Clear Channel secures high ground for storms

By PAMELA DAVIS

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 2, 2000

TEMPLE TERRACE -- A Category 3 hurricane probably would damage the complex that houses Clear Channel Communications' eight local stations. The building is in a low area off Gandy Boulevard, and the parking lot floods even during lesser storms.

On Thursday, the first day of hurricane season, Clear Channel's local operations announced a plan that would keep its stations on the air even if the broadcasting complex has to be evacuated.

A newly formed partnership with GTE will let Clear Channel radio stations share space in GTE's Temple Terrace central office during a hurricane.

This GTE building, a switching office that routes GTE calls from one location to another, is about 80 feet above sea level, making it one of the highest offices of its kind in GTE's six-county service area.

"What this is set up to do is to allow us to have a location substituting for our Gandy Boulevard studios," said David Reinhart, vice president and market manager of Clear Channel's Tampa stations.

A Clear Channel-owned station, WMTX-FM 100.7 (Mix) is now the area's official emergency broadcast signal.

WMTX is charged with sending out the activation of the emergency alert system (formerly known as the emergency broadcast system).

Last year's storm scares prompted Reinhart to find a safe place for his stations.

"They were so close to the Tampa Bay area that we said we really need to have a definitive plan," Reinhart said. "We needed to have a place that people could count on for emergency broadcasts from Clear Channel radio stations. Now we have a plan. We just hope that we never have to use it."