St. Tammany Radio Station Seized, Back on the Air

A station in the Greater New Orleans metro that had been dark is back on, providing emergency and relief information.
The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis, “wielding emergency powers,” got WASO(AM) back on the air Friday with the help of the head of Pittman Broadcasting Services, which owns radio stations in Franklinton and Lafayette.
Davis tells the Times-Picayune he plans to keep the station operating “as many hours as possible each day.”
Davis said failed communications hampered parish officials from getting information to residents and that’s why he seized and re-opened the facility, which had been shut down and taken from its owner for non-payment of a legal judgment, according to the account.
The station’s studios were in Metairie and its broadcast tower was just west of Covington High School, reported the paper, which said Pittman used computer equipment from his radio stations and got WASO back on the air from a small building next to the tower.