Orban Assists Bay St. Louis, MS Station WBSL-AM After Hurricane
Bay St. Louis, MS January 30th, 2007 — WBSL-AM 1190 in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi returned to normal operation in mid-December 2006 after being devastated by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. Broadcast equipment manufacturer Orban donated a refurbished Optimod-AM 9200 as part of that company's Katrina Relief Program. A new transmitter was installed. Finally, the blues, gospel, and talk-formatted station was up to full power at 5,000 watts.
Upon returning to the station three days after the hurricane, WBSL-AM President and General Manager Ira Hatchett found that the station had been completely under salt water. Debris build-up from the hurricane prevented workable access to the facilities until April, 2006. The station had to acquire all new equipment, and a portable building was brought in and is being used for studios at the transmitter site until the completion of a new permanent building. During the summer of 2006, the station returned to the airwaves again at low power, enough to cover the city of license and surrounding area.
Hancock Broadcasting Corporation/Badean Media has owned WBSL-AM since 1983. Hatchett thanks all involved in the community and across the country that assisted in the rebuilding of WBSL-AM. He kept the station on the air until the conditions of the hurricane dictated that all staff leave for their own safety, and now that the station is back on the air, his goal is to continue to use his radio station to promote public safety and awareness of dangerous weather situations.
About Orban
Orban is a manufacturer of high-quality digital and analog audio processing, transmission encoding, and noise reduction equipment. Orban is in the market for radio, TV and Internet audio processing. As technology evolves, Orban continues to innovate with state-of-the-art audio processing products for DAB, DTV and streaming media. The Company purchased Orban® in May of 2000. Orban was founded in 1970 by Bob Orban, who is the world's foremost expert in transmission audio processing for broadcast. Orban leads the industry in the design and manufacture of audio processors for radio, television and Internet broadcasting. Recognized for its standard-setting Optimod® digital audio processors and the Opticodec® codecs, the Orban name has become synonymous with reliable, high performance products. Today, its versatile audio processing equipment and codecs are the products of choice in fast-paced production environments worldwide.
For more information contact David Rusch at phone +1 (480) 403-8300, fax +1 (480) 403-8301 or e-mail: drusch@orban.com. Information is also available at www.orban.com and www.orban-europe.com.