Hurricane Harvey Disrupts Houston-Area Media As Some Face Massive Repairs

TV, radio, and phone providers on the Texas coast will have to make massive repairs when flooding from Hurricane Harvey subsides, according to FCC reports. Chairman Ajit Pai says today that he will visit the area Tuesday to see “firsthand what needs to be done to make sure that those affected can get back on their feet as quickly as possible.”

As of yesterday, nearly 283,600 pay TV customers had lost service, up about 50% from Monday, the agency says.

On the broadcast side, Fox’s Corpus Christi TV affiliate, KUQI, was out.

CBS affiliate KHOU went off the air after it lost its main studio. But it returned to the airwaves a few hours later when Houston Public Media provided a secondary studio. Others including University of Houston’s KUHF simulcast its coverage.

Seven radio stations were out as of yesterday: KXAI, K224EH, KKTX, KPRC, KKPN, KKWV and KAYK.

Many of the Houston area’s traditional radio advertisers including McDonalds and O’Reilly Auto Parts trimmed their buys while insurance companies and service providers hit the airwaves, Inside Radio reports.

USAA Insurance, State Farm, Farmers Insurance Group, Molina Healthcare, Nationwide, and Texas Farm Bureau Insurance are among the companies offering messages for listeners in the region, the publication says.

Meanwhile, 4.7% of the cell sites are down in what the FCC defines as the affected area — which stretches from Corpus Christie to New Orleans.

Outages are concentrated in the hardest hit areas.  More than 84% of the cell sites are out in the Texas resort town of Port Aransas. More than 73% are out in nearby Refugio, with more than 46% out in Calhoun.

For wired phones, 21 switching centers were out yesterday, up from 19 on Monday while 33 are operating with back-up power.