This could happen to any radio station, in any market, at any time. As a manager, are you prepared to deal with all the issues that come up if it does happen? Twenty-nine-year-old Thomas Hill, who was arrested for drunk driving, drove right into the studio of WNRI-AM in Woonsocket, Rhode Island early Wednesday morning, causing a whole lot of chaos.
We reached out to Dick Bouchard who is the Chief Engineer, Treasurer, and majority stockholder at Bouchard Broadcasting’s WNRI and asked him to tell us, in his own words, what happened and how he dealt with the situation. You’ll not only hear exactly what this 78-year-old broadcaster did to get his station back on the air, you’ll also be able to see just how much love he has for his little AM station in small town America.
“Yesterday was a very bad day for me and Bouchard Broadcasting. I was called shortly after midnight to come to the radio station by my brother Roger, it’s about a mile from my home, to see a badly damaged Ford Explorer sitting in my office. Our station was still on the air, but since the wires were pulled out of our satellite dish adjacent to my office, our programming source was interrupted (Dead air!). By the time I arrived, the driver had been removed from the vehicle and sent to the hospital.
“Turns out the Ford Explorer SUV had removed all the cement blocks holding up the southeast corner of our building (my office and the 2nd exit to the building); there was some concern the roof might collapse once the SUV that was pulled out. The city’s building inspector and I watched the very slow extraction. Once the fire department and the city’s building inspector determined the remainder of the building was intact, I was able to get behind the microphone in the control room to tell our listeners at about 3 a.m. what had happened and set in motion a pre-recorded music program made for emergencies.
“Once we were able to assess the incredible damage to my office, we managed to pick through the rubble using car headlights and flashlights for the satellite support hardware. The crash also damaged the support structure of the satellite dish. We were able to contact Kurt Jackson at Hampden Communications and he managed to use the parts we salvaged from the debris field, which was spread over 150 feet, and parts he had in his truck. Within 12 hours, we managed to restore satellite service to the control room and our Wireready computer.
“Before Kurt arrived at about 10 a.m., my grandson, Bryan Bouchard, who arrived around
4 a.m., and just happens to own a landscape trailer (he mows the station’s lawn), and I were waiting at the front door of Lowe’s when they opened at 6 a.m., where we purchased some 4X4 lumber and five metal adjustable steel columns.
“By dawn, we had placed the columns in the void the crash had caused, to hold up cement blocks that were suspended from the roof, that for some reason, did not fall with the remainder of the two walls that were destroyed. We carefully placed the columns and lumber between the bottom remaining cement blocks and those identical blocks nearly eight feet above. Why the remaining suspended cement blocks did not fall is a mystery to me, but for safety’s sake, my grandson and I made sure that problem was corrected quickly as a pair from channel 12 watched us work, from across the street. By dusk, a Providence restoration company had removed our temporary safety work and replaced the wall with strong lumber to fill the void and replaced the 2nd exit door to our building, to comply with code.
The building we own and broadcast from, formerly was an auto body shop and was built very well, something we already knew, but was confirmed from this event. Had the building been of more modern construction, I suspect the roof would have collapsed, once the Ford Explorer was pulled from my office. The older beams, concrete and steel held it in place, with no support whatsoever, until we took remedial action within seven hours of the crash.
“I was employed by WNRI in 1958 when we moved into the building and helped the late owner of the building, Joseph Brit, convert the former auto body shop into what we used to call “Space Age Radio.” It has been the home to WNRI studios and offices ever since. In those days, I was a DJ and Sales Manager and a very young broadcast engineer. I earned my first amateur radio license at age 14 and I was able to rescue a copy of my first class FCC license I had on the wall of my office in the debris.
“I am now 78. I formed a small four-partner company in 1983 and purchased the station. I sold it in 1999, but bought it back in 2004. The company now bears my name and that of my brother Roger, who manages the day-to-day operations in these most difficult days for AM radio. Our application to add a simulcast FM translator is pending at the FCC and we are told, any day now, we should also be broadcasting on 95.1 MHz.
“So less than 24 hours after a horrendous crash that could have put us out of business, everything is back to close to normal, at least for the time being. The man who crashed into our building survived the crash but was arrested before sunset.
“It was quite an experience. Local officials, including the newly appointed Police Chief Thomas F. Oates III, came by to offer support and any assistance, as did many of our listeners and advertisers. My fourth partner, Roger Laliberte, retired chief of the Coventry police department, who does our French program each weekend, saw all the TV coverage and came to see for himself, just what happened.
“The crash was on all the local TV stations, especially WPRI 12, who were very polite and
waited very patiently for interviews, and frankly, watched as we did our emergency restoration, because I suspect they couldn’t believe the roof didn’t fall, as it was suspended in mid-air by the rest of the building!
“Today, our insurance company, Peerless (Liberty Mutual) said they will be coming from New Hampshire to view the damage. The station fortunately has several insurance polices in force. The owner of the Soucy Agency, David Soucy, who handles our property insurance policies came by to view the damage personally.”
If you’d like to reach out to Dick Bouchard to talk to him about his experience, or perhaps give him a little support, you can reach him at [email protected]
