WFMU's Beware of the Blog

WWOZ Update 4: We Begin To Emerge

In his fourth and possibly his final post, WWOZ General Manager David Freedman (no relation) makes his way back into New Orleans, puts FEMA on his speed dial, inspects his transmitter (it's OK!) and starts to make sense of how to put his broken station and scattered staff back together again. Along the way, he wonders about the future of the "northern capital of the Caribbean." David's previous posts are here.

It is 3 AM Thursday, September 15. I am writing this as I sit in my new apartment in Baton Rouge (4th location, 4th blog, 10th day out). I am thinking back on last Tuesday. Just two days ago. It seems so far away.

I had finally figured out how to re-enter New Orleans legit. As they finished announcing a phone number on the radio, I began dialing it. Never mind that it was 8 PM, the Mayor was no longer blocking passage to New Orleans. He was allowing any businessman with a legitimate business reason to get a pass to enter the city. Just call this number and get a pass to the city.

My cause was certainly legit. I needed to go in to inspect the WWOZ tower and transmitter. If those parts of the broadcast chain were OK, WWOZ could possibly get on the air from New Orleans a lot more quickly than we had thought. We wouldn't have to wait for replacement equipment. We wouldn't have to set up a temporary tower somewhere out of the city. It would cost less and be quicker. That was certainly a legitimate business reason.

From the WFMU News Vault: WWOZ-in-exile and Thomas Edison's Attic

A couple of articles this week about the WWOZ-in-Exile stream:

This is a long article from the Nashua Telegraph.  It features interviews with both WFMU and WWOZ Station Managers and a rather somber photo of our own Station Manager Ken.

This is a article about preserving the cultural heritage of New Orleans. (registration required)  WWOZ-in-Exile gets a mention in a few paragraphs.

Speaking of the efforts to save WWOZ, thanks to the many WFMU listeners and WWOZ supporters who have pledged so far!

Also in the news this week: 

A fascinating article (registration required) about Thomas Edison's wax cyclinder recordings.   Jerry Fabris, host of WFMU's Thomas Edison's Attic and curator at the Edison National Historic Site, talks about these early recordings and efforts to preserve them in digital format for future generations to enjoy.

Click here to listen to the August 23, 2005 episode of Thomas Edison's Attic.  (RealAudio)   All playlists and archives for the show can be found here.

WWOZ Update Three: Saving The Record Library

Here's another update from David Freedman from the streets of New Orleans. David is General Manager of WWOZ, the great community station of New Orleans. WWOZ's studios and record library were spared severe damage in Katrina and only suffered moderate flooding and no looting. But in recent days, David's been struggling to protect WWOZ's record library and equipment from being destroyed by subsequent rains - Katrina left OZ's studios and library exposed to the elements.

David also discovered that the WWOZ broadcast tower was in fact severely damaged, contrary to their first observations from a distance. In the course of dealing with these issues, David observed pockets of normalcy in New Orleans next to armed checkpoints, and he also reports on the non-state of forced evacuations.

First, a recent story from the New Orleans Times-Picayune, followed by David's update.

Times-Picayune - Saturday, September 10, 2005

Roof damage threatens priceless WWOZ record collection

By Dave Walker
TV columnist

The studio equipment and irreplaceable record and CD collection at noncommercial WWOZ 90.7 FM, the public radio outlet that beamed New Orleans music and culture to the region and, via the Internet, the world - survived Hurricane Katrina but might not survive the city's current lockdown.

Update on WWOZ, New Orleans

Here's the latest from WWOZ General Manager David Freedman, who managed to get back into New Orleans to inspect the station's damage.

Below is a report of my first hand inspection of our facilities in New Orleans and some of our options:

Damond Jacob (our Chief Engineer) and I, along with Robert Carroll and Ron Curtis, Chief Engineer and Operations Manager of WWNO, entered the city by night (Wednesday) and stayed on the outskirts at the home of a friend who happens to be a sherrif's deputy and who also happens to have electricity and running water! His house had flooded, and the floor boards were buckling.It smelled moldy and felt dank. Outside, 50 pounds of rotting shrimp from his freezer added quite a heady aroma.

He had food and bottled water. Indeed, the next morning we were able to purchase groceries at a neighborhood CVS pharamcy. This might have been the only place in New Orleans where this was possible, and only because it was on the outermost perimeter of the city. There were no groceries or convenience stores once we were in the city proper-- just pallets of MRE's.  We drove over to the west bank Wednesday night to inspect WWNO's tower facility. There was about 250 feet of transmission line wrapped around a guy wire. Otherwise, everything seemed to be in shape.

Report From WWOZ New Orleans General Manager

I've been helping David Freedman (no relation), the Manager of WWOZ New Orleans as he works his way to the outskirts of New Orleans and locates and assembles his staff. Here is an e-mail he asked me to post on the WWOZ website. I'm posting it here because it's of great interest to fans of radio or New Orleans, and I dont know how to post larger items like this on the WWOZ site, where I've been helping out as well. Their webmaster is temporarily offline, so I'm posting here, and linking to it from the WWOZ homepage.

It's David's personal account of the crisis of a lifetime, for him, WWOZ, New Orleans and America. And a heart wrenching tale from WWOZ's Production Director Dwayne.  -Ken

The following is a first-person account of some of the moments in the life of General Manager David Freedman as WWOZ confronted the crisis of a lifetime. This first person narrative should be taken just as such. Which is to say, that while I sat in Hot Springs, Damond Jacob in Dallas, Dwayne Breashears in Lake Charles, Tony Guillory in Lafayette, Christian Kuffner en route to Asheville, N.C., Maryse Dejean in Natchez, Robbie Benjamin (formerly Muni Malone) in Alexandria, Marlene Wadsworth in Mendenhall, Missiissippi, Fred Goodrich in Dallas, Mary Johnston in Lafayette, Parker Sternbergh in Florida, Tom Morgan in Pensacola and many many more of our Board members, volunteers and concerned community/pubradio and on-line fans each have a week's worth of story to tell that would only begin to approximate the effort and genuine concern for WWOZ's survival. I just have one piece of the story. But I thought you might want to follow it and I invite others to post what they experienced and continue to experience as we climb back from this devastation.

David Freedman
General Manager
WWOZ-FM