I was tuning into some Lake Charles, Louisiana radio stations Wednesday night, just to hear what they were up to as a Category 4 hurricane heads right for them. Some appeared to be on autopilot, playing music, which probably doesn't make much difference since large numbers of people have evacuated what experts are calling an "unsurvivable' storm. 

But I did notice that several of the iHeart radio stations in both the Cajun state and in Texas were all airing the same feed, a guy who was taking calls from listeners, updating the forecast and the progress of this monster, giving advice for those who decided to stay behind, reminding listeners that if one station gets knocked off the air, the others will still have the show and noting that "they've made arrangements" to have someone on the air live 24 hours a day. (Which I assume means they often have syndicated or automated shows on in normal times.) 

I remember when Katrina hit New Orleans, almost every radio station, regardless of ownership, were all taking WWL's feed. It had been designated the emergency radio station for the entire state and kept right on broadcasting through that disaster.

This prompted a few questions and I figured someone here might know.

-Has there ever been a time when one station in Southern Ontario took over the programming of all the other co-owned outlets during an emergency? Would you, for example, expect to hear 680 News on CHFI or KISS-FM in Toronto if things got real bad? Or CFRB taking over Virgin 99.9 or CHUM-FM? Has that ever happened?

-Does Toronto and other big markets have an official go-to emergency station that all the others can use in the event of a true disaster? If so, which one is it? 

-The audio of one TV station (KATC, the ABC afilliate) will be broadcast non-stop on an AM station. (In fact, many of the local TV stations are broadcasting their signals live and for free over the Internet.) I wonder if CP24 would replace some radio signal here if needed? 

-And finally, I recently saw a copy of the Thornhill Liberal, a Toronto Star-owned Metroland newspaper that comes out in The City Above Toronto every Thursday. I noticed the local government has been taking out ads about city issues and up at the top on a green banner it says something like, "Tune to 105.9 for all the latest Vaughan news in an emergency." That would be The Region, a station few of us even know about. (Although they have some incredibly well known names working there.) Are they actually designated as the emergency station by the local government or is that just some kind of deal they have with City Hall up that way?

I'm hoping the folks in Louisiana and deep in the heart of Texas get out of this relatively unscathed. Until then, listening to some of their coverage over the radio has been quite fascinating, in a very grim kind of way. But it does show how vital radio is in precarious times, especially since some may have no power for days or weeks on end once this thing is done with them. But their battery-operated radios will still be there and there will be voices in all that darkness.