CMG Bigs Praise Their People

Cox Media Group’s President Kim Guthrie and Executive VP Bill Hendrich are extremely proud of how their teams in Texas and Florida performed in the face of the two recent hurricanes. Guthrie said,“After ensuring that our teams and their families were all safe, our mission was to serve our communities by relaying vital, lifesaving information to our viewers, listeners, and readers.” Here’s exactly what CMG’s been up to since Harvey and Irma decided to carve destruction across several states.

Many CMG properties were in the path of Harvey and Irma:

• Houston: The New 93Q, Country Legends 97.1FM, and The Eagle 106.9 & 107.5
• San Antonio: 99.5 KISS, KONO 101.1, The Eagle 106.7, Country Legends KKYX 680 AM 104.9 FM, and Y100
• Austin: Austin American Statesman
• Miami: 99JAMZ, Easy93.1, Hits97.3, and HOT105
• Orlando: News 96.5, K92.3, 98.9 WMMO, Star 94.5, Power 95.3, 107.3 Solo Exitos, WFTV Ch. 9, and Central Florida’s 27 WRDQ
• Tampa: HOT 101.5, 97X, 102.5 The Bone, Magic 94.9, 107.3 The Eagle, and 105.5 The Dove
• Jacksonville: News 104.5, The Eagle 96.9, Easy 106.5, HOT99.5, 95.1WAPE, X102.9, Power 106.1, and Action News Jax FOX30 and CBS47 TV
• West Palm Beach: The Palm Beach Post and Palm Beach Daily News
• Atlanta: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, MundoHispanico, News 95.5 FM AM 750 WSB, 97.1 The River, B98.5, Your Country Georgia 106.1/107.1, KISS 104.1 FM, and WSB TV Ch. 2 Action News
• Athens: 960 The Ref, WGAU 98.7 FM & AM1340, Magic 102.1 FM, 103.7 Chuck FM, Power 100.1, and Your Country Georgia 106.1/107.1

  

Guthrie says her teams were totally prepared. “The preparedness of our engineers and operations leaders paid off — with generator power, fuel, personnel, and even MREs (Meals Ready to Eat) for our small but mighty teams who went without sleep, worked onsite and in the field to continue to report the news and weather. We are so incredibly proud of all of our dedicated employees, as well as the extended digital, national content desk, and the Washington News Bureau teams, and other CMG markets who supported them throughout this ordeal.”

Guthrie says CMG commits a great deal of time throughout the year with its security team conducting tabletop exercises so that its media brands can be prepared for disasters like this and to never lose the ability to broadcast or publish the news.

CMG Executive VP Bill Hendrich who recently was named to oversee all of CMG’s Florida broadcast markets was also very happy with how his people handled the storms. “I am especially proud of our two converged markets in Orlando and Jacksonville, where we have TV and radio properties. In both markets, the TV and radio stations worked together before, during, and after the storm to provide unmatched news coverage to millions of viewers and listeners.”

CMG said the plan included getting all CMG employees to safety so CMG’s media teams could safely guide the communities through some of the worst hurricanes in history. Guthrie added, “There will be many more weeks of clean-up as the full extent of damage reveals itself across these markets, and CMG will continue to step up for our communities, our audiences, advertisers, and our employees. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with everyone impacted by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.”