While stumbling around the USGS site, came upon an article looking back at the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake [or World Series quake if you prefer]. Tons of photos. I remember seeing these shortly after it happened but for those newer to the site or youngsters that maybe weren't even born when the quake happened, here's a couple of photos of tower damage if you haven't seen them before. What I find striking is how the damage lessens as the towers get further away from the shore. And I found out a new term why damage was so concentrated in the San Francisco/Oakland bay area even though the quake was like 50-65 mile away from those cities. Something called the "Moho Bounce". You can google the term if you want to know more
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1989 throwback
- Thread starter Yabadabado1
- Start date
That's really cool. If you hadn't said what it was, it sounds like a dance move.
My wife & I lived about 2 miles from KGO's site, on that day in 1989 I was off and watching the World Series, suddenly the house shook more than in past quakes and then it stopped.
Following quake we lost power, neighbors came out and got into their cars to listen to thier car radio, I had a battery-operated radio . . . KCBS 740 was there immediately with information.
KGO was nowhere to be found. They got back on late that night running 10 kw non-directional. Their engineering people went down to the site and rewired things to use one tower.
As far as the towers coming down like they did, they could be an explanation, but I don't know what it would be. The other towers, following quake, one was half there and one looked kind of OK.
I recall how phone service went out back then in 1989, just like it went out recently in Western North Carolina, following the 2024 tropical storm. The phone system, which the Internet now uses just doesn't like "bad things", but OTA radio & TV was there in 1989 after the earthquake and 2024 in Western NC after the tropical storm.
In the recent WNC storm, cell service was out along with regular phone service for 1-2 weeks in places.
Today with people streaming so much now . . . in many cases they'd have no info unless they know about OTA radio & TV.
In 1989 our power, after quake, came back about after an hour. Phones came back about 10 PM in my area, the quake happened around 5PM.
In our area (South East Bay) only some chimneys got knocked down, overall, our area did OK.
Earthquake was in Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Jose.
Some friends and I use to "hang out" at the USGS in Menlo Park, CA . . . great people worked there and loaded with info, they sold maps to the public, got plenty of maps of California that show the earthquake faults, etc.
Following quake we lost power, neighbors came out and got into their cars to listen to thier car radio, I had a battery-operated radio . . . KCBS 740 was there immediately with information.
KGO was nowhere to be found. They got back on late that night running 10 kw non-directional. Their engineering people went down to the site and rewired things to use one tower.
As far as the towers coming down like they did, they could be an explanation, but I don't know what it would be. The other towers, following quake, one was half there and one looked kind of OK.
I recall how phone service went out back then in 1989, just like it went out recently in Western North Carolina, following the 2024 tropical storm. The phone system, which the Internet now uses just doesn't like "bad things", but OTA radio & TV was there in 1989 after the earthquake and 2024 in Western NC after the tropical storm.
In the recent WNC storm, cell service was out along with regular phone service for 1-2 weeks in places.
Today with people streaming so much now . . . in many cases they'd have no info unless they know about OTA radio & TV.
In 1989 our power, after quake, came back about after an hour. Phones came back about 10 PM in my area, the quake happened around 5PM.
In our area (South East Bay) only some chimneys got knocked down, overall, our area did OK.
Earthquake was in Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Jose.
Some friends and I use to "hang out" at the USGS in Menlo Park, CA . . . great people worked there and loaded with info, they sold maps to the public, got plenty of maps of California that show the earthquake faults, etc.
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Not really radio related [except for the fact that the USGS sometime uses radio waves for ground penetration] but here's a page about that quake and, if you scroll down a ways, interviews with earthquake geologists/specialists describing where/what and aftermath of their experiences. The only thing they left out was whether they kept a clean pair of undies in their offices/cars/elsewhere when it hit. I know I sure would have needed some.
www.usgs.gov
Loma Prieta Earthquake 35th Anniversary Compilation
On October 17, 1989, at 5:04 PM, a 6.9 magnitude earthquake hit near Loma Prieta, CA., shaking the San Francisco and Monterey Bay regions. The epicenter was near Loma Prieta peak, about 9 miles northeast of Santa Cruz and 60 miles southeast of San Francisco. Below are resources to understand the...
Great point. Everyone talks about how streaming is making broadcasting obsolete. Let's see what they say after the next natural disaster, when power, internet and cell service all become spotty or non-existant. That old-fashioned portable radio with batteries could be a lifesaver. Let's hope some broadcasters are still on the air when it happens.
Better hope their towers/antennas stay up from whatever natural disaster occurs. Even though I guess they'd be fastest to get back on the air compared to cell phone service, internet, etc. Throw up a long wire, coat hanger, old style car antenna, anything to get the signal out. Maybe not full power but at least some sorta wattage. Another 1989 disaster: Hurricane Hugo. I can remember listening in Ohio to some AM stations in the S. Carolina and other nearby states giving wall to wall coverage till they got blasted off the air. For the most part, many were back on the air by the next night or a couple of nights later. I'm wondering if, in anticipation, they made deals with other area broadcasters to use their towers [providing they stayed up] in case theirs went down and vice-versa. Whatever was left of Hugo eventually made its way up along the Ohio/Pennsylvania border [on my birthday no less] but it was a shadow of its former self, but did wash out some bridges and roadways near me as well as causing some rivers and creeks to overflow and flooding in a lot of other areas.
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To all of you that might be interested, also it seems that Yabadabado1 might have an interest in earthquakes,
He and some of you, others may know this, if not . . . you can sign up on the USGS website and be notified of quakes that happen around the world, you can even choose if you want to know about quakes above 4.0, 5.0, etc.
Also, in California near Salinas, the town of Parkfield on the San Andreas Fault has / had a motel there that use to advertise "BE HERE WHEN THE BIG ONE HITS". I used to drive down to Hollister where they had "markers" hammered into some of the streets in places, that were flat with the pavement, and you could see the San Andreas Fault movement, plus curbs that were off centered.
He and some of you, others may know this, if not . . . you can sign up on the USGS website and be notified of quakes that happen around the world, you can even choose if you want to know about quakes above 4.0, 5.0, etc.
Also, in California near Salinas, the town of Parkfield on the San Andreas Fault has / had a motel there that use to advertise "BE HERE WHEN THE BIG ONE HITS". I used to drive down to Hollister where they had "markers" hammered into some of the streets in places, that were flat with the pavement, and you could see the San Andreas Fault movement, plus curbs that were off centered.
Keeping it radio - the old KHIP radio at 93.5 FM (a spinoff of KFAT before KPIG started) used to say they were "broadcasting from Hollister - the headquake earthquarters of Northern California"
Dave B.
Back in 1989 I remember KGO-TV is credited the most for bringing coverage of the Loma Prieta Quake to the nation via ABC News. This is given that KGO-TV and ABC Sports were airing the World Series at the former Candlestick Park. The ABC Sports crew was confined to the parking lot of the former stadium while KGO-TV was broadcasting all the fallout from the quake all over the Bay Area for ABC News nationwide.
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