Preventative Electrical Outages Take Down Local Radio Stations

Determined not to be blamed for fires due to sparking transmission lines, San Diego Gas & Electric has been turning off electricity prophylactically as Santa Ana winds build in northern and eastern San Diego County. Better to turn off power than have power lines spark in the wind, the theory goes. Outlying radio stations have gone off the air because of it.

We have reports of these radio stations leaving the air October 24 and 25:

  • KYDO 96.1 Campo
  • KKLJ 100.1 Julian
  • KWFN-FM2 97.3 Romona

KPRZ 1210 kHz San Marcos was reportedly able to stay on the air with a generator.

The FCC issued a Public Notice announcing the activation of a voluntary Disaster Information Reporting System in response to shutoffs by California electrical utilities PG&E and SDG&E. They are asking affected FCC licensees to report outages to the Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) at https://www.fcc.gov/nors/disaster/. Of course, you’ll need to register with a User ID and password.

The FCC is asking communications providers to report outages from now until “DIRS is deactivated.” San Diego County is included in the “counties of interest” list.