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WBEN's David Bellavia saving stranded motorists

D

dand5780

Guest
I heard this caller Tuesday night while WBEN was taking calls around the clock. While elected officials were telling folks to not call the media and to call 911 instead. Of course the caller called 911 many times and they were unable to assist.

"Radio Rising to Occasion as Snow Buries Tight Knit Buffalo Community. No doubt, the Winter of 2014-15 is off to a quick start and no region has felt its fury this past week more than Buffalo, New York where “lake effect” bands of snow have piled up more than eight feet of the white stuff in some parts of the city leaving others relatively unscathed. TALKERS is receiving reports that Buffalo radio stations and personnel have been rising to the occasion helping those directly impacted by the harsh weather conditions with information and support. WBEN afternoon drive host Tom Bauerle is a longtime market icon who recognizes the important role radio plays during such challenging situations. He tells TALKERS, “One of the great aspects of live, local programming during a weather emergency is that we often help people in the here and now. Our host David Bellavia [an Iraq war hero] took a stranded motorist named Liza under his wing last night, and even after his show made sure that rescue workers reached her and her small children. Buffalo is a city of longtime residents, generally, and our roots run deep. Western New York, in my opinion, is blessed with genuinely caring people who show their best attributes during a common calamity. Frankly, many of our listeners were desperate to volunteer to help remove, shelter and feed stranded motorists, but seem to have been rebuffed by the authorities. It really is an honor to host during a time when we can actually make a difference in real-time safety.”"
 
Typical of those big, bad "authorities" always preventing radio stations from using a crisis for self-promotion and grandstanding.
 
It's Buffalo. It's what we do. Help our neighbors, that is. Grandstanding and hyping something that happened HUNDREDS of times is what some people in Buffalo radio do.

That being said, it sure seemed like some stations who had been a big part of similar efforts in the past remained with standard programming. I suspect a lot of people "phoned it in", with voice tracks loaded remotely. People who live in some areas simply couldn't get there. Others simply didn't try very hard.
 
flybynight said:
Typical of those big, bad "authorities" always preventing radio stations from using a crisis for self-promotion and grandstanding.
Click to expand...

Or, trying to prevent people from wanting to call to a certain station that might try to solve a problem that the elected officials can't, or won't.

It's not grandstanding as much as it is bringing to light what the authorities are unwilling to do.
 
I would encourage people to call a certain station if they don't have a life-threatening situation. It would keep them off the lines for people who DO have a life-threatening situation. They can also call to bitch about wanting to volunteer, but not being "allowed" to venture into an extreme weather situation because they don't have the communications capability or training required of first responders. If they really want to volunteer, they should hook up with their local Volunteer Fire Department and get some certifications. Otherwise, it's WAY too likely that you'll become another victim instead of a responder.

Perhaps it was the [an Iraq war hero] that seemed like grandstanding and hyperbole.
 
SirRoxalot said:
I would encourage people to call a certain station if they don't have a life-threatening situation.
Click to expand...

Or in this case, if they DO have a life-threatening situation.

Those that listened heard that this caller was running out of fuel and was in the vehicle with small children for over 24 hours.

SirRoxalot said:
If they really want to volunteer, they should hook up with their local Volunteer Fire Department and get some certifications. Otherwise, it's WAY too likely that you'll become another victim instead of a responder.
Click to expand...

Well......I don't necessarily disagree.......but the "authorities" requested the help (as a PR stunt?), specifically those that HAD snowmobiles, but then turned the assistance away.

The "authorities" are peeing on the people's legs and telling them it's raining, and then THEY are the ones doing an awful lot of self-promotion and grandstanding.
 
Bickering................

I lived in Orchard Park during the Blizzard of 77 and was in my twenties
at the time. We lost power, having only a wood buring fireplace to keep
warm. Our neighbors didn't have any heat at all..... We took them in.
Myself and at least a dozen others from Eagle Heights went up and down
Jewett-Holmwood Rd, Transit Rd and roads in Eagle Heights. In total
we took in more than 10 stranded motorists. They could have froze or
been overcome by carbon monoxide. I'd like to think we did some good
doing what we did... After all, Buffalo is "The City of Good Neighbors."
Please stop the bickering, it is most offensive...........
 
SirRoxalot said:
That being said, it sure seemed like some stations who had been a big part of similar efforts in the past remained with standard programming. I suspect a lot of people "phoned it in", with voice tracks loaded remotely. People who live in some areas simply couldn't get there. Others simply didn't try very hard.
Click to expand...
Some DJs have a low tolerance for snow pain, five inches stops them in their tracks. Easier to sit at home and say, "the weather's bad here." Other guys brave wind, storms, floods and snow to get the job done, professional broadcasters who rise to the occasion. Then again, the guys with low tolerance might ask, "why should I demonstrate loyalty and put myself at risk for a company that doesn't appreciate it."
 
Element9 said:
Then again, the guys with low tolerance might ask, "why should I demonstrate loyalty and put myself at risk for a company that doesn't appreciate it."
Click to expand...

Are you doing it for the company or the community? I'd suggest if you're doing it for the company, that may be the wrong reason.
 
It's become pretty obvious that David Bellavia - and others on WBEN - are doing an inordinate amount of grandstanding and political bomb-throwing. It's pretty hard to fault Poloncarz and his response to the situation. Cuomo is obviously deflecting some criticism and doing some damage control, but he's HERE, and nothing mobilizes resources like a phone call from the Boss. He's involved in the emergency response, the continuing clean-up (yeah, it's STILL not over in some areas), and he's stockpiled a lot of resources to deal with potential flooding. Has he attempted to deflect blame away from state agencies? Yes.

Interestingly, the "less government" proponents are currently the most vocal about "blaming the people caught in the storm". Well, guess what, boys - that's what "less government" is about. When you can't see out of your windshield and snow is piling up on the highway, maybe you need to consider getting off the road and going to a nice, comfy motel. We've got LOTS of them in WNY, right near the Thruway exits, in a variety of price ranges.

Why aren't the WBEN guys railing about the fact that a couple of the people who died in the storm called AAA for help, but it never arrived? They were told it was coming, but AAA apparently never notified authorities, and civilian assistance wasn't able to reach them. You bet that I'll be calling 911 if I ever find myself in that position. That's a lesson for all of us.

These remarks are based on a limited amount of listening to WBEN because I simply found more bombast than content on the air. They did do a better job than any other station sampled during the storm. Maybe it was because cable never went out, but TV owned this event. The vast majority of stations did little additional programming related to the storm. I remember when careers were made during the Blizzard of '77. NONE of that happened this time out. If anything, radio abdicated its position in an emergency situation at most stations.

Bottom line? This will be a shot in the arm for WBEN's ratings, but the high-water mark will fall considerably short of similar historic events. Radio is simply not making the effort required to remain relevant in people's lives.
 
You might ask yourself how many of these stations that remained with standard programming have an actual news department. Most PD's hate to break format for anything.

Sad to see the finger pointing going on here between WBEN, the people who want to help and public officials. I know Buffalo area residents will help each other when they can. Most of them also have common sense enough not to make a bad problem worse.
 
You don't have to have a news department to get live bodies from areas that are not under a driving ban to schlep into the station and interact with listeners. It's been done in every major storm I can remember before this one - and my memory goes back a long way. Seems like a real failure in leadership and commitment by broadcasters across the job spectrum. Dan Neaverth arguably went from "great" to "legend" because of the Blizzard of '77. Nothing of the sort happened with this storm.
 
SirRoxalot said:
Dan Neaverth arguably went from "great" to "legend" because of the Blizzard of '77. Nothing of the sort happened with this storm.
Click to expand...

That may have been pretty earth-shattering 35 years ago. But the idea of throwing a bunch of snow-bound grandmas on the air doesn't sound like compelling radio to me.
 
Most music FM stations in the country are not staffed 24/7.
They haven't been for decades.
The listener/personality connection has been eroded.

Sure, they could have made some of their people do marathon shifts, but
Most people who were in a bad way had more pressing needs than listening
To the radio.
Social media has replaced Radio for "breaking news"...
 
I guess that if they're going to act like snow-bound grandmas instead of professional broadcasters you're right. Real broadcasters have the ability to communicate with an audience, sort through the outrageous misinformation on social media, and offer both good information and companionship to those in distress. If you abdicate those responsibilities, you shouldn't wonder why people look elsewhere for entertainment and information.

Radio's worst enemy is bad radio.
 
SirRoxalot said:
If you abdicate those responsibilities, you shouldn't wonder why people look elsewhere for entertainment and information.
Click to expand...

So you're saying they go to Twitter and Facebook to look for responsible information?

Consider what happens here on a message board: Two people exchanging information without benefit of some responsible broadcaster. Obviously, that's attracted you to this forum. Not having some responsible broadcaster with a big voice telling you to stay home and be safe.

But I guess if WBEN hired a bunch of responsible broadcasters, everyone in Buffalo would realize how great AM radio is, and sell their TVs, trash their computers, and throw away their phones. Who needs them when you have such responsible information from highly paid people? And we will all return to 1977, when everything was great.
 
People who had the opportunity went to TV for responsible information. All but a few people were house-bound, and we were fortunate that the vast majority had power during this storm. The local TV stations went wall-to-wall, supplanting radio as the primary source of "official" information. WBFO did a fine job of carrying the press conferences and closing information amid regular programming. PPM would indeed have been kind to WBEN, but he limited duration of the event, and their pandering to an extreme audience left them with less impact than they could have had.

My point is that several legacy stations who had done very well under similar circumstances in the past completely dropped the ball. Their content offered little real information, virtually telling people to go elsewhere if they wanted to know what was going on. This is VERY different from past events.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you'd interpret what I said as "saying they go to Twitter and Facebook to look for responsible information?". I don't know if you're that dense, that out of touch with the market, or think you're clever. And, I don't much care. Anybody who was here - or has any number of social media friends here - would know the answer to that. There were some very credible people posting, and more that a few morons. Pretty much like here.
 
SirRoxalot said:
Their content offered little real information, virtually telling people to go elsewhere if they wanted to know what was going on. This is VERY different from past events.
Click to expand...

But that's the responsible thing to do. Going wall to wall on the radio, repeating the same general information over and over, telling people to "stay indoors," or similar warnings is useless information. School and business closings are more efficiently delivered in other, more direct ways. Technology has provided many more ways to get more specialized information to the public. And for the general public, the reality is they're going to do whatever they want regardless of what you tell them.

Doing the responsible thing isn't always what the audience wants. If you read the TV board here, you'll see a lot of people complaining about having their favorite show pre-empted by breaking news stories. Sure it may seem like the responsible thing to do. But one thing driving people away from traditional media is this feeling that we have to do the responsible thing. So what you think of as an attraction is to many others a tune-out. That's the world we live in. So yes, in the world of 1977, when you only have one source of information, the responsible thing to do is pre-empt. Today, when people have lots of choices, and prefer to do what THEY want, rather than do what YOU want, you give them the choice of being responsible or not.
 
Radio is bad on many levels. Rox blames poor leadership.
Banal formats, inane jock banter, blowhard talk hosts,
and endless clutter have helped its demise.

A music format can only do so much in a weather disaster.
It has to be staffed and providing useful information.
If not, it may as well roll music.

When John Lennon was killed and Jerry Garcia died,
Quality rock stations around the country connected with listeners in a real way.
Radio has lost that. Times change.
Technology also allows people unlimited options.
If Radio sucks, they can go elsewhere..
 
tbolt909 said:
When John Lennon was killed and Jerry Garcia died,
Quality rock stations around the country connected with listeners in a real way.
Radio has lost that.
Click to expand...

When Michael Jackson died, pop radio stations immediately went to all-Michael. It's still being done.

All but a couple of the music stations are locally staffed. Staffing isn't the issue.
 
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