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Hurricanes and Florida are synonymous with one another. The Sunshine State spends every hurricane season wondering when — not if — it will be affected by a storm. So, as Hurricane Milton barrelled toward the Tampa area, Newsradio WFLA was prepared.
Milton matured from a category one storm to a category five hurricane in less than 12 hours as it made its way to the area. Tampa hasn’t been struck head-on by a hurricane in more than 100 years, making this particular weather event notable in more than one way.
Newsradio WFLA — the iHeartMedia Tampa news/talk station — has had a plan in place for such events for a long time. And Program Director John Mamola noted that it isn’t the station’s first go around the block with weather events.
“This is not our first rodeo by any means,” Mamola told Barrett Media in advance of the storm. “It’s a little frightening to kind of see it explode like the way it has. It’s science. You just got to kind of look at it and be amazed by it. But at the same time, when it’s in your backyard, it makes, makes you realize the moment.”
That moment came from Miami as the company had moved its operations to the Atlantic coast side of the state to avoid any potential issues with storm surges or flooding. The iHeartMedia studios in Tampa are situated directly on the Old Tampa Bay, meaning it was included in the mandatory evacuation zone.
And the move to Miami is something that the group has done in the past and was prepared to do again.
“We’ve had a long-standing Hurricane Response Plan with iHeart, where we kind of know where we need to go and what we need to do. The timing of it is really key, though, because you don’t want to overreact,” said Mamola. “At the same time, you don’t want to under-prepare and under-react, right? So it’s kind of a happy medium you got to play.
The station began airing full-fledged coverage dedicated only to Hurricane Milton at 6:00 AM on Wednesday, utilizing team members from other iHeartMedia stations and WFLA’s local television partners to provide additional coverage.
“It’s a very well-oiled machine with a lot of different assets and a lot of cooperation between television and separate media partners where we can deliver that coverage to the listeners, not only in Tampa Bay, but I mean, this thing’s going to slam whole west coast of Florida,” Mamola said.
Despite the plenty of preparation by WFLA and history of hurricanes in the area, Mamola freely admitted that nothing can ever fully prepare you for what might happen in the subsequent coverage of the weather event.
“Really, nothing gets you ready, especially this one. We’ve done coverage for south of us, the east coast of the state, other states. We’ve had a couple scares before. And we’ve had storms which have been on this path to hit us, and then it turns south, or then it turns north to the panhandle, or something like that. But this one, for the last couple of days, it’s not moving. It’s coming.
“And you just got to kind of get over that mental hurdle a little bit, because all of us have families, all of us have property, all of us have certain things back home. It’s just one of those things where you just got to prepare as best you can, but at the same time understand that you’re called to do a job that is extremely valuable for the people that that we serve, more so than ever.
“You learn a little bit each time you do it. I think having one as recent as two weeks ago, I think that was — not to treat it in sports terms — but kind of a good refresher, kind of bullpen session, just go through the plan, execute the plan as best we can, make little tweaks here and there,” Mamola said.
“Then, when it came to this one it’s like, ok, we still execute the plan, but at the same time, there are small things that we make tweaks for this one, just because this one’s a little more immediate. But overall, it’s a solid plan. We’ve had it for a number of years. We’ve adjusted it over a number of years.”
It would be easy for members of the iHeartMedia Tampa and WFLA teams to simply say they have to look out for their families and their homes as the storm made its way to the area. But John Mamola gave kudos to his colleagues for staying in the area and ensuring that the public continues to receive the information that could be the difference between life and death in many cases.
“(We have) very dedicated people that are willing to sacrifice their time with this coverage, when they could be saying, ‘Hey, man, I’m staying home.’ These are people that are very dedicated to providing the public service, that this coverage provides,” he shared. “I couldn’t be prouder to be a small part of the team.”
Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
