Radio Operators

Two nurses examined an earthquake victim writhing in pain inside a yellow triage tent recently on the lawn of Redlands Community Hospital. They suspected the woman had head trauma, a broken leg and internal bleeding as part of a disaster drill that morning for a magnitude 7.9 earthquake. The 229-bed facility was running on two generators after losing power, and the nurses needed to get her inside the hospital and into intensive care. Trouble was the hospital gurneys were too heavy for the damp grass and they couldn't roll them to the triage tent.

Javier Olvera never made plans with his friends while on military leave in Palmdale last spring. Instead, he rounded them up for impromptu trips to the beach, park and Littlerock Dam in the Antelope Valley. "He would say it was never good to plan because things never come out according to plan," said his brother, Nery, 25. The only plan Javier did make was to start college after four years of service in the Marine Corps. But that idea was dashed last month when he was killed in combat in southwest Afghanistan.

Chuck Lobb chose the regular noontime roll-call to issue a call-to-arms. "The big event is this evening, Sept. 24, at the Torrance City Hall," he intoned. Transmitting on a ham radio frequency set up in Torrance for emergencies such as earthquakes or chemical spills, Lobb was talking about a different crisis--a political one. At stake: the ability of ham operators to continue using antennas tall enough for communications like this lunch-hour communion of the airwaves.

Brian Bolton was surprised he didn't get more calls after the recent Southern California earthquakes. As executive director of the Ventura County Chapter of the American Red Cross, he expected to hear from people seeking tips on how to prepare for a local earthquake. "Individuals tend to think about it and not do it," he said. "We tend not to want to think about the potential of something bad happening to us so we tend to put these things off." To be prepared or not to be prepared.

Phineas Icenbice has been around the world many times. Postcards from all the exotic places he has visited are neatly arranged on his den walls and organized in binders. Through his adventures, he has met physics professors, eye doctors, mule ranchers, missionaries and maybe even a KGB spy. Icenbice has done all this from the comfort of his Northridge home--but not on the Internet. He does his travels the old-fashioned way: he hams it up as an amateur radio operator.

Cowboy crooners know that more country music is sold in Los Angeles than anywhere else, a distinction on display Thursday night when singers Faith Hill and Tim McGraw opened the first of three sold-out shows at the Staples Center. But Los Angeles listeners would have trouble finding Hill, McGraw or any other twangy troubadours on the radio dial: On Thursday, the city lost its last country music broadcaster when KZLA-FM (93.

With Bosnia-Herzegovina cut off from telephones, telegrams, cards, letters and packages, Dragan and Ljiljana Dimitrijevic tried to provide a crucial information lifeline. For months, the husband-and-wife team sent out and received thousands of messages via their ham radio, providing a link for separated families and friends to receive critical news--joyous and tragic--about each other.

"CALNET," the acclaimed California public-radio news program patterned roughly after "All Things Considered," is scrambling for money to stay afloat. Rumors have abounded since last spring that "CALNET," which debuted in December, 1988, might go off the air because of funding difficulties. Over the past six months, the full-time news staff has dwindled from six to one (based in Sacramento), with the majority of stories now compiled by free-lance reporters.

Even with CD players and iPods, America's teens still listen to the radio. And they tune in even more when the DJs are their own age. Their unwavering devotion has meant that high school radio has managed to survive, even thrive, at the margins at the low end of the FM dial. In New Jersey, high school radio epitomizes what is characteristic nationwide. WCVH, out of Hunterdon Central High School, celebrated its 30th anniversary last month.

Before KNX-AM (1070) offered "all news, all the time," and before KFWB-AM (980) promised to give you "the world" in 22 minutes, there was XTRA-AM (690). XTRA made its debut May 6, 1961, when the Hollywood Reporter called it the nation's first all-news radio operation. It was also one of the most unusual. First, it wasn't based in the United States; it was located in Tijuana, and occasionally the studio received surprise visits by farm animals and reptiles. XTRA didn't have a reporter in the U.S., let alone Southern California.