ALAN YOUNGBLOOD/STAR-BANNER

Mel Turner, right, stayed on the air at Ocala gospel radio station WWKO for 17 hours through the storm. Bobby D., left, was on for a long time too.

DJs offered calm during the storm

Published September 12. 2004 7:30AM

BY FERDIE DE VEGA
STAFF WRITER

OCALA - To their listeners and to the men who spent hours on the air reassuring them, it's nothing short of a miracle that local gospel station WWKO 91.3 FM never lost power during Hurricane Frances.

"A lot of our listeners are saying it was divine intervention," said "Uncle Mel" Turner, who was broadcasting for 17 straight hours at one point during the storm. "If you're in radio, and it's an emergency, you just stay on. It's nothing special. It's just basic. The people here just needed information."

Outside the white two-story structure that houses the 1,000-watt station, Turner pointed to a power line that extends from a pole, passes between two trees and connects to the building.

The trees apparently had deep roots and withstood the howling winds, he said, noting that the 24-hour nonprofit station was off the air for only 30 seconds during the hurricane. "Through the dramatic part of the storm, we were here."

WWKO was one of a handful of radio stations serving Marion County that wasn't knocked off the air.

"We know that people were listening to us as far away as Eustis," Turner said, adding that people called from The Villages, Dunnellon, Citrus Springs and the Ocala National Forest, among other places.

The station was taking 50 to 60 calls per hour at the height of the storm, he said. "People just want a point of contact. They want to know they're not alone."

Turner said he, Brian Howard, Bobby D., general manager Joe Ruggiero and Spencer Allen tried to get as much information to listeners as possible "to keep people informed and keep the hysteria down."

Turner had access to weather radar through the Internet. He also received information from Dr. Neil Frank, chief meteorologist for KHOU-TV in Houston, Texas, and former director of the National Hurricane Center. Turner worked with Frank on a local program about hurricanes in the late 1970s.

Turner, who's been a broadcaster for 35 years, has been through about five hurricanes, he said. "I stood in the eye of (hurricane) Donna when it came through down south."

Turner said he remembers one call during the hurricane from a woman in distress. She and her husband were running out of insulin. Turner wrote down their names and address, he said. "I told her, 'I want you to sit tight. If someone shows up at your door, they're supposed to.' "

He then called the local information line and asked officials to help the couple.

"I think that's one of the chief purposes of a community radio station - to serve the community," Ruggiero said, noting that the station's announcers "stuck to that microphone day and night.

"They never lost their cool," he said. "I think we were blessed. God had his hand in it."

Currently, one of WWKO's major concerns is getting generators for its tower and building, Turner said.

The station was "a great help," said Ocala resident John Miller, who's been listening since February. "When the power was off, just to know someone was there giving news about Marion County.

"It was just a voice of calm and reason," Miller said.

Ferdie De Vega can be reached at ferdie.devega@starbanner.com or (352) 671-6409.