corner of Florida (other than some thunderstorms) as it potentially wallops points west and north, but we watch every storm’s progress, because you really never know which way those things are gonna turn. And we know that our turn will come soon enough.
Perry Michael Simon is a weekly news media columnist for Barrett Media. He previously served as VP and Editor/News-Talk-Sports/Podcast for AllAccess.com. Prior to joining the industry trade publication, Perry spent years in radio working as a Program Director and Operations Manager for KLSX and KLYY in Los Angeles and New Jersey 101.5 in Trenton. He can be found on X (formerly Twitter) @PMSimon.
