When disasters strike, sometimes there’s little time to figure out what’s happening but for those in Santa Barbara County, all you have to do is turn on your radio and you’ll know exactly what’s going on in your area.
The Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management recently announced six new radio stations that will broadcast through the Santa Ynez Valley, Lompoc and up through Santa Maria, airing critical preparedness and disaster response messages 24/7 on AM 530 in English and Spanish.
When all other forms of communication fail during a storm or an outage, the radio can be one of the few ways to get timely and essential information.
“What we learned is that radio can be one of the remaining pathways to reach people during major disruptions," said Yaneris Muñiz, Santa Barbara County Emergency Manager.
Lance Orozco has been the news director at KCLU radio for the past 20 years. The station operates in southern San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. He's seen firsthand how impactful radio is during disasters like the Thomas Fire and the deadly Montecito mudslides back in 2018.
“They are great examples of where radio came into the picture because again, people knew this was going on," Orozco explained. "There's just this hunger for information, even if you're not evacuating, you want to keep up to date.”
“It's important for us that we have a broad array that covers the entire county, knowing full well that we have many different hazards and threats that can impact Santa Barbara County," Muñiz added.
The new stations build upon the Radio Ready program that is already in existence which is a partnership between the county and other existing radio stations to get the message out.
“It's a very innovative approach," Orozco said. "I think, again, when there's an emergency, we need to give people as many resources as we can.”
The new radio stations will broadcast important information on storms, wildfires, earthquakes and more, including:
- Areas under an evacuation order or shelter in place
- Temporary evacuation points and human and animal shelter locations
- Recovery assistance centers and resources
In addition to AM 530, local residents are encouraged to sign up for ReadySBC.org for updates through the county’s office.
