#716 | Thursday, August 13, 2026 | The Political Spotlight

August 13th, 2026  |  2 hrs 6 mins

911 dispatch, aep, backup communications, communications failure, communications redundancy, contingency planning, delaware county commissioners, delaware county emergency management, delaware county ems, delaware county indiana, disaster response, east central indiana, emergency communications, emergency communications system, emergency dispatch, emergency management, emergency preparedness, emergency radio system, emergency services, fire communications, first responders, flood emergency, flooding, henry county indiana, historic flooding, infrastructure failure, local government, local politics, motorola communications tower, mpd, muncie, muncie city delaware county 911 dispatch center, muncie fire department, muncie indiana, muncie police department, muncie politics, police communications, priority 1 calls, public safety, public safety communications, public safety infrastructure, radio communications, radio failure, randolph county indiana, severe weather

Host Kristopher H. Bilbrey examines the historic flooding emergency that struck East Central Indiana, particularly in southern Muncie and Delaware County, with impacts extending into Henry and Randolph counties. As first responders battled what has been reported as the area’s worst flooding in more than 113 years, Muncie and Delaware County’s public-safety communications system faced a crisis of its own. MPD radios reportedly experienced repeated outages; the primary Motorola communications tower near 18th Street and Sampson Avenue was found underwater; and the Fire and EMS paging system went down. Bilbrey examines reports indicating that no fully operational backup existed if the tower failed, forcing dispatchers and officers to rely on alternative communications while MPD responded primarily to Priority 1 calls. The episode examines what happened, the severity of the communications breakdown, and the questions officials must now address regarding the reliability, redundancy, and emergency preparedness of this critical public-safety system. #ThePoliticalSpotlight

#508 | Blackford Co Record Request Snag! & Indiana Redistricting Nonsense! | The Political Spotlight

August 18th, 2025  |  1 hr 56 mins

access to public records act, blackford county indiana, indiana congressional districts, ingop, louis david galligan, odds and ends, randolph county indiana, record requests, redistricting, selma indiana, the political spotlight

Host Kristopher H. Bilbrey had planned to dive into Indiana’s controversial redistricting efforts, a disappointing public record request response from Blackford County, and news about Louis David Galligan's return to the Randolph County jail. He planned to touch on the recent tragedy in Selma, Indiana, and a few other odds and ends.

But from almost the very start of the show, things take a wild turn, and it nearly all derails, so take it as it comes. It can only get better from here! #ThePoliticalSpotlight