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EARTHQUAKE(S) COVERAGE

G

gcreedle239

KNX is doing a nice job covering the earthquake and after shocks. I'm a little surprised KFI hasn't gone wall-to-wall, at least for an our or two.
 
I'm disappointed on KFI. They're usually the station I tune to for breaking news, but no coverage this time? San Diego sister AM 600 KOGO is giving coverage.
Kudos to KNX though, giving coverage about the earthquake.
 
How did KABC do? They are always taking shots at KNX...
 
Allow me to speak up for those who bemoan the wall to wall, repetitive, play by play coverage of such as this earthquake that was over and done in less than a minute and left little in the way of damage (at least in the L.A. area). Godfrey Daniels, how many times and at what length can people go on about such events. Let's suck it up and get on with things, OK? Next thing you know we'll be declaring disaster areas and urgently requesting stimulus money be spewed from Uncle Ben's helicopters. What would happen if we had a REAL disaster?
 
Before someone lambastes me for my insensitivity, allow me to add that I think the earthquake coverage today has been fairly proportional and not excessive. It is NOT on all the stations ALL the time. People who are interesting in the breathless reports of how things swayed and rolled can find stations talking about it without everyone else being driven crazy. Everything's going to be alright. Relax.
 
Not quite on the same level as the other stations you're talking about, but apparently somebody was home (and paying attention) at JACK-FM. They may sound automated and predictable, but within 10 minutes after the shaking subsided I heard a phone caller on the air making some snarky remark about the earthquake that had just happened.
 
WTFman said:
Allow me to speak up for those who bemoan the wall to wall, repetitive, play by play coverage of such as this earthquake that was over and done in less than a minute and left little in the way of damage (at least in the L.A. area). Godfrey Daniels, how many times and at what length can people go on about such events. Let's suck it up and get on with things, OK? Next thing you know we'll be declaring disaster areas and urgently requesting stimulus money be spewed from Uncle Ben's helicopters. What would happen if we had a REAL disaster?
Click to expand...

I have to agree 1000%, one of the most annoying things with Fox News and CNN is that when there is a news event they chatter on and on without really knowing any actual hard facts. In spite of knowing that I still sit and watch, like when that guy that flew a plane into the IRS offices in Austin Texas. Almost everything that they said at first was later proven entirely wrong. Then there was dummy me watching a beach in Hawaii waiting for a giant wave al la Cecil B. Demille or Irvin Allen to come crashing in after the Chilean quake.

On Earthquakes, KFWB as all news before CBS ownership while it was still Westinghouse had the best coverage with real information. :(
 
WTFman said:
Allow me to speak up for those who bemoan the wall to wall, repetitive, play by play coverage of such as this earthquake that was over and done in less than a minute and left little in the way of damage (at least in the L.A. area). Godfrey Daniels, how many times and at what length can people go on about such events. Let's suck it up and get on with things, OK? Next thing you know we'll be declaring disaster areas and urgently requesting stimulus money be spewed from Uncle Ben's helicopters. What would happen if we had a REAL disaster?
Click to expand...

I think we need to consider what is at stake here. At a time when radio is losing ground to the likes of Pandora and television to YouTube or Hulu, the strength of local broadcasting is its ability to act as a first responder in times of emergency. In the aftermath of an event like an earthquake one of the first things people do, almost instinctively, is tune to either radio or TV for information. TV and radio needs to be there to provide it otherwise it risks losing the public confidence as an information source.

In the case of Sunday's quake, I had no problem with KNX and KCBS being the first to provide news about it. And I have no problem with wall-to-wall coverage, at least for the first hour, when the most people are likely to tune in. After that, coverage of the quake can taper off unless, of course, it directly impacts our area.

c5
 
I too was disappointed with KFI. They had that god-awful Canadian fellow babbling about some useless story from last week. Obviously he was on tape, but I guess they had no one in the building that could carry a live show
 
westfield60 said:
I too was disappointed with KFI. They had that god-awful Canadian fellow babbling about some useless story from last week. Obviously he was on tape, but I guess they had no one in the building that could carry a live show
Click to expand...

I was not listening to KFI but I do now on line once in a while. At that point in time I was more concerned with local weather conditions and updated storm warnings. Not a lot of coverage, most stations here (Southeast Iowa) do not even run local news on weekends and the weather forecasts are obviously prerecorded. KFI does have local news and it is live even on weekends. I can be nearly 100% certain that within the scheduled news casts there was some coverage of the quake. If you felt the quake, many of my friends out there did not, you could deduce from personal observation that there was no local damage.

As I said I was monitoring different source here for local severe storm and tornado information. My best information came from the internet so maybe that is the way to go in today's world. But as I checked various news sources there was not a lot that I saw about the Mexicali Earthquake. Eventually bulletins appeared on Fox News and CNN but not a lot of detail. So even if KFI had opted to go live in the studio, what would they have had to relate?

After contacting local authorities and getting their assessment where do they go, open up the phones and get callers telling what they felt or did not. Not exactly "more stimulating" talk radio. As I have said before nobody beat the old KFWB for earthquake reporting but even back then once they saw that there were no serious local problems they went back to regular news. IMHO there is entirely too much over analysis without hard data in today's all news coverage. If you didn't like what KFI was doing, well they put knobs on your radio so use them. By all accounts KNX was doing a good job, they are just up the dial.
 
nmoore6676 said:
westfield60 said:
I too was disappointed with KFI. They had that god-awful Canadian fellow babbling about some useless story from last week. Obviously he was on tape, but I guess they had no one in the building that could carry a live show
Click to expand...

I was not listening to KFI but I do now on line once in a while. At that point in time I was more concerned with local weather conditions and updated storm warnings. Not a lot of coverage, most stations here (Southeast Iowa) do not even run local news on weekends and the weather forecasts are obviously prerecorded. KFI does have local news and it is live even on weekends. I can be nearly 100% certain that within the scheduled news casts there was some coverage of the quake. If you felt the quake, many of my friends out there did not, you could deduce from personal observation that there was no local damage.

As I said I was monitoring different source here for local severe storm and tornado information. My best information came from the internet so maybe that is the way to go in today's world. But as I checked various news sources there was not a lot that I saw about the Mexicali Earthquake. Eventually bulletins appeared on Fox News and CNN but not a lot of detail. So even if KFI had opted to go live in the studio, what would they have had to relate?

After contacting local authorities and getting their assessment where do they go, open up the phones and get callers telling what they felt or did not. Not exactly "more stimulating" talk radio. As I have said before nobody beat the old KFWB for earthquake reporting but even back then once they saw that there were no serious local problems they went back to regular news. IMHO there is entirely too much over analysis without hard data in today's all news coverage. If you didn't like what KFI was doing, well they put knobs on your radio so use them. By all accounts KNX was doing a good job, they are just up the dial.
Click to expand...

I agree actually, though KFI usually does break-in programming for breaking news. They did it last year with the May 2009 earthquake.

KFWB... no surprise - paid programming was heard. Did this last year as well (when they were all-news that time).
 
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