There was only one word to describe Saturday for a group of stations serving the Texarkana region of Texas and Arkansas.
“Crazy,” Jeff Easterling told us. “Just a crazy day. But it’s the nature of the beast.”
Easterling, a broadcast veteran of around 40 years, hosts “Texarkana Talks” on 107.1 KTFS(FM), one of seven stations operated by Local First Media Group in Texarkana.
What Easterling believes to be a two-stage lightning strike hit the Wake Village transmitter site where several of the cluster’s stations transmit, knocking the stations off the air. The cluster shared video from the site in the immediate aftermath on Facebook.
In many parts of the U.S., it has been a rough August for severe weather, and the Texarkana region is no stranger to it. According to lightning incidence data from 2006–2015, Bowie County, home to Texarkana, Texas, averages 12 to 21 cloud-to-ground strikes per square mile per year, which is among the highest in Texas.
But this was even noteworthy for the area situated along the Red River.
“We believe the transmitter site took an initial strike, then a second strike that ignited a transmission line dehydrator and set the cabling on fire,” Easterling said.
Wes Spicher of Local First Media Group told Easterling on “Texarkana Talks” Monday that he arrived at the transmitter site to find a roll of wire on fire.
They each commended the Wake Village Fire Department and Southwestern Electric Power Company for their swift response.
Spicher acts as the operations manager for the seven stations, in addition to handling on-air, production, marketing and namely this week: engineering.
“I have to thank my dad who shared with me his engineering knowledge back in the 1980s,” Spicher told us.
Right now, his biggest concern is cooling the 12×12 cinderblock transmitter building in the unrelenting Texarkana heat.
After an electrician inspected the site Tuesday, Spicher said getting air conditioning restored remains the top priority to protect the STL receivers, auxiliary power and lighting, while ensuring the three-phase electrical system operates safely to avoid further fire risks.
The status of the transmitters at the site — including 104.7 KTOY’s Broadcast Electronics FM 2C — will not be known until power is restored.
A visit from an engineer and an insurance adjuster on Thursday will better determine a timeline that the stations can be brought back on the air.
Current station status
News-talk KTFS remains off the air, as do KTFS’ HD subchannel-fed translators 98.7 K254AS(FM), 105.5 K288FI(FM) and 107.9 K300DW(FM).
Classic hits 105.1 KTTY(FM) transmits from New Boston, Texas, but it is also off the air, due to its STL being offline from Wake Village. KCMC(AM) 740, which airs sports talk, and its 107.9 FM translator, are also off the air.
Meanwhile, 101.7 KBYB(FM) is back broadcasting from its separate transmitter site in McNab, Ark., though its 99.3 translator at the damaged Wake Village site remains dark.
KBYB’s site itself is operating at low power, still recovering from a separate lightning strike it suffered in June, Easterling said.
Sports-talk KTFS(AM) 940 and its 105.9 FM translator are back on the air from its separate site, while hip-hop station 104.7 KTOY(FM) is operating on a low-power backup transmitter adjacent to Local First Media Group’s studio.
All station streams remain active online via the Texarkana Media app.
Meanwhile, local businesses stepped up to offer support the stations, both Easterling and Spicher said, while engineers from neighboring markets have offered to lend gear and assist troubleshooting Local First Media Group’s electrical systems.
“We’ve been hearing from engineers as far away as Shreveport. The response has been awesome,” Spicher told Easterling.
That’s part of the reason the station wants to document its recovery, including with the post-strike site video. “We’re trying to look at the bright side,” Easterling said, “here’s a chance to document what we are doing, be transparent and show local guys doing the work.”
He also addressed some comments suggesting faulty grounding at the site. “Everything was done right in terms of lightning arresters,” Easterling told us. “This was just a massive lightning storm.”
The company anticipates the Wake Village site resuming in about two weeks, depending on what the insurance company determines on Thursday.
Easterling believes they have an important void to continue to fill.
“These radio stations are truly the last locally owned and operated radio stations in Texarkana,” he told us.
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