Using Radio To Reunite Families

For 15 consecutive days, they were on the air without interruption — despite some being trapped in the studios, sleeping on the floor of a conference room; despite some being trapped at home, unable to get out of their driveways for days; despite some being separated and without communication with their loved ones for many anxious hours.

They kept on working, trying to share disaster relief information to the people of Asheville and surrounding communities on seven iHeartRadio stations that simulcast to those without power, water and digital communications after Hurricane Helene hit the North Carolina mountains in September.

The iHeartRadio stations, spearheaded by senior vice president Brian Hall (NC State business administration and management, ’88), was a perfect representation of the mountain and foothills communities coming together in a time of disaster. There was an all-news station, a Top 40 station, a rock station, a country music station, a classic hip-hop and R&B station, a play-everything station and, of course, a local ESPN station.

We had to get on the air and help people when we could, while also maintaining our homes and making sure we stay functional without power and without water.

Hall, a radio voice for the mountains for nearly 30 years, and a collection of announcers, reporters, producers and volunteers made sure accurate information was being broadcast through their daily coverage of city, county and federal briefings and through callers who managed to get through with barely charged devices.

“It’s been partly, ‘This must be a movie or something — it can’t be real,’ and partly, ‘We have to hunker down and do our job,’” says Hall, who lives on a hillside in Black Mountain, one of the areas hit hardest by Helene. “We had to get on the air and help people when we could, while also maintaining our homes and making sure we stay functional without power and without water.”

By their count, the radio stations reunited more than 270 individuals separated from their loved ones, including one of their own.

In a clip that went viral, news director Mark Starling was on the air taking calls when producer Tank Spencer listed the next caller as “Brandee.” Starling, after two full days without word from his family, recognized the unique spelling and was relieved to tears to find out his wife and son had survived the storm that washed more than 4 feet of water through their Black Mountain community.

“Is this who I think it is?” Starling asked in a breaking voice.

It was.

Starling and Spencer, trapped in their West Asheville studios, broadcast through the first 36 hours of the storm until they got a four-hour break while WWNC 570-AM carried the Saturday, Sept. 28, football game between NC State and Northern Illinois as part of the Wolfpack Sports Radio Network.

“Mark and Tank all needed the break,” Hall says. “There weren’t a lot of communications coming in yet because all the cell service was down. They needed those three or four hours to regroup and fix some things.

“After the game, they were back on the air again.”

In all, it was a master class in the power of informed communication.

“We were able to reunite people with their families or loved ones, just from people calling the radio station and saying, ‘I need a wellness check on someone,’” Hall says. “There were volunteers who were able to mobilize and go to an address or text with those who have service, while people were waiting for the city or county or FEMA to do their thing.

The feedback we heard when communications were down was that we were a lifeline.

“Make no mistake, all of those agencies are here working hard, but the quickest way to get something resolved is to do it yourself.”

Hall became the vice president for programming for Asheville in 1999 and eventually added Greenville, South Carolina, to his responsibilities. He has been a fixture on the Asheville airwaves for decades, as the host of a sports radio show called “The Monday Night Sports Freaks” since 2000, as a broadcaster of high school football games for the last 25 years and as the play-by-play announcer for UNC Asheville men’s basketball for the last 13 years.

As a student at NC State, pursuing a degree in business administration and management, he was a disc jockey for student radio station WKNC 88.1-FM and one of the early voices of Wolfpack women’s basketball from 1986 to 1988. He maintained a close professional relationship with Hall of Fame head coach Kay Yow for the remainder of her career.

His experience and local knowledge during Helene aided the quickly assembled network to mobilize volunteers who could cut trees out of the way for those who needed to get out and get supplies to those who needed them. Broadcasters also told people where to get supplies, when pickups were available and what organizations were on the ground ready to help.

“It’s been invaluable, you know?” Hall says. “The feedback we heard when communications were down was that we were a lifeline.”

So, what’s next? A long road to recovery that is partly washed away, partly blocked, partly disconnected from the outside world.

“The best thing is to donate monetary funds to some local charities that are helping people as they move forward beyond the bottles of water, the clean wipes and stuff like that,” says Hall, a member of the board of directors at Eblen Charities, an Asheville nonprofit assisting families and individuals in times of crisis and hardship. “It’s gonna be a long recovery up here, after FEMA leaves, after the choppers stopped flying 80 missions a day.

“People will need financial assistance for a long time to come.”