KBUU News Returns – We Hope
Written by 991KBU on November 21, 2018
There are 13,000 residents in Malibu … and 13 hundred thousand compelling stories to be told.
We have missed most of them.
KBUU news has been off the air for nearly 2 weeks.
It has taken us that long to reconstruct the technical equipment that we quickly threw into a van on Friday, November 9.
Two of our broadcast facilities burned down … the other two have no power.
All had to be reconstructed … and some sort of electrical power supply created.
Our engineer … Jim Toten … jumped off an airplane from his job in Berlin and spent three days and nights reconstructing the system.
My wife … Diane Laetz … has worked with me for 10 days to clean up the fire damage at the house … rebuild the radio station … and keep us on the air.
As I write this at sunrise … she is up at a burned-out house in the mountains … pouring gasoline into a generator.
One of our solar-powered relays has batteries that run out at about six in the morning … causing the station to be silent until the sun rays hit the panels at about 705.
All of this is not an excuse … but an explanation as to why we’ve been silent for the past 12 days.
It’s been exhausting … but the hard work is just begun.
And we’ve been so incredibly lucky here at the radio station.
Thank you for your trust and your good wishes.
Thank you for understanding.
