Phillip Dampier » Featured

Tornadoes Strike Western New York – Corfu and Darien Suffer Significant Storm Damage

phil — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 03:41:00 +0000

An extremely rare series of tornadoes struck western New York this weekend, causing significant damage from east of Buffalo to west of Rochester. All of the confirmed tornadoes have been designated as F1 on the enhanced Fujita scale.

Storm Specifics
Location: Darien and Corfu, Genesee County, New York
Date: Saturday July 25, 2009
Time of Tornado: 4:50-5:00pm EDT
Fujita Scale Rating: EF1
Maximum Wind Speed: 100 miles per hour
Maximum Width of Tornado: 100 yards
Path Length of Tornado: 3.5 miles
Beginning Latitude/Longitude: 42.93N / 78.44W
Ending Latitude/Longitude: 42.96N / 78.39W

Genesee County, New York

Although widespread damage occurred to the southern portion of the village of Corfu, no injuries or fatalities occurred as a result of the storm. Some 25-30 homes were damaged, one greenhouse and a barn were leveled, and at least 20 power poles were brought down by the storm. Damage to trees was the most visible consequence of the storm — countless numbers in the immediate vicinity of the high winds from the storm were uprooted. Debris flying through the air caused damage to a number of vehicles as well.

Tornadoes of any size are a rare event in western New York, although they are not unknown. Most of those that do occur last only a few minutes and are not comparable to the devastating monster storms found in the midwest and southern portions of the United States.

The appearance of unusual weather events like tornadoes would be surprising had the entire summer season in western New York not already been one for the record books. In addition to enormous, record-breaking downpours and other rain events, which have been occurring near-daily for more than eight weeks now, July 2009 is on tap to be the coldest month in the history of Rochester, since measurements began to be taken in the mid 1800′s.

In addition to rain in amount near triple the average, temperatures have been routinely cool throughout the entire summer season for many residents to not bother with air conditioning. Daytime temperatures routinely hover in the low 70s, with nighttime lows in the low to mid-50′s. That’s weather more common in southern Alberta than the humid temperate region of western New York, whose summers can resemble states far south of New York.

An extensive series of video news reports from television stations in Buffalo and Rochester are available to view below the page jump (simply click …Continue Reading to access the videos).

[flv width="360" height="240"]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WROC Rochester – Live Tornado Warning Corfu Mayor Interview 7-25-09.flv[/flv]

WROC-TV Rochester broke into regular programming Saturday afternoon with breaking news coverage of the tornado warning, which impacted the viewing area. The mayor of Corfu apparently did a number of telephone interviews, because he also turned up on rival WHAM-TV. Meteorologist Scott Hetsko rushed to the station to get on the air, as his casual wear attests.

[flv width="296" height="222"]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WHAM Rochester – Live Tornado Warning Corfu Mayor 7-25-09.flv[/flv]

WHAM-TV Rochester interviewed the mayor of Corfu during the Saturday evening 6:00pm evening newscast, live via telephone.

[flv width="480" height="360"]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WIVB Buffalo Tornado Rips Through WNY 7-25-09.flv[/flv]

WIVB-TV Buffalo has an early report in about the tornado damage in Darien and Corfu, and some local emotional reactions to the damage.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WKBW Buffalo – Tornado Strikes Genesee County 7-25-09.flv[/flv]

WKBW-TV Buffalo also surveyed the damage in two reports on their early evening news this afternoon.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WKBW Buffalo – Damage in Corfu from Tornado 7-25-09.flv[/flv]

In this second of two reports from WKBW-TV, a closer look at the damage in the village of Corfu.

[flv width="360" height="240"]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WROC Rochester – Damage in Corfu 7-25-09.flv[/flv]

WROC-TV Rochester was one of many Rochester stations to extensively cover the tornado story. Rochester and Buffalo stations are commonly both seen in Genesee County. In this report, more surveying the damage in Corfu.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WHEC Rochester – Tornado Strikes Corfu 7-25-09.flv[/flv]

WHEC-TV Rochester was live on scene in Corfu as the evening arrived, with reports that roads remained closed as night fell on western New York.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WHEC Rochester – Tornado Stories in WNY 7-25-09.flv[/flv]

WHEC-TV Rochester had plenty of pictures and stories to share from those impacted by the tornadoes that struck the area.

[flv width="360" height="240"]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WROC Rochester – Press Conference Highlights in Corfu 7-25-09.flv[/flv]

WROC-TV Rochester rounds out the coverage this evening with a review of what happened at tonight’s press conference on the tornado.

FCC Granted Monopoly to Sirius-XM, Customers Pay The Price Again and Again

phil — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:39:28 +0000

In 2008, the Bush Administration’s Department of Justice green-lighted a proposed merger between XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio, claiming that even though the combined company would have a satellite radio monopoly in the United States, it wasn’t really a monopoly. Just under a year ago, “the Federal Communications Commission imposed a three-year cap on prices, set aside 8 percent of their channel capacity for minority and noncommercial programming, and agreed to pay $19.7 million for past FCC rule violations,” according to a report published by CNET. The companies also agreed to bring interoperable radios to the market within a year.

Since the finalization of the merger, a lot has changed in the world of a merged Sirius XM, and much not for the better.

After one year, it has become evident the Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the FCC have once again failed to live up to their responsibilities to appropriately regulate and provide oversight, as they are required to do by their own policies.

The failure is particularly galling on the part of the FCC, which had promises from both companies to never seek a merger and accept the fact they should not launch their business plans if they cannot succeed as competitors. When the founding premise of satellite radio competition can be so easily swept aside by the FCC, is it any surprise the public interest could be easily swept into the nearest dustbin with it?

Subscribers to both services discovered the first side effect of the merger was an increasingly merged programming lineup which alienated many long time subscribers. XM’s devotion to on air personalities, who were lauded for their depth of knowledge about the music on the channels they programmed, was a major attraction for customers to pay $12.95 a month for the service. Sirius’ attractive lineup for rock and dance music, along with partnerships with National Public Radio, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, World Radio Network, and other important public and private networks provided cachet to a service that provided fewer channels than XM, and wasn’t as commonly found installed in new cars.

The combined lineup upset XM subscribers as a wave of cost cutting forced out many well-regarded programmers and on-air talent, changed the scope of several music channels, and telegraphed the founding programming philosophy of XM was being supplanted by that of Sirius, which critics have accused of being “too mainstream” and “too similar to the sound of corporate commercial radio.” Sirius subscribers weren’t terribly impressed with XM’s channels being dropped into their lineup either. Both services had developed unique personalities that created subscriber loyalty. The combined entity alienated many.

The Devil is Always in the Details

The FCC apparently needs better lawyers, because the terms of the merger were designed to protect consumers from rate increases and monopoly abuse. Post merger, it became obvious the lawyers Sirius XM had were better than the ones the FCC used. Sufficient loopholes in the approved merger agreement existed for the combined company to begin systematically raising rates almost immediately, yet “somehow” still remained within the scope of the merger agreement.

Sirius XM raised rates March 11, 2009 $2/month for “add-on” radios (extra radios attached to a single account). Formerly, subscribers could add additional receivers for $6.99 per month. The new rate: $8.99 per month.
On that same date, online streaming access, allowing subscribers to listen to many Sirius XM channels online, became a “pay option” for $2.99 per month. It was formerly free with your subscription.
Original XM subscribers wishing to cancel a multi-year subscription package who subscribed for less than one year found a new $75 cancellation fee charged to their account, reducing the refund for the unused portion of a subscription.
Effective in April, customers upgrading their radios (or replacing broken or stolen units) discovered a new “transfer fee” for switching radios amounting to $14.95.

Most recently, the leaking of an internal company document provides new insight into Sirius XM’s daring disregard for the spirit of the FCC merger agreement — the company will now add a new “copyright fee” line on subscriber bills and increase their price by up to $2 per month (+ $1 for each additional radio) effective July 29, 2009.

The FCC did allow for Sirius XM to pass along any increases in copyright royalty charges charged by the music industry during the three year rate freeze. Their rates did increase this year, but only by $0.064 per subscription. Sirius XM is interpreting the merger agreement as permission to breakout the entire copyright fee from the monthly subscription price and bill it as a separate charge. But doing the math illustrates that doesn’t add up to $2 per month. The Copyright Royalty Board is assessing a 6.5% royalty rate, which amounts to $0.84 per month. Some readers on XMFan, an online forum, are speculating, the remaining $1.14 is presumably going into the company’s pockets:

The FCC order approving the merger states:

“After the first anniversary of the consummation of the merger, the combined company may pass through cost increases incurred since the filing of the combined company’s FCC merger application as a result of statutorily or contractually required payments to the music, recording and publishing industries for the performance of musical works and sound recordings or for device recording fees.”

The filing date of the merger application was March 20, 2007.

The royalty rate in effect on March 20, 2007 was 6%.

The royalty rate in effect on July 28, 2009 is 6.5%.

Therefore, it appears that, under the terms of the FCC order, the only “cost increase” that SXM can “pass through” is 0.5%, which is about 7 cents per month on a $12.95 subscription. If they think they can add a $1.98 monthly fee, they are out of their minds.

Companies like Sirius XM assume they can get away with it because regulatory authorities have either unknowingly left loopholes in merger agreements, or simply refused to aggressively enforce those agreements. Regulatory policy for telecommunications services has failed for at least the last decade, at an accelerating pace.

The Clinton Administration’s support for the 1996 telecommunications deregulation law started us down the slippery slope, removing regulatory controls and oversight for virtually every segment of the telecommunications industry. The Bush Administration only accelerated the “free market” approach which resulted in a “free to abuse and plunder through monopoly control market.”

The Obama Administration and the new Congress has a chance to make substantial changes to the direction of telecommunications policy that allows these kinds of abuses, be them from merger-mania in the broadcasting industry, duopoly control of broadband in most American cities, or giving carte blanche to a satellite radio monopoly. “Free market” policies are a fraud without healthy competition, and the firmly entrenched companies now providing service will lobby, sue, stall, or deceive to protect those interests at almost any cost. In the absence of healthy competition, where competitors provide substantially equivalent service options to consumers throughout a community, regulation is and should be the appropriate safety valve to protect us from the inevitable abusive pricing, service and availability that surely follow.

Welcome from Phillip Dampier

admin — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:58:42 +0000

Welcome to the blog of Phillip Dampier, a consumer writer from Rochester, New York.

This blog showcases some of my work, interests, hobbies, and personal thoughts on issues in the news and life in general.

A great deal of my time is spent developing content for various websites and projects I am involved with. Sometimes things I find interesting or useful don’t easily “fit” within the scope of the various projects I am working on, so this blog will be the home for most of that content. You should expect everything from personal commentary about the political events that interest me to articles about consumer protection to multimedia clips.

Because of the magic of The Google, some of the topics I write about will be specific enough to attract random visitors finding their way here from a search engine. If I take issue with a particular company’s product, others with that same problem may likely find their way here. If something I write about gets linked by other blogs, many visitors may also wander here as well. I don’t expect everyone will find my diversity of interests to be universally fascinating, so explore as you see fit. The comments section is your place to dialogue back and forth on these topics. My only requests are that people respect the diversity of opinions, don’t spam, and avoid personal attacks on one another. Flame wars get tiresome fast.

My interests? They include:

Consumer protection and education (particularly self-empowering consumers to protect their own best interests)
Media and broadcasting (from collecting historical station IDs and promotions to government policy towards new and old media)
Politics (both domestic and international, with special focus on the United States and Canada)
Technology (primarily targeted to consumers)
Personal development (from exercise to developing a better understanding of oneself and those around you)

If you are interested in exploring the work I am doing in content development and also social networking, here is an incomplete guide to the websites I’m involved with at the moment.

Stop The Cap! is a consumer action website educating and empowering consumers to resist Internet Overcharging. What is Internet Overcharging? An all-encompassing turn of phrase to represent ripoffs like “usage caps” which limit broadband use, “metered Internet” which overcharges you for everything you do online, and “tiered pricing based on consumption” which makes you overpay for a product that is already extremely profitable. Many providers, which also earn revenue from selling video programming, have a vested interest in limiting your online TV viewing, or else you might find you don’t need that overpriced cable TV subscription any longer. Limits and overcharges for service are an excellent way to do that. Stop the Cap! is also an ardent believer in Net Neutrality protection, to make certain every individual is judged based on the quality of their content, not on how much money they paid to a provider to make sure it reaches people unencumbered.

BetterMost, Wyoming is an online social community for those profoundly impacted by the 2005 film, Brokeback Mountain and are using the film’s message as a catalyst for change in their own lives.

It’s a project to explore social networking based on common interests — in this case an Academy Award winning movie. BetterMost’s population now hovers around 1,200 residents who discuss the film and story, the music, the message, as well as current events in forums, blogs, and online chat rooms all hosted within the community. BetterMost also maintains its own radio station, which is streamed online for residents. You don’t have to live in Wyoming to appreciate and belong to the BetterMost online community. Since the movie’s release, yearly gatherings in Wyoming (the story’s setting) and Alberta (filming locations) have continued to bring people from BetterMost and other like-minded “Brokie” communities together from all around the world. Although “pop culture” can be the biggest driver of the growth of online social communities based on entertainment, the sustainability of the community long after the original film has faded from the headlines illustrates power of online communities, where common interests help bond new, long lasting friendships, and sometimes even life-changing personal development.

I also provide, as a public service, an online audio stream of NOAA Weather Radio station KHA53 in Rochester, New York via Weather Underground. The 24-hour stream provides weather information and warnings for those outside of the reach of the transmitter or do not have immediate access to a personal weather radio. Listener numbers generally spike during severe weather events, when those in the workplace, people away from their weather radio, or who live outside of the area tune in to obtain the latest information, weather warnings, and storm reports.

Twitter: I remain unconvinced by those praising the awesomeness of Twitter. I remain skeptical that people would find tidbits about what I am doing or thinking at any particular moment is at all interesting to anyone but me. However, I do tend to use Twitter to announce new content as it gets published, and will randomly throw in a reply to someone else’s content. The primary channel to search for is stopthecap at the moment. Maybe one day I’ll buy into the rest. Otherwise, it’s going to be next year’s MySpace.

Facebook: I have more or less the same attitude about Facebook I do about Twitter. I’m on there as well, but I honestly don’t visit more than once or twice a week. I’ve found Facebook primarily useful in reconnecting with old friends and making new ones. I will generally accept friend requests automatically, and you should anticipate my announcements there to be mostly related to developments on the aforementioned websites.

Should you need to reach me, a contact form will be forthcoming.