CAPE GIRARDEAU TO GET WEATHER RADIO STATION

A weather radio station expected to go on the air in Cape Girardeau in the next few months will provide listeners with weather reports and emergency alerts from the National Weather Service in Paducah, Ky.

Some details remain to be worked out before the station begins operation and eliminates a dead spot in the weather service's Southeast Missouri coverage.

The Cape Girardeau station will be the latest of nine the National Weather Station has sprinkled about its coverage area in Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois, Western Kentucky and Southern Indiana. Earlier this week, a station near Piedmont, Mo., went on the air broadcasting to Carter and Wayne counties. The Piedmont station operates at 162.425 megahertz.

The stations broadcast watches and warnings using Specific Area Message Encoding, digital codes which can be received by specially built weather radios. SAME also activates the Emergency Alert System at area broadcast stations.

Weather service information currently is available locally in broadcasts from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration station at Dexter, Mo. But Rick Shanklin, warning coordination meteorologist for the weather service in Paducah, says tuning in to that station can be a problem in areas nearer the Mississippi River. The city of Cape Girardeau and northern Cape Girardeau County also are considered dead spots in the weather radio coverage.

Working together

The radio station to be located at the KGMO radio tower north of Cape Girardeau will complete the weather service's coverage in Southeast Missouri. There also are weather radio stations at Dexter, Doniphan, Wardell and Fredericktown in Southeast Missouri and at Chester, Ill., some operated by the weather service at Paducah and some by the Memphis and St. Louis weather service offices.

"Few locations in the country have as much coverage as Southeast Missouri," Shanklin said, attributing that to the area's very active weather and the cooperation of participating companies.

M&A Power Electric Cooperative bought the hardware to get the Piedmont station running, with the weather service now providing maintenance. This kind of partnership between the weather service and electric co-ops has worked elsewhere in the country because co-ops have ready-made facilities and derive direct and indirect benefits from the association, said Mark Winkler, area coordinator for the State Emergency Management Agency.

When the city of Cape Girardeau approached the weather service wanting broadcasts that were specific to the area and better reception, a different kind of partnership had to be worked out. Winkler said AmerenUE was not interested in the project.

KGMO is offering the use of its tower in return for the right to use a backup generator donated by Cape Girardeau County. The generator had been donated to the county by Southwestern Bell but is too large for the county's use. Citizens Electric Co-op, which provides service to north Cape Girardeau County, will buy the 300-watt transmitter. The weather service will maintain the station.

Winkler said the station could be operational within two months.

Radios available

Digital NOAA weather alert radios sell for $30 to $70 at electronic and department stores. They can be programmed to receive the encoded alerts for specific counties. In case of an alert, they broadcast an alarm that lasts for about eight seconds followed by live information about the danger.

The radios also can be programmed for specific kinds of alerts. For example, people who live on high ground might not want to be awakened at 4 a.m. to hear about flooding somewhere, Shanklin said.

Aside from alerts, the radio station will broadcast recorded weather reports 24 hours a day.

Cape Girardeau City Manager Michael Miller said Project Impact money may be available to buy the radios for facilities in the county considered critical, such as rest homes. Project Impact is a Federal Emergency Management Agency campaign that helps cities develop disaster-prevention programs.

People who have the older "tone alert" weather radios will still be able to receive alerts, but those alerts are made for the entire area covered by the weather service.