Hurricane Helene, which by Sunday evening had been blamed for more than 90 deaths, also knocked at least 48 radio stations in the southeastern United States off the air, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
Helene made landfall on Thursday. The FCC has released daily summaries of cellular and broadcast station outages based on reporting to its Disaster Information Reporting System.
On Saturday the number of FM and AM stations in the southeast that were off the air was posted at 48. As of Sunday morning, the commission reported, 35 radio stations were off, including 17 in Georgia, 12 in South Carolina and the rest in Florida, North Carolina and Virginia. There were five TV stations off in Georgia and North Carolina. [Update: As of Monday morning the number was 38 stations, according to the FCC update later that day.]
It’s possible that more stations were knocked off. Reporting to DIRS is voluntary, though a proposal that has been discussed at the FCC this year would mandate that stations participate in DIRS reporting. Broadcasters have pushed back against that idea.
