A phone conversation that occurred one Saturday morning:
DJ: (answers hotline) Hello?
Myself: This is Paul from Radio Engineering Services, you called the answering service and said you are off the air.
DJ: Yes! The red bat light is flashing and everything!
Myself: Okay, did you try to put the backup transmitter on?
DJ: No. I didn’t want to mess anything up.
Myself: You are off the air; I don’t know how things can be more messed up than that
DJ: (laughing) Okay, you’re right.
Myself: Do you have the directions for the backup transmitter?
DJ: Yes, they are right here
Myself: Okay, go ahead and do that, I will call the local engineer and see if I can get him out to the transmitter site, then I will call you back.
DJ: Okay, thanks.
The good news is the backup transmitter came on and they were back on the air. It is also nice to know that the station has a live DJ on Saturday morning at 7:00 am, many do not. The main transmitter power outage was likely due to a utility company transient, the area had suffered an ice storm the day before and they were out restoring power that morning.
At least this was a real emergency, I used to get calls at home that the headphone jack on the console was loose. I took the home phone number down after that.