I’d like to give a shout-out and big ups to our friends and colleagues at KPBS in San Diego, who are still dealing with the raging fires there. So far it seems everyone is safe, but I haven’t heard yet about homes and pets.
Bravo to their fine online and on-air journalists, and the rest of the staff, for keeping the station on the air and pumping out some of the best emergency news coverage I’ve read and heard since 9/11. They have proven they are superbly capable of high-caliber on-the-spot and off-the-cuff reporting. The flood of information-seekers—who knew where to turn—was so great that it took down their web site temporarily, though it’s back up now. They also lost their transmitter and are now broadcasting using the facilities of another station, as well as on local cable television systems and via online streaming, and they already have engineers putting up a new temporary antenna atop the KPBS studios.
Here at A Way with Words, my co-host Martha and our producer Stefanie Levine, both San Diegans, are safe. I’m based in Brooklyn, New York, (truly a coast-to-coast show, eh?), so I’ve been well away from the fiery hell, though until this evening I was in Missouri, following the drama in frustration from a household with only broadcast television and no Internet connection.
You can follow real-time updates on the KPBS home page sidebar or follow their Twitter feed.
Wishing everyone the best,
Grant Barrett
co-host, A Way with Words
