Politics & Government

Haberek Hopes to Establish Emergency Radio Station

The low powered radio station will be accessible by battery operated FM radios.

Smartphones, Facebook are twitter are essential tools of communication during emergencies but Stonington First Selectman Edward Haberek, Jr. wants to kick it old school by creating a low-powered FM radio station that can be accessed with battery operated radios.

Haberek told reporters at the Mystic River Press that he’ll have to fill out some paperwork and get approval from the FCC in order to establish a radio station and it would cost $12,000 to begin with and then about $100 every year afterward. 

The radio station will be in addition to the Everbridge system that notifies subscribers via the phone or email of emergencies. And, he told reporters that he’d continue to broadcast on WBLQ during emergencies. 

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Haberek be working with Chris DiPaola, owner of local radio station WBLQ, and the director of emergency management George Brennan and manager of IT Roger Kizer. Plus, Haberek said he’d discuss the ins and outs of such a station with officials in Georgetown, S.C. and Rumson N.J., both small coastal towns that have the same type of radio station and have experienced natural disasters.

Click here to read the full report in the Mystic River Press.

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