Beasley’s Florida Stations Survive the Brunt of Hurricane Milton – Radio World

13 stations in Tampa and Fort Myers are up and running

After Hurricane Milton swept through Florida Wednesday night, Beasley Media Group reports that its radio stations in Tampa and Fort Myers are back on the air as of Thursday midday.

Beasley’s Tampa cluster includes WLLD(FM), WRBQ(FM), WJBR(AM), WQYK(FM), WPBB(FM), WYUU(FM) and WYUU(HD2). The stations’ studios and five transmitter sites did not sustain any damage, Beasley reports.

Lamar Smith, director of corporate engineering at Beasley, shared the following status report: “We were able to stay on the air in Tampa with some power issues. Staff is trying to make their way back into our area. [Morning show host] MJ was able to get back into our studios this morning and is providing live local content on WQYK. We carried wall-to-wall coverage from our TV partner during the direct hit.”

Heidi Raphael, chief communications officer for Beasley, said, as of Thursday morning, their stations are currently transitioning from Beasley’s partner TV programming back to local hosts.

Beasley’s Fort Myers stations, which include WRXK(FM), WXKB(HD2), WJPT(FM), WBCN(AM/FM/HD2), EXKB(FM) and WWCN(FM), are also fully-operational with no structural damages reported.

Raphael said there were several power outages, but “it was restored at 3 a.m. and by 4 a.m. and we were able to have all the stations back on the air again.”

The Fort Myers stations also carried wall-to-wall TV coverage with its TV partner, breaking in with local messaging as it was received.

Raphael said all Fort Myers stations are currently running a “hybrid” version of their programming, flipping between local coverage and NBC2 – WBBH(TV).

“Each hour will be less and less of the NBC feed and more of us live,” said Raphael. “We may possibly have [our stations] take fully over by 10 a.m. [Friday]. If the phone lines are busy, then they will stay on-air and not flip back to NBC.”

WRXK and WXKB are currently running on their backup. Raphael said the stations’ engineer is en route to the transmitter site. “We plan to open the offices back up tomorrow with the understanding that some may have challenges getting in.”

Beasley’s corporate office in Naples, Fla., is open with working Wi-Fi as of Thursday.

“Our employee safety is our top priority,” Raphael told Radio World. “CEO Caroline [Beasley] wants to make sure their families are taken care of and safe. They can work from home or come to the office — it’s at the employee’s discretion.

“We would especially like to thank all of our amazing teams for what they did and continue to do post-storm — especially our incredible team of tech engineers in Fort Myers, Tampa and at corporate for all their hard work throughout the hurricane.”

[Related: “Ham Radio Operators Assemble Ahead of Hurricane Milton“]