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Home My WebLink AboutAlison Harrell on Hurrican Ike Transcript, WTAW First 100 YearsProject HOLD WTAW Interview Allison Harrell | Former WTAW Morning Music Radio Host/Bryan Broadcasting Local Sales Manager Tom Turbiville | WTAW Radio Host Laura Quezada | Transcriber 00:00:00 Dick Bolin (DB) College Station, Texas, April 24th, 1947, Dick Bolin talking. Here's the latest news from the Associated Press… 00:00:07 Associated Press (AP) He got a touchdown. Oh, doctor! 00:00:10 Speaker 3 News and Talk, WTAW. ------------------------------- 00:00:12 Tom Turbiville (TT) This is WTAW, the First 100 Years, I'm Tom Turbiville. Two days in September 2008, and WTAW was full-bore, wall-to-wall news because of a Cat 4 hurricane named Ike, slammed the entire upper Gulf Coast region of Texas. Allison Harrell was a 26-year-old morning host on one of our music stations. But for those days, everybody at Bryan Broadcasting worked for the news department. 00:00:41 Alison Harrell (AH) The night that we stayed up all night with Ike, that's Hurricane Ike. This was a time where what we do and what we can offer the community really shown in my mind. Everybody from all stations in the group, all hands on deck. Big Daddy Downs made sure we had snacks and provisions so that we had some sustenance, and we had cots and blankets up in all of the different offices and studios could actually get sleep in shifts; and we always had somebody live on the air. WTAW was wall to wall coverage, taking phone calls, listeners in the area reporting to fellow community members, “Hey, the power's out in this area. Hey, we've got debris in the streets in this area”. And it was really the most local that you can get, y’kno-- the corner of this street and that street, and, um, it was a community service that we could offer. We're not going to be able to stop the hurricane, right, but we can help you know what to navigate and understand what's happening outside of your walls in your home. 00:01:47 (TT) All news is not routine, and it certainly was not when I came to visit at WTAW, the First 100 Years.