Figure 2
Figure 2 shows the La Grande area monitoring links from Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Overview
The following is a collection of observations
made by this researcher through planned audio monitoring of various
AM radio stations since 2001. The monitoring was conducted using
the following equipment: 1. C Crane AM radio, with conventional
ferrite rod antenna, Grundig 650 receiver using an outdoor random
wire antenna, Bearcat Trunk Tracking Scanner with built-in antenna
for VHF communications, ICOM 707 Transceiver for High Frequency
monitoring of Emergency Bands and Amateur bands. The monitoring
of stations was initiated at the beginning of planned monitoring
time as well as during emergency events such as storms. For the
most part the stations monitored are located in small to medium
markets. The EAS status of the station is given in each report.
Most of the air monitoring was recorded in either digital Sony
MiniDisc format or cassette tape format.
Findings
The limitation to these reports is the limited number of a stations
monitored and the time these stations could be monitored. However,
consistencies regarding station operation and localism correlates
with what is noted in the literature and the PPW survey. For example,
stations have been monitored and observed that:
1. Have no emergency back up generation that are LP1 stations.
2.
Are duopolies that share EAS responsibilities within their station
chain.
3. Exhibit poor operating practice.
4. Operate as unattended stations with limited contact information.
5. Limit EAS code selection.
6. Maintain no news departments and provide little programming
coverage of emergency events.
7. Maintain no EAS digital linkage to local emergency management
offices.
8. Are incorporated into ambiguous EAS plans.
Thus, these observations reinforce the notion of how these issues are played out within the programming of a station on a day-to-day basis and under some limited emergency conditions.
Situation Reports
Monitoring Report Observations of AM Radio Stations
Random Monitoring of Station KOZA AM 1230 kHz Odessa, Texas
AM from February to April 2003
Although little could be determined about the management operation
of this station because the station was rarely attended during
the monitoring window, and when it was attended those who seemed
to be operating it, or at least in the same building with its
transmitters, knew little about it. This researcher monitored
this station randomly from a period beginning in February 2003,
through to April, 2003. Given its remote, unattended, operation,
dead air on the station was observed by this researcher numerous
times. Mis fed cues to the automation putting two sources on the
air was common, as well as pre-programming in-house feeds from
program sources. For example, more than once the private in-house
telephone numbers for the Jim Bohannen show, a Westwood One Production
was put over the air. However, during this monitoring window,
one aspect that stood out was the station's disregard for legal
identifications at the top and or bottom of each hour. While conducting
a formal monitoring session of the station (using a random hourly
schedule; monitoring at the top and bottom of each hour) only
one station identification was heard between 11 April 2003 and
14 April.
On 14 April 2003, the information collected from this monitoring
was sent to the Enforcement Bureau of the FCC and is supplied
below:
Federal Communications Commission
Enforcement Bureau/ 445 12th St. SW
Attn. James Shook
Washington D.C. 20554
Dear People,
This letter is in regards to the operation of KOZA radio, owned
and operated by Mesa Entertainment Inc. 1100 South Grant Odessa,
TX. I have been formally monitoring KOZA 1230 kHz, since 26 February
2003. The only reason I know this station is KOZA, is through
checking with call sign and frequency lists published at M.I.T.
website. My reason for concern is based on what I have heard with
respect to programming operations of the station. Sometime prior
to 26 February I noticed that the station was not providing any
station identifications at the top of the hour, between programs
or after programming shut downs, as well as at "sign on"
(however the station is licensed to operate continuously). I also
noticed that the station was consistently programmed with network
feeds and on many occasions the station broadcast "dead air"
and (possibly?) abnormally low levels of feeds from (their?) CBS
news network at the top of the hour.
Initially I contacted the field office in Houston, TX about these
operations on 26 February. Given that nothing seem to change with
this station over the time I was monitoring it, on 9 April 2003
I contacted James Shook of the FCC Enforcement Bureau. He suggested
that I send in a formal complaint along with supporting evidence
of the operation of this station.
This letter is being written on 14 April 2003 at about 11:30 am
local Odessa, TX time. At about 11:00 am this morning I heard
an inadvertent transition from the Roy Master's program (which
actually runs in the evenings) to CBS news and then at about 11:07,
I heard a station identification given by a male voice, stating
the station's call sign and location. This is the first station
identification I have heard on this station for over a month.
Perhaps this situation has been corrected, however, through this
hour segment I heard no further station identification and at
the top of the hour (12:00 Noon) there was no station identification.
With this letter I am enclosing the following data that details
my monitoring efforts of this station. This information includes
an annotated tape of monitored broadcasts from KOZA which was
recorded at random dates and times. I have also included my written
log which details random times and dates of monitoring.
I am continuing to monitor this station. If you have any questions,
please feel free to contact me at the address below. I'd appreciate
your input on this matter. Thank you very much for your time and
interest.
Sincerely,
M. Mustoe Ph.D.
FCC officials suggested to this researcher
that if a complaint is filed, "...usually but not always
....the complainant will be copied with whatever letter is sent
to the licencee and the licensee will be directed to supply the
complainant with a copy of the response.. so that the complainant
has an opportunity to reply" (Shook J. 2003). There was no
reply to this letter which was sent priority mail to the FCC offices
in Washington D.C. At last check this station has changed ownership
and has now gone from a talk show to Tijuano format. A limited
random monitoring of the station suggested that the station is
still unattended and continues to practice limited or no station
identifications (Makowsky M. 2004).
Situation report: Odessa, Texas, Power Outage,
No News Programming 24 April 2003
At about 2 PM the power went out at the University of Texas of
the Permian Basin in Odessa, Texas. After 20 minutes of monitoring
local radio stations nothing was discussed on the air with respect
to this major outage. On KCRS, the local primary 1 EAS station
and the regional carrier which promotes itself as the "news
authority of the Permian Basin" during the duration of outage
no interruption of programming was heard providing a news story.
This researcher called the station, which was identified as a
Clear Channel Station and then through an answering system, I
was unable to get to a news department, since only names were
referenced in the announcement of the answering system. Next I
called KWEL, a local station in Midland, Texas, and at that time
no one answered the phone. After this, I called KMID TV and did
get through to a writer in the news department who told me she
had heard on the scanner that there was an outage. but knew nothing
more and suggested I call back. In the meantime I called KWEL
once more and did get through to the owner of the station who
had not heard of any of the activity. I called the TV station
again and they informed me that the outage was due to a problem
with the local power supplier and, in fact, affected areas for
blocks around the college. Altogether the lights were off for
about 25 minutes and during that time no AM station reported on
the problem.
Situation report: KSL Salt Lake City: Programming Confusion
After a Local Lightning Storm 10 June 2004
Even large stations can be subject to the problems of automation
and the inability of operators to control increasingly more complicated
systems. On 10 June 2004, at 12:45 in the morning, while monitoring
AM KSL 1150 Salt Lake City Utah, from La Grande, Oregon, KSL suddenly
lost the satellite feed from the Lars Larson show originating
from the Westwood One Network. KSL is a clear channel 50,000 watt
station with a coverage area of all the western states. What immediately
followed was inadvertent. Sounds emanating from what seemed to
be a newsroom were being broadcast from the station. This included
a cacophony of phones ringing and two on duty staff answering
phones. Dialog of frustration about not being able to get hold
of anyone to fix the problem ensued in the one-sided telephone
conversations that were being broadcast over the air. In addition
to staff, the ambient background sounds of Salt Lake City police
traffic could be heard on the channel being picked up from scanners
in the room. At 1:04 a.m. I called Salt Lake City police to inform
them that their radio traffic was being re-broadcast on KSL's
signal. They were unaware of the problem and immediately called
KSL. One side of the conversation apparently with the police,
could be heard over the air. The KSL operator apologized for the
problem stating that they were trying to find, "a radio guy."
After the phone call, the KSL staff member is heard asking another
individual in the office if she knows how to turn off the scanners,
the reply is no. At 1:10 a.m. I called the station from La Grande,
Oregon and talked with the staff member who I had heard earlier
talking with the police on the phone. She confirmed with me that
the police had called, but she had no idea what was going on.
She worked on the television side of the company and no one was
there in radio to work out the problem. I asked if she needed
some advice and for the next nine minutes I assisted the station
in getting back on (or off) the air. I surmised that the problem
was an open mike in the newsroom. However, the staff on hand could
not find it. After hearing a crash over the air when the operator
put the phone down, I realized that whatever mike was open was
close to where the phone was put down. This was near a mixing
board so the operator turned off the board, and the problem with
ambient newsroom noise being broadcast on their channel was solved.
At about the same time the feed from Westwood One came back up.
Later that day when I spoke with an engineer at KSL he informed
me that their office was contacted again at about 5:30 that morning
to be instructed on how to turn the board (that had been turned
off earlier that morning) back on so as to broadcast traffic.
This situation prevailed on KSL until about 1:15 a.m.; a period
of time when few people are generally listening. As it was, according
to the KSL engineer, it was nature; a lightning storm, that originally
knocked the satellite feed off the air. It was a continuous open
mike in the newsroom that (normally) stayed on that was the problem,
and in-turn, this was augmented when another operator brought
up an incorrect source (the mike) under the assumption that he
was potting up some (locally originating) filler music to mask
the break in the satellite feed. Although the incident that occurred
here was, no doubt, an anomaly in the standard operating procedure
of this well-established broadcaster, it nevertheless, shows the
importance of the human interface in dealing with air quality
and the control programming.
Situation report: Dead Air at LP1 KLBM 1450
La Grande, Oregon and Linked Station KBKR Baker City, Oregon 1490.
10 July 2004
At approximately 5:30 PM on Saturday
10 July 2004, it was noted that KLBM 1450 kHz La Grande, Oregon
went off the air. No modulation was detected, but a carrier seemed
to be present on the frequency blocking out background stations
sharing the channel. At about 5:45 PM I called the station and
made contact with the answering service. The answering service
operator stated that she was not aware of the problem and would
try to contact someone about the situation. The dead air persisted.
At 10:54 PM that evening I called once again and was informed
that the station's personnel in charge of the station were out
of town and could not be contacted. On Sunday the following day,
at about 10:30 AM I contacted the Oregon Trail Museum in Baker
City, Oregon and talked with a docent there. I asked her if she
could check her radio to see if KLBM's combinant AM station, KBKR
1490 kHz was on the air. Both of these stations are controlled
from the La Grande studio of KLBM. She went to her car and let
me hear her radio via the phone connection. At this point she
told me that at about 5:30 PM on Saturday she also noticed that
KBKR was off the air. KLBM (and presumably KBKR) both returned
to the air a few minutes into the Michael Drudge program on 11
July 2004 at about 7:40 PM. Thus, KLBM (as well as KBKR) was off
the air for a total of slightly over 27 hours. A recording of
the station coming back on the air was made, and in hearing this
it is noted that no station identification is made upon the station's
returning modulation to its broadcasted carrier. The next ID that
was heard was at the top of the hour at 11PM. The following morning,
12 July 2004 the station was monitored during its locally-originating
programs from about 7:00 AM to 9AM to see if an explanation of
the dead air might be given. No explanation was given. This example
shows the potential problem that can exist when two stations share
primary monitoring assignment responsibility.
Major Wind Storm Hits La Grande, Oregon 19 July 2004
At 3:47 p.m. a straight-line wind associated with local thunderstorms
hit the Union County Oregon area (Rautenstrauch B. 2004). Winds
in the storm were estimated to 70 mph and widespread damage from
local flooding, broken trees limbs, and some limited crop damage
(Ford M. 2004) occurred. NOAA weather radio issued severe storm
warnings and watches for Union County until 5:30 p.m., and the
local 2 meter Skywarn network was activated. Power was interrupted
in La Grande and Island City at the onset of this storm and was
off until sometime after 5 p.m., affecting 5600 customers (Rautenstrauch
B. 2004).
Local Radio Station Response
This researcher observed that the LP1 in La Grande, Oregon
1450 AM KLBM went off the air at the onset of this storm and did
not return to the air until power was restored. The
following observations were noted by Eastern Oregon University
student, Ben Carpenter:
Earlier that day it was observed that after some local lightning
strikes, the LP 1 station for La Grande, KLBM 1450 kHz, radio
went off the air at 7:54 a.m.. This researcher called the local
power supplier in La Grande, Oregon, (Oregon Electric) at 8:18
a.m., and they confirmed that power was out in the Cove Avenue
area due to a lightning strike. Cove Avenue is the location of
the transmitters and studios for KLBM. At 8:15 a.m. I called the
station and no one answered. At 8:27 a.m. the station returned
to the air with just a carrier and at 8:28 a.m. the carrier was
modulated with part of the end of an advertisement and then a
series of advertisements. When the local announcer came on the
air no identification of the station was given. Total time off
the air was approximately 34 minutes.
Situation report: Dead Air at LP 1 KLBM 1450, 30-31 July 2004
At approximately 8:45 p.m. on Friday, 30 July 2004, it was
noted that KLBM 1450 kHz La Grande, Oregon went off the air. No
modulation was detected and no carrier signal seemed to be present
on the frequency allowing background stations sharing the channel
to come through. That evening at 10:05 p.m. I called the station
and made contact with the answering service. The answering service
operator stated that she was not aware of the problem and would
try to contact someone about the situation. The dead air persisted.
The station remained off the air through the evening and into
the following morning. At 6:28 a.m. on 31 July I called once again
and was informed that, "station's personnel tried to fix
the station last night but were unable to, and are trying again
this morning." Propagation was not conducive to monitoring
the alternate Baker City Oregon station (KBKR), however, a signal
was detected at its frequency of 1490, but that signal could not
be identified. KLBM returned to the air for a short time at 10:12
a.m. on 31 July. This air time lasted less than 1 minute and broke
into an unidentified talk show; no identification was given. The
station then went off the air again with an unmodulated carrier
until returning to the air at 10:15 a.m., and remained on the
air for less than five seconds and then once again went off the
air without a carrier. I called the station once again at 10:30
a.m. and no one answered at the answering service. The station
returned to the air at approximately 10:55 a.m. after being off
the air for approximately 14 hours.
Situation
report: EAS Activated for Local Storms 1 August 2004
At 4:44 p.m., while monitoring station KRBM 89.9 FM, an EAS
alert was given for the La Grande area for heavy thunderstorms.
NOAA considers these kinds of reports as "NOW" reports
which are releases concerned with intense but not severe current
weather. KRBM, which is a satellite un-manned station in Pendleton,
Oregon, is delivered into the La Grande area via K210AV, a translator
at 89.9 mHz.
In checking with NOAA officials in Pendleton, it was confirmed
that a NOW notice went out on their network and NOAA weather radio,
(in the La Grande area NOAA weather radio is heard on 162.4 mHz.)
At the time of the alert this researcher tuned to KLBM AM 1450,
the La Grande area local LP1. Given that the EAS system was activated
for the area, I would expect to hear the alert also on the local
LP1. What was heard on KLBM was a talk show and no EAS alert.
There could be multiple reasons for this. According to the most
recent EAS plan for Oregon, the monitoring assignments of KLBM
include 1450 KCMB FM in the first position and in the second position
the OPB station KTVR-FM. In addition the optional monitoring source
is NOAA weather radio at 162.4. KTVR delivered into the La Grande
area on 90.3 mHz FM. It's signal source is via a direct microwave
link from OPB in Portland. Thus, when local weather occurs, and
if NOAA out of Pendleton issues an alert, unless that alert is
sent through the statewide network, it will be sent to KLBM in
Pendleton and in-turn that message will be delivered into the
La Grande area via a translator. Since, according to the Oregon
EAS state plan, the local LP1 KLBM does not monitor this station,
it would not have been able to relay the NOW report at 4:44 p.m.
If KLBM was monitoring the local NOAA frequency, it then could
have relayed this message. However the levels of these alerts
can be filtered at the station at the discretion of station programmers.
This situation is further complicated by an official at NOAA in
Portland stating that NOW reports are not normally used to set
off the EAS system. And, in addition, when I contacted the La
Grande engineer of Oregon Public Broadcasting, he suggested that
KLBM should be monitoring 89.9 KRBM, not 90.3 FM. It can be concluded
from this that the only broadcast station carrying this weather
alert into the La Grande area was the OPB station KRBM, translated
from Portland. For a graphic explanation of this system see Figure
2 below:.
Additional report from 1997.
Situation Report: Ice storm, Glaze Hits Houston, Texas
12-14 January 1997
From about 12 January to 15 January 1997, the eastern Gulf
coast of Texas experienced a severe winter ice storm. The storm
affected power availability for days, shut down businesses and
schools and created a driving hazard on freeways and local roads.
The storm impacted communities from Texas all the way to the Gulf
coast of Louisiana and into the southeastern section of Missouri.
During this time this researcher was monitoring KTRH in Houston,
the Primary Entry Point Station for this region. I was also monitoring
KLVI Beaumont, TX. about thirty miles east of Houston. KLVI is
a 24-hour station operating 5 KW and directional at night. KTRH
is also a 24- hour station and broadcasts at 50KW. KTRH's coverage
includes the Beaumont market of KLVI. KTRH and KLVI are both talk
news format stations. During the storm KTRH maintained its regular
programming giving information on the storm at local news positions.
In contrast, KLVI altered its programming to a 24-hour call-in
format. Phone calls from listeners informed the audience about
the storm and local news coverage, including interviews with power
and law enforcement officials, continued from the station throughout
the duration of the storm.
