Longport Media president Dave Coskey thought Skeldon, WMGM-NBC40’s chief meteorologist, and I would make a good team to talk listeners through the plans and preparations to weather a tropical system packing Irene’s punch.
LINWOOD, NEW JERSEY — It began innocently enough, one week ago today, with a short e-mail from Longport Media president Dave Coskey:
“Up for a 6-8 shift tomorrow night with Dan Skeldon?”
Hurricane Irene had just plowed through the Caribbean and the Bahamas and had her sights set on our little corner of the East Coast. Coskey envisioned a two-hour, pre-storm show that would preempt scheduled programming on NewsTalk1400 WOND, the radio group’s flagship AM station.
For the past couple of months, I’ve been contributing entertainment reports for two of the company’s stations. Coskey thought Skeldon, WMGM-NBC40’s chief meteorologist, and I would make a good team to talk listeners through the plans and preparations to weather a tropical system packing Irene’s punch.
But just as Hurricane Irene was born of a small tropical wave drifting off the African coast, the radio coverage of this potentially dangerous storm took on a life of its own. Shortly after he sent that email, Coskey decided to take the unprecedented step of simulcasting the special across all of the company’s stations — WOND, KOOL 98-3, 103.7 WMGM, WILD 102.7 and WBSS 1490.
Suddenly, a Category-1 idea had been elevated to a Cat-5. He called a production meeting for first thing Friday morning, and by 10am, that two-hour special had mushroomed into almost 50 non-stop hours of storm coverage. Nothing like this had ever been attempted in this market — or most other markets, I suspect.
A broadcast team was quickly assembled. I would fly solo Friday from noon to 3pm, when Pinky Kravitz would do an expanded edition of his daily talk show.
I’d return at 6pm to work with Skeldon, only now we’d go until 9pm, when Scott Macom, a host of the weekly Fire & Ice show, would take listeners through the night.
For Saturday and Sunday, Don Williams, would fill the same 6 to 10am slot he does on weekdays. Kim Martin — new to KOOL 98-3 — would work 10am-1pm, when Barbara Altman of the weekday Front Porch show would take over from 1 until 4pm. Pinky would return for his usual 4-6pm slot, Skeldon and I would return from 6 until 9pm and Macom would again do the overnight.
Pictured at left: David Spatz and Dan Skeldon in the Kool 98.3 broadcast — in the dark. (Photo by Dave Coskey)
We broke from regular programming at noon Friday and I got the ball rolling as Irene continued her march up the coast. Regional radio legend Jackson T. Chase, who’s KOOL’s afternoon drive guy, helped me out with interviews and listener phone calls. The rest of Friday and most of Saturday went according to the plan.
We interviewed local community leaders and emergency management people, broadcast updated information on evacuation plans and shared storm-prep tips.
But all hell broke loose Saturday around 8:30pm, as Irene began pounding the region. First, Skeldon reported a possible tornado — not uncommon when a hurricane approaches — had touched down in Lewes, Del., and damaged 25 houses.
Then we heard that a waterspout — a tornado over water — had been spotted in Delaware Bay.
"I’ll give my opinion, but it’s really about the listeners because there’s so many different people who have been in the exact same situation."
The storm, which has killed several dozen people in the Caribbean, is expected to be a "storm of historic proportions" for the Mid-Atlantic region, including the New Jersey shore, New York City, Delaware, Pennsylvania and possibly Ohio.
Sixers revive Boardwalk Classic game from 1982 and 1983 with a match vs. the Brooklyn Nets Oct. 13 in Atlantic City at Boardwalk Hall.
The latest reports indicate that the Isaac is "much weaker than Katrina," but that thousands in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi have been forced to evacuate as the tropical storm moves in.
New Jersey Transit is suffering from several flooded stations and numerous debris its train tracks due to the residual effects of Hurricane Irene. As a result, it has suspended some of its services until further notice.
At least 19 deaths over the past 24 hours, from Florida up to Connecticut, have been blamed on Irene-related incidents, according to national officials.
By the time the southern New Jersey shore region woke up Sunday morning, there was a collective sigh of relief as Hurricane Irene made landfall early in the morning, resulting in much less than flooding and damage — and power outages — than initially anticipated.
While Hurricane Irene has everybody signing the wrong words to the 1982 Dexy's Midnight Runners No. 1 hit "Come on Eileen," the following songs have likely come to mind for many in the path of the big storm.
See live photo feed, live Atlantic City Web cam and latest updates on Hurricane Irene and the Jersey shore region.
Article:
Bachman-Turner
Let It Ride at Resorts
Article:
Historic Horse Racing a Sure Bet?
Article:
Margaritaville: A Decade in the Making
Article:
Trump Plaza Beach Bar Not Exactly Closing
Article:
NYE 2013 Shows in Atlantic City
Article:
Hall Passes on Moody Blues Again
Article:
Why the '12-12-12' Sandy Tribute Is in New York, Not New Jersey
Article:
Steve Martin in Atlantic City
1. Irene said... on Aug 29, 2011 at 02:13PM
“AC WEEKLY DID A FABULOUS JOB COVERING THE STORM TOO! WE WERE GLUED TO THE IPAD & FACEBOOK. THANKS FOR ALL LOCAL MEDIA'S EFFORTTS OVER THE WEEKEND!!!!KUDOS”
2. Anonymous said... on Aug 29, 2011 at 05:30PM
“how corrupt is the local media giving these guys all this coverage?
townsquare did an amazing job on their 4 stations. and WIBG did an outstanding job on its 2. But do you read about that anywhere??????????
”
3. Rogena said... on Aug 30, 2011 at 05:12PM
“So many stations and local media did an AMAZING job covering Hurricane Irene. I watched all local TV stations, listened on the radio, watched websites and reposted as much of the events as I could via Facebook. This is a great story. I don't think "all this coverage" given to "these guys" is out of line at all.
And for all those out there who think all the coverage of Hurricane Irene was nothing but Media Hype, they should all put a lid on it. I would rather be informed and safe and find that it was as bad in our area as it could have been, than to be taken by surprise. Certainly more deaths would have been attributed to Hurricane Irene had it not been for ALL the Media Outlets spreading the warnings along the East Coast. Kudos to All of You!! ACWeekly, included!!!”
4. Anonymous said... on Aug 30, 2011 at 05:13PM
“"and find that it WASN'T as bad in our area as it could have been"”
5. Rogena said... on Aug 30, 2011 at 05:14PM
“"and find that it WASN'T as bad in our area as it could have been"”
6. Jane B. Stark said... on Aug 31, 2011 at 09:40AM
“Broadcasting is more than entertainment. The licensee knows that there is a grave responsibility given to a station when it goes over the airwaves. The remarkable performance of the local radio outlets is an example of demonstrating that responsibility to the listening public. The golden rule in broadcasting is to NEVER leave the airways....go beyond all measures to stay on the air.... the public is counting on the reports for their safety. Unless you have ever weathered a storm as a manager or staff person in a broadcast company, you can't comprehend the means that are taken to keep the public informed. Congratulations to the staff and management of Longport Media, and to all the news and information providers in our area for standing up to the plate when it really counted.”
7. Anonymous said... on Sep 2, 2011 at 12:55AM
“Sorry to disrupt your story with some facts but ... The coverage by Longport Media and NBC40 was a joke. As for the predictions, they were off but that happens. However, once it did happen nobody wanted to report the facts because they wanted to capitalize on the storm. Skedon got caught refusing to report wind speeds and he claimed it would be "irresponsible" for him to report that and to just remember the term "hurricane." I went through some of the cable news channels who were reporting wind speeds but the speeds they were predicting (according to NOAA) had less than a 5% chance of occuring. So how many more news stories on NBC40 are incomplete or fake because someone there thinks the public cannot handle the facts?”
8. Anonymous said... on Sep 2, 2011 at 01:03AM
“As for WOND, that station's only purpose seems to be so Atlantic County Executive can promote himself. First of all he is given large blocks of time and sometimes entire shows to promote himself even though the county has had advertising contracts with the station (which violates the Pay to Play laws he is always touting). He was on thre claiming the only problem with the forcast was the "timing" and if it came 90 minutes sooner the forcast would have been correct. That is ridiculous, the wind speeds were never there. Now we have Levinson saying he is going to fly over the flooded areas but none of the claimed conservative hosts would ask what possible benefit that would be. Why should the taxpayers pay to have this guy go on sight-seeing helicopter trips? What is going to do once he sees it? If he did need to see it why can't he just look at the video? It is all about promoting himself at taxpayer expense since that is all he does most of the time.”