Bryan D. Brown

What a week it’s has been. For those who don’t know, the Gap Fire has burned since last Wednesday in the hills over looking Goleta. Unfortunately, the main power lines from Southern California Edison that power most - if not all - of southern Santa Barbara county run though those very hills. That means that this fire has taken down the power to most of the county at least twice a day since last Wednesday - for at least an hour per outage, usually longer. This includes most of the UCSB campus - including KCSB - so my weekend was quite a blast, switching us from backup generator to main power and back as needed.

Thankfully, the winds have died down a bit, and it appears no homes were lost and no one was injured, but it is not over yet. I’d like to think that we might stop this annual fire trend here in Santa Barbara, but, aside from the smoke, I wouldn’t hold my breath.

That aside, there was a nice article written by Jerry Roberts in Santa Barbara’s weekly, The Independent, on the ordeal KCSB went through to get the station back on the air after the power went out. As a side note, KCSB has been negotiating with the “higher ups” at the UCSB, for the better part of two years, for a replacement backup generator for our building. It’s amazing how something so simple requires so many people’s input, but that is the bureaucracy of a university for you.