When conditions change, this station will be updated...not
So, we're taking a little trip down to Virginia to spend Thanksgiving with the family, and as soon as we get onto Interstate 270 in Germantown, the traffic stops dead and is backed up as far as we can see. Naturally, I tuned to AM 1070, one of several so-called travellers advisory radio systems run by Montgomery County, Maryland. Did we hear anything about what later appeared to be a major traffic incident on the interstate? Of course not.
There's never any useful information on AM 1070. What's on there is a distorted loop of driving tips for complete morons, such as "there will be extra traffic on the road because of the holidays," DUH! Oh, yeah, there is more "useful" information for the traveller -- you can listen to this station on county cable TV. That bit of knowledge does a hell of a lot of good when you're stuck in a seven mile backup on the interstate.
You're invited to check it out for yourself, via the county's Traffic and Parking Division web site.
I have always checked this station whenever I encounter abnormal traffic conditions, and I have never heard the station updated with any information related to the event I happened to drive into. Oh, Georgia Avenue southbound between Olney and Norbeck (a major commuter artery that I use along with tens of thousands of others on a daily basis) has been closed for the last four or five hours during the morning rush hour because of an accident that wiped out an electric pole? You think you'll hear about this on the county's radio network? No way. The same, stale "when conditions change, this station will be updated" over and over.
WTOP AM 1500 does traffic "on the eights" all day long, and within two minutes after tuning to WTOP we learned that there was a major accident on southbound I-270 before 124 and that all but the leftmost two lanes were closed. So, what do we need the county system for? To tell us there's a new stop light on Father Hurley Boulevard?
The county-run stations are one of the most blatant waste of taxpayer dollars I've ever come across. I believe these stations should be converted into something useful, such as
- Student-run radio communications training in our high schools
- Montgomery College student radio
- Open access for the public to play music or bring a voice to their views
The county is shamefully wasting our taxpayer dollars on WPBJ and WPDD, and possibly on other TIS stations they own that turn up in an FCC search.