While WAEB deserves some kudos for simulcasting WFMZ-TV during their usual 6 / 7 / 10 PM newscasts, they (and other LV stations) ultimately failed in serving the audience during the height of the storm and its immediate aftermath, in my opinion.
Once we lost power Monday evening, all we had available to us were battery-operated radios. AT&T's cell network lost data connectivity.
WFMZ was essentially wall-to-wall coverage until the moment we lost power (830 PM); we grabbed the radio and found WAEB was airing their usual right-of-center talk format...they did not simulcast WFMZ-TV's extended coverage.
That was a real turnoff for me.
We just got our power back this afternoon (Sunday), and for those 5 days, radio was our lifeline to the outside world much of the time.
My 15-year-old-daughter quickly tired of the Lehigh Valley's music stations and latched onto the spoken-word public radio stations available in the valley, as being more entertaining - and informative - than commercial radio. Up till then she has never listened to radio except when in the car.
Even if every Lehigh Valley commercial radio station would have simulcasted WFMZ-TV, would that have been a bad thing during the worst of the storm and its immediate aftermath?
Hopefully LV radio stations will learn from this lost opportunity and establish contingency simulcast contracts now...before the next storm...
Richard in Allentown
Once we lost power Monday evening, all we had available to us were battery-operated radios. AT&T's cell network lost data connectivity.
WFMZ was essentially wall-to-wall coverage until the moment we lost power (830 PM); we grabbed the radio and found WAEB was airing their usual right-of-center talk format...they did not simulcast WFMZ-TV's extended coverage.
That was a real turnoff for me.
We just got our power back this afternoon (Sunday), and for those 5 days, radio was our lifeline to the outside world much of the time.
My 15-year-old-daughter quickly tired of the Lehigh Valley's music stations and latched onto the spoken-word public radio stations available in the valley, as being more entertaining - and informative - than commercial radio. Up till then she has never listened to radio except when in the car.
Even if every Lehigh Valley commercial radio station would have simulcasted WFMZ-TV, would that have been a bad thing during the worst of the storm and its immediate aftermath?
Hopefully LV radio stations will learn from this lost opportunity and establish contingency simulcast contracts now...before the next storm...
Richard in Allentown