With fires sweeping through Santa Rosa and Sonoma County, disrupting phone and computer connections in many areas, many residents tried to turn to radio for immediate information on evacuation orders and the spread of flames.
But with several stations knocked off the air when transmitters on Mount Barham, off Calistoga Road, that proved difficult.
One of five stations owned by Amaturo Sonoma Media Group was off the air, but its talk-news flagship, KSRO AM-FM, broadcast continuous news and bulletins, which were carried on its three sister stations still on the air.
That continued for 24 hours, starting early Monday. Morning anchor Pat Kerrigan stayed to work a 12-hour shift.
“We switched all of our FM stations over to KSRO’s coverage,” said the group’s president, Michael O’Shea. “We have five reporter-anchors, and then we put many of our other people on the air. Everybody in the building has on-air experience.”
With official sources busy with the fires and evacuations, getting accurate, detailed information proved difficult, especially in the early hours, leading to some mistakes.
KSRO had to backtrack after passing along a caller’s report the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts had “burned to the ground.”