Thursday, Aug. 14, was a typical day on the air for OutQ, the new national 24-hour gay talk-radio network which broadcasts from the 36th floor of the Sirius Satellite Radio headquarters on Sixth Avenue in New York—normal, that is, until 4:11 p.m., when the largest blackout in U.S. history began during the middle of McMullen and Johnson, an afternoon political talk show hosted by OutQ Program Director John McMullen and Corey Johnson, an activist best known as the first openly gay high school football captain.
Because OutQ is one of 100 stations (or 'streams') at mainstream Sirius Satellite Radio, OutQ benefited from Sirius' emergency resources. While many other radio stations had to go off the air, OutQ extended their live hours to midnight EST. OutQ's quickly extended hours was reminiscent of Sept. 11, when the World Trade Center attacks happened in the middle of The Howard Stern show, leading Stern staff to extend broadcast hours. Remarkably, OutQ hosts and reporters were still able to receive telephone calls—and even Instant Messages over the Internet. WNYC, New York's NPR station, had no emergency generator and also used Sirius studios.
OutQ Program Director John McMullen described the start of the blackout. 'The lights started to go in and out, flickering,' he said. 'We were just about to bring Mel White, the head of the Christian organization Soulforce, on the line from Milwaukee to talk about being out there and demonstrating while the Lutheran Church in America is debating whether to allow non-celibate gay and lesbian people to be serving in the clergy, and we were thinking, 'Oh my God, it's divine intervention. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were on the mark. What the hell is going on here???!!!' All of a sudden, we heard this hum go through the room, and it was the starting of the generators that have been supplying us with all the power. Fortunately, Sirius didn't have any interruption of the broadcast services here.'
Many of the OutQ staff stayed overnight in the Sirius offices to participate in the broadcast, as well as to avoid hot apartments with no electricity or elevator usage. The OutQ team camping out over night included McMullen, Johnson, Anthony Veneziano, producer of The Michelangelo Signorile Show, OutQ Associate Producers and Technical Directors Jeremy Hovies and Jason Page (also a sidekick on OutQ In the Morning), Derek Hartley and Romaine Patterson of The Derek and Romaine Show, and OutQ News Director Tim Curran.
The liveliest coverage came when Anthony Veneziano and Jason Page went out to Times Square for live remote reports and interviews with the public, including thousands thrown out on the street by the Marriott Marquis and Renaissance Hotels. OutQ scooped mainstream news outlets, including CNN, in reporting that many of the people sleeping in the streets had been given only sheets and blankets before being kicked out to sleep on the sidewalk by the Marriott and Renaissance Hotels, which did not even allow anyone to sleep in the lobby—a move that shocked other hotels such as The Sheraton, where guests successfully spent the night in their rooms. (Room access had become impossible because new electronic key cards require electricity to work.) 'They have been good about water,' one exiled guest told Page with irony.
Veneziano and Page transmitted their reports by cell phone. Before OutQ, which began broadcasting in April, Veneziano's producing and on-air experience was at GAYBC Radio in Seattle, and as host of his own Atlanta-based Internet radio show. Jason Page was previously a news anchor and reporter at WLAD AM 800 in Danbury, Conn., as well as a sports anchor and sports director in Maryland and North Dakota, and Director of Communications for the Mayor of Danbury. He currently writes a weekly column for Outsports.com .
OutQ's reporting demonstrated the appeal of out gay reporting on a mainstream news event. The reporters' lively gay humor clearly would not be allowed in mainstream outlets. After Page interviewed two young men about their blackout experiences and reported back to Corey Johnson the news that 20 people planned to streak when the lights came back on, Johnson asked if the two young men were going to be among the streakers. Page replied, 'We would like it if they would be streaking, but I don't think they are—and they're brothers, too, so Corey that would be another fantasy come true for you.' Johnson added, 'Jason, I think you should get one of the cops to come on and talk with us, or also you could go target the gay boys in Times Square.' Jason replied, 'Believe me, if I find them I may not be calling back!'
Walking into the studio, Derek Hartley reported, 'I've just been out to Times Square and you have never seen a bigger pack of bored people in your life!' Throughout the night, Hartley, whose quick wit makes him the Carson Kressley of OutQ, broke in, 'I have breaking news: THE BLACKOUT SUCKS!,' adding 'That's from CNN, but it was confirmed by Fox News.'
When a caller asked who might be cast in the remake of the 1968 Doris Day film Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?, which took place during the 1965 New York City blackout, Hartley quipped, '(N.Y.C. Mayor) Mike Bloomberg will be played ... by David Gest.
Also in the movie, Doris, in the middle of a blackout, was able to park her Cadillac convertible right in front of an office building with no problem ... hence the term Doris Day parking!' When Jason Page interviewed guests thrown out by the Marriott, Hartley quipped, 'How many Marriott points are the guests getting for sleeping on the sidewalk?' When McMullen said that Page's cell phone transmission was breaking up during his chat with Steven and Christy, a couple from out of town, Hartley joked, 'Uh-oh, I think Steven and Christy are breaking up!'
OutQ flavored their reporting with blackout-themed music cues, including Donna Summer's 'Dim All the Lights,' Debbie Gibson's 'You Light up My Life,' and Bruce Springsteen's 'Dancing in the Dark.'
OutQ can also be heard free over the Internet at siriusoutq.com .
