LAKEPORT >> When disaster strikes, Lake County community radio station KPFZ (88.1 FM) shifts into high gear. With 24 hour continuous coverage of the Mendocino Complex fires beginning July 28, KPFZ filled a critical space in the schema of disaster response communications by acting as a “conduit,” as the station’s Board of Directors President Olga Steele put it, for public input and official information to pass through.
Steele said Friday after programming that included her husband, District 3 Supervisor Jim Steele, talking about fire recovery and prevention methods, that KPFZ will “keep getting better and better” during fires.
There is some organizational work left to do: “When we kick into full time service, we need a system in place,” Steele said. Next time, she wants to be even more prepared.
The Lake County Community Radio Board of Directors is in the late stages of developing a more advanced and well-organized protocol for emergency operations, which will be distributed among all of its programmers with the understanding that anyone desiring to broadcast during a fire or other disaster will be required to keep their programming about the situation at hand. The protocol will help the station, which is operated and programmed completely by volunteers, stay organized the next time they switch to emergency fire coverage.
Ann Woodworth, an experienced board operator for the station, said Friday that while she had been at KPFZ nearly constantly during the 2017 fire season, she had been unable to come in during the Mendocino Complex, as she faced multiple road blocks on the route from her home in Potter Valley. Other volunteers were able to ensure the relatively smooth operation of KPFZ’s programming, but Steele said Woodworth’s presence had been missed.
For a volunteer-run community radio station like KPFZ to streamline operations during a fire, business as usual is thrown out the window. A goodly portion of KPFZ’s programming is devoted to music during normal weeks; all music was cut from the air for over a week due to the fires this year, though some music programmers did come in to cover the Mendocino Complex. In addition, Steele explained that interaction between callers, radio programmers, and guests including Public Information Officers from Cal Fire and PG&E were heightened dramatically. “It moves into a whole other arena where we start getting calls from shelters and other organizations that want to help,” Steele said. “We end up almost being like a traffic controller, connecting people who, say, have a truck and who are willing to go pick up supplies and take them to an area that needs them. It gets very administrative in nature.”
Because of this interactivity, Steele said that as a programmer during fire coverage, “You develop these relationships with people you’ve never seen before, but all of a sudden you’re best friends.” Some of the most consistent callers to the station were individuals who were sheltering in place during evacuation orders. “We heard from people who were sheltering in place, and we heard from people who knew people who were sheltering in place, and wanted to make sure they got help.”
On Elk Mountain Road—one of the most at-risk populated areas during the Ranch Fire’s most active weeks—many of those sheltering in place were in need of feed for their livestock, and called in to KPFZ for help. “One of the reasons people don’t leave is because they’ve got animals, and you can’t just move a herd of cattle out,” Steele said.
KPFZ largely resumed its regular programming schedule in mid-August, but has not completely left behind extra air time for the fire topic. Every day from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., the station is devoted to what Steele called the “recovery” phase of disaster programming. This includes talk shows in other time slots as well, like the 10 a.m. “Voices of Lake County” Friday which featured Supervisor Steele addressing issues that rise to the surface post-emergency. Shows like “Lake County Fire Recovery” with Betsy Cawn are part of regular programming loyal to the subject.
