| Publisher: Information Station Specialists |
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| Nor’easter Knocks
Out Power and Cellular |
| Communities with Info Radio
Stations and StreamCASTs Rise to the Occasion |
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| Snow makes travel treacherous at Town of Barnstable, MA. |
| The Groundhog has cast a distinctly wintery shadow from New Mexico to Maine in the past week, sidelining power and communications to millions while endangering already fragile supply lines of food and other necessities. The sequential storms, known by various cable-TV handles, have been roundly labeled by local government safety officials as “Trouble.” |
| “It would have been our only source of information.” |
| Ross Lloyd, Barnstable MA |
| Community-based Information Radio Stations and streaming services took center stage as storms approached. Once power and cell became compromised, they became the stage. |
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| Wind storms damage property at the Town of Barnstable, MA |
| North Plainfield, NJ, escaped the heaviest of the recent
snow, but paid for it with a slick coating of ice to
snarl the Friday commute on February 4th. Residents who
lost power were able to stay informed by listening to
their Information Station on 1630 AM or by monitoring
the parallel
SteamCAST service on the Borough’s website. North
Plainfield’s information stream scores more than 14,000
clicks for access each month – an average of one every
four minutes. The Town of Barnstable on Cape Cod was directly in the path of the heaviest snow, measuring more than 14 inches since January 27th. Police Department Telecom Supervisor Ross Lloyd was just issued a license for a “RadioSAFE” Emergency Information Radio Station in January and was awaiting delivery and installation as he watched the emergency unfold. “This past storm it would have been helpful’” he told The Source. “And the previous storm we had on October 27th, it would have been even more useful, as we had cellular outages as well as power. For many it would have been their only source of information.” [The above photos were provided by Lloyd.] Across the harbor from Boston, the Town of Hull, MA, received more than two feet of snow, with higher drifts and white-outs that prevented Public Safety workers from being able to reach citizens – by any way except the Town’s Information Station on 1680 AM. |
 Emails to The Source |
| "I have not tired of reading of current successes." |
| Frank Weed, National Park Service (Ret.) |
| "It’s fun to read articles about how the Travelers Information Service, which I saw begun at Yellowstone National Park, has survived, changed and matured since the 1970’s. I had the privilege of serving the nation as the National Park Service’s radio engineer. I was approached to support a fixed-location radio information service -- as opposed to a NPS pickup truck with an interpreter on-board announcing what people were in the process of seeing." |
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| Our first national park was the site of our first Information Radio Station (TIS). |
| "I fully supported that request and am thrilled to see it so widely diversified. I am long ago retired, but I have not tired of reading of current successes with the wide deployment of TIS radio installations." |
| Frank
Weed National Park Service Former Senior Radio Facilities Manager |
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| On the Road: Frank & Elizabeth Weed |
| History buffs will appreciate this story about the roots of TIS. |
| What Call Letters Can Say about Your Station's Age | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How long has your Information Radio Station been in operation? Generally it’s not polite to ask about age, but you can use this yardstick to estimate the original authorization date of your station, if you are a local government agency*. As with people, you can often get a good idea just by looking, so take a quick glance at the letters at the beginning of your station’s license callsign. You may be surprised at its longevity! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| (*) Stations operated by federal agencies do not follow the above pattern; and military stations do not assign callsigns at all. So if you are a federal-level operator, a deeper dive will be required to know how long you’ve been around. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
PO Box 51, Zeeland, Michigan, USA, 49464-0051, Phone 616.772.2300, Email
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