[ASOC]

ah - so deska. Emergency support from outside of the disaster area.

Case in point -- KSL, 1160 kHz a regional (and FCC Class A) AM station. Normally the power is 50kW into a 5 antenna array. allowing it to be reachieved over most of the Western US at night. IIRC, it can put out 1 MW in an emergency.

Also, in an emergency, the station can narrow its signal to 15 degrees, significantly raising the ERP, as seen the Teton Dam disaster.

When traveling in the west, the first thing we set on the rental car is the radio - 1160 AM and 720 AM (KSL and KDWN) -- you know, just in case.

[ByDesign]

"ah - so deska. Emergency support from outside of the disaster area."

Case in point, the Loma Prieta earthquake in the Bay Area. The only stations on the air were AM stations, that we could get, and were our primary source of news for quite a while. I remember sitting outside the restaurant where I worked, listening to an AM radio someone had, and hearing the Bay Bridge had fallen.

That night, I listened to (I think) KNBR, and the hosts there calm people down, what an incredible job they did. Hooked me on them ever since!