BELLEVUE, Wash.—T–Mobile has announced a "Rally for Relief" effort to help those impacted by recent hurricanes. As part of the campaign, the cellphone carrier said it would donate $25,000 for every home run hit during the World Series and that it would also send $10 to relief efforts when anyone texts ‘RALLY’ to 90999, for a total of up to $1 million.

In partnership with the American Red Cross, Rally for Relief will support communities affected by hurricanes and tropical storms in 2024, including hurricanes Helene and Milton.

“Since hurricanes Helene and Milton made landfall, T-Mobile’s Emergency Response teams have been on the ground helping restore connectivity and assist impacted communities,” Mike Katz, president of marketing, strategy and products, T-Mobile, said. “Now, as those communities are working through the challenging process of rebuilding, we remain by their side, extending our support and enabling baseball fans to join us through Rally for Relief. We’re using one of baseball’s biggest stages to bring attention to these impacted areas and make a difference for the communities that need it most.”

Also Read: Fox Sports Aims To Enhance World Series Coverage With ‘Inside-Out’ Perspective

Donations raised as part of Rally for Relief will enable the Red Cross to help those affected by hurricanes and tropical storms in 2024.

The commitment follows T-Mobile's previous efforts during MLB’s Postseason and its longstanding support of hurricane recovery and restoration efforts, it said.

Since first introducing Home Runs for Hurricane Recovery in 2017, T-Mobile said it has donated over $7.5 million to organizations supporting hurricane and natural disaster relief and recovery efforts. T-Mobile’s efforts have supported the rebuilding of over 30 homes in Florida following Hurricane Irma in 2017 and the building of more than 500 hurricane-resilient roofs in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. The carrier also partnered with the Red Cross to provide connectivity support to over 200 evacuation centers in Florida ahead of Hurricane Ian in 2022.

(This year’s World Series, which starts Oct. 25, could see a lot of home runs. It will feature Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees, baseball’s top home-run hitter in 2024 with 58, facing off against No. 2 slugger Shohei Ohtani, with 54 home runs, and his Los Angeles Dodgers.)

As a part of the Rally for Relief donation commitment and campaign, T-Mobile also teamed up with nine-time Grammy Award-winning musician Sheryl Crow to record a new track titled “Light a Candle,” penned by Kobalt Music/Little Louder publishing writer Luke Dick and co-writer and songwriter Ronan O’Mahony. The track will be featured in a new TV spot debuting during Game 1 of the World Series. Crow’s proceeds from the song will be donated to the American Red Cross.

“In the wake of these historic storms, countless individuals have faced life-altering devastation to their homes, their towns and to their everyday lives,” Crow said in a statement. “I'm thankful for the opportunity to lend my voice to the relief efforts in partnership with T-Mobile and give these folks who are truly in need a helping hand. I hope that anyone who hears this song will be inspired to participate and contribute to the cause by donating.”

T-Mobile is launching its Rally for Relief campaign as a partner of Major League Baseball, adding to the nearly $4 million contributed by MLB and its clubs to date.

Also Read: Cox Media Group Provides Nearly $1 Million for Hurricane Relief

As part of its relief efforts, T-Mobile said it sent more than 600 emergency crew members, field engineers and technicians to areas impacted by Helene and Milton. The company’s Network Team deployed and maintained over 800 generators — alongside other temporary connectivity solutions — to rapidly restore coverage to affected sites.

In addition, T-Mobile's Emergency Response Team operated Wi-Fi trailers and trucks, a Mobile Command Center, charging stations and distributed supplies like charging cords and more. Key team members also collaborated with federal, state and local officials, working with emergency management officials and in-state operations centers to ensure prioritization of key recovery areas. More on T-Mobile’s ongoing response is available at: https://www.t-mobile.com/news/emergency-response.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa.—AccuWeather has added the new AccuWeather Hurricane Tracker to the AccuWeather App for iOS and Android and to accuweather.com. 

"We are expecting a more active than normal hurricane season in 2021, and the AccuWeather Hurricane Tracker will give our users who want to be 'in the know' a significant advantage when preparing for and staying apprised of a storm's track, whether that storm has already made an impact or is nearing landfall," said AccuWeather's lead hurricane forecaster Dan Kottlowski.

The new feature is easily accessible from multiple entry points throughout the app, the company said, and provides users with a rich visualization of the progress of a storm, bringing a user along the interactive eye path up the coast, heading inland or going out to sea.

Start and end times will also appear below the AccuWeather Forecast Eye Path map where users can scroll down to find vital descriptive forecasted impact details for the location such as peak winds, total rainfall, rainfall amount probability graphs, hourly wind and rainfall charts and impact maps. 

AccuWeather Chief Product Officer Kurt Fulepp noted that “following the unusually active and highly destructive 2020 hurricane season, we sought to develop the most comprehensive and intuitive hurricane tracker on the market by focusing on the most hyperlocal, most detailed and most accurate information, with a highly accessible, user-friendly and sophisticated design.”

AccuWeather is forecasting that the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season will result in 16-20 named storms, including seven to 10 hurricanes. Of those expected to reach hurricane strength, three to five are predicted to become major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher with maximum sustained winds of 111mph or greater).

WASHINGTON—FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has answered a question that broadcasters likely had on their mind. Unfortunately, the answer is "no."

On Tuesday, Pai had "proposed to direct $954 million toward restoring and expanding communications networks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands" in the aftermath of the 2017 hurricane season. The initiatives are dubbed the "Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund" (Bringing Puerto Rico Together Fund) and "Connect USVI Fund Would Improve Connectivity for Residents "

[FCC Funding Network Rebuilds in Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands]

The chairman's trip to Puerto Rico and the proposal were not entirely well received. One particularly critical article came from the Register: "April Fool: FCC finally bothers with Puerto Rico as chairman visits." Yikes.

On Thursday, Pai tweeted a photo of a San Juan sunrise with a seemingly innocuous caption detailing his itinerary — and got more than he bargained for.

Things got interesting when Juan Carlos Pedreira — a tech reporter for Univision in Miami who also has a J.D. — tweeted a question in reply:

Pai answered:

The internet, apparently, was not pleased by this response. A flurry of GIFs, sarcastic comments and other, more aggressive, replies followed.

This was not Pai's first foray into the world of controversy. The chairman is active on social media, and Twitter has been a favorite platform for citizens to air their grievances over Pai's position on Net Neutrality and other issues.

This story originally appeared on TVT's sister publication Radio World.

MIAMI--Broadcasters in Florida and throughout the southeast are bracing for Hurricane Irma, as the monster hurricane takes aim on the Florida Keys and Miami with an expected arrival Saturday night as a Category 4 storm.

“We are prepared as we possibly can be,” says John Heislman, GM at WFLX, the Raycom Media-owned Fox affiliate in West Palm Beach, Fla. “The infrastructure is there. Fuel, technology and fuel delivery provisions are locked into place.”

Heislman is no newcomer to hurricane preparation. Following Hurricane Wilma, the Category 5 storm in October 2005, hurricane prep is a process the station has chosen to begin every year in April, he says. “Nothing is left to chance,” he says. “We used to wait till a watch was issued and then check out the transmitter site and fuel level. What we learned from Wilma is there is no such thing as a surprise. Assume you are going to have a hurricane every year.”

LESSONS LEARNED FOM ANDREW

Pat Roberts, president and CEO of the Florida Association of Broadcasters, says that although it’s been about 20 years since the state has experienced a crippling storm, local television and radio stations fully understand the important service they provide the public during events like Hurricane Irma. “People start watching network television five or six days out from the event,” says Roberts. “But the last three or four days, they rely on their local stations.”

Since Hurricane Andrew in August 1992, television and radio stations have created informal partnerships to keep the public informed during hurricanes, says Roberts. “During hurricanes people often lose power so they will rely on their radios. Television stations generally have bigger newsrooms than radio stations, so they will provide reports to those stations to relay to the public.” For example, Heislman says his station will be providing ESPN Radio with a simulcast. 

Media cross pollination to reach Florida residents with storm-related warnings extends beyond these types of informal partnerships, however. The Florida Public Radio Emergency Network, a collaboration of 13 public radio stations provides information to member stations during statewide emergencies like Hurricane Irma. The network is equipped to stay on air during hurricanes and other disasters and provide live coverage from the governor’s emergency operations center in Tallahassee via broadcast and free iPhone and Android mobile apps.

According to Randy Wright, executive director, Division of Media Properties at the University of Florida, tens of thousands of Floridians have downloaded the apps to access storm tracking, evacuation routes, emergency shelter locations and other information.

FCC ACTIONS

The Federal government is also taking steps to assist. The hurricane has prompted the FCC to activate its Disaster Information Reporting System, which broadcasters and other communications providers can use to report the status of their infrastructure. Details are available via a special FCC Hurricane Irma web page with links to the DIRS web page and other resources that may be helpful to broadcasters.

For station group behemoths like Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar Media Group, Hurricane Irma will likely threaten multiple stations as it makes it track northward. “We are in full Irma proactive mode,” says Blake Russell, senior vice president of station operations at Nexstar. We start as far south as Tampa [WFLA and WTTA] and extend northward through Savannah, Ga., [WSAV]; Charleston, S.C., [WCBD]; Myrtle Beach, S.C., [WBTW]; and Greenville, S.C., [WSPA and WYCW].”

The Tampa stations reside in a multistory building right on the water. “We have not owned them in times of flooding, but the entire tech core is built on the second floor,” says Russell. In the event of a storm surge swamping the studios on the first floor, on-air operations can move to the second floor without interruption, he adds.

Nexstar has been conducting morning calls with every station likely to be affected by Hurricane Irma, addressing personnel and equipment requirements and staging personnel and resources, says Russell. “We are making sure everyone has the telephone numbers for tower crews, tower companies and being as proactive as possible,” he says.

PROACTIVE PREPARATIONS

Sinclair Broadcast Group faces similar challenges with multiple stations in the projected path of Hurricane Irma, says Del Parks, Sinclair SVP and CTO. Its southernmost station exposed to the hurricane is WPEC in West Palm Beach. To the north, WTGS in Savanah, Ga., WCIV in Charleston, S.C., and WPDE and WWMB in Myrtle Beach, S.C., are in the storm’s expected path, he says.

“A hurricane is not a new phenomenon,” says Parks. “All of those stations along the coast have hurricane plans in place and are proactive in their preparations. Now it is a matter of monitoring the situation.”

For example, WPEC has provisioned for hurricanes with food, water, cots and other “necessary life support systems” for its personnel who will ride out the hurricane and its aftermath at the station. Additionally, “parts of the building” are capable of withstanding hurricane force winds, says Parks. “They actually have hurricane drills that they practice,” he adds. At a group level, Sinclair has “go teams” that can quickly be sent to stations impacted by Irma or other hurricanes to enhance coverage, provide support and assist as necessary, he says. 

Sinclair station personnel who live and work in areas typically affected by hurricanes “know how to gauge things,” says Parks. “They are a dedicated bunch of people, especially in news. Everybody wants to stay on air and deliver life and safety information to the public. “In many ways they are like first responders because they choose to stay and do their jobs,” he says.

Russell echoes Parks’ observation. “It is at times like these that all hands are on deck, working 12 hours on and 12 hours off. This is who we are,” he says. “We are supposed to be the voice local communities. Like emergency responders we are running into the danger. We have to stay in the mix.”