Did you tune in to WBEN this afternoon/evening?

I did - I wanted to hear the traffic report, but it was off the air.

At around 5:50 I tuned back in, and I could hear Tom Puckett reading the news very faintly - as if they were talkin through a tin can.

Soon, Tim Wenger, Sandy Beach, and even Tom Bauerle and Ron Dobson joined the fun, and probably one of the best nights of Buffalo AM radio in a long time went to air.

There had been a power outage out by Sweet Home, and WBEN (actually all of Entercom’s stations) was affected. To make matters worse, their emergency generator didn’t work. Instead, the engineers somehow managed to get them back on the air, and they all sat around the engineer’s room passing a wired handmike back and forth.

No computers, no accuweather, no traffic, no phone calls, no nothing. Just a bunch of guys hanging out, eating pizza and shooting the shit during a blackout. They somewhat gently debated and discussed topics such as the casino and the Sabres, and seemed to be having a jolly old time.

The quality was so bad, it sounded like I was listening to a forbidden BBC shortwave broadcast from behind enemy lines.

But it was compelling, and it was funny, and they were enjoying themselves under those strange circumstances. Ultimately, that’s what makes for good radio; not screaming, angry callers. Not the Teresas of the world.

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