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Major stories in smaller markets do not come along all that often. But yesterday was a good example of how one radio station moved quickly to cover such a story. At 8:15am Sunday (27/3) a 45-unit 3-story apartment building exploded in Woodstock Ontario. |
| The explostion was heard for many miles, and 104.7 Heart FM had a reporter on the scene within five minutes (the building was located about 2 kms from the radio station) shooting video, talking to eye witnesses and filing news stories. The station website was hit with so much traffic that it almost ground to a halt, but within 30 minutes the website hosting company was on the job and fixed the problem.
The station video (including an appropiate credit) was run unedited by many of the television outlets accross the country throughout the day and is still being run today. Heart FM is normally live til Noon on a Sunday and then voice tracked, but the PD came in and went live until 6pm to ensure listeners were kept updated with the latest information including road closures, who to contact if they knew someone affected, and how locals could help. The Police Chief drove to the station to be on the morning show today and broke new information about this story live on the air. The radio station proved that acting quickly and being local is the best way to build loyality. I should also point out that I own 104.7 Heart FM so I am very proud of the effort the staff put in yesterday and every day. |
