Flagler Beach 97.3 FM Recovery from Hurricane Ian

Surf 97.3 FM is a not for profit radio station in beautiful Flagler Beach, a Florida coastal community. The station provides numerous events, public messaging and music enjoyment. However, the station is no longer on the air due to a natural disaster. Vern Shank the radio station proprietor has been working diligently in his efforts to restore the station for his beloved community.

Due to Hurricane Ian damage, the station basically is inoperable. Vern and his team will have to rebuild almost from scratch. The electrical at the Flagler Beach pier from moisture and dampness inside from water bashing against the floor boards seeped through from water surges underneath, and the electrical boxes blew out just about everything. When the power came back on at the pier it sent a domino effect to things tied in together electrical-wise sending a surge of electricity through our equipment.

It may be a month or perhaps more until we are back up and on the airwaves fully from Hurricane Ian. We lost much equipment including computers, mixing board, STL satellitedishes, antenna, relays, our emergency broadcast antenna, processors, amplifiers and more.

The funds will be utilized immediately towards pay for the new station equipment to replace the equipment that was destroyed by Hurricane Ian.

Our main broadcasting studio of course, is located on the historic Flagler Beach pier along with the bait shop and The Funky Pelican Restaurant. The pier took a beating from the ocean in which a large chunk of it crumbled into the Atlantic Ocean. It will most likely not reopen in it's current form and plans hopefully will be underway to rebuild it as well. Our 2nd location we also rent, is 12 stories on top of the Aliki Gold Coast Condominium where our antenna and our satellite STL dish is that was damaged from the high winds and rain.

Next year we hope to be celebrating our 10th year anniversary as a not-for-profit community radio station since when we first aired in 2013. We've enjoyed bringing that "Sunshine and Summertime" vibe to you and community information each and every day live from the pier and we hope you've enjoyed it too. We at Surf 97.3 FM are hopeful that we will be back and be better than ever in the future.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. Many blessings to our listeners and to all of you. Thanks from from all of us at Surf 97.3 FM & flaglerbeachradio.com.