Radio plays a key role
As thousands of Belizeans moved to higher grounds from the threat of hurricane Mitch, most radio stations remained on air round the clock, to keep the nation inform and prepared in case the storm hit Belize. Today we caught up with Rene Villanueva and Gerald Garbutt, General Managers of Love FM and FM 2000 who told us that both radio stations had their own hurricane plans.
Rene Villanueva, General Manager, Love FM
“The idea was to keep people informed at all times, from start to finish, as long as we could have on what was happening to the hurricane and to be able to have enough spare equipment to get back on air, because they said if the hurricane had hit Belize, our antennas would have been damaged. So we took along to Belmopan, spare antennas, spare transmitters, and generators and what have you, to remain on air as long as we could have possible could have and transmit information to the people.
Our correspondents were also on duty and they also did a wonderful job keeping us abreast of what was going on in the districts. We are very appreciative of them. I would like to say that planning helped us a lot. We actually had a plan and knew what we were doing. The objective of course was to keep our people inform with what was happening; that was the ultimate objective.”
Gerald Garbutt, General Manager, FM 2000
“The plan that we had; we had a backup system too, that should in case Mitch had hit Belize, the information that we got from the Weather Bureau, very few buildings would have remain standing. So we had a back up plan to move our studios from out of the top of Body 2000, take it to the second flat. And we had all that work out and we were watching it every step Mitch had move and to know when to cut off and move downstairs. That’s the plan that we had, you know.
We had a show on this morning, calling in and thanking Mike and the team about the coverage and what not. We were making trips up to Belmopan and, we made one trip, but we mostly liaise with the Weather Bureau people because we feel that that is where the head of the information was coming out.”
According to Villanueva and Garbutt, although they are grateful that Hurricane Mitch did not hit Belize, they are happy that at least they had the opportunity to put their plan into action and feel that they are ready to do a broadcast in the event of a hurricane actually hitting Belize. The Broadcasting Corporation of Belize, which had been scheduled to close down on October thirty-first, was also broadcasting countrywide throughout the storm threat. The B.C.B. had two broadcast teams, one based at the Albert Cattouse Building and the other at the transmission site in Ladyville. Because of Mitch the B.C.B. got a few days reprieve and will shut down operations later this week.
