A big lightning strike at 8.56am (Perth time)on Friday, 20 January put the station off
air.  Very quickly it became apparent both the FM and Digital bands and Live Streaming
had all failed, thus our FM transmitter and mast antenna system were not at fault (big
relief!).  The FM band broadcast and Live Streaming were back up at 10am, not the DAB+ 
Digital band, and we still couldn't properly use any of the 3 studios (Neal Berry was 
able to go to air parts of the time between 10am and noon).  Thus CONRAD was mainly to 
air to 1.30pm, when studio programming (Afternoon Gold) to air restarted in Studio 2, 
mostly restored.  DAB+ Digital band broadcasting was finally restored at 2.20pm.  Then 
we got Studio 1 mostly restored around 4.30pm.

The lightning strike would seem to have been sufficient to cause power surges through the
building to put out the three studios, and part of the digital studio equipment main rack.
The FM transmitter and the mast and FM antenna outside all stood up perfectly, a great
testament to those who designed and installed them (N-Com, Future Engineering, Access
Infrastructure), and the rest of the station equipment would have suffered greater damage
if it were not for existing protection that was already in place.