“Snowlapalooza!” 2010
It’s been a tough week for a lot of broadcasters as record-breaking snowfall hit the northeast corridor, crippling ground and air transportation across a large region of the country. At Bonneville all-newser WTOP/Washington, for the first time in his career, 35-year station traffic legend — and U.S. Army veteran — Bob Marbourg declined a company-provided room at a local hotel, opting instead to spend the night on the floor of his broadcast studio with all scanners set to “on.” WTOP’s Jim Farley told NTS MediaOnline Today that, despite near white-out conditions, many of the two-dozen station staffers who remained on the job chose to walk the mile-plus journey to the hotel. ”They said they wanted to experience what the listeners were going through,” said Farley. In a sign of the times, Farley reports that WTOP’s website set an all-time record 2.5 million page views at the height of the storm.