Brian FM to live broadcast emergency messages
Published on 20 October 2016
Music-only radio station Brian FM wants to give back to the Whanganui community – so they’re partnering with Whanganui District Council’s emergency management team to ensure essential public information messages are broadcast immediately during an emergency.
Previous emergency events, including the severe weather event in June 2015, have highlighted the fragmented nature of the radio market and the need to establish a guaranteed point of contact for emergency messages to the community.
Brian FM has agreed to turn its station over to Whanganui Civil Defence Emergency Management when there is a major emergency such as a flood, severe storm or earthquake. The agreement enables the emergency management team to broadcast live public safety messages and situation updates on Brian FM’s Whanganui frequency (91.2FM), as well as Brian FM 93.2 Taihape and the station’s latest area, Brian FM Raetihi on 90.2. The messages will also broadcast on Brian FM’s sister station ReelWorld Radio 92.0 Whanganui and will be on Brian FM’s Whanganui web stream at www.brianfm.com. Awa FM 100.0 Whanganui, which transmits to the Whanganui River valley, will also be joining the live broadcast service in the near future.
Whanganui District Council Chief Executive Kym Fell says the agreement provides a level of reassurance for the community that there is a fast, efficient point of access to emergency information.
“We have had fantastic support during past emergencies from the other stations that broadcast locally but most of them are constrained by national networking and limited local broadcasting windows,” Mr Fell said.
“The arrangement with Brian FM will allow us to broadcast messages immediately from the Emergency Operations Centre during a major event. This will mean that people can tune in at any time of the day or night and know that if there is important local emergency information they will receive it straight away.
“We now have Brian FM’s equipment installed in our Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) which our team will use to interrupt Brian FM’s normal broadcasting. With the EOC having generator back-up, loss of power during an emergency won’t be an issue.”
Emergency Manager Matthew Smith says although technology has changed the way many people access information, Civil Defence still advocates that people have a transistor radio and battery supplies as part of their emergency kit.
“We have always pushed the radio and batteries message as part of our ‘be prepared’ campaigns and that hasn’t changed,” Mr Smith said.
“Mobile networks can overload and power supply can be interrupted so being able to tune into a transistor radio to hear instructions and updates is essential in a major emergency. It can be difficult to get locally-relevant messages broadcast through national media so being able to transmit directly from our EOC will be a huge benefit to Whanganui and the region.”
Brian FM’s Andrew Jeffries says the station is delighted to get on board with providing improved emergency communications to the Whanganui community.
“We’re a privately owned, music only station, we’re not chasing profits, and we realise our music station is not ideal for everyone but - in an emergency - who cares! Brian FM has the most extensive network of transmitters covering the region so let’s just get the information to the public. Even though we are a small station, we take being a part of our community seriously, much more seriously than we take ourselves.
“In an emergency, sharing information fast and accurately is critical. Nobody knows what’s going on faster than the men and women at the Whanganui District Council’s Emergency Management Team... so giving them access to the Brian FM and ReelWorld Radio transmitters to share this information first hand is simply making sure we do our part to get this information to our listeners immediately.
“From the second we suggested this to the Whanganui District Council, they have been super supportive... so now we can help with critical emergency information, and at all other times continue _Playing What We Feel Like_ on Brian FM.”
During an emergency, information will continue to be provided to all media as well as broadcast live on Brian FM.
For live messaging from Whanganui Civil Defence during an emergency tune in to:
- Brian FM Whanganui - 91.2FM
- Brian FM Taihape - 93.2FM
- Brian FM Raetihi - 90.2FM
- ReelWorld Radio Whanganui - 92.0FM
- Brian FM’s Whanganui web stream at www.brianfm.com
The live link with Awa FM Whanganui - 100.00FM will be installed in the near future.