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Good News on the fire front. We had a lot of rain up north this weekend and it pretty much extinguished the fire.
Debbie Maneely of the Prescott National Forest said today......
"Continued moisture and high humidity have sufficiently lowered fire danger levels throughout the Prescott National Forest allowing officials to lift current fire restrictions on Wednesday, July 9 at 6 a.m."
In total over 9,000 acres were burned, four residences, four outbuildings and one commercial structure were destroyed. Get all the details on the fire here.
A Big Thanks to our engineers, Robert Reymont, Clayton Creekmore and Michael Day for going above and beyond this past week to insure that we were on the air during the fire.
Update:
Due to efforts to reduce hazards and open roads, firefighters have had greater access to the interior of the burned area which has led to the discovery of more structures lost. To date, five residences, twelve outbuildings, and one commercial structure have been destroyed.
It has been an anxious couple of days at the radio station.
Our new KAJM transmitter site, high atop the Bradshaw Mountains, just north west of Phoenix in the Prescott National Forest is only a mile or two away from the Lane 2 forest fire. Our site is in a lush pine forest. It takes about three ours to get there from our studios in Scottsdale, this is due to the treacherous four wheel drive road that you have to traverse to get there.
The fire was started by a lost hiker who lit a signal fire. Unfortunately the fire got out of control. To date, seven buildings and 7,300 hundred acres have been destroyed. The entire town of Crown King (population 400) has been evacuated. Due to the many canyons and rugged mountains and monsoon weather conditions, this is a difficult fire to contain. After almost four days the fire is only 5% contained.
The forest service has done a tremendous job keeping the fire out of Crown King and away from the two communications sites that are above the town. Those sites are home to FM radio stations, two-way, pager, long distance and cell phone companies along with local, federal and municipal government communication installations, the FAA and more.
The forest service has also done a terrific job of keeping us informed of their progress in fighting the fire. They have mobilized their team and communicated to us personally over the phone and directly via email as well.
Even though forest service has evacuated the area and closed all roads except for fire, forest and emergency use, they have granted us access so we can get to our site for maintenance and ensure that we stay on the air (APS shut down the power grid up there).
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they get a handle on the fire so it doesn't spread our way or towards Crown King and that there is no loss of life and property damage is kept to a minimum.
I know that there are a lot of anxious people out there like us. We are very grateful to the forest service and fire fighters that have come from all over to help fight this fire.
Thanks!!!
Here is a link to the Prescott National Forest Service where you can read their updates on the fire, http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/prescott/
A while back I wrote about the great customer service that Fry's Electronics has. I was back there today and it was even better. Going to Fry's for me is like going to Scottsdale Fashion Square for Fran and the girls. I spent more than two hours there today. I walked up and down almost every aisle and saw all kinds of cool gadgets and toys.
I just can't get over how customer focussed this store is. I don't know what kind of training program they put there team through, but I sure would like to get my hands on a copy of their training manual and be a fly on the wall during one of their staff meetings. Everyone is friendly, knowledgeable and always asks if they can do more for you. I have no idea how Fry's does. This would be a good question for my friend Howard Lindzon to answer. I would have to believe that they do quite well.
Since I was out in Tempe getting my fill of testosterone at Fry's, it was only fitting that I stop by Ted's Hot Dog's for lunch. Once again, a place I can't get the girls to go with me to.
You would have thought that they were giving something away there today. The line was to the door. As I walked in I almost turned around and left, when I over heard the women next to me tell someone on the phone that it smelled so good she couldn't turn around and leave. I looked at here and said I could not help but overhear her conversation and I agreed.
I waited in line for almost fifteen minutes and ordered a foot long hot dog and bratwurst with relish, mustard, onions and tomatoes and no bun (trying to lose a little weight).
For those of you who don't know, Ted's is an institution in Buffalo, NY. It is a Family business and Spiro Ted's son moved out here many years ago to open this location. Spiro's son now runs the company from Buffalo.
Like a successful radio station Ted's is focussed. Everything is home made and made to order. Their menu is not deep, but what they have is the best. They have the best hot dogs, brats and burgers. Home made fries, onion rings and shakes are part of the menu too.
In radio terms, the Power records are the Hot dogs and burgers, the re-currents are fries, rings and shakes. The DJ's are the servers cooking over an open flame and then garnishing your sandwich. They are always friendly and are skilled at making your sandwich right in front of you. Just as in any good radio station, it always tastes good and you want to come back for more!
Even though I'm a Chicago hot dog guy, Ted's is #1 in my book!
I strongly believe that as a broadcaster you have a responsibility to giveback to the community and address the issues that are relevant to the communities you serve. MEGA (KAJM) is a very popular radio station within the English speaking Latino Community in Phoenix.
With that said, more than five years ago I met Rich Bauer of the United Phoenix Firefighters Association. He explained to me that there were more child drownings per capita in the Maryvale area of Phoenix than any other place in the country. He went on to say that the reason was that the homes were older and they had pools in there yards with no protective pool fences. This was due to the fact that back in the day, when the pools were installed, there were not any zoning requirements for pool fences the way there is today. He also said that many of the residents in the area simply could not afford to install a fence too.
The United Phoenix Firefighters decided that they were going to raise money and install fences for those in need through their Adopt-a-Pool Fence Program . Rich asked me if we would come on as a media sponsor to get the word out to our listeners and let them know that the fire fighters would install a pool fence for free to those in need.
This was a no brainer for us. The Maryvale area and the west side of Phoenix have historically been very strong areas for MEGA listening. Therefore, we gladly got involved and supported the program with an extensive on-air Public Service Campaign promoting the program. The first year there were fifteen pool fences installed.
Fast forward five years to the present, the firefighters are installing almost one pool fence a day. Today, they installed their 300th pool fence. I was proud to represent the radio station along with Nina Cruz our Promotion Director (whos mother is a firefighter) today and attend the press conference at the home of the 300th pool fence recipient. Others attending were Phoenix City Councilman Claude Maddox, Rich Bauer, Chief Bob Khan, Merl Waschler of the United Way and Pete Gorraiz, President of the United Phoenix Firefighters Association.
What a great feeling to visit with the young family that received the pool fence and see how appreciative they were. It was very clear that they could not have afforded to install the fence on their own.
Oh, by the way... child drownings are down dramatically since the inception of the Adopt-a-Pool Fence promotion.
This is what it is all about..... Serving the community!
Good News on the fire front. We had a lot of rain up north this weekend and it pretty much extinguished the fire.
