KUSA channel 9 had extensive coverage during all newscasts, but best of all they were the only Denver media with live stream news casts and extended video news coverage online. For an web city like Boulder that is paramount. Channels 2, 7, 4, 13 lacked in all these areas especially online which was essentially non existent.

In the opening hours of the fire KGNU Radio went right to coverage and information of the Flagstaff Fire. They were telling Boulder automobile commuters exactly what is was they were seeing from the front seat of their car. Local radio is so important in a crisis like this.  This is the first time in 30 years that I have heard KGNU be on top of a local crisis with wall to wall reporting. And they should be. That is their job during a city emergency.  In the past they were disconectted from the community needs.

Even CU radio 1190 with their goofy college kid DJs actually managed to read the OEM news releases with out sounding like complete stoners. That is how the usually sound in the afternoon. On the second day the afternoon girl and her side kick boy did get off track by talking about their favorites in TV news and how hard reporters work. Trust me , they don’t work hard. Try ad sales. Try firefighting.  But at least KGNU and radio 1190 were on the case telling Boulder drivers what the hell was going on.

KOA radio was terrible. Between Rush Limbaugh insulting us and baseball they were of little help with random 15 second reports. KOA is owned by Clear Channel the same conglomerate which owns KCOL. My last report ripped those idiots for not reporting the High park fire.  Look , I am just saying , if you are a local radio station in Boulder Colorado and we have a major life threatening crisis, you damn better well drop your scheduled programming and get on the ball.

Boulder Police and Fire media relations still need a lot of work. The city didn’t send out any media releases at all. They depended on Boulder OEM who didn’t send out any news media releases either.  The city mistakenly thought that all news media would get the word from the city psychic.   Instead of mass press releases the city assumed that media would magically know to go to Boulder OEM.  The city also tweeted every 30 seconds.  The problem with that is that only 10 to 30 percent of Boulder uses twitter. So for the general population, isolating information flow to twitter on a threatening wildfire  is a terrible mistake and lack of good judgement. They should have sent out press releases. And OEM needs a better signup.

Boulder OEM website makes it difficult to receive press releases.  They hide the place where you sign up by covering it in a mush of graphics.  When you finally get there, you have to go through 15 steps just to get a damn email sent to you. Unlike feedburner or our site which take two steps. I mean, there is something very screwed up about that.  Then OEM does not have a media contact or phone listed. When you finally do get  to the right person ( after calling everybody else) she won’t return your phone calls. wtf?

Facebook had zero coverage worth noting. Twitter behaved themselves better that they did in 2010. They were notoriously rude. But twitter is still just a plain ole forum with pictures, stories  gossip and OMGdz.  Twitter is a small club of well educated house wives and office workers. They represent 30 percent of Boulder at most. But they are not mass media. What about the main body of Boulders population?? How do m you reach them immediately in a crisis.

Real mass media in a time of crisis comes from good old fashion AM or FM radio. In Boulder there are only two. KGNU 88.5 FM or CU’s radio 1190 AM. But the city nor the county plan around them. They pretend they don’t exist which is another dumb thing they do. These radio stations should be the first to know.

As far as Boulder Channel 1? As soon as we found the press releases on OEM, we published them. We did a live TV internet cast for one hour on the first evening of the fire from Fairview high where all the fire crews were staged. Citizens were there too. We could see the air assault, the fire, everything.  In the past two days we ran live Fire scanner feeds on TV so the entire community could listen in. It was compelling. Now, with a little more rain, hopefully this thing is over.

Jann Scott’s journal

where it just keeps on burning

Boulder colorado