KUQI TV Knocked Off By Harvey

According to the FCC, KUQI TV in Corpus Christi, Tex., has been knocked out of service by Hurricane Harvey, the first TV station to be knocked off the air by the historic storm.

Cable outages have climbed as the storm continued to hammer Texas with historic rainfalls. There are 283,593 subs without service, up almost 100,000 from 189,487 the day before.

There are seven radio stations off the air, which is two fewer than the day before.

Cell site outages remained steady at 4.7% of the affected areas in Texas and Louisiana.

The FCC data is based on reporting through 11:30 a.m. Aug. 29.

The FCC is tracking the state of communications via voluntary reporting to its Disaster Information Reporting System (DIRS).

DIRS is a web-based system via which broadcasters, cable operators and others can report the status of their communications capabilities and "situational awareness." The FCC announced Friday the system had been triggered.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.