Power Outage Darkens Billings Early Morning Radio

It's the Chinese!  They hacked into the radio stations and shut them down!  They're testing us!  We're gonna die!!

Okay, calm down.  The power just went out in the hotel building where the stations reside and the surrounding area.  That's actually what I told myself.

In the event of a power outage, the first thing to do is prevent panicking.  The brain won't think clearly in panic mode.

In the near dark, I looked out the window.  The world didn't go BOOM, so I was okay.

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Hotel phone calls yielded only busy signals.  They're likely inundated in calls.  Rooting for the front desk staff; they must have been swamped with uptight guests.  Don't know why, the guests should have still slept.

Left message with our super engineer, who was sleeping.  Even a hero needs the beauty rest.

NorthWestern Energy trapped me in a phone tree and on hold with soft rock music and disco.  The least they could do is insert the voice message that says "Please hold, your call is very important to us" between songs.

Not much for a producer to do but sit and wait... and write about the experience.

My main message is to not panic.

When something happens, first ask "Am I in danger?  Am I bleeding?  Am I hurt?" If the answer to these three is No, then you're fine.

"You Need to Calm Down."

Thank You, Miss Swift.

From there, think about options.  Who should I call?  Should I leave the area?  Do the bathrooms work?

While thinking on these things, best stay put.

Now if you will excuse me, I feel a nap front moving in.