 "Photo: Mandy Derfler")
BEAUMONT - News director Jack Pieper, 68, recently covered the most unusual exclusive on a major story in 43 years of broadcasting.
He spent 21 days covering the damage of Hurricane Rita in Beaumont. The former radio announcer got his start on the air in Paris, Texas, in 1962.
Pieper is now a talk show radio personality on KLVI 560-AM in Beaumont, one of five radio stations in one building owned by Clear Channel Communications, headquartered in San Antonio.
They were the only media outlet in Beaumont to broadcast for the duration of Hurricane Rita after it made landfall Sept. 24.
When Rita hit, power lines were shredded by falling trees and branches. Beaumont was in the dark.
Through the flattened trees and toppled telephone poles, a staff of five was the only voice of Beaumont.
The team rotated shifts of three to four hours to fight fatigue.
The station was better prepared than any other in Beaumont.
General manager Vesta Brandt said, "Resources from Clear Channel made all the difference."
Clear Channel delivered two recreational vehicles, two mobile home trailers, a satellite phone and equipment to clear the roads.
Brandt lived in one of the trailers until after Christmas. She was glad she could use the toilets that came with the trailers.
"What if 10,000 people come back and go in your woods?" she joked.
Exchanges with listeners came via telephone and the Internet.
Clear Channel Web servers in San Antonio allowed the station in Beaumont to stay connected to the Internet.
The staff regularly updated information on the station's Web sites.
"The calls would not let up," Pieper remembered. "We directed emergency response to citizens based on those calls."
There were many requests by citizens for information from FEMA and the American Red Cross.
"We allowed public officials on the air to report to citizens about conditions of their neighborhoods," Pieper said.
Brandt said she was impressed with the audience.
"They became reporters for us," she said.
Listeners also brought food to the station. "Some people cleaned out their freezers to keep us on the air," she said.
Immediately following the storm, water was not drinkable.
Pieper remembers the impact one cup of coffee had on a police officer.
"He was so grateful, I thought he was about to plant a kiss on me," Pieper said.
Pieper was disappointed by the lack of media coverage of Hurricane Rita.
"Rita was the forgotten storm, initially," Pieper remembers. "All the government talked about was Katrina."
Six deaths in Beaumont were attributed to carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator after Hurricane Rita knocked out power. Afraid of theft, the individuals had brought the units indoors without proper ventilation.
Most of the reports Pieper filed about Hurricane Rita were to local news organizations in cities such as Waco, Lufkin and Corpus Christi.
Pieper did not expect strangers to thank him for the coverage. He is surprised by how often it happens.
"It's almost gotten to the point of being embarrassing," he said.
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