Friday, July 29, 2011

Massive downpour interrupts EBS-Korea's FM broadcast

Torrential rain wrecked havoc on Seoul this week, causing massive flooding and a landslide in the South Korean capital. On Wednesday, an EBS FM radio station (104.5MHz) had its transmission momentarily interrupted when a mudslide damaged its building and caused an electrical power failure. 

However, once power was restored with emergency generators, the station replaced its normal programming with music and emergency programmes for one-and-a-half hours. EBS' TV channel switched its regular programming to emergency programmes for 13 minutes. All normal broadcasting has since resumed. 

An EBS spokesman said transmission was shifted to another EBS facility in another building, adding that the company expects that it will take about three weeks to completely restore the damaged studios. 

Many EBS staff pulled together to clean up the affected building, aided by military and municipality personnel.
Other broadcasters were also affected by the torrential downpour. Outdoor sets of KBS dramas, such as Gwanggaeto the Great which are currently airing, were flooded. This forced KBS staff to stop filming. The Chosun-ilbo daily also reported that broadcasters MBC and SBS were similarly affected.

A KBS spokesman said the broadcaster's Science and Disaster Broadcast Department broadcast emergency programmes for almost 17 hours, in response to the unexpected weather conditions. 

The Korean Herald reported yesterday that at least 53 people were dead and 14 others missing, due to landslides and floods which were triggered by over 400mm of rain which fell between Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

(Source : Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union)

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