Citizens Deserve Better Emergency Response

Creation of a more robust and flexible electric grid on Oahu receives the Honolulu Advertiser’s editorial support today. The recent island-wide blackout that left residents without power for 12 hours or more is discussed as a providential opportunity to not only strengthen the grid against such blackouts but make it capable of accommodating independent power producers more easily.

But let’s not stop there as we clean up after the outage. Questions are being raised by growing numbers of residents about whether emergency communications serves them adequately during our many storms, power outages and other disruptions to the normal order.

Designated emergency broadcaster KSSK-AM and its primary on-air personalities have repeatedly failed to meet their responsibility in delivering responsible and thoughtful emergency communications to a troubled and fearful public.  (The Honolulu Star-Bulletin expressed similar views in a recent editorial.)

More than Minimal

It’s not enough to start a generator and remain on the air, the minimum requirement for an emergency broadcast outlet. Equally important is the content of emergency broadcasts. Without question, serious-minded and fact-based programming is also required during an emergency.

What we get from KSSK and the other Clear Channel-owned stations, however, is more of the same entertainment mindset rather than crisis management. The station’s two-man team seems incapable of switching off their weekday personas and adopting a no-nonsense approach to helping the public understand what’s happening and how to cope.

Many have written letters to the editor and left comments online about how callers with concerns and questions during the recent outage were dismissively laughed off the air. Is it OK to flush the toilet? Will tomorrow’s canoe regattas be cancelled?

The anchor team dismissed such concerns, yet information was aired in the morning that the regattas were in fact cancelled and the Board of Water Supply was urging water conservation.

Dissing the Public

Callers with legitimate concerns should not expect to be ridiculed during emergencies for sport and entertainment or out of habit. Listening to the KSSK during a crisis, one has the feeling the weekday morning show has simply been dropped into the emergency slot – jokes, quips and all.

Taking it further, an emergency broadcaster intent on serving the public would keep its phone lines open for urgent matters and government officials. Instead, KSSK’s team puts no such restriction on its listeners and spends valuable airtime on multiple calls dealing with comparatively less urgent concerns, such as the proper aeration of fish tanks.

Adding to the dysfunction are senior government leaders and civil defense officials who consistently praise KSSK’s performance as if they’ve never heard anything better from an emergency broadcaster. The predictable result is mutual back patting and no impetus for improved results in the next crisis.

Strengthening Hawaii Public Radio’s ability to remain on the air and designating its stations as emergency broadcast outlets would be an improvement over our near-total reliance on Clear Channel. HPR’s tradition of public service and journalism-based broadcasting might even move KSSK and its sister stations toward more a responsible emergency performance.