I was working at a radio station in Burlington when a storm moved in off Lake Ontario. It was a Saturday, the weather was bad and the news director had come in to help out.
There were three of us in the station, the staff announcer and us two newsies.
Stations are grounded with copper, but that doesn’t mean things don’t happen.The station was in a high rise building. The newsroom windows looked directly across a corridor to the main control room.
We were talking when a deafening boom shook the building.
We watched in utter amazement as the staff announcer (who had his hands on the console) was picked up by a huge blue arc, and lifted across the room, crashing into the far wall and slumping to the floor.
Lightning had hit the equipment on the top of the building.
It was definitely a ’set your phasers on stun’ moment.
The power went out.
“Call 911,” said the ND.
Well, I think that is what he said, my ears were ringing so loud I couldn’t have heard anything and it was rather dark.
That prickly sense you get when lightening hits nearby and that acrid sulfuric smell was rooting me to the spot.
We actually moved quickly, but it didn’t seem so at the time.
Emergency power kicks in within 10-20 seconds, the transmitters adjust and the station (if it can) goes back on air.
The ND jammed some carts into the machines at the console while I went to the phone.
The staff announcer was coming too.
“I’m calling 911,” I said to him, giving him a quick visual to see if he was burned.
“No. No. Don’t”
“You just got zapped, I have to, you were out cold.”
I was still having trouble hearing as was the ND and as our ears adjusted we were using our hands and body language as best we could.
“No. No. Don’t. Gotta get back.”
He was really shocky as he stuggled to get to his feet.
His pulse was racing and he was sluggish/hyper, his pupils were adjusting and he was utterly focused on getting back to the job. Well, he was in shock, he thought he was focused.
All the back ups had kicked in so we turned our undivided attention to him.
It’s really difficult explaining to someone who just got thrown across a room that they need medical attention and that someone else can take their shift.
It took a gentle and firm phone call from the program director ‘ordering’ him off the air to help him refocus enough to go with the ND.
Another staff announcer rushed in while the ND took the announcer to be checked out.
Right behind his replacement were the engineers.
Other than a few bruises, a headache and minor burns on his hands he was okay and back on the job Sunday.
My respect for the power of nature increased significantly that day.
Search
Subscribe 
You are currently browsing the Bene Diction Blogs On weblog archives.
Related Entries
For blog design, Wordpress or MovableType coding or blog consulting, see cre8d design.
My dh works in radio - on the engineering end. Over the last 30 years I have had several nightmares about something like this happening to him.
I can imagine you do. Working on transmitters and all that gear takes a lot of skill.
Now that’s what I call a WOWIE ZOWIE moment.
Most of us who are on the tech end of broadcast know of someone who has been struck or has been in near proximity of a strike. There are a few sites where you can actually work inside during a storm. They are very few. The goal is to design and install the best possible path from the tower or antenna to the ground you stand on. The ground you stand on is the only one that will dissipate a lightning strike. This is not always easy or practical when the tower and/or antenna is on a bulding roof.
The more important goal is to not be near that grounding path when there is a strike. AKA “It is ONLY radio!” Or TV, or… I have been known to comment: “It is off? Yeah, So what?!?” The rule of thumb is stay away for at least thirty minutes after the last thunder you hear. On the beginning side - you hear thunder and you LEAVE. If you can hear it - you are no longer safe.
The most interesting lightning mitigation story I’ve heard about involved fire-watchers in the 1930’s through the 1960’s. Several of the watch towers in the Northwest were on mountaintops where strkes were a regular occurrence. Several of these these towers had properly installed “air terminals” (lightning rods) on the roof and adequately sized grounding conductors to the buried rods in the ground. (note the plural here!) There also was a chair on insulators located in the middle of the room. The watchers would “sit out” the storm on the chair. It was reported to be safer than attempting to get out of the tower and off the hilltop before the full fury of the storm struck. It was reported that during a severe storm it was a spectacular show that could go on for hours.