COWS and COLTS and Goats, oh my! No Dorothy, this isn’t Oz. It’s the Carolinas and Georgia as Hurricane Florence bore down on its way to landfall.

An interesting article by Angela Moscaritolo in PC Magazine online, “How Mobile Carriers Are Responding to Hurricane Florence,” described the steps carriers like Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile were taking to prepare for the aftermath of the hurricane.

She wrote: “…Verizon said it’s readying a fleet of mobile equipment—including Cells on Wheels (COWS), Cells on Light Trucks (COLTS), and generators on a trailer (Goats)—which can be rolled into hard-hit areas in need of extra network capacity.” The other carriers were taking similar steps, the article said.

According to the FCC report on outages as of this writing (Sept. 18), 4.1 percent of cell sites in affected counties in Georgia, Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina were out of service. That’s down from 10.7 percent on Sept. 15, which is impressive. However, 30 or more percent remained down as of Sept. 18 in North Carolina’s Columbus, Onslow and Pender counties.

No doubt COWS, COLTS and Goats were being used to breach the gap in coverage.

But what will happen in a 5G world where massive MIMO antennas are deployed throughout the nation affixed to telephone poles and other structures numbering in the hundreds of thousands or more?

Even though the damage wrought on the cell sites in the areas affected by Florence was minimal compared to other storms, such as Super Storm Sandy, 670,000 people in North Carolina and 59,000 in South Carolina were left in the dark according to a Newsweek story citing Duke Energy as of Sept. 16. It’s hard to imagine how COWS, COLTS and Goats could possibly help in a 5G world with so many antennas.

Of course, there will be no magic switch thrown that abruptly changes over cell infrastructure and consumer phones from 4G to 5G. A transition will take place during which a power outage created by a calamity may take down large swaths of 5G antennas, but 4G service and dual radio phones will remain.

But what about that time beyond the transition when 4G service has all but evaporated?

Fortunately for the public, broadcasters will remain on the air distributing critical lifesaving information during emergencies. According to the FCC damage report, 42 of 45 TV stations reporting remained on the air in the wake of the storm. Nearly one million more residents in the Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh areas tuned into local newscasts on broadcast TV stations the week of the storm than the previous week as Hurricane Florence approached the East Coast and made landfall in the Carolinas, according to data from ratings measurement service Nielsen.

Imagine how much better stations could serve the public during future hurricanes and other dangers if cell phones were equipped with ATSC 3.0 receivers that fully support enhanced warnings delivered via AWARN.

One can only hope that wireless companies and broadcasters put aside turf wars for the sake of public safety, or in the absence of magnanimity, that regulators take the needed steps to enhance emergency communications nationwide by one day mandating 3.0 receivers in wireless handsets.

NEW BERN, N.C. –Hurricane Florence may have flooded the studios of WCTI, the Sinclair Broadcast Group-owned ABC affiliate in New Bern, N.C., and knocked local power out, but that didn’t keep the station from restoring service to its viewers within a day and a half.

“We were forced to evacuate at WCTI at 8 o’clock on that Thursday night [Sept. 13],” recalls Sinclair SVP of News Scott Livingston. “Then we switched into our Myrtle Beach feed…. Then we went dark due to the storm.”

However, before the station went dark, viewers were advised to continue tracking the storm on the WCTI website and social media pages. Traffic to the destinations spiked when the station went off air, says Livingston.

Broadcasters throughout the Carolinas, eastern Georgia and Virginia began preparing a week or more before what was once a Category 4 hurricane made landfall. For Sinclair, preparations included prepositioning satellite trucks at the transmitter sites of its stations threatened by Hurricane Florence.

In the case of WCTI, Sinclair dispatched a satellite truck from WPEC, its CBS affiliate in West Palm Beach, Fla., along with a satellite truck operator, operations personnel and a group news director, to the station’s transmitter site –a precautionary step to restore television if the studio was affected, he says.

By time the intensity of the storm had subsided in New Bern and power was restored on Sept. 15, the WPEC crew was making final preparations to resume over-the-air coverage to New Bern viewers with the help of Sinclair’s Hurricane Florence mothership at WJLA in Washington, D.C., its digital desk and sister stations around the region, says Livingston.

“The [the crew from WPEC] made it out to the truck around 10:30 [a.m.] on Saturday morning,” he says. “They put the dish up, and we were transmitting around 11:45 [a.m.] and then went wall-to-wall till 6 o’clock.”

As WJLA was wrapping up 30 hours of continuous coverage of the storm, which the station streamed and made available as a backup to Sinclair stations affected by the storm, it began producing coverage for viewers in New Bern. That special feed was beamed from D.C. to the WPEC satellite truck in New Bern and broadcast by WCTI.

“We had a triple box,” says Livingston. “The big box had reports from the field crews of WCIV [contributed via SNG feeds to D.C. from two other Sinclair satellite trucks]. We had radar in another of the boxes, and in the third box live pictures from sister stations and other sources because on Saturday the storm was still impacting South Carolina.”

While Livingston describes the triple box as “fairly simple television,” he says the important thing was that WCTI “was where it was happening—at the intersection of news, literally.”

WJLA remotely produced New Bern newscasts all day on Saturday, Sept. 15, as well WCTI’s evening newscast the next day, its morning show on Sept. 17 and newscasts throughout the week.

Since late last week, WCTI’s newsroom has begun operating out of a trailer Sinclair sent to the station, says Livingston. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, the station’s newsroom took up temporary residence at a local community college.

Hurricane Florence flooded WCTI’s studios with six to eight inches of water, requiring carpet to be ripped out, and sheet rock and damaged equipment to be replaced.

While the station sustained damage, there was no loss of life or injury to station personnel, a silver lining for which everyone involved with Sinclair is grateful, he says.

Although it’s never desirable to get hit directly by a storm like Hurricane Florence, the event gave the station’s news department and Sinclair the opportunity to prove its mettle.

“It was certainly a defining moment for the station and a defining moment for our news organization to be able to pull off what we did,” says Livingston. “I couldn’t be prouder.

The Wheatstone factory in New Bern, N.C., officially reopened Wednesday, a few days after Hurricane Florence tore through the region.

“The factory is open, and our building and its contents weathered the storm completely unscathed,” Wheatstone Systems Engineer/Webmaster Scott Johnson reported via email. “As far as we can tell, the building never even lost power.”

He explained, “Our building is a high, reinforced concrete structure with a relatively new, well-maintained roof. it sits on a reinforced concrete foundation. Our power comes via an underground, redundant ‘loop feed’ to a padmount transformer, and that feed has been pretty rugged. Our Internet connectivity, which is via dark fiber to a communications nexus nearby, is also fully operational.”

[Read: Industry Groups Stations Prep for Storm]

Johnson estimates that 60% of the manufacturer’s staff also returned to work, with more expected to return Thursday. Some of the areas surrounding the factory are still experiencing flooding, and the rivers near New Bern are predicted to actually crest in the coming days, so some closed roads may continue to present problems. Additionally, some employees evacuated ahead of the storm but have been unable to return due to the closures.

Although the factory fared well, many in New Bern were not so lucky. The city and surrounding Craven County are still operating under emergency declarations, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Red Cross are on site helping those affected by the storm and its aftermath.

New Bern, After Hurricane Florence

Scott Johnson shares photos illustrating some of the damage the storm caused

Several Wheatstone employees have reported damage to their property — at least one house and one roof were lost to Hurricane Florence. Many others, including Johnson, were without power for days.

Johnson wrote Wednesday, “Most of the folks here have ridden out at least one hurricane since they’ve been here, and the message I’ve gotten from each of them is the same: They have neverseen anything like this.”

In an earlier email to RW Editor in Chief Paul McLane, Johnson wrote, “We’re reeling here, but it’s a strong, resilient town, and we’ve got a great, can-do group of Wheaties. We’ll bounce back.”

HIGH POINT, NC -– FOX8/WGHP, Tribune Broadcasting’s High Point, North Carolina station raised $122,563 after a 13-hour, in-studio telethon, Wednesday, Sept. 19 to aid victims impacted by Hurricane Florence.

Salvation Army volunteers, FOX8 staff members and numerous community leaders staffed the telethon, and the station asked its more than 775,000 Facebook fans to spread the message on social media.

[READ: FOX8/WGHP To Host Telethon For Hurricane Florence Victims]

All money pledged via the phone bank will be processed through the Salvation Army’s national headquarters and 100 percent of the funds raised will be used to deliver aid.

“$122,000 is an incredible sum of money, and truly speaks to the unmatched generosity of the people of the Triad. But make no mistake, this will be a long term recovery effort. I encourage everyone to visit salvationarmycarolinas.org to do what they can to help,” said FOX8/WGHP General Manager, Jim Himes.

WASHINGTON-- The latest FCC status report on the impact of Hurricane Florence on communications infrastructure and services in the four states affected by the storm shows three TV stations being knocked off air and some 315,000 cable TV and wireline customers being without service.

The Sept. 18 edition of the report, “Communications Status Report for Areas Impacted by Hurricane Florence,” detailing outages in Georgia, North and South Carolina and Virginia, reveals that three TV stations are dark. They are WHFL-CD, a religious Class A low-power station in Goldsboro, N.C.; WTNG-CD, the Dilicast Broadcast Service-owned multicaster in Lumberton-Pembroke, N.C.; and WYDO the Cunningham-owned, Sinclair-operated Fox affiliate licensed to Greenville-Washington-New Bern-Jacksonville, N.C.

Forty-two TV stations in the area affected by the storm report being operational as of Sept. 18, the report says.

Cable TV system and wireline customers in the region also have taken a hit in North and South Carolina with 285,725 and 30,053 losing service, respectively, it says. These outages may include TV, internet and/or telephone service.

Further, it states 22 FM stations are reporting being out of service, and four FM stations reported being down but sending programming to another station. Four AM radio stations in the area reported being out of service.

The report also details 911 and cell phone site outages in the affected areas. As of Sept. 18, 4.1 percent of cell sites were out of service. There were no outages in Virginia and only 0.1 percent of sites out in Georgia. South Carolina cell site outages are low as well, with 0.5 percent reported being down.

However, in North Carolina 8 percent of cell sites are out with the counties of Columbus, Onslow and Pender reporting more than 30 percent of sites being down.

Concerning 911 service, the report shows two Public Safety Answering Points (PSAP) in North Carolina and one in South Carolina have rerouted calls to another PSAP in the wake of the storm.

A report on the status of communications infrastructure in the affected area for Sept. 19 is expected to be released today.

More information is available on the FCC website.

WASHINGTON—The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the FCC have postponed the nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system until Oct. 3 because of current efforts to respond to Hurricane Florence.

The WEA test is now scheduled to begin at 2:18 p.m. EDT, and the EAS test to begin at 2:20 p.m. EDT.

Originally, the nationwide test, which assesses the readiness of the infrastructure to distribute a nationwide message and to find areas needing improvement, was scheduled for Sept. 20.

The nationwide test will be the fourth for EAS and the first for WEA. Broadcast EAS participants, including radio, TV, cable TV, satellite TV and radio and wireline video providers, will receive and rebroadcast the test message, which lasts about one minute, FEMA said.

Cell towers will transmit the WEA test for about 30 minutes. WEA-compatible cell phones in range of a tower of a WEA participating provider will switch on and receive the WEA test message, FEMA said.

More information is available on the FEMA website.

HIGH POINT, NC--As the southeast region, and in particular the coastal communities of North Carolina and South Carolina begin the long road to recovery from the devastating effects of hurricane Florence, Tribune Broadcasting’s FOX8/WGHP, will hold an in-studio telethon Wednesday, Sept. 19, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., to aid in the recovery effort.

All money pledged during the 13-hour phone bank will be processed by the Salvation Army’s national headquarters and distributed to the areas of greatest need.

“We are in a time of dire need, and the people of North Carolina need to come together as one. Now, more than ever, our neighbors need our help.” said FOX8/WGHP General Manager, Jim Himes.

The 13-hour in-studio telethon will be staffed by Salvation Army volunteers, FOX8 staff members, and various community leaders. FOX8 will also use the power of its nearly 800,000 Facebook fans to spread the message on social media, and will link directly to the Salvation Army’s donation page on its own website, www.myfox8.com. 

VIRGINIA BEACH--Studio Center in Virginia Beach has offered free audio and video production to any government agency, education institution, organization or company on the Southeastern seaboard of the U.S. looking to relay a message about Hurricane Florence related aftermath and cleanup measures.

“All of us at Studio Center are very concerned and want to help. We are available 24-7 when you need us,” said Studio Center CEO William "Woody" Prettyman.

Those interested should contact Studio Center toll free at 1-866-515-2111 or online at www.studiocenter.com and reference Hurricane Florence.

AMSTERDAM — TV Technology Editor Tom Butts interviewed Wheatstone Director of Sales Jay Tyler on the floor at IBC2018 to find out how the manufacturer was preparing for Hurricane Florence back home in New Bern, N.C.

Tyler was on his way to Amsterdam when the storm began to head toward the Carolinas, so he has been anxiously waiting for word on how his home and his livelihood in New Bern, N.C. are faring.

Tyler’s home is located about 14 feet above sea level — or river level, in this case. He explained that “New Bern sits on the confluence of the Trent and the Neuse Rivers.” The Wheatstone facility is situated a bit more safely — approximately 20 to 25 feet above the floodplain, Tyler said.

As of Friday morning (Central European Summer Time), the factory had not lost power, Tyler reports; Wheatstone elected to preemptively close the facility ahead of Hurricane Florence’s arrival. Tyler said pre-storm preparations involved bringing things indoors and wrapping gear in plastic to prevent water damage — “boxes and boxes of plastic draped over everything.” Tyler said, “That’s normal protocol for us.”

About 100 employees work at the company’s headquarters, and power depending, Tyler said the facility will reopen Monday if one or two of them can make it to work. In the mean time, he said, Wheatstone’s toll free number and tech support will be primarily manned by employees in the California, Texas and Syracuse, N.Y., offices.

Tyler’s own home lost power at 10 p.m. (EST). He also noted that local news reports indicated more than 150 people in New Bern were rescued by first responders in the early morning, and the town had experienced winds of about 90 mph and water levels reached about 10 feet above sea level. “Some of the photos that came back were pretty catastrophic,” he said.

WILMINGTON, N.C.—It was more than a week ago when forecasters first predicted the Carolinas could take the brunt of Hurricane Florence. That’s when WWAY-TV's general manager opened the station’s hurricane preparedness plan — a strategy established in 1964 — to begin preparing station infrastructure and personnel for what looked to be a monster storm.

“This storm isn’t like anything that has ever hit here,” says Andy Combs, general manager of the Morris Multimedia-owned ABC/CBS/CW-affiliate station. “[Hurricane] Hazel in 1954, might be a better comparison, or even [Hurricane] Diane [in 1955], but I really don’t think it is fair to put this storm in the same category. This is going to be a rain producer.”

The station is planning on getting hit by 20 to 30 inches of rain over a 48-hour period, Combs says. 

Combs calls the plan the “Holy Grail” of preparedness, a step-by-step guide to making sure no detail is overlooked as WWAY readies for hurricanes. Those steps include: sandbagging and barricading entry points to the station’s six-month-old studios; securing local and out-of-state fuel sources to keep the 2,000-gallon fuel tank for station’s transmitter generator juiced in the event of a power outage; and keeping a road crew on standby should they need to repair the track through the swamp that surrounds the station’s 1,996-foot tower.

WWAY has taken many other important steps, including deciding who will leave and who will pitch in to help. The station staffs about 70 people, including news personnel and engineers— 28 will have to stay to line up a tower crew to inspect the structure once the storm has cleared. Others will help to secure a backup generator and antenna if needed. And of course the station needs to make sure its reporters stay safe -- they'll take to bunkers, secure shelters and the station’s studios.

The station shares its tower and transmitter site with WECT and WSFX, Raycom Media’s NBC and Fox affiliates, respectively.

“Right now, we are focusing our efforts on WECT and WSFX in Wilmington, WMBF in Myrtle Beach, and WCSC in Charleston,” says Steven Ackermann, vice president of news at Raycom. He added that the group’s stations in Savannah, Ga. and Charlotte, N.C. are also getting special attention because of the latest forecast and uncertainty over the exact track of the hurricane.

Raycom has what Ackermann describes as “a pretty elaborate procedure” honed over many years for the group’s regional stations to back up their sister stations as needed. “If needed, we bring in corporate resources and extend the reach beyond the region,” he adds.

The group has moved assets into place, with a focus on protecting its coastal stations in the direct path of the storm. It also has plans to ensure the safety of the Raycom employees who stay to maintain their stations’ over-the-air, cable and digital distribution paths to viewers.

“Those are our two primary focuses: safety and sustaining our audiences,” Ackermann. Raycom drills employees, especially field personnel, on the importance of staying safe.

“There are plenty of ways to get pictures of wind blowing and waves and everything else. But our mission as local broadcasters is to be there for the duration for our communities,” he says. “Standing on the beach in the middle of a Category 4 hurricane doesn’t necessarily provide anybody with useful information. But keeping our infrastructure in place and getting that mission critical information out does perform a real community service.”

Even if Hurricane Florence forces personnel at Raycom’s coastal stations to evacuate, the group has contingency plans to control those stations remotely. If the towers and antennas remain intact, Ackerman plans to continue broadcasting to viewers.

The same is true for Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns multiple stations in the hurricane track, including WCTI and WYDO in Greenville, N.C., WLFL and WRDC in Raleigh, N.C., WCIV in Mount Pleasant, S.C., WPDE and WWMB in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and WACH in Columbia, S.C., says Scott Livingston, senior vice president of news at Sinclair.

Sinclair demonstrated the benefit of remotely controlling a station during Hurricane Harvey in August 2017, when its station in San Antonio took over control of its Corpus Christi, Texas, station to provide 36 hours of continuous coverage.

For Florence, Sinclair will produce around-the-clock hurricane coverage from WJLA in Washington, D.C., and a special feed from the station that will stream across all of its websites.

“That stream will also be a backup for our stations in South and North Carolina if we need to completely shut down operations and evacuate, which would be the worst-case scenario,” says Livingston.

The station group has already allocated additional resources to augment hurricane coverage from its affected stations. “We’ve mobilized more than 25 journalists from across Sinclair sister stations to work with our local stations,” he says.

More than 50 LiveU IP newsgathering units, along with people and other resources, will assist with coverage. “It’s a great example of leveraging our resources to provide what we think will be unmatched coverage across the group,” he adds.

Gray Television is preparing WITN, its NBC affiliate in Greenville, N.C., which is in the direct line of the hurricane, as well as surrounding stations in Augusta, Ga. and Virginia for the storm, says Mick Fass, vice president of broadcast technology for the station group.

“Based on where they are located, we are specifically concerned about flooding and the reality they could be stranded there for days,” he says.

The group is checking generators and making sure fuel tanks at its stations studios and transmitter sites are fully stocked. Gray also plans on bringing along extra resources, including an IP satellite truck to maintain internet connectivity in the event Hurricane Florence knocks out service, says Fass.

Gray’s strategy is to set up the resources it will need to maintain coverage in the areas likely to be affected by the hurricane. “Our biggest fear is that once the storm hits, we will not be able to get resources into the community,” he says.

At Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC), preparations have been ongoing for more than a week, at both WILM in Wilmington and WRAL in Raleigh, N.C., says Peter Sockett, director of engineering and operations.

“We carry six days of fuel at the studio,” says Sockett, who adds both stations have generators at their studios and transmitter sites.

“If everything goes well, we won’t touch it, but we have deals with local diesel guys to top it off daily if we need fuel and they can make it to us,” he says.

At WRAL, three uninterruptible power supplies, any two of which can carry the full load of Capitol Broadcasting, are in use, adds Sockett.

Sockett has already had telephone calls from GatesAir and ERI, assuring him that both vendors are prepared to supply backup transmitters, antennas and other RF components in the event of a catastrophic outage, he says.

As for its actual storm coverage, WRAL has deployed three SNG trucks to the coast and has 20 LiveU IP newsgathering backpacks, as well as ENG microwave units at the ready.

“All the trucks are fueled up and tested. All of the event sites are tested, and the shop truck has 100 gallons of diesel so we can go out and top off the live trucks so they don’t have to leave their locations,” says Sockett.

However, there is one unexpected wrinkle in the station’s preparations, he says. The CBC office where WRAL is located is undergoing a renovation, and the front wall of the building has been temporarily replaced with plywood. Construction workers have feverishly been reinforcing the plywood, adding additional braces, to sustain the temporary wooden wall in the storm.

“I’ve brought in a truckload of sand, and we have put in 300 sandbags in various places,” says Sockett. “We’ve also brought in those big two-inch firehose pumps and cut some holes for the water so we can pump it out if needed.”

And it’s this sort of unpredictability that all broadcasters in the region are now grappling with.

“I feel like we are as prepared as we can possibly be at this point,” says WWAY’s Combs. “But there are certain things that are out of our control. Mother Nature ultimately has the final say.”

Editor’s note: NAB has sent out an email with helpful information for stations affected by the hurricane. It is available online.

Radio and television stations play a unique role as first informers during disasters, providing breaking news alerts and round-the-clock reporting to keep their communities safe before, during and after emergencies. Given the strength of the broadcast infrastructure, broadcasting is often the only communications outlet available during disasters.

Thus, it is critical that broadcasters plan ahead to safeguard their facilities and staff in case of an emergency. The 10 steps below serve as a general guide to help broadcasters stay on the air during disasters.

STEP 1: Prepare a Disaster Recovery Plan

Convene a cross-section of staff to work on a plan. Broad participation produces the most useful plans.

• Station engineers: identify operational and technical risks.
• News directors, producers and reporters: plan for continuous news coverage and remotes. General managers: oversee staff safety, training and communications.
• Station owners: champion a commitment to disaster planning.

The plan must address certain factors and consider both natural and man-made disasters:

• Risk assessment.
• Critical equipment, systems and services.
• Staff roles and duties.
• External and internal communications.
• Staff training and safety.
• Provide emergency news to all segments of your audience.
• Distribute, periodically review and test the plan.

STEP 2: Review Your Risks

What are the most likely emergencies that could impact your station?

Are you in a flood zone? Research the high-water marks in your area, and don’t forget about nearby dams that could break.

If hurricanes or tornados are common, prepare your facility for high winds and extreme rain.

Stations on the West Coast should secure their facilities and equipment in case of an earthquake and plan for possible wildfires. Freezes and icing can impact the Southeast, and major snowfalls affect the North. All stations should check for nearby tall trees or rock formations that could cause damage.

What’s at Risk?

People – Your staff is a station’s most important asset. Make a plan that keeps your staff and their families safe during emergencies.

Facility – Review the security, reliability and redundancy of your tower, antenna, transmitter, microwave and studio-transmitter links (STL) and any other system needed to stay on the air.

Supply chain – Make sure your station is prepared for power failures and equipment breakdowns. News delivery – Plan for alternative methods of reporting and distributing programming.

STEP 3: Engage Station Leadership

Ownership and management set the priorities of a station. Their commitment lets staff know that devoting time and money to disaster planning is valued. Leadership can also provide a holistic view of a station’s many functions, identifying connections among departments that may be vulnerable. Station leadership can also address other important risks like damage to a station’s image or reputation.

How long will it take to restart operations? Can you originate programming from there?Focus on single points of failure that could knock your station off the air.

STEP 4: Expect the Unexpected

The studio must be evacuated. Can you broadcast from another location? How will you get there?

• Do you have a backup tower or auxiliary transmitter, or another way to broadcast?
• How long will it take to restart operations? Can you originate programming from there?
• Focus on single points of failure that could knock your station off the air.
• Do you have a backup tower or auxiliary transmitter, or another way to broadcast?
• Microwave, fiber or STL links are lost. Can you receive or deliver content another way?
• Phone or internet access go down. Do you have a plan for communicating with staff, local public safety and clients?
• Electricity is lost or equipment breaks. Do you have a backup generator and a fuel contract to keep it running, for both the studio and transmitter? Have you made arrangements with vendors and contract engineers for a first right to obtain goods or services?
• Your server is corrupted. Do you have backup files off-site?

STEP 5: Programming Continuity

Broadcasting is never more important than during an emergency. Make sure you can deliver the news even if your station goes down.

• Have a plan in place to carry programming from a network or other local station, or simulcast on another station.
• Have a plan for continuous closed captioning service.
• Make plans to stream programming online during an emergency.
• Foreign language stations should plan to provide news over another local station.

STEP 6: Simple Fixes Can Make a Big Difference

• Don’t forget about common sense measures that can prevent or minimize problems
• Use glass with a high safety rating in windows and doors.
• Tether equipment racks securely.
• Use safety chains to secure heavy objects like speakers, monitors and lights.
• Anchor computer monitors to desktops.
• Bolt critical workstations to the floor or walls.
• Keep cars and remote equipment in multiple locations.
• Secure your facility: surveillance cameras, door entry keys and locks, fencing, perimeter security and reception security.
• Maintain backup data and records off-site.
• Schedule routine maintenance of all systems and equipment..

STEP 7: Staff Safety and Communications

• Identify and mark locations in facility for shelter-in-place.
• Store essential supplies: food, water, batteries, bedding, battery-powered radio, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration radio, flashlights, first aid kid, dust and filter masks, sanitation needs, tools, plastic sheeting and duct tape. Make sure at least one employee is trained in first aid.
• Encourage staff to keep a “go kit” at work for clothing, medications and toiletries.
• In case of evacuation, make a plan for communication with staff, including a process for checking in.
• Keep contact information on hand for local public safety and emergency management agencies, as well as clients and vendors.
• Keep important documents in a portable waterproof, fireproof safe, including building plans, insurance policies, employee information and bank account records.

STEP 8: Training

• Periodically train your staff on the disaster recovery plan. Use a quiz or other exercise designed to make sure everyone knows their role.
• Certain staff may be unavailable when disaster strikes, so cross-training is essential:
• Train back office staff and management for on-air and production operations like call screening, board operations, field producing, reporting and emergency announcement processing.
• Train board operators to make simple technical repairs.
• Make sure multiple employees know how to process emergency alert system messages.

STEP 9:Test the Plan

Practice makes perfect. Drill your staff on putting the plan into action. Test various scenarios:

Loss of master control operations:

• Switch to newsroom or production studio.
• Use remote vehicle to provide on-air programming.

Imminent threat to station facility:

• Evacuation and meet-up site.
• Move operations to another site or remote vehicle n Maintain communications among staff.
• Safe shelter-in-place location.

Transmitter failure:

• Switch to backup antenna.
• Simulcast on another station.

Server failure:

• Auto backup material.
• Switch to alternate server n File recovery steps.

STEP 10: Insurance

• Explore the various kinds of insurance that may help you recover from a disaster.
• Property insurance may compensate for building damage, internal water damage, electrical malfunctions and theft.
• Flood insurance availability may depend on your location. Internal flooding caused by broken pipes, leaking roofs and accidental spills is likely covered by property insurance.
• Loss of income or business interruption insurance may cover temporary needs like renting equipment to continue broadcasting and security personnel.
• Marine insurance is used to underwrite broadcast equipment like towers, transmission lines, transmitters, STLs and remote equipment.
• Cybersecurity insurance can help cover losses related to cyber disruptions of service.