Howard Price (@hbprice) Bsky

A Day Late, a Dollar Short As a consultant now, I tend to avoid bad-mouthing anyone else in the profession. There is great value in being what I like to call a "knowledge evangelist." Someone who has learned great lessons as a practitioner and now wants to share what s/he knows with others willing to pay for that expertise. And I surely believe in the value of outside perspectives when seeking to solve seemingly intractable problems.

The latest consulting revelation on the state of TV News: Feels over facts. A day late, and a dollar short if you ask me. Solutions? My latest MediaDisasterPrep.com blog post:

1 day ago 0 0 0 0

The Crisis Communicator You Want to be When You Grow Up IYKYK. If you know...you know that the federal agency with THE best reputation for shooting straight is the National Transportation Safety Board. Their processes are legendary -- and as consistent as any you will find in either the public or private sector. That ALONE puts them in rarefied air. They follow an established routine, they set a table of achievable expectations -- and on that table rests the reliability, consistency, transparency and trust that puts the NTSB at the top of the governmental pantheon when it comes to its work, and the protocols that govern it.

The best crisis communicator on the public stage today is an unassuming federal bureaucrat whose unwavering process and commitment to known truth quietly defeats mis- and disinformation, and calms fears. My latest MediaDisasterPrep.com blog post:

4 weeks ago 0 1 0 0

More Tarnish at the Tiffany Network CBS News management today announced the shutdown of all CBS Radio News operations as of May 22nd, part of a broader round of job cuts that, according to some reports, will reduce headcount at CBS News by about six percent. CBS News was, for decades, regarded as the gold standard of broadcast journalism, on both radio and TV. And the voices of CBS Radio News -- from Edward R.

More tarnish for the Tiffany Network. And new opportunities for broadcasters ready to do news for a new age. My latest MediaDisasterPrep.com blog post:

1 month ago 0 1 0 0

MediaDisasterPrep.com The Internet's first and only FREE website devoted to business continuity, emergency preparedness and crisis management in the broadcast media industry.

A lesson broadcasters must learn from the war with Iran...having an answer to the question "and then what?" when bad things happen.

My latest MediaDisasterPrep.com blog post:

mediadisasterprep.wordpress.com/2026/03/19/a...

1 month ago 0 0 0 0

And Then What? War is a lesson in contingency planning. A lesson in the need for robust strategy and tactics. A lesson in the importance of defining normalization, timing it -- and then executing it. In other words, it's having answers to the question, "and then what?" once the crisis has passed. Broadcasting writ large, and perhaps radio most specifically, has been historically bad at answering the "and then what?" question.

And Then What?

War is a lesson in contingency planning. A lesson in the need for robust strategy and tactics. A lesson in the importance of defining normalization, timing it -- and then executing it. In other words, it's having answers to the question, "and then what?" once the crisis has passed.…

1 month ago 0 0 0 0

Wars Don’t Take Weekends Off We just don't learn. For the umpteenth time this year alone, major news has broken during off-hours -- overnights, weekends and holidays -- when newsrooms are thinly staffed. This past weekend, it was a war between us and Iran that has now involved many of our allies in the Mideast -- and threatens to become a wider, protracted conflict. Good thing many stations program live, local news early in the morning...even on weekends.

Wars don't take weekends off. And the news business can't, either. My latest MediaDisasterPrep.com blog post:

1 month ago 1 0 0 0

Continuity Insights Management Conference 2026 – Elevate Your Operational Resilience Join CIMC 2026 in Phoenix, April 27–29. 50+ sessions, expert deep dives, CEAPs, and unmatched networking for resilience leaders.

I'm thrilled to be speaking at the 2026 Continuity Insights Management Conference in Phoenix, April 27-29.

Join me for my session: When it Hits the Fan: Managing Crisis with Credibility

Great networking and CEAPs, too!

Save $200 when you register now👇:
i.snoball.it/p/CBSPzL/b/6

#CIMC26

2 months ago 0 0 0 0

Don’t Sleep on Severe Weather, Radio Seen outside my local ACME supermarket in nearby Mahwah, NJ today: A sign decalring a "Storm Alert" -- a bright yellow reminder to shoppers that NOW is the time to prepare by stocking up on essentials. Smart radio operators are doing the same thing...reminding listeners that a potentially catastrophic winter storm is putting itself together and marching ferociously eastward. And that your local radio station is the place to be for the latest forecasts and information. This one will affect a lot of people in a lot of places. Southwest. Midwest.

A brewing storm will severely affect much of the country this weekend. It's another chance for radio to shine. Will your station be ready? My latest MediaDisasterPrep.com blog post.

3 months ago 0 0 0 0

“Can You Hear Me Now? No? Try Radio!” We all remember those classic Verizon Wireless commercials. You know the one with the "Test Man," played by actor Paul Marcarelli. For about a decade in the 2000s, we saw him galavanting all over the place, cellphone in hand, asking, "Can You Hear Me Now?" The phrase became part of our pop lexicon. And it helped Verizon Wireless cement its reputation for scale and reliability in the ever-more-competitive cellular telephony space. But just yesterday, a big crack developed in that brand's cement... as an estimated 1 million or so VZW customers suddenly had the telephone side of their smartphones bricked.

"Old tech" can be the "best (maybe, ONLY) tech" when "you CAN'T hear me now." My latest MediaDisasterPrep.com blog post.

3 months ago 0 0 0 0

When Timeliness, Transparency — and Temperment — Collide in Real Time As I write this, the tragic news out of Minneapolis is still developing, where an ICE agent fatally shot a woman in her 30s amid circumstances that are murky at best. Video posted to social media show agents behind and to the driver's side of a car that appeared to have been blocking a street. We don't know what, if any, orders were given to the driver...but it APPEARS that no agent was directly in front of the car when it accelerated and drove away, two shots were fired, and the car crashed into another a short distance down the street.

When the news cycle moves faster than the discovery of facts in an emotionally fraught time...how do officials -- and the media -- find truth? My latest MediaDisasterPrep.com blog post.

3 months ago 0 0 0 0

It’s New Year’s Weekend – Who Had Invasion on Their Bingo Card? If you’re still among the news executives in at this moment in time still says, “Eh, weekends…they’re the same everywhere,” it’s time for you to leave the busine…

Was your newsroom ready to wake up to an invasion in the middle of a Saturday night on a holiday weekend? My latest MediaDisasterPrep.com blog post:

mediadisasterprep.wordpress.com/2026/01/03/i...

3 months ago 2 0 0 0

It’s New Year’s Weekend – Who Had Invasion on Their Bingo Card? If you're still among the news executives in at this moment in time still says, "Eh, weekends...they're the same everywhere," it's time for you to leave the business. In the pre-dawn hours of a Saturday night on New Year's weekend, the US invaded Venezuela and extracted its president to face a US narcotics indictment. Did you have an on-call list of academics "smart" on Venezuela and military experts locked and loaded for just such an eventuality? (The signs and signals have been coming from Washington for weeks, if not months now.

Was your newsroom ready to wake up to an invasion in the middle of a Saturday night on a holiday weekend? My latest MediaDisasterPrep.com blog post:

3 months ago 0 0 0 0

Tell Me Something I DON’T Know… Well, another "storm of the century" has come and gone here in the Northeast...and like clockwork, radio and TV have ramped up coverage to tell us snow is white, it's sticking, plows and salters and out, and you be careful out there. Better yet, stay home...and watch TV or listen to the radio...so we can tell you the same things over and over again and sell spots at the premium rates that news commands. Memo to news directors, EPs, assignment editors, anchors, correspondents and meteorologists: You can and MUST do better than what I've seen and heard today: Reporters pointing at traffic and warning us that it is slippery, or showing us the pavement and praising road crews, or -- dare I say it -- laying down and making snow angels on live television.

Tell Me Something I DON’T Know…

Well, another "storm of the century" has come and gone here in the Northeast...and like clockwork, radio and TV have ramped up coverage to tell us snow is white, it's sticking, plows and salters and out, and you be careful out there. Better yet, stay home...and…

3 months ago 0 0 0 0

“Imagine”…and Prepare It's said that television came of age during the Kennedy assassination, when the earth-shaking news forced the medium to do what to that point it had never done: Provide continuous live coverage of a breaking news event with few if any standing plans, resources - or technology -- in place to do it. It wasn't just TV that came of age in that moment -- a young generation growing up on the medium also came of age in that instant.

“Imagine”…and Prepare

It's said that television came of age during the Kennedy assassination, when the earth-shaking news forced the medium to do what to that point it had never done: Provide continuous live coverage of a breaking news event with few if any standing plans, resources - or…

4 months ago 0 0 0 0

“Everything, Everywhere — All at Once” It's one of those days. One of those weeks. When it seems the world can't get its paws off the breaking news button. And radio stations, especially, are at yet another moment of reckoning. As I write this, a manhunt is underway for the police impersonator who shot and killed the speaker emerita of the Minnesota House of Representatives and her husband in their suburban Minneapolis home -- and who shot and wounded a state senator and his wife in their home before escaping a gunfight with real police officers.

Is your station ready to respond when "everything, everywhere" happens "all at once?" My latest MediaDisasterPrep blog post:

10 months ago 2 0 1 0

Happy World Backup Day, Broadcasters! Ok...you're forgiven if you live mostly in an analog world and are NOT familiar with World Backup Day, which, as I write this, is today, March 31st. It's the 2011 invention of a Reddit group that thought it would be a good idea to elevate the importance of backing up critical data on computer systems. And if you've astutely noted that it takes place one day BEFORE April Fool's Day...well, that's no accident.

Happy World Backup Day, Broadcasters!

Ok...you're forgiven if you live mostly in an analog world and are NOT familiar with World Backup Day, which, as I write this, is today, March 31st. It's the 2011 invention of a Reddit group that thought it would be a good idea to elevate the importance of…

1 year ago 3 0 0 0

You: “No cell, no internet, no power!” Radio: “No problem!” For those who don't know -- allow me to introduce you to an amazing life-saving technology. The original social network. No wires. Goes anywhere. Works when nothing else does. In fact, sometimes it needs only sunlight or a handcrank or two to operate. We call it "radio." And again, it has proven itself a lifesaver and key information link for the thousands of victims displaced in the Los Angeles wildfires.

The century-old communications technology being rediscovered amid the LA firestorm -- and how every broadcaster should be capitalizing on it. My latest MediaDisasterPrep blog post.

1 year ago 3 1 0 0

Disaster At Your Doorstep Imagine an area the size of San Francisco burned to the ground. There's actually no need to imagine it. That's the state of play right now in and around Los Angeles. Five uncontained, uncontrolled wildfires that have raged for days during what is normally the quiet season for wildfires in southern California. Infernos that have put radio, TV and streaming platforms to the test.

It's too late to plan when disaster is at your doorstep. My latest MediaDisasterPrep blog post:

1 year ago 2 0 1 0

Crisis Takes No Holiday For New Orleans, this is no happy new year. At least 10 dead, perhaps 35 or more injured in what is looking more and more like a premeditated act of terrorism, carried out as revelers celebrated 2025 along the Crescent City's famed Bourbon Street. Reports to this moment are that a man in a pickup truck accelerated through throngs of New Year's revelers in the French Quarter, running down men, women and children, before firing an assault-style weapon at police, wounding at least two of them, before he himself was killed.

It's New Year's Day -- and crisis doesn't care. What today's horrific attack on revelers in New Orleans reminds us about media vigilance and preparedness in my latest MediaDisasterPrep blog post:

1 year ago 1 0 0 0

Hanukkah: The Ultimate Resilience Story For the first time since 2005, Christmas and the first night of Hanukkah coincide. For Christians, a celebration of the birth of Jesus. For Jews, a celebration of triumph over tyranny. As a Jewish business continuity professional, I've always loved the Hanukkah story: The victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire -- and the intrusion of Hellenistic influences over Judea -- in 165 BCE.

What the ancients can teach us about modern-day resilience. My latest MediaDisasterPrep blog post:

1 year ago 1 0 0 0

The MediaDisasterPrep.com Blog ...Because Life's Easier When You Have a Plan

The NYC shooting of a healthcare CEO reminds us that broadcasters are a soft target for those with misplaced passions or an ax to grind. My latest MediaDisasterPrep blog post:

mediadisasterprep.wordpress.com

1 year ago 1 0 0 0

“December 7, 1941. A date that will live in infamy.”

Again this year, my brother Dave has saluted survivors at the annual Pearl Harbor memorial.

We are the envy of the world because of their courage, service & sacrifice of the Greatest Generation.

Our debt to them can never be fully repaid.

1 year ago 1 0 1 0

Russ, my last word. Just not true. Reporting by US and global media has been extensive. War is hell. So don’t make war. No one dies. Everyone prospers.

1 year ago 0 0 0 0

I am a humanist, Russ. But as one of my daughter’s friends is a hostage, children of my friends have been called up to fight — and I’ve actually been to Gaza where Gazans blame Hamas for their misery — the solution is simple: take “yes” for an answer on peace and statehood offered for decades.

1 year ago 0 0 1 0

No Gaza genocide by any accepted definition, Russ.

Hamas Health Ministry: 43k dead; IDF: 1/2 are actually Hamas warriors.

The roughly 1-to-1 combatant to civilian death ratio is almost unheard of it modern warfare, especially given complexity of Gaza.

I get the passion. But facts matter.

1 year ago 0 0 1 0

Cable television enters a new spin zone. Surrender - or bold new opportunities? Lessons for local broadcasters in my latest MediaDisasterPrep blog post:

mediadisasterprep.wordpress.com/2024/11/21/spin-doctors-...

1 year ago 1 0 0 0

Posts by Howard Price