F.A.Q on WABN & Hurricanecity live audio Broadcasting
How do I listen?


About the broadcasts

How long have these broadcasts been on the internet?..In 1997, we were broadcasting covering Hurricanes with the "Weather Information Network".At the beginning of hurricane season 1998, Hurricanecity & WIN covered hurricane George's hitting Puerto Rico,shortly thereafter weatheraudio.net was formed WABN in Pompano Bch, Florida in conjunction with Hurricanecity.

How long has WABN been broadcasting ?..Towards the end of the 1998 hurricane season, we felt our needs to broadcast more frequently would be met by producing our own weather broadcasts. WABN began broadcasting shortly after the 1998 hurricane season ended.In 2004 we moved to Delray Beach,Florida in Palm Beach County & developed a whole new setup.

What is WABN & what is its purpose ?.. WABN (Weather Audio Broadcast Network) was developed by Jim Williams in late 1998. Jim is also the editor & creator of Hurricanecity. We felt continuous coverage of hurricanes making landfall would inform & entertain listeners as well as allow visitors to interact with the broadcast by calling on our toll free number posted during live shows. We now cover all major weather events (see below).Click here to see video of our broadcast setup | studio shot | colo facility picture

Who operates WABN (who is involved) ?..Jim Williams, the host of the broadcast handles most of the technical detail & broadcasting. Barbara Williams (wife) also helps on audio with commercials and updates. Bill Phillips in Virginia Beach and Mark Davis in Batavia ,Illinois also take over severe weather coverage when thier surrounding areas are affected. The network also has approx 150 observers nationwide & in the Caribbean that provide us information on severe weather via telephone (provided comunications are still up). If you would like to be an observer, please EMAIL WABN with your name, telephone number & city. You do not need to be experienced in the weather field or standing in it for that matter. These calls would be made primarily for MAJOR weather events.

What will I hear and see?


What do you broadcast ?.. Major weather events such as hurricanes making landfall, tornadoes that hit major metro areas with many fatalities, and crippling snow storms in major metropolitan areas usually over 12" accumulation in less than 24 hrs. Major weather situations like the superstorm of 1993 which affected whole states. Broadcasts will also take place for a major earthquake or other natural disasters which effects tens of thousands of people. Otherwise you will hear our looping 24 hr a day broadcast consisting of Documentaries,weather facts & music with a live cam shot here in Delray beach,Florida..

When can we hear you ?..Well, usually if a major weather story breaks "suddenly" we will be live usually that same night or the entire next day depending on severity & news resources. If you have not already done so,please sign up to the mailing list by putting your email address in the box.

By signing up, you will get notified if we are going live. Hurricane coverage usually begins when warnings are issued for a particular area. Coverage usually ends 24 hrs after initial disaster occurs unless news is plentiful, then we will stay on longer sometimes for days.(example during Hurricane Michelle in Nov 2001 we allowed listeners to hear the hurricane watch net ham radio reports for 3 days in a row 24-7 as well as the Bahamas radio network.)

What can I expect to hear ?.. As of 5/5/02 we are only covering major weather stories, meaning "when live" Jim Williams will be reading both National Weather Service reports & news reports from the affected areas. As of 2004 we are now doing live video as well,so you can watch radar & other images while the action is going on. Jim will also take & make telephone calls from listeners in harms way. If all else fails, we will provide a simulcast of radio or T.V from the affected areas, with Jims' commentary in between. On April 28th 2002 an F-5 Tornado touched down in Maryland,during the touchdown WABN was live with radio coverage from local radio stations as well as our own radar summary

Any plans for 24 hr Broadcasting ?.. YES!! we are doing this right now,infact since 3/5/02 the 24hr a day webcast has been operating nearly perfect with minimal down time. You will hear various programming from past recorded shows with interviews , some weather stories , weather music & of course live coverage of Tornado touchdowns & aftermaths if resources are available. If you are not listening right now,please do Click here to listen in


How do you do this ?..


Do you have a studio, where does this originate ?.. Well we tried to make this as much like a pro studio here in Delray Bch, Florida, the same location as Hurricanecity.com. The content originates from our office with 4 computers on a network. We also have weather equipment for monitoring, 3 13" color T.Vs that are monitored 24 hrs a day with local reports from the national hurricane center. We also have weather software that gives us the latest updated advisories as they happen. We also monitor short wave frequencies & local scanner frequencies during local disasters click here to see video of the setup.. During our live broadcast in 1999 "Hurricane Floyd", the broadcast had ham radio from the Bahamas Radio Network & listeners had a chance to hear what was happening in the Bahamas. Also we use a cam program that grabs the latest cam shots from the affected areas & updates them automatically. We also stream live streaming cams wherever they are available from affected areas.During Hurricane Katrina in 2005 we were able to stream two live video cams from downtown New Orleans during & after Katrina.So basically during live broadcasts, the chairs with wheels are rolling back & forth constantly checking for new info and showing you what is happening from the affected areas..

What equipment do you use to broadcast ?..We have 4 PC computers on a network. The main broadcast computer is a Dell Workstation running (windows xp). The other 3 computers all dell's all running(windows XP). The studio has aspi multiple battery backup backup & generator to keep broadcast alive "if we get hit" the Network also has a Netgear firewall. What we do is broadcast from our network at our location to our dedicated server on a high speed backbone. Windows media services streamer is on a dell poweredge rack mount server (colo) with 1gb memory with upgrades coming located at 1 vault networks in Ft Lauderdale,Florida.NOTE: this does not guarantee our broadcasts never have problems as many things are beyond our control such as local broadband availability at our end. This facility has 8" poured concrete walls with no windows with multiple redundancy of power & communications,so we expect the server to stay up in a worst case scenario. As far as producion ,We mix all sound effects ,Telephone calls & all other audio/video through a Mackie mixing board with a Telos digital phone coupler & feed it through on the window media encoder to the server. Take a Look. We also have battery backup power to run hurricanecity during hurricane conditions image sponsored by powerbygenerator.com

Can we hear you with any plug-in ?.. As of 3/25/07 we are broadcasting live video 24/7 that can be watched with either windows media player or real audio player. The older archives can be watched with real audio player to subscribers but the newest recorded shows starting in March 2007 will all be available to subscribers in flash player,accessible with the name & email address they signed up with.


Security, listenership, sponsorship, etc;

How many people can hear this broadcast ?..As of 2005,we could only serve several hundred live streams at one time due to bandwidth constraints. The Helix Server allows Thousands of listerners but we capped it at several hundred and when hurricanes hit land, we can have Thousands of listerners coming & going during the day. The new server location will allow us to stream to thousands if need be.
Can my company sponsor the broadcast's ?.. YES!, sponsorship is needed to help us absorb the cost of broadcasting. Your company will recieve both banner & audio advertising More here. During hurricane coverage your advertisements will be heard by thousands of listeners per day,as Hurricanecity draws tens of thousands of interested visitors and listeners per day. If you would like your live video presenation see during the videocast's,please contact us for more info.

I know I can listen and watch, but can I participate ?.. We encourage people to call us from the affected areas, but if you have important information unknown to us to be passed on to our listeners, please call our toll free number when it is mentioned and posted. You can also email us at WABN

I missed a broadcast can I still hear it ?.. Most live shows are recorded and require a username & password to access the recorded clips. You can sign up from this page. You can also find all old clips atwww.weatheraudio.net.

What about WABN's future, what are your plans ?.. Please visit this pagefor our new lineup. Outside of that,we are conducting 24 hr a day broadcasting,meaning, at any time you will hear a looping broadcast sometimes with jim williams live or recorded shows or interviews. Documentaries will be streamed 24/7 on cd-rom etc; with the streaming live towercam. When a major weather story is breaking ,one of our three studio broadcasters will usually be streaming something about the situation.You may hear Mark announcing new advisories issued for Kalamazoo Michigan or Bill breaking in with a tsunami warning for Maui, Hawaii. During the 2004 hurricane season the live videocasting was a success with live video,radar & web page captures,streaming TV and radio. Some have asked how do you get away with streaming a TV station? dont they get mad? Actually we have had several TV stations contact us to tell us they are streaming live content and to please re-stream it. Sometimes we may stream the weather channel because it is passing along life saving information. The major networks we tap for minutes at a time when the situation is critical to get out the word. In a nut shell, we hope to have the most entertaining weather broadcast on the internet without focusing on just one source.

Can you give our radio & Television station live information? Jim has been heard on several stations in the Atlantic basin,from N.Y to South Florida. If you would like to have Jim on your radio show when a Hurricane is coming, either call into his show or send him an email,he will be glad to accomodate you. He has tons of statistics for each area of the Atlantic basin.

Tell us about the Hurricanecity/WABN listener base From 1999 until 2003 we kept track of listeners by people who fill out the form before listening. We got rid of this feature so people can watch right away without filling out a form. The following cities & Islands had so many listeners,we stopped counting them (in alphabetical order)...Atlanta, Austin,Bahamas as a whole, Baltimore, Barbados, Baton Rouge, Beaumont texas, Bermuda, Boston, Bradenton,fl,Cuba, Cancun, Cape coral,Fla, Cape Hatteras, Cayman islands, Charleston,Charlotte nc,Clearwater,Fl, Corpus Christi, Dallas,Daytona,Deltona,fl,Detroit, England, Fort Lauderdale, Ft Myers fl,Galveston, Grand Cayman, Grand Rapids,mich, Houston, Jacksonville,Jamaica as a whole, Key west, Kingston,Jamaica,Lafayette,LA, Lakeland fl, London,Melbourne, Miami, Milwaukee, Mobile, Naples,Nashville TN, Nassau,bahamas, New Orleans,NYNY, Ontario, Orlando, Palm bch,Panama city,fl,Pascagoula ms, Pensacola,Pineville,LA,Pittsburg, Port Charlotte,Port st lucie fl, Puerto rico as a whole, Saint Petersburg Fla,San Antonio TX, sarasota, Summerville,SC, Tallahassee,Tampa, Toronto, Tulsa,U.K as a whole,Virginia bch, Wilmington N.C,

Pictures from a 2005 broadcast with special guest storm chaser Jim Leonard
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