Emergency Radio Broadcasting in Australia

Hit and Triple M Townsville combined broadcast is interesting - also both old and new music. Living up to the previous Hits & Old Skool slogan!

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Probably need to cater for both audiences since they are simulcasting on stations with different demographics.

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As mentioned before, Southern QLD Drive presenter Annie Gaffney has taken over from the Sunshine Coast for extended rolling coverage, going right through until 4am, when Michael Clark takes over.

Line-Up for tomorrow (as Adam Stephen mentioned at the end of his shift):
Breakfast: Michael Clark (North QLD)
Mornings: Susan Graham-Ryan (North QLD)
Afternoons: Meecham Philpott (Tropical North)
Drive: Adam Stephen (Far North)

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The BoM is not issuing any further warnings since early this morning as the now ex tropical cyclone is over land and reduced in intensity.

At what time do the commercial stations say goodnight from their coverage? What information is provided now the cyclone has moved beyond Townsville?

Hereā€™s the radar view of it here (posted 7:20am, will move west off screen if viewed later):

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Probably flood warnings and any rolling coverage that is warranted.

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ABC wrapped rolling coverage at 7pm. Acknowledging there would be further updates over cricket and regular programming overnight as needed, about widespread power outages still occurring in Townsville, and also heavy rainfall and severe weather impacting areas around Mount Isa.

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Hit and Triple M wrapped up at 6pm.

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3WM and Mixx FM Horsham broke out of network programming with a number of emergency warnings today. Seems to be very music-heavy this evening, updates falling out of ad breaks.

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Another double fault from Ace.

Poor effort when their metro leases are all done seamlessly from home studios, this style of program input should be used to provide rolling coverage for the Horsham licence area.

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ABC dropped the ball this afternoon in Adelaide. Usually when there is a Watch and Act for a bushfire, there is proper updates at 0:05 and 0:35 past the hour, accompanied by the emergency warning sting (i.e. ā€œABC Radio - Bushfire Informationā€).

This afternoon, there were no formal updates for the Watch and Act for parts of the Adelaide Hills (including a leave now message), with only fleeting mentions in News Bulletins, and regular programming.

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Whatā€™s happening on ABC Victoria with the current bushfires?

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Updates at five past and the bottom of the hour or as required with Richard Dinnen from who knows where.

Astle played a song during his show -Raglan, Iā€™m sure just a coincidence that it shares the song title with name one of the communities under threat. For someone so clever with words Iā€™d have thought he wouldā€™ve found a better song choice for this evening. No mention he played it intentionally, just he likes it.

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Surely Melbourne would at least have someone available. However, good chance that the presenter is in WA, as it would be cheaper to do it from there.

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Iā€™ve heard an explanation previously that ā€œABC Emergencyā€ has a roster of presenters on standby to cover latest updates nationally but can switch to local presenters if rolling coverage is necessary. Sometimes in the past with fires, unverified open line callers can be problematic with information contradictory to official advice especially during the emergency phase.

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Yes usually there is someone on stand-by, usually until someone local can take over. Sometimes there are local staff on stand-by on high risk days. IIRC, on one such Saturday here in Adelaide, SA and Broken Hill emergency broadcast coordinator (and Saturday Breakfast producer) Suzy Ramone stayed behind, and ended up doing regular updates on bushfires in the Adelaide Hills.

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Thrusday evening the statewide drive program was extended to 6:30, replacing Australia Wide, with rolling coverage.

Friday morning rolling coverage continued, with usual presenters but bushfire focused. E.g. Richelle Hunt hosted the Conversation Hour as usual at 11am but focused solely on getting updates out interspersed with a few interviews from fire affected areas. Iā€™m assuming coverage was statewide, but Richelle mentioned that ABC Ballarat and Wimmera stations were airing additional updates (presumably as warnings were published).

EDIT: Basically nil coverage in the last hour. A brief mention during the news, even though there is an emergency warning still active.

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Now downgraded to Watch & Act.

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ABC Local Radio Tasmania has broken from the national Sunday programming to have a breakfast program with Kim Napier from Launceston covering all the emergency services and notifications with a week of continuous storms and cold fronts bettering the state. Surprised that they havenā€™t gone with breaking into the program like they usually do but have gone for a full program.

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Will usually depend on the severity of the situation, or if there is enough happening (and resources available) to do full coverage.

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