Entercom may abandon downtown studios

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Entercom stations in New Orleans may be forced to abandon their studios.

Entercom VP/Engineering Marty Hadfield says that because a levee breach sent water flooding into the area around their downtown studios, staff may evacuate the downtown studios and move to a site near the WWL-AM transmitter site: “There’s a good chance we may have to abandon it. We already have people at the Jefferson Parish Emergency Operations Centre. We have a makeshift studio out there that’s been there for a long, long, time. If or when we do abandon the downtown area then we’re going to be operating from there. We’re getting some satellite receivers and dishes out there as we speak. It is in Marrero, LA. This is going to be lasting for months and months and the power is going to be out for 30-45 days. After the levee breach, there is quite a bit of water where our building is downtown – – knee deep to waist deep now and working its way up” .

Mississippi also took a pounding from the storm, with reports of stations knocked off the air in some communities. For many areas, the floods that followed the hurricane were more devastating than the winds had been.