How radio responded to Wine Country fires
As the wildfires in the Sonoma and Napa valleys began to be contained, thank-you signs and banners became a common sight, along roads and at freeway overpasses. Thanks, they said, to firefighters, to emergency medical workers, to the police ... and to KSRO.
The latter is a news-talk station whose staff toiled night and day to deliver news, information and advice to listeners in and around Santa Rosa.
And, no, the broadcasters don’t think they deserve the accolades.
“We don’t belong in that group,” said KSRO producer Mike DeWald, the first to get to the station as the fires raged. “We weren’t running into the fires. But to realize we made an impact, that we helped in some way — it’s gratifying.”
KSRO did such stellar work that, in the first hours of the fire, the website for rival station KRSH (“The Krush”) suggested that listeners go to KSRO for the latest news. “The community has relied on KSRO,” said Debbie Morton, general manager of KRSH, a music station. “Everyone has been grateful for their coverage.”
Morning co-host Pat Kerrigan anchored KSRO’s coverage, working without scripts, going from call to call and guest to guest. For several days, she worked without knowing whether her home in Kenwood had survived. (It had.) She pulled in reports from program host Michelle Marques, who smelled smoke near her home in Rincon Valley, saw flames and hit the road, and from Steve Garner, who does weekend food and garden shows and evacuated from Oakmont.
“To report on something that was basically happening to us,” said DeWald, “was an odd situation.”
KSRO is an ABC Radio news affiliate, and its correspondent in the Wine Country just happened to be Alex Stone, who, said DeWald, “interned here at 15. His mom took him to cover stories. Now he’s an ABC Radio network reporter, and he was assigned to this area. And his parents were evacuated! He was aware of everything that was going on. He was invaluable.”
Although KSRO was staffed to cover news, stations like “The Krush” improvised, with whoever showed up. The first were staffers like Amanda Nowlin, who fled from her burning home. Others, like operations director and morning DJ Andre De Channes and PD and DJ Amber Hoback, heard about the fires and instinctively went to KRSH’s studios. Hoback would team with Ashlee Sleek ,DJon sister station KSXY, to scour news sources and produce updates for the first few days, working 12-hour shifts.
“It was so emotional,” Hoback said. “A listener called and said, ‘It’s so good to hear familiar voices again. When you were off, that’s what made it feel worse, that even some of our radio stations were down.’ ”
KRSH kept a balance of information and music; Hoback said she removed “insensitive songs — you’d be surprised how many songs there are about burning and fires.” But, said De Channes, “I was happy that KRSH was an alternative.”
As for Santa Rosa’s substantial Latino community, many of whom lost residences in the Coffey Park neighborhood, KXTS (“Exitos”) went to work as soon as power was restored, on the second day. While waiting, program director and DJ Eric Madriz monitored Latino stations. “And they really weren’t covering it.” Back on the air, he said, “it was a lot of visiting shelters and getting as much information as we could to pass along: where people could go, what shelters were open.” The staff shot down false reports about immigration officials showing up at shelters.
Madriz organized a donation drive the first weekend after the fires. “The outpouring was amazing,” he said. “Money, food, water, places to stay. Even a car. The community really came together. They trust us; we’re their radio station, so once we told them what we were doing, they were all for it.”
The fires and their aftermath confirmed the importance of “live and local” radio. “I don’t think many electronic media, if any, could do what local radio did,” said Jim Murphy, KSRO’s operations manager, adding that many listeners had no choice. “In the first days, most people had no cell phone service, no Internet connectivity and no cable TV. (Radio) was the only medium people had access to.”
While we are focused on Santa Rosa, I want to note that similar broadcasting heroics were performed in Napa Valley, where news and talk station KVON and its FM sister, KVYN (“The Vine”) teamed to provide coverage, led by KVON hosts Judd Finkelstein and Ira C. Smith, along with station co-owner Will Marcencia. On KVYN, program director Larry Sharp and DJs “Big Rick” Stuart, Bob St. Laurent and Mindi Levine overcame a burned-down FM transmitter to broadcast online and on-air. KVON and KVYN provided some 200 hours of news and info. They also deserve thank-you banners and posters.
At KSRO, Kerrigan thought about those signs, and about radio’s role in the community. “It’s very humbling,” she said. “After about the 10th or 20th story about us, I have to believe we did save lives, and that’s pretty profound. The common thread in the messages that we got was that the station provided people with a lifeline; it was the only way they didn’t feel isolated. They said, ‘I couldn’t make it through without you there.’ ”
KSRO is back to general news; KRSH is playing music, but, of course, nothing’s the same. “It’s the new normal,” said Hoback. “It’s changed. There’s a paradigm shift in how we interact with each other. It’s a cool thing to see, but I hate that it comes from tragedy.”