Six public stations in Hurricane Milton’s path over central Florida maintained broadcast operations through the storm.
WGCU-TV in Fort Myers went off the air early Thursday morning when the fiber circuits to its transmitter site failed, according to Kevin Trueblood, associate GM of technology and operations. The FM station was able to continue broadcasting off a back-up transmitter, he said. The fiber service was restored that afternoon, but it took another day for operations to stabilize.
Transmitters for WUCF’s TV and FM stations in Orlando were running on generator power Thursday, according to Executive Director Jennifer Cook. Generators were also powering WUSF and classical WMSR in Tampa.
The stations are airing coverage produced by the Florida Public Radio Emergency Network, based at WUFT in Gainesville. News teams from WUSF, WGCU, Central Florida Public Media in Orlando and WMNF in Tampa ramped up their coverage before and during the storm.
Current connected with GMs of seven public media organizations in central Florida for these updates:
WGCU-TV was knocked off the air around 1 a.m. Thursday, taken down when its fiber circuit failed. WGCU-FM stayed on the air via its backup transmitter site, which is located on the campus of its licensee, Florida Gulf Coast University, Trueblood told Current in an email.
The stations have both microwave and fiber links to the transmitter site. Hurricane Helene had damaged the microwave link in late September and it hadn’t been repaired, Trueblood wrote.
“Our fiber service was restored Thursday afternoon, with WGCU-TV returning to air and WGCU-FM returning to air from its main transmitter site,” Trueblood added. “The fiber circuit went down again Friday morning for about four hours …, and returned to air Friday afternoon and has been up since.”
Essential staff embedded at WGCU’s headquarters on the campus of Florida Gulf Coast University Wednesday, and the news team ramped up its coverage in partnership with FPREN, according to Amy Shumaker, associate GM of content. After 11 p.m., the coverage scaled back to hourly FPREN updates “providing critical information about the Hurricane,” she said in an email. WGCU’s reporting began airing in regularly scheduled newscasts.
As of Friday afternoon, all WGCU staff members were safe and accounted for. Some staff were dealing with water damage to their homes, she said, “but everyone is safe.”
“We are tired, but we are all safe and well,” Judith Smelser, president and GM of CFPM in Orlando, told Current in an email. To ensure “seamless coverage” of Milton, Smelser and 17 members of the news, content, and engineering teams rode out the hurricane at the station’s headquarters, along with their family members and pets.
The station is reporting on Milton and its aftermath on its live blog, which launched on Monday, and social media channels. Earlier this week, the news team added top-of-the-hour newscasts and “rolling special coverage,” which began Wednesday and included reports from FPREN, local updates and interviews with local officials and residents. At 6 a.m. Thursday CFPM resumed its regular program schedule, augmented with newscasts, briefings, local news reporting and a special episode of Engage, the station’s local show and podcast.
“Our reporters are heading out into the field to survey the damage and talk to people affected by the storm,” Smelser wrote. “We plan to be staffed throughout the weekend.”
At WUCF in Orlando, all staff have been accounted for and many are without power and internet service, ED Jennifer Cook said in an email this morning. “We have a lot of tree debris around us, but so far no staff reports of severe damage.”
Updates from FPREN are running on both WUCF stations and their social media channels, Cook said, and the news staff are interviewing emergency officials via Zoom. She anticipates that much of this coverage will run on Newsnight, WUCF-TV’s weekly public affairs series, which airs tomorrow evening.
WUCF-TV is also airing its Meet the Helpers video shorts, which teach children about people who work in public service, emergency response and medical roles.
WUSF, Tampa’s NPR News station, lost a few shingles on its transmitter building, but there was no water intrusion, said GM JoAnn Urofsky.
She had not yet received an update for classical WSMR as of Thursday evening, but said the storm didn’t interrupt broadcasts. WUSF and WMSR simulcast news coverage from 4 p.m. Wednesday until 6 a.m. Thursday and then from 7 a.m. Thursday until noon. Both stations were operating on generator power Thursday.
“As of this hour, some of our staff don’t have power or cell service,” Urofsky said in an email Thursday evening. “One had a tree fall on his house – fortunately not injuring anyone – and had a fallen tree blocking his driveway. Others have had water intrusion and are warding off flooding.”
Staff covered the storm from the station, at Emergency Operations Centers or remotely, she said.
“Many of our staff evacuated their loved ones and stayed to work at the station,” Urofsky said.
Randi Zimmerman, GM of Tampa’s WMNF, cited pre-storm preparations for keeping the community radio station on the air during the storm. The station also maintained its internet stream.
“It was a bit of a miracle and a whole lot of planning before-hand,” she said. “I cannot express my gratitude for the tech and operations people who are devoted to their work on behalf of the WMNF community.”
WMNF news staff and a volunteer supplemented FPREN’s coverage with local reporting, she said.
“Since we are live at all times, we also took phone calls and read emails over the air,” Zimmerman said. “We provided more information when asked based on these calls and emails. This connection during difficult and stressful times matters most to people.”
WEDU, Tampa’s PBS station, reported damage to a transmitter site after the storm blew off part of the roof, but its broadcast service was not affected, according to President Paul Grove. WEDU’s broadcast operations are run by CentralCast Alliance in Syracuse, N.Y.
All members of the staff are safe, Grove said, but “there is property damage to a couple staffer’s homes.”
“We’re getting kind of used to this,” Grove said of Hurricane Milton’s magnitude. “It’s become too familiar.”
WFIT in Melbourne, an NPR news and Triple A station in Melbourne, Fla., is “doing fine,” said GM Steve Yasko. “We didn’t lose power … and continued to run our regular programming with FPREN updates inserted. Our staff is safe.” The station’s university licensee, Florida Institute of Technology, is shut down until Tuesday because of the holiday Monday, he wrote in an email to Current. “We can handle operations remotely over the weekend.”
Reports on WGCU, WUSF and WMSR have been added to this story.
Correction: An earlier version of this report referred to Central Florida Public Media in Orlando by the station’s broadcast call letters. The organization now is called Central Florida Public Media, not WMFE. The post has also been revised to correct an erroneous description of the phases of WGCU’s storm coverage.