Independent Announces Emergency Alert Service

Thank you for becoming partners with my favorite radio station KCSB 91.9 FM. I am proud to be a programmer on KCSB, Bluesland, and especially to be part of your new IndyAlert.
Thank you for thinking of your community in case of an emergency by starting this project.
Leo Schumaker

The question is how KCSB is going to change from its radical bohemianism into a reliable, professional first-responder. Given that it strives to indulge its programmers but eschews broad community interests (unabashedly, intentionally), how are we to trust "the revolution on your radio" in times of crisis? I'm confused.

I wonder what Edhat is coming up with?

Hmmmmm.......24 hour emergency coverage on KCSB. So, what I want to know is who is answering the 3 am call when our little world catches on fire, and who is relaying us that emergency info? The 19 year old kid working for free and running his 2 hour lame ass Japanese cartoon music show? I'm not impressed. Quite frankly, I'm scared.

Anyone taking bets on how long before Wendy gets upset at being upstaged and tries to do the same thing? Maybe hers will be for animals in peril.

KCLU might have made for a better partner -- they have the professional news department, bring the trusted NPR News brand, cater to the SB community and just bought KIST. KCSB could solve its reliability issues but that would involve a major cultural shift from free-form radio to something both audience-focused and journalistically reliable. It is too bad the most well-resourced news institution in town (the News-Press) is so weak when it comes to providing crisis coverage, especially on radio.

The way I see it, it looks like The Independent is going to use KCSB primarily to carry their coverage. Sharing is possible, and desirable, but by all appearances it will be heavily tilted toward the emergency coverage the newspaper has provided in recent years -- just based on pure output.

And "mvm" I think your comment "the most well-resourced news institution in town (the News-Press)" is sadly out of date.

The Japanese show is totally cool. Can't U appreciate that KCSB is the only radio station where you can hear Japanese music, with the dude talking japanese? I'm tuned in for alternative music and news. arigato, baby.

This is really amazing that some people think the style of music and other programming on KCSB has anything to do with the professionalism and reliability of their news reporting.

If the KCSB people were over age 40 and had short hair and wore neckties does that make them more trustworthy or reliable? If KCSB played lots of smooth jazz and canned Faux News reports, would that make a difference?

Not so sure what "free-form" radio means, as the content at KCSB keeps a schedule just like the programming at any other radio station.

How about if KCSB were just broadcasting the sanitized signal from a Clear-Channel-esque corporate headquarters in Texas, with no one there in the local office but the janitor at night or weekends?

Once again, the point is that KCSB has live people there 24/7/365, and those people (whether they play Anime music soundtracks or thrashing punk or classic blues) will read aloud the latest news report and official government announcement, and take calls from observers in the field, all live to be heard through the battery-powered radio that everyone has at home or in their car.

Websites and computers with internets connections are dependent upon electricity from the wall. That is the key difference for the next few years between a radio medium and a website about accessibility.

Besides, what the detractors here conveniently omit, apparently intentionally, is that KCSB has a veteran professional News Director and other staff who will be directing and compiling their reports through the miracles of being in the studio or calling in the report to be broadcast live on the radio through some amazing technology invented 50 years ago.

"Starlight" should be glad to know that the Japanese kid with his Anime soundtrack show on KCSB is not going to be analyzing and parsing the difference between an evacuation order or an evacuation warning; he will just follow orders and read the news updated every 20 minutes.

As a bonus, the Anime soundtrack show (in the middle of the night here) has thousands of live listeners in Japan (during prime-time listening hour there via www.kcsb.org) who will be learning about how Santa Barbara County handles emergencies. Eli Eskow even may be learning some Japanese phrases.

KCSB and Independent have been working on this partnership for months, long before anyone local knew that KCLU was acquiring KIST-AM radio. Besides, the new KIST still will be mastered out of KCLU facility in Thousand Oaks, which will be continue to be isolated next time the freeway is blocked by a landslide or high Ventura River.

The link below is the KCSB audio news story on the announcements Tuesday at the County Board of Supervisors, including the remarks by Edhat, Independent, and KCSB staff. All the media have a role here to compliment each other so the community gets it critical information fast, free, accurately, and spinless.

http://www.kcsb.org/news/kcsb-community-...

Mr. Pritchett is too modest to mention, so I will do it for him, the full-disclosure fact that his wife works in the news at KCSB [Cathy Murillo, Director, KCSB News and Public Affairs
email: cathy.murillo at kcsb.org], and he is a frequent contributor to Edhat.

Radio transmission, FYI, was first invented in 1866, and Marconi sent and received the first radio signal in 1895. The first trans-Atlantic signal occurred in 1902. So 50 years is 50 years too little. Forward into the past! I say.

And I remember when the power was out during the Gap Fire getting website updates from independent.com via their Twitter -feed during the Gap Fire. Isn't that peachy and modern?

That said, this partnership looks like a great start for our community.

While I often sleep with the News Director, the facts and analysis in my comment still are correct. I sometimes may be humble, but seldom modest.

Yes, radio is a really old technology, but my reference was to the wild and crazy method of someone out in the world using a telephone to call a radio station and that same call then being broadcast live on the radio.

KCSB and Indy reporters, both paid and deputized, can do that from the field to get the news fresh and hot read aloud on KCSB radio and posted at the Indy Alert and other websites.