As long as they had a batteryoperated radio, Selma’s citizens were not alone Wednesday night as Hurricane Ivan raged above and around them.

Selma’s radio stations teamed up with a plan to stay on the air and keep make sure Selmians were informed throughout the night.

“We had planned ahead of time that if we lost power at our primary transmitting facility, we could get back up with a generator,” WDXX and WHBB owner Mike Reynolds said. “Unfortunately we lost power at both the transmission facility and the studio and we had planned ahead of time to switch our operation out to Scott Alexander and Alexander

Broadcasting.”

Alexander was able to stay on the air and keep Selmians up to date.

“He lost power and was able to get on a back-up transmitter and a back-up generator so we knew we could keep at least one station on the air,” Reynolds said, “and keep the

information going out.”

Reynolds stations had encouraged listeners if they lost the station to spin the dial to one of the other local stations still transmitting.

“It seemed to work out really well, we’re still on the air as we speak now with Scott,”

Reynolds said. “There’s still going to be some more information to pass out.”

Whether the information came from television, radio or other sources, the words of

caution seemed to help keep people safe.

“The idea that folks paid attention to what (EMA director) Brett Howard and his

folks were saying about the storm and what they needed to do, obviously people listened

to something because we have no injuries related to the storm,” Reynolds said. “That

is rather incredible.

“When you look at the damage, and you realize that we don’t have any injuries somebody

did something really right.”