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FIRE COVERAGE

A

accessdlp

Scanning around the AM Band, I found the following....just a scan. You can comment on the meat of the coverage.

570/KLAC: Reg. Sports. Website directs to KFI for fire coverage www.570radio.com

640/KFI: Mostly fire coverage (Bill Handel anchoring at 1:18pm) www.kfi640.com

710/KSPN: Reg Sports. No fire mention on-sir on on web. http://sports.espn.go.com/stations/710espn/

790/KABC: Fire Coverage. No syndicated programs. Pretty much all-news right now. http://kabc.com

830/KLAA: Infomercials. No coverage on air or on line. www.830klaa.com

870/KRLA: Reg. Salem Talk programming. Just TOH mentions and http://krla870.townhall.com

980/KFWB: All News, mostly Fire

1070/KNX: All news, all fire (and IMO, the best coverage).
 
Thanks for bringing this topic up of coverage. Most fires don't affect the vast majority of posters here but sometimes they can hit "home". Like last year's 'Freeway Fires' in Yorba Linda .... The house my wife's parents lived in and owned for 20 years burned to the ground. They had sold it back in 1998 but its still sad to see that happen.

My question though is with the fire affecting a relatively small % of radio listeners, why have wall-to-wall coverage on KFI and KABC? Just from a business viewpoint in a PPM world, there are still two news stations capable of handling the reports for radio listeners, so why deprive fans of Rush (who's on vacation anyway this week), Dr Laura, Sean Hannity, and I presume Mark Levin their entertainment? The sports stations aren't doing coverage and I include KLAA in there as a mostly sports station.
 
There is still quite a bit of smoke and poor air quality in the LA Basin... relatively big story too when it gets close to the city.

Haven't had a chance to check out the FMs... any thoughts about them? KPCC?
 
KNX was far from what it has been in the past, IMO.

But when you're, essentially, the "only game in town." -- accuracy, sloppiness, etc. doesn't matter.

They were horrible on Saturday night. Much improved yesterday. And not so bad today, except ...

When Jim & Diane, after hyping the "5 people who refused to leave in a mandated evacuation" story for six hours (and on the net, as well,) took a "blind call" this afternoon at 3:20 from a guy who sounded like a moron, complete with laughter in the near background. The guy thought, I feel, he was talking to Ryan Seacrest or Ellen DeGeneress, instead of the serious news of the day on a CBS 50,000 watt blowtorch.

The guy admitted he "forgot" to call the Sheriff, after the anchors had been saying all day that law enforcement had been touch with the "victims" and that they "would have to ride it out."

Now, IF the "victims" were not really "them" and this little "cabin party" was real, who fell asleep at that switch? It sounded horrible. And if it was a fake call (I expected to hear "Babba Booey" any second,) how doe you think the real victims, who may well have been listening, felt?

I think it could have been set-up and handled better. Jim and Diane sounded embarassed, but the call kept going on, anyway.

Too many technical probs ending with dial tones in the middle of field reports. To many repeats of way outdated actualities every hour for over a day, too many CBS employees (Sales Manager, Chief Engineer, KFWB reporters, etc.) and repeated over and over. Never did hear a word from the Mayor. Maybe he was out of town ...

To many cut ins during press conferences "KNX 1070". In a PPM world, that's not needed. We know what we're listening to. To many repeats of the same fire news every hour until today (oh, that's right. News doesn't happen on weekends when the regulars are off.)

And way too much sports (and the same Angels, Dodgers and Little League World Series repeat story ... sounding voice tracked.)

Should have used more helicopter stuff, IMHO. Larry Welk was on enough to talk about his house. OK, understood. But why not real chopper coverage?

Reporters sounded bored, like, "We've done this before," and I thought the over-hype of the Mt. Wilson devastation "it's not if, it's wen" was way overblown. Don't they have a connection to view the Observatory web cam? The two CBS chopper feeds?

Wasn't happy. It should, I think, "Fire and Weather together on the 5's" instead of traffic, especially yesterday.

I've heard better coverage from KNX with good listener calls one right after another in a 5.0 earthquake, let alone an inferno. There were a million stories in the naked City. KNX kept repeating the same ones over and over again.
 
Sir, with all due respect, but have you ever actually worked in radio news? It's much, much tougher than it looks (since everything has to be pretty much written out 100% ahead of time).

We all agree radio today is atrocious. KNX is doing amazingly well. Better than most local TV, IMO.
 
Shoot From Hip said:
Actually, I think Oaktree's observations were very astute. And yes, I've spent many years in radio newsrooms in multiple capacities.
Click to expand...

With all due respect, the TV coverage has been atrocious. People's Court, TMZ, etc. on when people's houses are burning down or in danger.

CBS should have KCAL 9 the 24/7 fire coverage station... which would really build its brand as the local station.
 
have you ever actually worked in radio news?

Yes, still am, as a matter of fact, in a rated market of 26 stations and one of 8 AM's doing news and talk. Ever covered an earthquake that killed people in your hometown? I did, for many many hours not that long ago. I know how tough it is, trust me. Especially, as a news director, where people actually counted and depend on you to do it well and, mostly, to do it right.

A shame that there aren't enough stations doing "news" today. And especially when it can, and has, been done better by a legend like KNX. My station's former news director worked for years at KNX (Stephanie Roberts) and Patti Rysing came from my station, as well. I'm fortunate to have been blessed with such professionals.

Thanks to those for the kind comments.
 
A while back KCLU did yeoman's work with that little news "team" (basically Lance Orozco and whatever stringers or college students that wanted to go along for the ride) in the Santa Barbara fire. To their credit they have at least beefed up their coverage and preempted their midday schedule - although they should throw out more of ME and ATC as well. For those who want pure NPR, with rip and read headlines, they can rely on KCRW like they do now.

BTW, they have a backup plan to broadcast off of the KUSC backup site: http://www.scpr.org/about/press/out-fire-and-back-transmitter/
 
Oaktree- I sit corrected. It's been a few years since I lived in LA and what I have caught online (admittedly not as much as others) has been good. But as well, as pointed out, live news doesn't always work out the way you would like (such as many, many years ago when I was providing live coverage of a bomb found at a local KMart- which tuned out to be a box with a bag of soiled diapers.)
 
KNX has done a great job of 24/7 coverage and has been basically the only wall to wall in L.A. However, a lot of info HAS been repeated over several hours.

I think their freeway complex coverage was more comprehensive, and more up to the minute then the coverage of the station fire has been thus far.
 
So getting back on topic...according to census here, KNX and KABC had the best coverage, but KNX repeated their info and stories over and over again. So by default, KABC had the best overall coverage, better than an ALL News station.
 
I am amazed at listening between as many stations as possible (five at a time,) the disparity between "facts" and non-fact information, even down to some using speculation. At the minute, KNX is talking about g-mail server destruction today and problems with Google. Good info.

I like what KABC is doing, as well.

I think there should, still, be more TV copter sharing on radio, with the huge amount of smoke and fire still present and pluming.
 
Big E said:
So getting back on topic...according to census here, KNX and KABC had the best coverage, but KNX repeated their info and stories over and over again. So by default, KABC had the best overall coverage, better than an ALL News station.
Click to expand...

It's natural and important to repeat information; even in an emergency situation, not everyone can listen all the time. For example, a person at work who is concerned about their neighborhood can tune in on a break and get all the data, not have to wait for an hour or two.

I learned in a hurricane situation that people will listen every hour or so for updates to conserve batteries in a portable radio... so even in the worst of cases, repetition is essential for the most important data.
 
Re: FIRE COVERAGE - Video Clip, CBS-2

Don Paschal said:
George Jetson said:
Here's a brief video covering the Mount Wilson Observatory Site. Looks like the back fires set to block the main fire. From CBS-2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ELwlifc3uY

(Helicopter coverage with news voice over).
Click to expand...

Is her name REALLY Ameila Earhart?
Click to expand...

Of course not. That feed is the equivalent of B Roll... and that's where the reporters practice or rehearse... the tage was to ad a humorous touch for the station folks. In other situations, I have heard people identify as Britney Spears and such...
 
When she was on KOA in Denver she was ... Amelia Earhart. And her bio from Clear Channel since 2005 indicates that it's her real name.

A U. Colorado - Boulder grad, dedicated with a passion for flying and traffic reporting.

Says her mom wanted to call her "Amy" but "Amelia" came out. No confirmed direct relation to the famous aviatrix, but a namesake with similar heritage and a passion to know more about her famous namesake and a similar circumstance for flying.

I think she sounds great, though still learning the LA scene. Quite attractive 29 year old who was very popular in Denver before moving to LA in March or April of this year for KKAL 9 and CBS 2.

Point on repetition coverage: Of course I agree that "information" must be repeated. But same "human interest" actualities long after the fact are not "information" -- they become, quickly, repeated "actualities."

There are a million stories in the "Naked City" ... repeating the same ones over and over again becomes a tune out and forces people to say, "I already heard that -- what else is new?" Many (me included) will button push to see what else is new. Coming back to the same source and hearing the very same "stories" is a cue to "look around" for more information.

Listeners, on average, don't know or care about a station's "budget problems" or "cuts" -- other than their favorite reporter, anchor, etc. is no longer there. Other than that, they could care less. They want "news" anyway they can get it. And they want as much of it as they can get in an emergency.

Especially if it's about areas that they need and want coverage. Repeating the factual is absolutely fine and needed. Using the same non-reporter or official voices for news that is old is not news. You update the information as often as possible, but actualities can and need to be updated or at leased revised, as people tend to keep listening to this coverage, though there is a good amount of "button pushing" to find out the latest.

Brand loyalty is not what it used to be. The fresher the information, the better.
 
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