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 Those operating principles have been replaced by a circle-the-wagons mentality to protect the company’s interests.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:

************
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.

************

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.

‘McChrystal Affair’ Has Lessons for Us All

Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s fall from grace is yet another example of how the super self-confident can lose it all by forgetting their place in front of the media. We submitted a commentary to Pacific Business News on what executives can learn from McChrystal’s intemperate behavior in the presence of a Rolling Stone reporter. It’s published this date; mahalo to PBN.

Friday, July 2, 2010
McChrystal forgot how to deal with the media
Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - by Doug Carlson

Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s firing by President Obama has lessons in it for every executive in every company in every state of the union, including Hawaii. It was the dramatic conclusion to what can happen when a leader forgets the basics about surviving in a media-driven environment.
McChrystal’s “insubordination” and apparent disrespect for the principle of civilian control of the military as reported by Rolling Stone magazine were the primary reasons cited by the President, but at the heart of the general’s fall was his disregard of a whole handful of principles of how to conduct oneself around reporters.
Media advisers drill home these guidelines to their clients, and one can only marvel at McChrystal’s blatant disregard of them. As a four-star general, he undoubtedly has participated in media training programs, but unless media skills are taken seriously and practiced, the training is worthless.
McChrystal’s willful disregard of well-known cautions about working with the media cost him his command and reputation. And his fall isn’t the first among senior military officers in recent years.
In 2008, Adm. William J. Fallon resigned after he was quoted by Esquire magazine making remarks that were found to be disrespectful of the Bush administration’s war policies.
The advice McChrystal most obviously ignored is one of the first principles a media consultant tells clients: “Never say anything in a reporter’s presence that you don’t want to see in print or on the air.”
Journalists find “news” in comments that might seem innocuous to others. Reporters aren’t in the business of doling out favors to newsmakers, so don’t be surprised when what you say is spread all over town.
It’s natural to ask of the McChrystal affair, what were they all thinking, the general and his inner circle? The Rolling Stone reporter was right there, absorbing everything they said.
Skilled journalists don’t necessarily have to take notes as they report. Hearing it can be enough, and one can only imagine the casual air the Rolling Stone’s reporter must have displayed as he hung out with McChrystal and his staff.
Rolling Stone has put the entire article on its website, so we’re able to draw other lessons from McChrystal’s comments as reported by Michael Hastings.
Prior to giving a speech in Paris, the general complained about not knowing what questions he might be asked regarding Vice President Joe Biden. “I never know what’s going to pop out until I’m up there, that’s the problem,” he said.
If the general had taken his media training to heart, those questions wouldn’t have been seen as “problems” but rather as opportunities to communicate a message. After all, that’s really the only reason to engage the media — to communicate what you want the public to know.
Newsmakers certainly do answer questions, but the common denominator among most newsmakers is their ability to use questions as the jumping off platform for what they really want to say.
It’s not being devious to do that; it’s simply being smart about how to work with reporters to ensure that each media interaction has a predictable outcome — and if not entirely predictable, at least not damaging.
General McChrystal may be an expert in military practices and doctrine, but he failed to follow some of the most basic media relations principles and has paid the price.

Doug Carlson of Commaaina Communications is a Honolulu-based media consultant.

Tsunami Arrives! Series of Dramatic Photos Shows Strong Outflow, then Waters Return

12:20 pm HST Update

At approximately noon HST, the stationary camera overlooking Hilo Bay (shown exclusively on KGMB-TV) showed a strong outflow or "sucking out" of the bay's waters below a bridge over to Coconut Island in Hilo Bay.

Less than two minutes later, the water flow had slowed and stopped....

... and within a minute, an inflow had started. The ebb and flow of the bay's waters was obvious in the station's coverage. This pattern has continued for the past 20 minutes.

11:25 am HST Update

Sailboats, tugboats with barges and all manner of other vessels are flowing out of Honolulu's harbors into the relative safety of open ocean. Tsunami waves, if they arrive, are expected to simply lift vessels a bit if they're distant from shore, but if caught in a harbor where the waves peak, they could be dashed to pieces.

Also, the media have been told to leave the vicinity of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Zone, which as we noted immediately below is within the Ewa Beach tsunami zone -- irony of all ironies.

10:30 am (HST) Update

Dashed red line shows approximate inundation zone boundary;

"A" marks location of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

It’s not a secret but hasn’t been mentioned in the media coverage we’ve heard: The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center on Fort Weaver Road in Ewa Beach, HI lies within the tsunami inundation zone as shown in an online inundation zone map.

The PTWC plans to move to Ford Island in Pearl Harbor, where it presumably would be designed to avoid an inundation zone. But for now, one wonders what will happen if a significant wave does reach Oahu’s southwest corner.

And of this hour, Hawaii Public Radio has resumed its full-time tsunami coverage on one of its stations – KHPR (88.1 FM) and also via streaming on the ‘net.

9:50 am (HST) Update

Clear Channel reports some service stations are running out of gas; one in Kailua on Oahu hasn't put out a sign, however, and cars are lining up -- fruitlessly.

Postal delivery won't be made in the inundation zones around the state.

Perry and Price continue to take calls from the audience, which is what they do during the week. As Howard Dicus demonstrated for two straight hours this morning between 5 and 7, there's more than enough official information about this quake, this tsunami and all the related issues to fill the time without relying on their usual format. But as a Clear Channel executive made clear two years ago, ratings are top of mind for the conglomerate even during emergencies.

Our take: Do the job right and ratings will take care of themselves.

9:15 am Update

Clear Channel's politically conservative team of Perry and Price can't seem to leave their weekday entertainment habits behind (as we've noted previously) when an emergency brings them into the studio. At about 8:50, Price notes that Hawaii native President Obama has issued a statement from the White House. Perry's response is a grunt. The statement is not read, and no further mention is made of it. In other words, their politics continues to influence their broadcasting, even during this emergency.

Update on Hawaii Public Radio: Unfortunately, the two HPR stations have been running national feeds since 7 am except for updates on the hour and drop-ins at about :19 and :39. We can't help but think HPR is missing a tremendous opportunity to set itself apart from the rest of the radio spectrum here. Pro journalist Howard Dicus was excellent during his preempted music program from 5-7, giving a nearly unbroken stream of updates and perspective. One wonders what it'll take for HPR to toss its format. Hopefully the trigger isn't death and destruction.

7:55 Update

Governor Linda Lingle was on the Clear Channel stations moments ago reassuring the public that officials are monitoring the situation.

City Managing Director Kirk Caldwell calls in regarding bus operations.

All beach parks are cancelled. University of Hawaii events are cancelled. Most likely other events also are on the block.

Strange early-morning announcement by a fire department truck in the neighborhoods on the mauka (mountain) side of Star of the Sea school at the end of the H-1 freeway. The truck was advising residents to be prepared to evacuate, but this area is far from an inundation zone.

Hawaii Public Radio unfortunately is still sticking with its usual format. Both KHPR and KIPO are carrying the same National Public Radio program (Weekend Edition). If ever there was a time for HPR to throw out the format and devote KIPO (primarily a public affairs station) to this emergency, now is that time!

7:20 am Update

In the midst of the blanket TV and radio coverage this morning of the tsunami warning, a standout so far was Hawaii Public Radio’s Howard Dicus, who preempted his “Howard’s Day Off” music program on KHPR (88.1 FM).

Howard is your classic professional journalist – in other words, a newsman. Most Honolulu radio stations regrettably don’t hire many or any of them any longer, so for the best radio coverage, we recommend Hawaii Public Radio.

That’s the point made here at CHORE 13 months ago after the December 26, 2008 Oahu power outage. HPR could become a designated emergency broadcast outlet using its professional journalists. Other radio outlets primarily use entertainers.

UNFORTUNATELY…. HPR ended its local coverage at 7 am and is broadcasting NPR’s Weekend edition on both KHPR and KIPO. Isn’t this an appropriate time to throw out the format and devote KIPO to tsunami coverage? The answer is YES!

State Civil Defense

Its 6 am siren went off but without a voice announcement afterwards. That obviously was a problem. Later, TV news confirmed that State CD is having trouble with its announcement mechanism. Deja Vu all over again!? An inability to communicate effectively with the public is what started CHORE in the first place after the October 2006 earthquakes!

Virginia Tech Officials Put Own Safety First, Waited to Alert Students to Shooting Threat

Going on three years after the tragic Virginia Tech shootings that claimed 33 lives, word now comes that some university administrators warned their families and locked themselves in before the rest of the campus was alerted more than an hour later to the threat of a rampaging gunman.

According to an Associated Press story, even garbage collection was halted on the Blacksburg, VA campus before students and faculty were told of the danger.

There’s been little news in the past two years about what University of Hawaii officials are doing to improve safety on our local campuses, but the news in October 2007 wasn’t good.

On October 25, 2007, UH officials were told that a man riding a city bus was overheard threatening to kill 30 UH students. Officials responded by issuing an email alert to students and staff, but other potential channels such as loud speakers and the campus radio station were not used. Several posts here at CHORE in October 2007 noted deficiencies in the University's communications plan.

Students Left Unaware

Students and others subsequently said they never received the alert and were unaware of a potential threat to their safety. Administration officials later said the communications plan needed improving.

It’s time for the media and others to ask for details on what’s been done to improve campus security in Hawaii. The latest revelations from Virginia Tech show why officials need this kind of “help” from outside their comfort zone – why citizens have an appropriate role in urging officials to prepare for and respond to emergencies.

Left to their own devices, officials have demonstrated all too often that they don't respond appropriately.

Felicia To Test State, Broadcast Storm Readiness

Felicia is taking dead-eye aim at the Big Island.

We’re two or three days away from feeling the effects of Felicia, and we don’t yet know whether it will be a hurricane, a tropical storm or a depression when it blows through next week.

The trend is downward in wind speed as the storm moves toward Hawaii through cooler surface waters and into wind shears – a combination that can tear at the storm and reduce its power.

This is the first storm we can recall in decades that has approached Hawaii so directly straight from the east. Hurricanes Iwa and Iniki (1982 and 1992) were spawned in the Central Pacific region – hence their Hawaiian names – and came from the south.

Forecasting has improved greatly since those storm devastated Kauai and damaged Oahu, as well. We still recall the 1 am call on 9/11/92 from a newspaper reporter friend who had just learned Iniki was heading straight for Kauai, something not known when most of us went to bed.

What Else Has Improved?

We won’t know until after this storm arrives whether our communications professionals in civil defense and the broadcast industry also have upped their game. It was distressing during and after the Oahu’s island-wide power outage in December to hear the primary emergency broadcaster respond with an “entertainment-as-usual” manner. Our newspaper commentary suggested at least a partial fix to the problem – giving emergency broadcaster status to the professional team at Hawaii Public Radio.

We also hope State Civil Defense has improved its capability to communicate with citizens in a timely manner. This and more will be clear within 72 to 96 hours when Felicia arrives – hopefully as nothing more than a breezy and damp visitor.