Posts tagged ‘News’
Local TV and Radio – Always on. Always there.
Spring may bring April showers and May flowers, but it can also bring some devastating weather. When tornadoes recently tore through communities in the Southeast and Midwest, local TV and radio stations were there to help keep their viewers and listeners safe every step of the way.
Viewers of KY3-TV reported they first received a text alert [warning a tornado was coming] from the TV station in the middle of the night, and turned to the station’s website for live radar. One viewer said after turning on the TV, ‘you were the only ones on the air. You saved my life.’”
After the storms, broadcasters swung into action to support their communities. Country music star Rodney Atkins partnered with local radio station WRIL in Pineville, Ky., to broadcast a concert –on local radio to raise funds for towns in Kentucky and Tennessee that had been devastated by the storms. WTHR-TV in Indianapolis and their viewers helped raise more than $500,000 for relief funds after tornadoes ripped through Indiana. And the list goes on and on. Even broadcasters not directly impacted by the tornadoes have pitched in to help.
WGAL-TV in Pennsylvania covers the area of Lancaster, Harrisburg, York and Lebanon. When they noticed that a number of towns in the Midwest that had been hit hard had the same name as towns in their area, they “decided to launch [a] fundraising drive to support the American Red Cross in its work to bring relief to those who lost so much in these ‘sister towns.’”
Local TV and radio broadcasters are a lifeline for their communities before, during and after times of crisis . For critical information to stay safe during an emergency, turn to those who are always on and always there for you.
Eye of the storm
When Hurricane Irene began to bear down on the East Coast, local radio and television broadcasters were on the front lines delivering the most up-to-date information to keep their TV viewers and radio listeners safe.
From South Carolina to Massachusetts, storm-battered broadcasters placed themselves in the middle of the hurricane so others could remain sheltered. America’s local broadcasters are first informers and are proud to work hand in hand with first responders in times of crisis.
As one caller told his local broadcasting team, “You are doing an awesome job by getting good information out.”
You can’t always plan for the storms of life, but isn’t it nice to know you can always rely on your local TV and radio teams to be there for you during them?
A Peek Into a 21st Century Newsroom
In the 1920s and 30s, if you were fortunate enough to have electricity in your house and wanted to know what was going on in the world, you clicked on a radio. Many people who lived in rural areas ran their radio on a battery, and so only used it sparingly. If you wanted to actually watch the news back then, you had to head to a movie theater, buy a ticket to a show (if you could afford both a ticket and to spare the time) and wait for a big movie reel to be loaded.
After World War II and into the 1950s, you could suddenly bring the news into your own home for free even!though you still had to wait for the appointed news hour.
Its easy for those of us in the 21st century, 24/7 news cycle to take for granted the humongous innovations of radio and TV at those times.
But our broadcasters didnt stop innovating in 1950. What are they doing now to keep you as up to date as possible? Live streaming on smartphones. Local TV on laptops. Instantaneous articles and updates from location to the Web. Watch how stations use technology to bring you news as it unfolds and see if you dont agree that your local broadcasters are living up to the innovations of those who came before them!
