What Now?

You're an experienced Program Director with years under your belt in various market sizes, so when it comes to the so-called unexpected, you've been there, done that – right?

Except for that time Hurricane Harvey came along.

There's no blueprint, no playbook; not even a 60-minute panel on disaster preparedness at Country Radio Seminar could possibly have readied Houston and surrounding radio markets for covering the epic weather event which took place in the last week.

Harvey was so big, the US National Weather Service (NWS) added new colors to its maps which indicate flood levels. Maybe the late, great artist formerly known as Prince knew something we didn't when he wrote "Purple Rain," as the Weather Service introduced two shades of his favorite-ever color; dark purple for 20-30 inches of rain, and a lighter hue for greater than 30 inches.

A further indication of Mother Nature's immense, unharnessed power came from a NWS Tweet, which said, "This event is unprecedented & all impacts are unknown & beyond anything experienced."

This may be just me, reading between the lines, but I believe what they actually meant was, "Holy F%#@ing S#*t!"

Everyone followed the devastation in real time, while praying for the safety of people we know in the region – and even those we don't. But some of us radio geeks were also fascinated by HOW radio stations in the area were covering it.

A Tale Of Three Stations

Just as two stations in a market brand independently – with nuanced music philosophies and contrasting morning shows – so, too, did Cox Media KKBQ and CBS Radio KILT (The Bull) differ when it came to approaching Harvey coverage in Houston.

KILT/Houston ceased all music programming effective Saturday afternoon (8/26), joining a four-station, commercial-free simulcast within the cluster with Sports KILT-A, Hot AC KHMX, and Adult Hits KKHH. "We've had a duct-taped staff, and they did a crazy, amazing great job," said KILT PD Bruce Logan. "At one point, we had three anchor teams, which was a wonderful collage of staff from The Bull, The Mix, and from Sports Radio – plus, there were tons of other people doing other things – the rest of the Bull crew was out getting stories. Some people couldn't get in on a consistent basis, so we've been lucky to even do this." Logan returned to playing music on KILT Wednesday evening (8/30) at 6p (CT).

KKBQ/Houston opted to keep the music playing, with PD and Cox/Houston OM Johnny Chiang explaining, "This would have been different if this hurricane was a wind event – if it came in and started knocking things down and breaking everything – then, we'd have been wall-to-wall. But, this was rain – steady rain – more water than wind."

Houston is a vast city – the nation's fourth-largest – and, Chiang adds, "It's one of the largest in the country, in terms of geography." At an estimated 655 square miles, Houston could contain the cities of New York, Washington, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, Minneapolis, and Miami.

"The pictures you were seeing," continued Chiang, "if you were in those areas, it was truly Armageddon; Hell on earth. But, you could literally go a mile in another direction, and that town had nothing." That contributed to Chiang's decision. "We still needed to provide an escape for the fans, and we said that over and over on the air: 'We're here to keep you company – mostly, we're not here to panic anybody.'" That said, every time KKBQ jocks cracked the mic, "it was information," said Chiang. "All the regular station benchmarks, features, promotions – it all went out the window, and jocks had free reign to talk whenever they wanted with updates."

Similar to KILT, the iHeartMedia/Corpus Christi group, which includes Country KRYS, went into all-information mode beginning Friday (8/25) at 8a (CT), and continued until 10a Wednesday morning (8/30). "Just about every piece of content on air is related to relief efforts, where people can get help, giving out numbers and websites and such," said PD Frank Edwards. "Also, since we were the only stations in the market on the air immediately after the storm, and certainly the only ones in our market with wall-to-wall around the clock information, we have become a facilitator of sorts. We were taking live phone calls Sunday through Wednesday, and trying to direct resources to the towns they needed to go to, putting people in touch with who they need to talk to in these small towns. The calls and emails haven't stopped, so neither will we."

"Long Term Planning for Us Is Tomorrow"

As I spoke to Chiang and Logan on Wednesday (8/30), both commented on how Houston was sunny, with calm, blue skies. Many people will move on to the next big news cycle, but for Houston and surrounding areas, the work is just now beginning. So, my next question was: Now what? The flooding aftermath is being described as "apocalyptic," with possibly 30,000 people in need of temporary shelter, and damage estimated to be in the tens of billions of dollars.

How does local radio handle what's next, and have they plotted any strategy yet?

"Long term planning for us is tomorrow," answered Logan. "It's an unprecedented storm – it lasted longer, and affected more people – there's no blueprint for it. We didn't know we were going to do this, so I don't really know what we'll do next."

But here's what Logan DID know when we spoke: "We plan on being live 24/7 from our studio; we are going to blow out most of the 'radio station stuff,' if you will. We won't be running promos telling people how to listen to win concert tickets. We're at the end of summer, and were about to get into a lot of Houston Texans football stuff, so we'll put a pause on that for a bit." Logan's focus, he says is, "giving the audience what they want; they'll be great about telling us what they need, and we'll follow that. That's where we are going."

As for his airstaff, and their approach on-air, "I'll tell my team: be warm, be comforting, don't worry about formatics. If something is important, do it. Here is some basic structure, but if you feel something is more important, don't hesitate to go away from it."

Moving forward for KKBQ, Chiang says, "From a radio, tactical standpoint, this will be ongoing; this is our life for the rest of the year." Chiang says he and his team are definitely trying to plan ahead, and he's been inundated with offers of help, from all over the Country. "Labels, artists, sister stations – which is all fantastic – but I'm telling everyone, 'just give us a second. We don't even know what the community needs – I mean, we kind of do – but there are so many people who haven't seen their house yet. The rain is over – it may take three of four days for water to recede in some neighborhoods, and then we'll know what is needed. Right now, we're on the air and on socials, blasting the Red Cross info. That's the quickest, easiest way to help, so we're urging people to do that." Once he and his staff get a grip on what else is needed, Chiang says they'll look at different, local organizations that need help, citing Houston food banks and animal shelters as possible examples.

"We are getting back to normal, but the new normal for a while will be spending time talking about ongoing efforts to help," said Edwards. "Content is focused on the impact here in the Corpus Christi area. As much as we feel for Houston and our neighbors North of us, we have a responsibility here with our listeners. We have a lot of people coming in and cooking food and donating. People have been reaching out to me asking what they can do, and I'm telling them to come cook next weekend, donate next month, come help in October, because the need will still be here. In Rockport, 80% of houses are uninhabitable. Port Aransas was almost wiped out. Aransas Pass has suffered immensely. All three of those towns had their schools destroyed."

Not surprisingly, the Country music community made numerous, unsolicited calls to all three PDs asking how to help. "What Chris Young is doing is amazing," says Logan, referring to Young's launch of a GoFundMe page – and a goal of raising $500,000 – while seeding the effort with $100,000 of his own cash. Young went on the air during the simulcast several times, and called in to check on Logan and his team several more times. "Everybody has called," said Logan. "Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Sam Hunt – superstars – I'm overwhelmed by how many big artists that checked in to see if there's anything they can do – not in a suck up to radio way, but in a humanitarian way."

Chiang says too many artists to mention have also checked in to KKBQ, asking how to help. Additionally, while Chiang was living at the station for four straight days, he recalled how phone calls from Warner Music Nashville Chairman/CEO John Esposito and UMG Nashville Chairman Mike Dungan came in well past 1am, asking how he and his staff were holding up. All of which reinforced what Chiang already believes: "There is NO other format like ours – so every time you get on your soap box and preach about it, THIS is why we are what we are."

How Does This Event Rate?

The other unknown right now is how this event will affect September PPM data for Houston. Because Corpus Christi is a diary market, with only Fall and Spring books, there are no immediate ratings ramifications there.

While neither Logan or Chiang could comment on Nielsen's plans for Houston data – and that's due to having their heads down, dealing with radio station matters, rather than being coy with me – there's speculation that Nielsen will scrap week two of the Houston PPM September monthly, and perhaps end up issuing a shortened, three-week monthly report (The September PPM survey period is August 17th to September 13th). There's precedence for that in Houston in 2008, when Hurricane Ike caused Arbitron to abbreviate September AND October PPM monthly reports. Ditto Hurricane Sandy in New York in 2012, and previously, in Hartford in 2011 following ice storms that caused significant power outages – remember, meters need electricity to recharge and download data to Nielsen. Going back to the pre-PPM era and Arbitron, when Katrina wreaked havoc and devastation on New Orleans in 2005, the market went without two consecutive quarterly reports.

Logan, Chiang, and Edwards aren't thinking about ratings right now; they're focused on serving their respective listeners and communities. All are quick to praise their staffs. "I've been so proud of how it sounded; they did a spectacular job," said Logan. Chiang showered kudos on his team, as well: "I'm thrilled – even the folks who couldn’t get in tried every day, and they called every hour." Edwards told me, "Everyone jumped in and did their job; no one was complaining or questioning. We just served in the way that we can serve best. It was awesome to see."