A major winter storm, named Winter Storm Fern by The Weather Channel, swept across a large portion of the United States over the weekend. It brought heavy snow, sleet, freezing rain, and significant ice accumulation, particularly in the mid-Atlantic and Southern regions. This caused widespread power outages (with reports of hundreds of thousands to nearly a million customers affected at peaks), travel disruptions, flight cancellations, and infrastructure damage.
The storm knocked at least nine radio stations off the air, according to reports from the FCC. This includes eight FM stations and one AM station. The primary cause appears to be downed power lines due to ice buildup, which left stations without electricity.
The FCC activated its Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS) started Friday. This required broadcasters in hundreds of counties across up to 12 states to submit daily status reports on their operational status, power issues, equipment, and restoration efforts.
The FCC's data came from voluntary submissions to DIRS, but specific details on the exact call signs, locations, frequencies, or owners of the nine off-air stations were not publicly identified in the reports.
The FCC's data came from voluntary submissions to DIRS, but specific details on the exact call signs, locations, frequencies, or owners of the nine off-air stations were not publicly identified in the reports.
No television stations were reported knocked off-air, and impacts on other infrastructure (like cell towers) remained low (under 1% out in monitored areas). No radio stations had requested Special Temporary Authority (STA) from the FCC for emergency operational changes at the time of reporting.