It's said that television came of age during the Kennedy assassination, when the earth-shaking news forced the medium to do what to that point it had never done: Provide continuous live coverage of a breaking news event with few if any standing plans, resources - or technology -- in place to do it. It wasn't just TV that came of age in that moment -- a young generation growing up on the medium also came of age in that instant.

It's one of those days. One of those weeks. When it seems the world can't get its paws off the breaking news button. And radio stations, especially, are at yet another moment of reckoning. As I write this, a manhunt is underway for the police impersonator who shot and killed the speaker emerita of the Minnesota House of Representatives and her husband in their suburban Minneapolis home -- and who shot and wounded a state senator and his wife in their home before escaping a gunfight with real police officers.

Ok...you're forgiven if you live mostly in an analog world and are NOT familiar with World Backup Day, which, as I write this, is today, March 31st. It's the 2011 invention of a Reddit group that thought it would be a good idea to elevate the importance of backing up critical data on computer systems. And if you've astutely noted that it takes place one day BEFORE April Fool's Day...well, that's no accident.

For those who don't know -- allow me to introduce you to an amazing life-saving technology. The original social network. No wires. Goes anywhere. Works when nothing else does. In fact, sometimes it needs only sunlight or a handcrank or two to operate. We call it "radio." And again, it has proven itself a lifesaver and key information link for the thousands of victims displaced in the Los Angeles wildfires.

Imagine an area the size of San Francisco burned to the ground. There's actually no need to imagine it. That's the state of play right now in and around Los Angeles. Five uncontained, uncontrolled wildfires that have raged for days during what is normally the quiet season for wildfires in southern California. Infernos that have put radio, TV and streaming platforms to the test.

For New Orleans, this is no happy new year. At least 10 dead, perhaps 35 or more injured in what is looking more and more like a premeditated act of terrorism, carried out as revelers celebrated 2025 along the Crescent City's famed Bourbon Street. Reports to this moment are that a man in a pickup truck accelerated through throngs of New Year's revelers in the French Quarter, running down men, women and children, before firing an assault-style weapon at police, wounding at least two of them, before he himself was killed.

For the first time since 2005, Christmas and the first night of Hanukkah coincide. For Christians, a celebration of the birth of Jesus. For Jews, a celebration of triumph over tyranny. As a Jewish business continuity professional, I've always loved the Hanukkah story: The victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire -- and the intrusion of Hellenistic influences over Judea -- in 165 BCE.

...Because Life's Easier When You Have a Plan