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So far, we've covered subject matter that will assist you in handling most routine stories and given you an idea of how to be proactive on behalf of Amateur Radio. What about the "Big Story?" Breaking news - and for our purposes that's usually going to be some form of disaster or emergency in which communications are disrupted - is often a trigger for media coverage of Amateur Radio. From your perspective as a PIO, breaking news comes in two flavors:
News that's happening somewhere else
Local news operations love local tie-ins to big national and international stories. So disasters like an earthquake, a hurricane, a flood or large-scale fire provide an opportunity for Amateur Radio to get some coverage by adding local interest. Or at least that's what the editors think. The truth is that -- with a few exceptions -- there generally isn't much going on among your town's hams that's related to the distant disaster. But if the media are going to come calling anyway, we might as well give them what we can, and get something out of it.
If the editors are aware of you and your connections to the Amateur community, there's a pretty good chance they'll call you. And even if they don't, your odds of attracting their attention when you call them are way up. And do call them. Fast breaking stories can't wait for a news release.
What will they want when they call?
It's pretty rare today for the newsroom to need Amateur Radio to find out what's happening. But in the very early stages of a disaster in a remote area, that's possible. And if you or one of your resources can actually listen in on amateurs communicating from the stricken area, you have a golden opportunity to fascinate your local media and their audience. It's going to be tricky, though. You'll have to be in range of the traffic, but most of the direct emergency communications will be on local bands, VHF-FM or perhaps 80 meters. Chances are you can't hear actual tactical communications going on in the disaster area.
You'll have better luck with information and relief nets operating on 20 meters. The Hurricane Watch Net, SATERN (Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network), and other long-range nets provide some interesting listening. ARRL bulletins usually publicize emergency net frequencies. You might need to give a reporter some very brief, simple background on propagation and why you can't just tune in radio traffic anywhere in the world it's happening.
The biggest bang will come if a reporter or crew is on hand to witness and record whatever communications you can hear. That's going to require a lot of luck, since the reporters and crew can't camp out at your station. If nothing's available "live", they may be interested in a recording you made, but they'll probably be happy with an interview in which you summarize what you heard. You can also talk about the kind of activity that is likely to be happening on the scene by comparing it to your local emergency communications preparations.
A reporter may expect you to be able to communicate with a ham in the disaster area. Most of us won't have the contacts, the station or the luck to pull that one off. And we would hope that a ham who can get on the air from the middle of a disaster would be helping cope with the emergency, not roaming the bands for a ragchew. That kind of contact happens now and then, but the chances of your stumbling across that ham while the reporter is in the shack are pretty small.
Then there are the people in your town who are distraught because they can't get through to family members in the disaster area. Can ham radio help? Once again, a reporter may have unrealistic expectations. The first rule of emergency communications is that inbound health and welfare traffic is restricted for the first 24 to 48 hours of an emergency. Outbound traffic is supposed to be given priority, but you probably won't hear any of it on your local traffic nets (the traffic should be delivered by the first ham with a working phone, not delayed 24 hours as it transits the traffic nets to finally be delivered by a local ham). So what do you do?
Explain the difficulty of sending inquiries into trouble spots. Make an example of your local situation, where you're better prepared to send messages out than accept them from outside. If local phone lines are down and people have been relocated to hotels or shelters, finding them will be nearly impossible. But hams inside the disaster area will be trying to send messages out to concerned relatives. There is the occasional heroic attempt to find someone through the disaster maze. If you've got one of those stories (especially if it's successful), you can play it up. But don't make it sound like an everyday occurrence.
Sometimes, though, the situation isn't all that grim. When earthquakes hit near Seattle in February 2001, it was impossible to make a phone call into the area. But most local phones were working, so hams there set up a net on 20 meters taking inbound inquiries and quickly relaying responses. Most of the people taking advantage of that net were other hams, but if you learn of such a net and have some hams in your area willing to take a minor flood of phone calls, you can publicize that service.
A better idea is to point the media to agencies who are set up to handle inbound welfare inquiries. The Red Cross and Salvation Army will collect messages and forward them (often using Amateur Radio) when channels are clear enough. Check with your local office first.
It's tempting to over-promise Amateur Radio's ability to communicate into a disaster area. If Amateurs in your town are providing emergency assistance to a stricken area, you should know about it and promote it. But most of the time, the best local angle is to tell the press what we'd be doing if the emergency were happening here.
News that's happening here
And one day, the news will be happening here. You've got a local disaster on your hands, and Amateur Radio is doing its part to help the community cope and recover.
If you're an EC who does the PIO job on the side, you've got a problem. You're too busy right now to handle the media. But, as one Section Manager frequently told his Field Organization troops, if Amateur Radio doesn't get credit for the job it's doing, it almost might as well not do the job. That's pretty extreme, and you'd discount it if a PIC were saying it. But this was a Section Manager. His point was that the PR job requires more than the part-time effort of an EC or anyone else more concerned with operational responsibilities. When you're in the middle of a disaster, being a PIO is a full-time job.
So, you're a PIO, and your wise EC has you dedicated to just that job. Swirling around you is a large-scale disaster. You're even more fortunate because you are totally plugged into your ARES or RACES operation. You know what frequencies will be in use. You have access to the EOC and remote command posts and staging areas. You know who the hams are, where they'll be and what they'll be doing there. It's time to get the word out.
Assuming that you are safe and your family's needs are met, you probably need to be on the scene yourself. That is, you need to be where hams are doing their jobs, and where the media are. Once you get there, get yourself up to date on the situation, sort out the rumors from the facts, and find some reporters.
For the media, especially the broadcast media, many disasters happen in slow motion. A hurricane is a good example. TV stations begin covering a hurricane full-time hours before landfall. The hurricane takes a few hours to pass, and coverage continues for hours or days once it's passed, especially if there was a lot of damage. If the disaster was quick, like an earthquake, the recovery is still a drawn-out affair.
The point is that there is a lot of airtime to fill, and the event will be covered from every possible angle. Amateur Radio is one angle, and we'll get our share of coverage if you are there to make it happen. We'll get coverage if you're not there, too. The reporters will find the hams. But once again, the reporter's knowledge is limited and his/her expectations may be unrealistic. Hams who are busy operating stations won't have the time or inclination to give a thoughtful interview. So you may not like what gets reported.
Finding the reporters
Before you dig out the reporters, you need to get some permissions in order. One of the preparations you should have made well in advance is making contact with the Public Information Office for your city, county or state Emergency Management, the Red Cross, or whatever agency the hams are serving. In this situation, Amateur Radio is not independent. We are part of their bigger story. And while they will generally not object to our getting some coverage, they should be aware of our PR efforts, and give you permission to bring reporters into restricted areas to observe Amateur Radio in action.
So whether you've introduced yourself before or not, go visit the Public Information officials first and get those permissions. If they learn from you what ham radio is doing, they'll probably include our activity in their press briefings, or even invite you to speak yourself on behalf of Amateur Radio.
You should limit the information you deliver to just what the radio operators are doing. You're not a spokesman for the agencies we're serving. And you'll even need to be discreet about the ham information. If your hams just received a report that a major bridge collapsed, it's not your job to grab a reporter and pass it on. True, if some reporters are astute enough to be monitoring our frequencies, they could have gotten that information directly. Maybe they overheard it while observing our operation. But let them go to the authorities for confirmation.
Now, go get that reporter. For you, this is probably not news release time - it's time to snag them in person. If you're on the scene or at an EOC, there are bound to be reporters around. Sometimes they'll be corralled in a media-briefing center. Sometimes they'll be roaming around more or less freely. Find them and introduce yourself. Tell them that there is an Amateur Radio operation providing communications support, and offer them a guided tour. All the interview techniques reviewed in the other chapters of this manual come into play here.
Three stages of the disaster story
You'll probably have more than one opportunity to provide information. Initially, you may only be able to report what preparations have been made, where hams are stationed and what they are expecting (or expected) to do. At this early stage, there may be more rumors than facts flying around, so be careful what you pass along.
As the event unfolds, you should be able to gather stories of our activities and check them out for accuracy. Once that bridge collapse story is old news (30 minutes might be "old" in this context), you can pass on how ham radio operators got the information and passed it to the EOC. Getting details like this is going to be hard, and now is probably not the time to break into the Amateur Radio net to ask the ham who filed the bridge report to tell you all about it. Keep in touch with the EC and anyone who can fill in the picture for you.
When the emergency is over and cleanup is in progress, you have the chance to get details from the hams involved and complete some stories from the field. The press will be looking for those stories, especially if they're still in "total coverage" mode. The more human-interest you can get into your information, the better.
Finally, notable Amateur Radio activity in a big emergency will be reference material for years, until it's eclipsed by a more recent disaster story. Every Field Day you'll be able to talk about how the weekend exercise keeps hams ready to help "like we did during that big flood last year." And as the event fades into the past, remember that news media outlets observe anniversaries of big stories. By working your contacts properly, Amateur Radio can have a prominent role. "It was just a year ago that Hurricane Ralph devastated our area. Ham Radio operators Mary and Joe Smith not only remember their roles in the relief efforts, they also say they've learned from the experience and are now more prepared than ever if they are called on again..."
Rules and Regs on Hams and Media
In an emergency with a really widespread communications blackout, your media contacts may ask you to do more than just tell what you know about the situation. If your hams are in contact with a first-person source on the scene, they may want to ask questions through your station. They may even ask you to send a message to their reporter or crew. How far can you go?
Here's the rule (as of July 2001 - check the rules on the ARRL web page for updates)
(b) An amateur station shall not ... engage in any activity related to program production or news gathering for broadcasting purposes, except that communications directly related to the immediate safety of human life or the protection of property may be provided by amateur stations to broadcasters for dissemination to the public where no other means of communication is reasonably available before or at the time of the event.
So unless the interview is with someone who is providing information that will safeguard life or protect property, and there's no other way to communicate, you can't do it. But if those conditions are met, you certainly can. Same with passing a message to the reporter. If letting them talk to him will somehow protect life or property, it's OK.
If you have to say "no", you may have to be hard-nosed about it. Media folks can be intensely focused and driven, and they won't care much about the subtleties of Amateur Radio rules. Tell them your license is on the line.
The media is permitted to broadcast live, record and replay any Amateur Radio communication without permission, either from your station or recorded off-air themselves. Back in 1985, Amateur Radio was exempted from the secrecy of communications provisions of Section 705 of the Communications Act of 1934.
Guidelines
We cannot anticipate every situation in which you might find yourself during an emergency but there are a few simple guidelines that should be universally applicable:
Now Go Have Fun
Participating in a Breaking News event is exciting. Ham radio has an important role to play, even if all we do is get ready and stand by. The PIO gets to see more of it than anyone else, maybe even more than the EC. Enjoy it!
