All Broadcasters: Hurricane Relief Efforts

[MegaRock]

I am calling out to all broadcasters - irregardless of how big or small you may be - to get involved in any way you can to help in the disaster relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina.

The reports I've seen on the news as well as eyewitness accounts from personal friends of mine are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the magnitude of the destruction in the Gulf Coast area. An untold number have died, tens of thousands are homeless and it may be weeks before the entirety of the damage can be recognized.

I have put together an animated image to use on your websites. Hopefully others can do something more creative and possibly even get some PSA's together for stations to run.

The image is available from the below. It should link to:

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18473

Image: http://www.megarockradio.com/katrina-help.gif

A full list of FEMA approved charities has been posted here:

http://www.megarockradio.com/katrina.html

Feel free to copy or link to the page.

This needs to be in the face of every person in our country.

[Vchat20]

id love to. i have family down there as well (albeit a bit out of katria's path. one whom lives in west palm, FL and another who lives outside of houston). unfortunately my site and station are offline for some rennuvations. ill probably stick it on the current "splash" page. would get some good attention there.

[Evil Lu]

I've added a hideously large link to my Nak Error page. Let's hope it helps out a bit. I don't have a station to do anything useful with at present.

[tuckerm]

added link was gonna pm you but you dont have a pm addy nor can i email you!

and the nak error thing is also good...more people will see it!

[Evil Lu]

Yeah it gets between 1000 and 6000 hits a day. Had to pay for even more bandwidth recently. Let's hope that the people clicking it will all donate a bit of money to the Katrina victims.

[tuckerm]

i will promote it on my website www.msrlive.tk on the front page right now

[dotme]

I downloaded five free hurricane PSAs from the link below this morning and they are running every 30 minutes on my station.

http://www.redcross.org/press/psa/psaRadio.html

(Look under "Disaster Response" for the 30 second celebrity appeals - it took me less than 5 minutes to add them to SAM for rotation)

[tuckerm]

thanks dotme
i added it to the beginning to my current intro ( i dont have a radio station anymore...just a talkshow )

[MegaRock]

Been trying to get to the Red Cross site for about two hours now. Looks like it's getting absolutely hammered right now which is definately a good thing.

Here is a PSA I put together from news clips and some of the Red Cross PSA's. I warn you though - it's very in your face (and should be at a time like this). Feel free to download and use it and to distribute it to anyone who would like to help by airing it.

http://podcast.megarockradio.com/hur...A-redcross.mp3

I also setup the page mentioned in the first post to load from an IP (for those who don't want to link to a site using my station name).

The new link is http://67.19.108.130/katrina.html

The page will be updated as often as needed.

Remember - this could have been (and may be) something that involved you, your family and your friends. Get the word out. Time is critical at this point and lives are indeed at stake.

[MegaRock]

Additional PSA posted:

Download

[MegaRock]

Damnit, I sure hate the fact I can't edit a message after 180 friggin minutes. Pooey.

Banners for your websites have been supplied to me by the local Red Cross publicity office.

http://67.19.108.130/broadcast-web-h...ne-relief.html

Please use the code contained on the page as they are hosted banners so you don't have to use your own bandwidth and they can be updated as needed.

[MegaRock]

Another PSA posted:

Download

Thanks to Jen Steele of 247OnAir.

Note to mods: Anyone want to merge this information into one thread?

Thanks to all who are getting involved in this monumental relief effort.

[NicoMoon]

Thanks so much for all of that.

[GHOSTRADIONET]

.

Before I post the following partial transcript...and a link to the full transcript from the U.S. Department of Defense...
I would like to recognize and thank MegaRock for taking the initiative and opening this topic...it's an important one.... and I believe everyone can make a contribution in some way to this effort..

With that being said... the following is posted here mainly as a FYI about what our armed forces are doing to assist the unfortunate people who were caught up in this disaster..



NEWS TRANSCRIPT from the United States Department of Defense

DoD News Briefing
Chief, National Guard Bureau Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum and Deputy Director, Anti-Terrorism, Homeland Defense, Joint Staff Brig. Gen. Terry Scherling
Wednesday, August 31, 2005


DiRita: We are fortunate, I think most of you may or may not have seen
the press conference at 1:30, two o'clock whenever that happened with Department of
Homeland Security which obviously under the National Response Plan is designated
the lead agency on this effort.



Secretary McHale, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense
was over there along with General Scherling. I've asked them to be available to
just provide a little bit more detail on what the department's doing in fulfilling
its role to support FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security.



This transcript is quite long...if you wish to read the entire text...
the full transcript is located here on the DoD website:

Defense Department Briefing on DoD Response to Hurricane Katrina



GHOSTRIDER
NEW YORK, N.Y.

[MegaRock]

Only thing I find suprising is people in our country stood up quicker for 9-11. Although a national tragedy there were few lives that could be saved and with all the donations given little would change in most of these peoples lives.

This time the enemy it Mother Nature and time itself. There are tens of thousands of people - hundreds of thousands of people who can be helped. They need food, water, shelter - the basic necessities.

But this time I look at many of the station websites. Nothing. No banner, no information - nothing. It sickens me. People just going on as if nothing at all happened. These people may have very well been some of your stations listeners.

This could have very well been you. Next time it might be. I live in the midwest and was here during the massive floods and relief efforts. Few if any died during that but entire towns that existed then no longer do - so I know very well the feeling of desperation they feel in the Gulf region. I watched houses floating down the Mississippi River.

Maybe you think a simple link on your site won't help. Maybe you think running a PSA on your station will do no good. Think again. Every little bit - no matter how little - can and will help.

We could be looking at more dead than 9-11 (which happens to be coming up this next Sunday). Honor our country, our legacy and our people - and most importantly our freedom - and do something NOW.

It's simply unacceptable to do nothing.

[GHOSTRADIONET]

.

I totally agree with you MegaRock.. and once I had a few free moments to do some page edits... I began to ramp up my efforts to contribute to this important, life or death situation....both on and off line.
Those of us here in New York certainly can relate to the thoughts of dispair and frustration that the people of Louisiana and Mississippi and their rescuers are experiencing..
And you are right....the response by the nation...and the world... to the 9/11 events was nothing less than remarkable...to put it mildly..
Now...with this natural disaster of a un-imaginable scale...the call has been put out again to the country to step up and assist in any way possible to help.
I think that the message I posted about the Pentagon's response speaks volumes in that regard...our citizen soldiers, and our "regular" active duty military are responding in force to assist with every aspect of the disaster....I salute them...they sacrifice a lot to do this...


A follow up to my last post...
the DoD continues to provide information and resources
to the public via a dedicated page on their website....
I urge everyone to take advantage of that information pipeline and to visit it frequently for updates and ways to contact family or loved ones who may be in that region.

RELIEF AND RECOVERY, HURRICANE KATRINA


Another recent interview transcript is also now available:

"Special Defense Department Briefing with Commander of Joint Task Force Katrina"

View that HERE

In addition to that...
The Pentagon Channel on the web provides 24/7 streaming audio and video coverage on all news related to the DoD...including the Pentagon's Katrina response..



This is just the beginning of a very long and difficult road to recovery for these folks....
Lets do what ever we can to kick in and help out..

G.

[PC Radio Net]

We're doing our part. I've been playing the promos and following it up with extensive playing of Bruce Hornsby's The Show Goes On from the Backdraft soundtrack, which is something we did alot of during 9-11.

[GHOSTRADIONET]

.

I think this thread deserves a sticky...
for a while at least...it's gonna be a long haul
for those folks in the gulf region...

it seems to be slowly slipping down the list..

GHOST

[tuckerm]

/meh seconds that

[MegaRock]

Originally posted by GHOSTRADIONET
.

I think this thread deserves a sticky...
for a while at least...it's gonna be a long haul
for those folks in the gulf region...

it seems to be slowly slipping down the list..

GHOST

Guess someone will just have to keep posting in it.

[protegechris]

Added an info page from your page on IBR:
http://www.indiebandradio.com/katrina/index.php

Going to run audio sweepers as well.. We've got the refugees coming into town here as well.

[MegaRock]

New PSA posted featuring movie star Teri Hatcher:

Download

New PSA posted featuring comedian Bill Cosby:

Download

The American Red Cross has also made available a video for those who may use in stream or preroll ads. It is encoded in Windows Media format:

http://podcast.megarockradio.com/JCash2.wmv

[GHOSTRADIONET]

.

Thanks for posting these new spots MegaRock
I've taken the Bill Cosby PSA and added a
great old song that fits the mood at the end of it...
I won't mention the title of the song here
soz I don't get yelled at by the mods...
I'll PM you that info...perhaps you'll like it
enough to add it to your playlist rotation..

Thanks again..

G.

[MegaRock]

Indeed. Dropped you a PM.

[GHOSTRADIONET]

.

Likewise..

Enjoy..

G.

[MegaRock]

Good work that was. I posted it up to a few webcaster sites so others can fetch it as well.

[GHOSTRADIONET]

Originally posted by MegaRock
Good work that was. I posted it up to a few webcaster sites so others can fetch it as well.

Thanks my friend....
I appreciate the compliment..
glad it was valuable to you...


[EDIT]
By the way.. know of any plugins for Winamp or a seperate program even.. that'll schedule to run a PSA in the playlist ...say...every 30 mins or so?
(posted another topic on this with zero results , so far)
I know some of the high end stuff can do it...like SAM....but this is poor joe's radio..
I can't really spend that kinda $$ on it just yet..
any suggestions I'd be grateful..


G.

[MultiMediaPros]

Mega,

Great production on your PSAs. I have a bunch of well known voice artists that have recorded PSAs for us - perhaps we can collaborate on a montage? Let me know.

My stuff is here:
http://www.multimediapros.com/RedCross/


Thanks

Rich

[GHOSTRADIONET]

.

Nice collection of PSA's Rich..
I downloaded a few and I'm running them on my small webcast..



Thanks again Rich..

GHOSTRIDER
New York, N.Y.

[MegaRock]

Believe it's time to wake this thread up again for all too obvious reasons.

According to reports if the storm (Rita) continues on it's path several million people may be effected and our country's fourth largest city directly impacted along with an area as wide as 370 miles.

I am contacting everyone involved in producing PSA's for Katrina and have updated the relief page at:

http://www.megarockradio.com/katrina.html

In addition the image previously posted for Katrina relief has been updated with new information since there is little doubt this storm will cause as much damage if not more than the previous storm.

http://www.megarockradio.com/katrina-help.gif

More will be posted as it becomes available.

[Pioneer]

SpinFM has been running some Red Cross PSAs and we've also had our jocks soliciting donations for the Red Cross to help out in the relief efforts.

New Orleans was built over hundreds of years and I don't believe that it will be restored in 3 years, so SpinFM will be looking more into the long-term help that is yet needed.

I hope that other stations continue their efforts as far as their budgets allow them.