Jaime Gonzalez
Greetings fellow broadcasters! First off, let me say that I hope our new lunch meeting time of 1 PM will allow/encourage those of you who may have been involved in noon-time station happenings to attend our SBE 66 monthly meetings. The more input we have from everyone the better we will be able to address issues and share ideas to keep our “ships” air-worthy.
Of course, the big (and unfortunate) news are the fires associated with the lightning storms that took place on Monday June 25 now known as the June Lightning Complex Fire. Remnants from tropical storm Alberto crept into the Central Valley over the weekend, bringing the lightning that started the fires. The fire near Bear Mt. started about 3PM on Monday and Hwy 180 was closed. The fire reached Bear Monday evening and around 3AM Tuesday morning the flames made it to the top of the hill and the Valley PBS transmitter site and the KSEE building totally burned down. Also affected were a Verizon cell site and the NOAA weather transmitter heard on 162.400 MHz which is now silent. As far as I know, there have been no injuries to personnel.
As of this writing, KVPT terrestrial is off-the-air, but still available on Comcast, live streaming through the valleypbs website, you tube TV and HULU. The station management is currently looking at different options to get on the airwaves again. For a current evacuation map of the fire area you can click H E R E
