Eric Klinenberg is not a broadcaster. He's a sociologist. He knows very little about broadcasting.
Eric & I have debated this subject before during his book tour. I brought up that the train should not have been traveling through a populated area carrying hazardous materials without first informing emergency officials. The train should have had a police escort. That's what the law says. That fact was also brought up in Congressional hearings on the subject. Basically, they were trying to sneak hazmat through a populated area in the middle of the night, and it backfired. That was not a broadcasting problem. That was a government problem.
In point of fact, the radio station had its news director on the scene within an hour, broadcasting the story. Radio was first to report this story. The local TV station didn't have any staff until the morning. If this really had been the problem Klinenberg says it was, the station would have been fined by the FCC. It wasn't. Nobody has pushed this myth since the Congressional hearings many years ago. The stations have been for sale for about ten years, at any price, and nobody wants to buy them. So they're still owned by iHeart.
