This morning, 8/23/23 9:30 to 10am edt the Glenn Beck show had an interesting guest interview with a fellow who was reporting what had and is happening with the fires on Maui. Much of the time was taken up with the guest describing how all cell service was destroyed due to the fires. The guest and Glenn decried the fact that there was no warning. Of course we have all heard how the sirens weren't sounded and with the loss of the cells no warnings arrived via phones. What was totally missing on the program was any mention what-so-ever of the Emergency Alert System or coverage by the radio stations on the island after the fire! I have read that all the station's there survived save one translator. So what's the deal here? Glenn is ON THE RADIO himself does he not know about EAS? Certainly everyone in the country has at least heard the annoying alert tones. I feel the failure to tell the whole story was an affront to those people and stations that have worked so hard to maintain the EAS systems. In my part of the country much time and effort has been donated to see that EAS keeps people informed.
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Did they use the EAS at Maui ?
- Thread starter Radio Bob
- Start date
By all accounts, EAS was activated but power was already out so very few people heard those alerts. That's why the failure to sound the emergency sirens is so tragic.
I don't buy the explanation that the sirens weren't sounded so that people would not flee inland. If you have seen the photos, it's obvious that the fire would have been clearly visible to anyone being alerted in the danger zone. Rational people would not have run toward it.
I don't buy the explanation that the sirens weren't sounded so that people would not flee inland. If you have seen the photos, it's obvious that the fire would have been clearly visible to anyone being alerted in the danger zone. Rational people would not have run toward it.
Ha! Typical talent. They only see their own square foot of the world. It's been a long time since he was actually at a radio station.
The witnesses I've heard talked about the fires hitting Lahaina at 2-3AM, and they were all asleep. Prior to that, the fires were in less populated areas. But the on-shore wind drove the fires into Lahaina. Apparently that windstorm wasn't in the forecast. One witness says he was awakened by the smell of smoke. That was his only warning.
It is interesting that no mention what-so-ever was made of radio . Even if you were asleep when the fire hit there is important information to be aware of after the fire that I'm sure the stations there are providing yet the guy he interviewed framed it as nobody got any emergency information for days.
There are several other threads on this subject. In one of them, local emergency officials say they contacted radio stations, although they didn't mention EAS. In another, there's an interview with a radio station on the island and they say they've been broadcasting information about the disaster:
Radio and Maui: A Failure To Communicate?
Radio has taken its knocks this past few years, but there's no denying the medium shines extra brightly during disasters. When those cell towers go down and the power goes out, radio is there. But what happens when communications break down during emergencies, and radio finds itself without the...
jacobsmedia.com
My sense is that because media usage is so splintered, people only know what they use. If they don't use radio, then they don't know it exists or what it does. Here's a story from Inside Radio:
Media Journalist On Vacation In Maui: ‘Listening To Radio Was How We Knew What's Going On.’
With the power out and cell phone service down, broadcast radio stepped up to fill the need for essential lifesaving information during wildfires that left a trail of death and
The radio trades linked above serve the executives in the radio industry. Of course they are going to put the most positive spin on how well radio did.
However in regular media, there were reports that the radio stations were getting little-to-no information from government authorities in the days following the disaster, that they were reaching out to residents for information they could pass along because that's all they had.
Of course now the information is flowing and the radio groups are all promoting their relief efforts, but then again, so is everyone else.
However in regular media, there were reports that the radio stations were getting little-to-no information from government authorities in the days following the disaster, that they were reaching out to residents for information they could pass along because that's all they had.
Of course now the information is flowing and the radio groups are all promoting their relief efforts, but then again, so is everyone else.
This is a radio discussion board and the OP was asking about people talking about radio coverage. Let's face it: Everyone has their own self interest. The newspapers or TV stations or bloggers are not going to report what a great job radio did. That's just never going to happen. Nobody will promote radio except radio. That's just how it is. If it seems biased, so be it.
My original point was Beck and the guest worked hard to portray the idea that for days after the fire nobody could get any information. That is Ludacris . Certainly there were cars and trucks from outside the fire area that came in after the blaze ended. I haven't seen many that don't have radios in them. The interview portrayed the people as running around with no information and no one used a radio to get some. Of course the bottom line they were portraying was the government had failed the people. I just resent that mention of radio was sacrificed to make the party line sound plausible.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau slams Facebook for blocking Canada wildfire news
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Facebook of putting profits over people’s safety during Canada’s wildfire emergencies.
apnews.com
We can say the same things again and again for other places where OES send their notifications through. In fact it's not just radio like in the case of the Maui wildfire response but also this we can say Social Media for the same reasons.
Wrong thread to elaborate on this, but the social media debacle in Canada has nothing to do with radio or the situation in Maui. In a nutshell, here is what is happening:
We do not currently face the same situation in the U.S. But Meta understands that if it relents in Canada, the floodgates will quickly open in the U.S., and around the world, for "news" organizations to demand the same treatment.
- The Canadian government, already known for over-regulating media, passed a law requiring Meta and Google to pay "news" media companies any time they, or anyone on their social media sites, posts a link to a news article.
- To the shock of the Canadian government and news organizations seeking a payday from free-linking, Meta and Google respond by stating they will block all news links on their sites in Canada.
- News organizations freak out after Meta follows though, causing their traffic to totally collapse
- In the latest round of this circular logic, news orgs now want the government to force Google and Meta to publish news links, which of course means they would have to pay every time they do so.
- This brings us to the kind of rhetoric linked above, where the Canadian Prime Minister tries to turn this into something about "safety".
We do not currently face the same situation in the U.S. But Meta understands that if it relents in Canada, the floodgates will quickly open in the U.S., and around the world, for "news" organizations to demand the same treatment.
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Rather than take the word of some clueless 'ass-clown' like Glenn Beck; take a few minutes and listen to this interview of an actual survivor of the fires. After you listen, tell me there was time and interest in turning on the radio in the hope that it would be of assistance:
How a Paradise Became a Death Trap
Thanks for the link. Yes I listened to it. I think my point was missed. Beck's interview was focusing on the fact that there was no warning before the storm. I agree with that and the interview backs that up . My quarrel is with a national talk show devoting a long interview in which it was inferred that for days AFTER the fire no one was able to get any information when the truth is all but one radio station remained on the air and gave out information like where to go to get help, details of the fire etc AFTER the fire . The interview gave the impression people ran around totally out of touch for days AFTER THE FIRE when I'm sure cars and trucks that entered the burned area for days AFTER THE FIRE had radios that people could and did use to get info.
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Let's assume that few to none of the survivors of Lahaina escaped with their personal radio.
So now we're relying on catching a newscast from an aid worker or fireman in their work truck? Doesn't seem like a very efficient way to reach a large audience.
It seems like people who aren't familiar with a unique culture and environment like island life, are quick to assume and compare things including advance warnings, with major metropolitan areas in the lower 48. Other than a major city like Oahu, towns like Lahaini are pretty common across the islands, including their volunteer fire departments. Grass fires are also common, many times caused by a tourist throwing a cigarette but out the window of their rental car. And just like common grass fires, most are fairly easily knocked-down and controlled fairly quickly. What the EMS folks didn't realize, was unusually high winds from a hurricane well away from the islands was causing embers to be carried long distances, landing on roofs of buildings. All this, combined with a climate change spurred heat wave, and the EMS services were caught completely off guard.
Honestly, I'm not sure how sirens nor radio could have warned the residents of Lahaini that the so unusual combination which created this incident far enough in advance. Then you add-in the loss of hydrant water when firefighters discovered failed plumbing of burning buildings caused loss of water pressure, and there's another thing that couldn't have been anticipated.
Again being on an island, means there is a travel delay in federal and state investigators arriving. Letting concerned citizens, family, or press into a devastated area before investigators and rescue workers would be like letting them into a crime scene. Evidence would be disturbed, bodies would be found by family and the curious. A terrible situation would be multiplied by hundreds if the public weren't kept at bay until experts could arrive.
Again, my post was about the talk show trying to give the impression that NO source of information existed when in fact it was available if you looked for it not how hard it might be to find. The talk show spent time discussing lack of cell phone and internet to create a story in which people were ignored for days and that's simply not true they had a source, radio, if they looked for it. the thing is a lot of people work very hard at no compensation to make their stations available when disaster strikes so they can deliver emergency information and to completely ignore this on a national talk show is a slap in the face of those who donate their time and effort to do what radio does best.
When the world around you is on fire, you run for your life with your clothes on your back. Normal folks aren't thinking about taking a stupid radio.
Is this the first time you listened to Beck? He does lots of interviews where the guests are ignorant of the facts.
Beck has a vested interest in making President Biden and the entire administration look as bad as possible, even if it involves outright lying.
Information that the people in need cannot access might as well not exist. Mark me down as a firm disagree on your point.
And that as has been reported, was a frustration as it relates to radio and information in general. Emergency services and the local County officials weren't passing along anything to the local media who were waiting for something to pass along. That included TV or radio. It's almost like emergency management officials weren't clear about what happened or where things stood, so they just didn't say anything. At the end of the day, it wasn't that the local radio stations weren't prepared to relay information for public use, it's that nobody was passing any such information along. At that point, nobody wants to make things up at the risk of putting people in further danger just to have something on the air. To the survivors of the event, radio was the last thing on their minds.