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Hurricane Florence


GoldenShine9

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How are the TV stations in NC, SC and VA equipped to handle Florence? Any having to leave?

 

I know WTKR Norfolk is in an evacuation zone. Any others?

If WTKR is in an evac zone surely WVEC being even closer to the water is as well.

 

I hope the eastern NC (Greenville - New Bern) stations do a better job than they did during Matthew. Coverage of that storm was absolutely pathetic.

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WTKR, WVEC and WAVY are all in the evacuation zone. I've heard WAVY referred to as "Lake Wavy" in the past.

 

In Myrtle Beach, WBTW is just barely in zone B. WPDE is up in Conway

 

I'm not sure about WECT in Wilmington (WWAY would be fine).

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WTKR, WVEC and WAVY are all in the evacuation zone. I've heard WAVY referred to as "Lake Wavy" in the past.

 

In Myrtle Beach, WBTW is just barely in zone B. WPDE is up in Conway

 

I'm not sure about WECT in Wilmington (WWAY would be fine).

Yep in Myrtle Beach, WBTW and WMBF are in Zone B and WPDE is in the perfect location. WBTW and WMBF are within a mile of the inter coastal waterway and 2-3 miles from the coast.

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WTKR, WVEC and WAVY are all in the evacuation zone. I've heard WAVY referred to as "Lake Wavy" in the past.

 

In Myrtle Beach, WBTW is just barely in zone B. WPDE is up in Conway

 

I'm not sure about WECT in Wilmington (WWAY would be fine).

Yes, Lake WAVY is definitely prone for flooding, literally, every time it rained in Portsmouth, it was flooded when I lived there, especially near WAVY.

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I'm not sure about WECT in Wilmington (WWAY would be fine).

 

WECT is located on Shipyard Blvd. just down the street from the State Port/Cape Fear River. Not sure if this is a flood zone, but I don't think that part of town floods like the usual spots (Dawson, New Centre, etc.) but this is a different storm than usual.

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WTKR, WVEC and WAVY are all in the evacuation zone. I've heard WAVY referred to as "Lake Wavy" in the past.

 

In Myrtle Beach, WBTW is just barely in zone B. WPDE is up in Conway

 

I'm not sure about WECT in Wilmington (WWAY would be fine).

 

In those cases: WTKR and WAVY have sister stations in Richmond they can relocate to (WTVR and WRIC), while WVEC would probably have to go to WUSA farther afield.

 

WBTW and WMBF - their closest options are probably WSPA and WIS, respectively. Not sure if Charleston would be a good relocation spot.

 

In eastern NC, not sure about WITN (on its own - unless they share with Raycom and WECT is available), WNCT (which can easily go to WNCN) or WCTI (closest sister station is WPDE which should be fine), but I'd imagine river flooding would be an issue for them.

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In those cases: WTKR and WAVY have sister stations in Richmond they can relocate to (WTVR and WRIC), while WVEC would probably have to go to WUSA farther afield.

 

WBTW and WMBF - their closest options are probably WSPA and WIS, respectively. Not sure if Charleston would be a good relocation spot.

 

In eastern NC, not sure about WITN (on its own - unless they make an early deal with Raycom and WECT is available), WNCT (which can easily go to WNCN) or WCTI (closest sister station is WPDE which should be fine), but I'd imagine river flooding would be an issue for them.

WITN would wither need to use one of it's soon to be Raycom sisters or go to Roanoke (WDBJ). As for WCTI, it's either Roanoke (WSET), or WJLA in Washington.

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WITN would wither need to use one of it's soon to be Raycom sisters or go to Roanoke (WDBJ). As for WCTI, it's either Roanoke (WSET), or WJLA in Washington.

 

WPDE is not in any flood zone though, it's in Conway. WNCT is probably okay too, but Nexstar has no Wilmington stations so it wouldn't be having to host anyone in any case (and WBTW may have better options). I'm not sure if WITN is near the rivers or not.

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Does WRAL have connections to any of the companies, like a reciprocal agreement, for coverage or would it do everything on its own? It's an oddball being a big-market independent. I know occasionally they can share with other companies (WGNO went to WBRZ during Katrina, even though they have never been sister stations).

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Does WRAL have connections to any of the companies, like a reciprocal agreement, for coverage or would it do everything on its own? It's an oddball being a big-market independent. I know occasionally they can share with other companies (WGNO went to WBRZ during Katrina, even though they have never been sister stations).

 

This may be a huge advantage for WILM as they are largely run out of WRAL and have very little presence in Wilmington.

But the evacuation may negate the benefits especially if the viewing area is largely vacated.

 

Hopefully the stations do the same thing that Belo (now part of Tegna) did back in 2008, by rebroadcasting the affected stations in adjacent markets for the benefit of their evacuees. Sinclair, Nexstar, and Raycom can easily do this... just shut down a subchannel for a few days and replace with an adjacent signal.

 

Likewise, if a station is forced to evacuate their facilities, the adjacent station can simulcast.

 

Some stations like WVEC have already set up a contingency plan away from their faciliies....

 

https://www.13newsnow.com/mobile/article/news/local/13news-now-backup-facility-ready-to-be-used-for-hurricane-florence-coverage/291-593093384

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WITN and WNCT are in no danger of flooding. WITN’s new studio in Greenville is up a hill from the nearest creek. WCTI is in New Bern but still not near the river, really. I don’t think they’d have a problem.

 

Don’t forget that Sinclair has WRDC and WLFL in Raleigh. Though neither produce news, the building has a studio with a green screen that they use to record promos and high school football hits.

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Does WRAL have connections to any of the companies, like a reciprocal agreement, for coverage or would it do everything on its own? It's an oddball being a big-market independent. I know occasionally they can share with other companies (WGNO went to WBRZ during Katrina, even though they have never been sister stations).
WRAL does it all themselves. Just watched them do separate live shots in the 11:00 from Wrightsville Beach (Wilmington), Morehead City, and Dare County/Outer Banks.
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WITN and WNCT are in no danger of flooding. WITN’s new studio in Greenville is up a hill from the nearest creek. WCTI is in New Bern but still not near the river, really. I don’t think they’d have a problem.

 

Don’t forget that Sinclair has WRDC and WLFL in Raleigh. Though neither produce news, the building has a studio with a green screen that they use to record promos and high school football hits.

 

IIRC, their former newsroom is largely vacant from their shutting down their news department in 2006 (that was full-strength prior to their adoption of News Central). Very easy for a station or two to set up shop in provided that the technical means can be used and/or brought in to beam them back to where they are from.

 

Likewise, WLFL and WRDC could easily simulcast WPDE and/or WCTI if they had to. They bleed into the Greenville area OTA, and would be great for any evacuees to stay connected to their area.

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This may be a huge advantage for WILM as they are largely run out of WRAL and have very little presence in Wilmington.

But the evacuation may negate the benefits especially if the viewing area is largely vacated.

 

I know WILM maintains a local sales department. I’m not sure if they have a local engineer; the station is run out of the same facility as the co-owned Sunrise Broadcasting (CBC subsidiary) radio stations. I would imagine the master control is out of WRAL.

 

I wonder if the Sunrise stations will simulcast audio from WRAL during the storm. WECT has a relationship with the Cumulus cluster, so that’s who I’d expect them to run.

 

[Moderator note: perhaps split Florence discussion into its own thread?]

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I know WILM maintains a local sales department. I’m not sure if they have a local engineer; the station is run out of the same facility as the co-owned Sunrise Broadcasting (CBC subsidiary) radio stations. I would imagine the master control is out of WRAL.

 

I wonder if the Sunrise stations will simulcast audio from WRAL during the storm. WECT has a relationship with the Cumulus cluster, so that’s who I’d expect them to run.

 

[Moderator note: perhaps split Florence discussion into its own thread?]

WILM MC is in Raleigh.

 

I listen to WKXB/Jammin’ 99.9 and they expressed plans to be on the air with updates. If anything all the Sunrise stations may simulcast together, but I doubt they’ll just broadcast TV audio unless it becomes necessary.

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In those cases: WTKR and WAVY have sister stations in Richmond they can relocate to (WTVR and WRIC), while WVEC would probably have to go to WUSA farther afield.

 

WBTW and WMBF - their closest options are probably WSPA and WIS, respectively. Not sure if Charleston would be a good relocation spot.

 

In eastern NC, not sure about WITN (on its own - unless they share with Raycom and WECT is available), WNCT (which can easily go to WNCN) or WCTI (closest sister station is WPDE which should be fine), but I'd imagine river flooding would be an issue for them.

 

WPDE is not in any flood zone though, it's in Conway. WNCT is probably okay too, but Nexstar has no Wilmington stations so it wouldn't be having to host anyone in any case (and WBTW may have better options). I'm not sure if WITN is near the rivers or not.

 

WBTW could relocate to WJBF in Augusta if absolutely needed, it's far enough inland and closer than WSPA. They also technically have enough space for another full-size station in there since WAGT vacated the facility awhile back. I believe the old WAGT set is still intact, just needs a desk since the desk that was on the set went to WDHN in Dothan when they got a new upgraded set.

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I wonder with all of the talk going on now about potential backup facilities (certainly for WVEC) if this was kind of spurred on by what happened last year from Harvey as kind of a lesson learned type of deal (especially for Tegna).

 

They probably learned a lot of lessons there. They may have also learned from Katrina, even though they didn't own WWL at the time.

 

In the coastal Carolinas, most of them have nearby sister stations they can go to though. WVEC doesn't have that benefit, as Tegna is nowhere to be found in Richmond, and it's a fairly long drive to DC.

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They probably learned a lot of lessons there. They may have also learned from Katrina, even though they didn't own WWL at the time.

 

In the coastal Carolinas, most of them have nearby sister stations they can go to though. WVEC doesn't have that benefit, as Tegna is nowhere to be found in Richmond, and it's a fairly long drive to DC.

 

Could it be possible to relocate to another ABC affiliate or a station they share resources with?

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I bet UNC-TV or SCETV would be willing to accomodate a station or two should the need arise. That was the case with LPB taking in WWL after a short time at their transmitter and LSU's communications college after they were forced to evacuate their French Quarter studios on Rampart St...

 

WALA in Mobile had to accomodate WVUE for months since their facility was largely damaged by the flooding of Katrina...

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Well just recently, SCETV/SCPR has entered into a partnership with WUFT-TV/FM Gainesville, Fla. (DISCLAIMER: I work at the same building as where WUFT-TV and FM is housed as I'm with a Top 40 radio station inside that building and I do know the Chief Meteorologist.) to provide tropical weather information for South Carolina's public broadcaster.

 

This partnership will continue past the hurricane season.

 

From SCETV's perspective:

https://www.scetv.org/stories/scetv/2018/scetvsouth-carolina-public-radio-and-wuft-announce-emergency-network-partnership

 

From WUFT's perspective:

https://www.jou.ufl.edu/2018/09/10/wuft-fpren-and-scetv-south-carolina-public-radio-form-emergency-network-partnership/

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WBAL sent Lowell Melser down to Nags Head. WDSU sent Travers Mackel to Myrtle Beach. WCVB sent A.J. Burnett to Wrightsville Beach, NC. All appeared on WXII (Winston-Salem, NC) and WYFF (Greenville, SC). Lowell and AJ are meteorologists. Jim Handly from WRC is in Nags Head along with other NBC O&Os reporters WPLG sent Andrew Perez. WJZ has Mike Hellgren tonight from Ocean City, MD. Not sure if it was a day report or they plan on staying. Brian Williams said MSNBC will going into rolling overnight coverage Thursday night. And yes I just made a list. Sorry @Weeters.
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