5/2 Blackout Blamed on Lightning Storm, but HECO Doesn’t Bother To Share Any Details

Here’s the status of emergency communications in Honolulu as revealed in the May 2 lightening-induced power outage:

KSSK, the designated emergency broadcast station, continues to entertain us with listeners’ phone calls rather than inform us with aggressive reporting, and Hawaiian Electric Company doesn’t go out of its way to inform us either.

Whereas you’d expect communications expertise to increase over the years, just the opposite is happening in Honolulu. KSSK’s on-air personalities once actually engaged spokespersons in Q&A sessions to elicit information important to listeners, but that doesn’t happen anymore. (We’ve already riffed on KSSK’s deficiencies during emergencies.)

It now appears that Clear Channel’s news center records Hawaiian Electric’s spokesperson during blackouts, and that recording is later slotted into the stations’ programming when convenient.

As late as two-plus hours after the outages began today, HECO’s recorded message was telling us what we already knew or could surmise – that the outage was weather-related, that the company knows this is a really inconvenient time and that HECO crews are working as fast as they can to restore the power.

Tell Us What We DON’T Know!

We never learned or heard a hint of what the problem precisely was. HECO’s Ward Avenue nerve center has millions of dollars in computers and sensing equipment installed there. Personnel who operate the center are highly knowledgeable about the system – how it works, where the problems are, everything.

It is inconceivable two-plus hours after the blackout that they would not know the precise location of the lightning strike that presumably set off the chain of events that blacked out tens of thousands of homes. Not a word was offered to answer the biggest question of all: How long does HECO think we'll be in the dark?

So what’s going on? Who’s muzzling these knowledgeable professionals, and why?

This is just a guess, but it seems likely that there’s been an unfortunate internal philosophical shift away from openness with and accountability to the company’s customers. Those operating principles have been replaced by a circle-the-wagons mentality to protect the company’s interests.

Who’s Responsible for This?

I can’t imagine any professional on HECO’s corporate communications staff keeping the lid on the information flow as HECO so obviously has been doing during recent outages.

So the suspicion here is that corporate gate-keepers are closing down the communications flow to the media and the company's customers – HECO’s attorneys or investor relations managers or other executives who are simply clueless about the importance of customer communications.

During this evening’s outage, residents tuning in to the designated emergency broadcaster didn't hear anything substantive about the outage from HECO or anyone else. Instead, they heard an endless stream of phone calls from customers asking whether power was on here or there, or reporting on traffic conditions, or describing water spouts, etc.

What we didn’t hear was a Q&A by KSSK’s news staff with the National Weather Service, a Q&A with Hawaiian Electric’s spokesperson, a Q&A with the Honolulu Police Department, a Q&A with other emergency responders, etc. We essentially heard nothing that hinted of professional journalism, and we didn’t hear anything from HECO that we didn’t already know.

Unfortunately, there’s no evidence this sub-standard emergency communications performance by any of the responsible parties is about to change. We deserve better.

Keeping this Discussion Alive: Clear Channel GM Defends KSSK, Still Backs Entertainment Format

As expected, the manager of Clear Channel’s stations on Oahu defended KSSK’s performance during the recent tsunami alert in response to our commentary in Pacific Business News. (If you want more along the same line, see our January 2009 PBN commentary.)

Unfortunately, Chuck Cotton brushed us off and did so with such dispatch that he asserted something untrue in his second graf.

I haven’t called myself a journalist for decades – not since I stopped reporting for KGMB-TV. I’m a consultant, as clearly stated at the end of my PBN piece.

My status aside, what have real journalists said about KSSK’s performance during emergencies? Here’s part of an editorial published by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on December 29, 2008 that reflected on the emergency response to the island-wide power outage three days earlier:

“The designated emergency broadcast radio stations, KSSK-AM and its sister FM station, should receive credit for transmitting during the blackout.

“However, information that got on the air was frequently incomplete, misleading or contradictory. The on-air staff members were unable to separate crucial duties in an emergency from their usual drive-time, talk-show format.

“That's not to say a touch of lightheartedness has no place in such a situation; it can help ease listeners' tensions. But the hosts at times became abusive or mocked callers who sought advice or help for problems the hosts deemed minor under the circumstances.

“In one instance a caller who criticized Hawaiian Electric Co. - which shrewdly sent a public relations representative to the station early on - was scorned as someone who probably voted for Democrats.

“While such nonsensical remarks can be shrugged off, the primary problem with the broadcast was that the station's staff worked passively. Instead of seeking information from authorities, the station simply waited for them to call in. And when they did call, the staff did not ask astute questions to clarify or expand on the conditions.”

We had already posted our own commentary on KSSK’s performance when that editorial appeared. The pattern was the same in other emergencies, starting with the 2006 island-wide blackout after the two Big Island earthquakes that prompted this blog’s launch.

The now-defunct Honolulu Advertiser editorialized on October 17, 2006: “Civil defense authorities need to examine how well Hawaii was served by its commercial radio network.” A few days later we urged Civil Defense to opt out of the mutual love-in with local radio, primarily KSSK. CD and KSSK were in a closed loop, each praising the other’s performance.

When is a Crisis ‘Entertainment’?

That’s how we first introduced problems with KSSK’s emergency response procedures:

“It’s entertaining when listeners call in with their anecdotal stories about what happened at their house during the quake. It’s not essential to take those calls, however, and it’s even debilitating to do so when those calls block access by emergency responders. We’ve learned that HECO’s spokesman tried repeatedly without success to get through to the station, and so may have other responders. Encouraging callers to phone in with their stories presumably made matters worse.

“The ‘entertainment’ mindset obviously was in play Sunday evening when Oahu’s emergency broadcast station began airing a pre-recorded music show hosted by entertainer John Tesh while half of Oahu was still without power. Tens of thousands of customers remained blacked out into the night and had to be satisfied with news breaks on the half hour.”

The pattern is clear: KSSK habitually substitutes entertainment for a full-on emergency response mindset when citizens need information the most. It happened during our biggest emergencies in 2006, 2008 and 2011.

Mr. Cotton is having none of the criticism here by CHORE, as well as from the newspapers and others – unfortunately. Here’s his response in the April 1 edition of PBN to our commentary’s criticism:

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KSSK offered complete tsunami coverage

Clear Channel’s GM takes issue
with writer’s critical assessment

Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience.

Doug Carlson, who calls himself a journalist, wrote an article published in the PBN Commentary section on March 18. In the article, Mr. Carlson states that KSSK simply fills the airwaves with calls from listeners no matter what the call is about and that the station’s coverage of an emergency amounts to an endless stream of phone calls from listeners.

That simply is not true. It may be his opinion, but it is not objective journalism; it is uninformed speculation.

Yes, KSSK does air calls from listeners during an emergency because they are very often the first people to witness events and activities that are relevant to a developing situation. Time and time again, our listeners have informed KSSK and in turn our listeners of critical situations that guide citizens away from inconvenience or possible danger. The 2006 earthquake and blackout and the 2008 blackout are two examples of listeners providing important information. Another was the Sept. 6, 2006, H-1 freeway bridge collapse. Listeners did more to help stranded motorists than a hundred journalists could have done during the incident.

But, here is where I take issue with Mr. Carlson: He claims that all KSSK does in an emergency is air listener calls, and that is where Mr. Carlson fails as a journalist. Either he is not listening, didn’t bother to investigate, or he has a separate agenda.

He has not witnessed the effort that goes into our broadcast operation and the dedicated professionals who come to the station anytime day or night to gather information and deliver it to our listeners. During the recent earthquake and tsunami there were 17 people in the radio studios all night long, gathering information (and yes), screening listener calls, contacting government officials and first responders. They checked their facts and they made sure current and correct information was aired by our personnel on KSSK, as well as KHVH AM 830, KIKI AM 990, Star 101.9, Island 98.5 and 93.9 Jamz. We also aired live reports from the Honolulu City and County traffic Management Center and the Pacific Tsunsmi Warning Center in Ewa Beach. Our staffers were at both locations most of the night.

Unfortunately, Mr. Carlson is stuck in the 1960s 20-minute, radio news cycle which was innovative when it started in the ‘60s but has gone the way of other radio formats that listeners eventually rejected.

KSSK is Honolulu’s primary civil defense radio station; we take that responsibility very seriously. We go to great lengths to gather accurate information from all available sources, including our listeners.

We nothing else works, KSSK is that voice in the dark that keeps people talking, information flowing, and staves off panic…and without information during a crisis situation, people get very anxious. So, if you are going to count on a source during an emergency, you can bet KSSK and all of our Clear Channel stations will be there doing their very best to make sure you and your family have the latest and most accurate information. And you, our loyal listeners, play a very important role in that effort.

And to Mr. Carlson, the next time the earth shakes, the winds blow, the water rises and the lights go out, we invite you to come down to the Clear Channel studios on Iwilei Road and watch the dedicated local broadcast journalists in action. Then you will be an informed journalist.

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Here’s our last-word response to Mr. Cotton’s self-congratulatory piece: A dozen journalists working behind-the-scenes matters not a whit if their efforts are filtered through KSSK’s bottom-line format during emergencies – entertainment by entertainers.

That's the station’s format in and out of emergencies – entertainment. Even casual listeners can tell the difference between laugh-happy entertainment and journalism. Mr. Cotton either can’t or won’t see the difference, and that’s not a comforting stance for the boss of Oahu's primary emergency broadcast station.

KSSK Shows How Not To Do Radio – Again

“We must be doing something right” is the standard response from Clear Channel, the mega-broadcasting company that owns hundreds of radio stations across the nation, including several in Hawaii.

Clear Channel’s ratings winner is KSSK, and they're mighty proud of it, although the late Cec Heftel was more responsible for the station’s current success than anything the mainland owner has done.

Heftel’s KGMB-AM, later marketed as K59, surged to number one with Aku at the microphone, and the station has never dipped to number two since.

It isn’t KSSK’s performance during emergencies that explains why so many people tune in. It’s from habit – a habit that could use breaking when we’re in a crisis.

We’ve made this point repeatedly since the 2006 Big Island earthquakes and resulting major power outage on Oahu. KSSK’s celebrity team of Perry and Price performs differently than any broadcasters we’ve ever heard during an emergency, and we’ve heard more than a few.

That’s Entertainment

KSSK simply moves its weekday morning entertainment format into the emergency period. It wasn’t long after the tsunami warning was issued late Thursday night that the P-and-P show began doing in the early hours on Friday what they do six times a week.

The show's formula is to entertain by taking calls from listeners. It doesn’t matter what a call’s about; they’ll take it. The station’s coverage of an emergency amounts to an endless stream of phone calls from listeners who have a burning desire to share their personal experience.

KSSK fills its air with first-person reports from non-reporters. To most broadcasters, that would be crazy, but it’s successful for KSSK because it follows the old entertainment advice: “Give them what they want.”

The biggest segment of Honolulu’s radio listening audience apparently wants all Perrry and Price, all the time. But is it what we need?

We’re sticking with the argument we started in 2006 the blackout, continued after the December 2008 blackout and have continued in the CHORE blog several times over the past five years: The public does not need a stream of essentially meaningless phone calls during an emergency. We need information, not entertainment, and you could find it on other stations in Friday’s early hours.

The Cox-owned stations, for example, and Hawaii Public Radio had completely different on-air sounds to them. Station personnel were reporting information gathered from official sources – Civil Defense, the Governor, the Mayor, emergency responders, etc. It was news you could actually use, and it was a huge contrast to KSSK’s on-air content.

But will Clear Channel ever change how Perry and Price conduct themselves during emergencies?

Not on your life, because ratings rule. Just don’t bet your life on what you hear on KSSK during a true crisis. It could turn out to be a bet you can't afford to lose.