East Coast Plans for Blanket of Snow—and Coverage

Story by Inside Radio

Wall-to-wall weather. That’s the plan for Mid-Atlantic news and news/talk stations preparing for what looks like a potentially walloping snowstorm over the weekend. As much as two feet of the white stuff is forecast from Virginia through Washington and Maryland, up to Philadelphia and New Jersey.

Winter Storm Jonas looks to pack a punch—and predictions are it will also be a ratings shot in the arm for stations, who thrive during such events as vital community contacts.

Radio One's News-Talk radio stations in both Washington DC (WOL 1450am) and Baltimore (WOLB 1010am) are covering the storm and its affects on traffic, road closures, and travel to, from, and within the DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia areas.

“Simply put, it’s all hands on deck. We have brought in extra members of our team around the clock to help our listeners and readers in any way possible,” says Mike McMearty, PD of Hubbard’s all-news WTOP Washington, DC (103.5). “We’ve got extra on-air, Web, social media, traffic and weather staff to make sure we can cover every angle of this storm, which is shaping up to be historic.”

The station has already begun blanket coverage of Jonas, because “that’s what our listeners and readers want,” McMearty adds. “It will definitely be the only story this weekend and into next week if the storm lives up to its billing.” WTOP has no plans to bump spots for coverage. “Commercial breaks actually act as excellent moments to catch our breath and reset,” he says.

Likewise, Steve Butler, director of news & programming at Philly’s “NewsRadio” KYW (1060) and VP of radio news for CBS Radio, says that while his station is always wall-to-wall news, traffic and weather coverage, “in this case, nearly all of the news will be weather-related.” KYW has sold a sizable number of Storm Coverage sponsorships to clients.

News/talk/sports WBAL Baltimore (1090) is preparing for the storm’s arrival Friday with live news from 3pm-7pm “and if appropriate, we will stay on later in the evening, with arrangements for expanded local programming on Saturday,” says Scott Masteller, PD of the Hearst Corp. station. WBAL’s coverage will be augmented with a simulcast of sister WBAL-TV 11. “The key here is immediacy and updating elements as events develop,” Masteller says.

At Townsquare Media’s news/talk “New Jersey 101.5” WKXW Trenton, four traffic reports alongside four weather reports every hour are already in place. “We are also taking informative and entertaining and relevant listener calls, and top-of-the-hour newscasts and bulletins as needed,” says brand manager Eric Johnson. “Since the storm is on the weekend and we have had plenty of notice, we will relate to those hunkered down at home.”