KCBS/KGO excell...KNBR's toy-dept. Morning Show morons give lip service to tragedy...KSFO's Sussman's ill-timed moment...TV coverage generally good...
**Shades of the '89 quake and Oakland Hills fire. It was eerily familiar in both visual and eyewitness accounts.
When the initial explosion took place in San Bruno, I was at a sports bar watching the football game and had a commitment to get to in the Eastbay, so I did not get to see any TV coverage. (And thus, had ten different e-mails with the KRON/Howard Stern-caller faker--sorry, that's just not funny anymore.)
I did get a healthy dose of radio, including KGO and KCBS. Both were very good and informative in the information and interview dept., including good one-on-ones with fire officials, people at the scene, and those victims who lost their homes.
KGO: Tidy, reliable and good info. Morning news anchor Jennifer Jones-Lee, in particular, almost nailed down a PG&E spokesman about reports circulating in the area of people calling PG&E earlier in the week, who smelled gas. Jones, to her credit, didn't back down when the guy tried to backtrack...
KCBS: Good. Holly Quan and Tim Ryan, excellent on-scene reports...John Evans once again in the overnight: just a spectacular anchor whose calm demeanor was welcome over the sporadic "shouting". Evans is quickly becoming the "go-to" voice in Bay Area news radio. Props also to Stan Bunger and Susan Leigh-Taylor.
KNBR: I made it a point to listen to the opening of the morning "Murph and Mac" show to hear how clown A and B would handle this: They outdid themselves. Actually, it was "Murph" who opened with an innocuous, twenty-second, (I counted) "we know what's going on--we try to take you away from these things", blah-blah-blah..." before foolishly, immediately, droning on to Giants hysteria. Even by the ridiculous KNBR "standards:, it was pathetic, out-of-touch, out-of-line and so, so amateurish, but Smurph and Crap are consistent. You get what you pay for.
KSFO: Brian Sussman made an ill-timed comment, (at the top of his monologue), to suggest the San Bruno explosion would now allow "left-wing" groups to argue environmental issues having to do with natural gas, or something like that. C'mon man, seriously...
TELEVISION: As indicated, only saw morning-after coverage and most was fairly solid. In a story like this, news helicopters are a good thing to have--in that dept, props to KGO/ABC7, NBC Bay Area and CBS5.
TRAFFIC: KGO Radio's Stan Burford provided steady, informed, and quite a needed load of levity, both Thursday night and this morning, advising motorists to use alternate routes near the area, especially those going to SFO, ("Stay on 101--avoid 280", asserted Burford.)
The PG&E Spokesman 'moment: On that same interview with KGO's Jones-Lee, Jeff Smith said unequivocally, "if we, (PG&E) are ultimately found to be responsible, (for the gas line leak, assuming that's the cause), we will be accountable." Most PR flacks in this situation would be cautious to the max, given the magnitude of the explosion--give Smith credit for at least trying to sound fairly reasonable. (They're not all a-holes)
OVERALL NOTES: Yeah, we all at first thought it was an airplane, (a mere two days away from 9/11...still, some residents gave eyewitness descriptions that they heard "airline-like" noises and a series of "booms"...tuned back to the idiot show on KNBR at 6 AM to see if someone had a grip: nope, the brain-dead duo with their other dopey-dopes MADE NO MENTION of the calamity...as I scribble this, death toll is now seven and climbing; over 50 houses destroyed...Spokesperson Smith was equally candid on KTVU's "Morning on 2"...In the "I can't believe this" dept., KTVU reported sporadic looting in the area...
DEVELOPING STORY....
As the story unfolds in San Bruno, we'll monitor and post periodically if the situation merits...
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