Monday, August 25, 2014

Napa Earthquake Coverage Was Overall Pretty Good on Bay Area TV Airwaves; Not So Much on Radio Except KCBS; 415 Media Monday Breakdown


 THE TEMPTATION to second-guess immediate media coverage when all hell breaks loose on an early Sunday morning is quite inviting and that's what took place when a moderately strong earthquake rocked the Bay Area and Napa 3: 20 AM.

QUAKE! Strong. Scary. Rolling sensation. And long too. Over twenty seconds.

The immediate reports soon after was that all was OK within the immediate SF-Oakland-San Jose Bay Area, courtesy of KCBS Radio which was on the air live only moments after the quake. Thank god for Dean Danos, whose veteran  presence made for comfort radio at a time where those of us that felt the shaker live, (like me), were a tad unnerved to say the least.

We soon discovered, on the other hand, that Napa was not so good.  KCBS assistant news director, Todd Smoot, who lives near the region, delivered some sobering news about buckled roads, loss of power and massive building damage downtown. Fires too.

Smoot's live reports were impressive given the shaker had occurred only moments earlier. Danos was soon joined in the studio by Janis Wright. Within thirty minutes KCBS had a virtually full force of anchors, reporters, traffic updates and people on the scene. Furthermore, given the gravity of the situation, their decision to go commercial free for the better part of six hours was both welcome and a community service.

Meanwhile, over at the other "all-news" outlet, (for now), KGO Radio, things could not have been more ludicrous, ridiculous, hideous, take your pick. KGO was running canned Bloomberg Radio content which they normally do on Sunday morning. Only Bloomberg went on and on and on, forever. It was only after 5 AM, a good hour and a half after the quake, that "God Talk" host, Brent Walters, played newsman and offered sporadic reports. Dismal. Fortunately, reporter, Scott Lettieri soon landed in the studio and managed to save a little face. It was still dreadful, mind you--farcical too. No knock on Lettieri who is a capable newsman, but KGO's fallen star was never more evident on Sunday morning. No surprise there. Soon, some of the sycophants were defending the albatross station--"hey, it happened in the middle of the night on a Sunday!" Yeah, real difficult to get an anchor and reporter on the cell and order them to get their ass to the studio immediately. Be advised that if the world ends on an early Sunday morning, don't tune into the Sweetjack station.

It could have been worse.

Or worser. On KSFO, some radical, right-wing rabbi based in Seattle was yapping away, on and on never once mentioning the earthquake. Good community relations, then again it's KSFO, why bother making a fuss. Real radio stations, even in the Cumulus byzantine world, would have figured it out and made a plan.

*Bay Area TV stations, for the most part, got it right. KGO and KPIX were out front and center with immediate crawls. Soon after, anchors broke in and reporters were on their way to the scene of the story.

Downtown Napa, as first light rose, looked every bit like a war zone. Pictures of crumbled houses and buildings on fire permeated the screen. Fortunately, as it turned out, there was no loss of life--injuries, some serious, were reported. Stations soon began utilizing news choppers and the surreal scene of destruction was in plain sight.

Special props to KNTV, (NBC Bay Area), in particular, for its commercial-free nonstop coverage with Laura Garcia Cannon and Raj Mathai. Mathai went nine and a half hours straight from 7: 30 to 5 PM. When Garcia-Cannon departed, Mathai was joined in-studio by co-anchor, Jessica Aguirre.

Both KPIX and KTVU were effective early on, with solid anchor work and reporters in Napa relaying eyewitness accounts and MOS reactions. That soon changed as both stations had to cut away to sports events, apparently contractually bound to carry golf and a 49ers exhibition game.

I criticized KPIX for its curious move to go to golf. I understand it's a network call and PIX is owned by CBS which controls sports programming and no doubt wanted the 6th largest market in on its PGA tour, however, given what happened in Napa and the fact that the region was still in a reactive mode, it would have been a good PR move had PIX higher-ups called NY to ask that the station stay with the more important local story. The LEAD story that dominated both the national and local domain.

KTVU was no different but the fact that the 49ers are the dominant sports franchise in the Bay Area, I can understand and give KTVU a pass. To its credit, KTVU ran several updates during the game and cut away from the Fox Network halftime show to go back to Napa.

KRON stuck to the basics.

KGO, which eventually got its A-team crew of  Dan Ashley and Ama Daetz into the mix late Sunday afternoon, also did a fine job on the scene, particularly, a great Dan Noyes live shot in front of an old church downtown in early ruins. Wayne Freedman's live reports from an apartment complex was also effective and quite visually-stunning, albeit depressing considering the events of the day.



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27 comments:

  1. I had the Pat Thurston show on, as I was driving last night, I stopped to get gas, and just as I got in the car and turned the radio on I heard the tail end, of Barbara Simpson calling in to Pat's show. Sounded like they just talked earthquake, but a very friendly call, and Pat saying nice to hear from you again Barbara, I'll try to find it on podcast later, it was a little before 8 p.m. I believe.

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    1. I miss Barbara, don't you?

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    2. NO, the biddy. Babe in the Bunker. Maybe in 1945.

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    3. I listened to her show at times, was never a huge fan, mostly because our politics are very different, I'm basically a liberal. Having said that, she did have interesting shows at times, that was informative, and talked about subjects of interest other than politics. She was professional and intelligent, her replacement Eathan Bearman gets on my nerves, even if I like his subject, he talks down to people, likes to insults just about everyone, and his elongating of words are beyond annoying, he got better for awhile, but the little I listened recently he is doing is again.

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  2. Did you notice that Brent Walters, in noting that taking quake-calls is a departure from his usual program, mentioned that a new format with greater "energy," is coming soon ... I think he said next week, but I'm not certain of that. He went on to say that yesterday's program was an easing in to (whatever) is the format in the offing.

    Next Sunday is the last day of August, and Rich has been predicting a new format in September. I wonder.

    Actually, I think that Walters did a respectable job yesterday. When a caller asked if God called for the quake - and, if so, why - he didn't flinch. He was coming near the hourly news, and agreed to throw that question into "the mix," for the following hour.

    I think, however, that by 8 AM, they could have a news person in for John Hamilton.




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  3. KGO TV was on at 4:30am with Cheryl Jennings and Kristen Zse followed around noon with Eric Thomas and Katie Marzullo. They did a great job!

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  4. I was also very impressed when Kristen Sze came on KGO early Sunday morning (I think she would have showed up anyway for the 5 am news shift). She was very solid, straightforward, and without any trace of the ditzy giggles sort of things that we usually expect/see from her.

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    1. Kristen was very good on Sunday. If she was like that more often it would be her and not I'ma Ditz on the 11PM

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    2. Poor Kristen was playing with her hair for awhile there like she just woke up but, to her credit, she DID just wake up and got her ass in there. Good on her to hustle in. Cheryl too along with Alma.

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  5. Fuck you, rich. People at KGO radio work insanely hard and do the best they can with what they're given. If you even bothered to check their Facebook and Twitter, they began tweeting about it right after it happened. They couldn't get a reporter all the way into the station for a little while, but their web department was on it.
    The people at KGO work hard, and do an incredible job when you consider how little they have to work with. Give them some fucking credit. Jesus Christ .

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    1. @10:39 - Reporting from Facebook and Twitter is not news. Keep riding that KGO dick, fanboy.

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    2. @10:39, instead of calling people names you should figure out that there are many new sources for information in today's world.

      Bashing KGO is pointless and childish.

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    3. It is. The first thing after the earthquake that I did was check the internet earthquake site for the readings, then to friend's comments on Facebook. When we were looking for more information, we went to TV and KCBS. No one bothered with KGO.

      Working hard with what you got is one thing but the current powers owning and running KGO have more, use to invest more, and now do not. There are other places to go now. The brand is damaged.

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  6. The real losers are the public, especially those without power. Those who had access to a radio got zilch. Imagine trying to get critical information during an emergency like this and having some recorded infomercial instead.

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  7. Listening to KGO Radio yesterday was heartbreakng. Nothing even near comparable coverage of 25 years ago and the Loma Prietta quake. Traffic was Dallas. News on the repeat cycle of minimal coverage. Jennfer Jones-Lee from her home in American Canyon was a nice touch, but not long enough outside of an actuality phoner. Understandably, she had other things to take care of at home, but other fulltimers led the effort on KCBS and on TV to extensively cover the event. For KGO and John Hamilton, the Niners game couldn't be on soon enough. John was and could still be so good -- but the help just wasn't there. Isn't KGO the EAN station for Northern CA or was this one of the "Oh, that's Napa and far enough away to not stir it up." Even the Napa AM KV-ON and its FM rocker The Vine had better coverage and they were off the air for a half hour but still more than made up the coverage.

    Surprising, because Cumulus WBAP in Ft. Worth / Dalas covered the Oklahoma City tornadoes with wall-to-wall credibility from hundreds of miles away and were a life saver doing so - day and night. KGO - not so much.

    The line of the night on KGO: Pat Thurston - "Karel, I apologize for not telling your listeners that you would be on an hour late so we (Thurston and a news dude) could provide an hour of earthquake coverage. Karel was FAR from amused, and his strident "step aside" was most palpable. Thurston commented with giggle, "We asked Karel to *step aside* (her words) so we could bring you earthquake news about Napa."

    Not only did he step aside, he should have not been on air at all as he was repeating news - incorrectly -.from reading a computer monitor set to "Yahoo News" that was painfully behind. He didn't sound just pissed off, he sounded angry about "stepping aside" and so childish. He kept "grilling" the news guy and seemed to be putting him (the news reader) on the defensive. It was horrid coverage on KGO. Horrid. I called and someone said they thought he was covering the MTV Video Music Awards for the Huffington Post and would be on "later."

    Mo' Langan was just as bad. An insipid interview with a comedian pal of Robin Williams after about 7 minutes of earthquake news with no facts. It was horrendous as was Karel. He was brightest when he got to introduce his pal and talk about upcoming comedy shows between themselves. Karel cut off or talked over every caller and one guest who couldn't get a word in edgewise, as Karel wanted to show how much he knew about earthquakes. Of course, there were the mentions of "my late husband Andrew" and earthquake related tales, as well. Bad.bad, bad.

    One can only hope that the "Newer than New" KGO begins next week. Labor Day is not uncommon for format changes. This will be a major uphill battle "energetic" or not for KGO. Yesterday proved it. I hope they fix the board op situation, too. Thurston had to comment on not knowing what to do because one could drive a truck through the dead air, and the news dude said, "Well, we weren't supposed to do a newscast here, but I guess we will now ...." Geez. He had been on the air for hours and enthralled us with tales on when he was a news reporter in Salinas before going to Sacramento. No sense.

    If that earthquake had been 50 miles or so to the south -- right in San Francisco or Oakland -- I can't imagine what would have happened. There was no control, no plan and the same repeated actualities for 18 hours. Very sad Very bad. Metheny, you could be headed back to Detroit faster than you think if this doesn't change, fast.
    JB

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    1. Yes, I'm sure you were just as heartbroken as Rich Lieberman.

      The world has changed in 25 years. There are now many more ways to get your news. KGO is no longer the place to go for breaking news. Get over it.

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    2. KGO Radio choked 25 years ago. KSCO was the station to listen to be listening to during Loma Prieta.

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    3. But KGO keeps telling us that they want to be a player in the news biz. Hell, I can read Yahoo, CNN, or Fox News from home. What I want is someone that I can trust, or relate to, telling me first hand what the situation is. Almost every other news outlet had it down. KGO, last off the mark and last to the finish line. I don't watch a race to see who came in last. If they don't provide the information that I'm looking for in a big and important event like this, why should I bother checking with them. Its a waste of my time.

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  8. No one in their right mind listens to KGO for news. Why would you when KCBS is available on AM & FM? There's just no point. And this point was further exacerbated when they decided to run a pre-season 49ers game, and offered terrible coverage when they did discuss the quake.

    These are opportunities to stand out, and KGO decided to stand down. You're talking about a company (Cumulus) that is simply concerned with quarter to quarter revenue, so there was no way they were going to bounce the 49ers. Add to it the likelihood that they're flipping format at some point, and there's even more reason not to pretend to be a full service news station. You just have to feel somewhat bad for the people who actually do work, and are trying to produce a good product. It's all in vain. Maybe they can get some tape out of it.

    I thought the worst part of it all was the pathetic attempts by their talk hosts to try and salvage the situation. I've nothing against Karel, but listening to him attempt to cover the event as if it was still happening was pretty weak. Can you blame him though? I'm sure management pressed him to discuss it at all costs (no different for the rest). When these folks finally did get on the air the Bay Area was already over it. Yet they were discussing it like it was a fluid situation. Quite embarrassing for everyone.

    KGO already hit the iceberg. Believing in Paul Hosley's idea to compete with KCBS an absurd idea Cumulus was all too happy to believe. Putting a band aid in between with sacrificial lamb Ron Escarsega was strange. And now finally adding the last piece, a program director completely unattached from success, and willing to do whatever corporate tells him to do. Do you really think "DOUBLE ENNNN BEEE CEEE" was his idea, or him just being a lackey? Either way, nothing has changed as he's likely working his last shift, probably in the hopes of finding his way over to corporate. Begging to one day get invited to the Atlanta suites.

    Expect nothing from KGO, even with the flip. Young people don't listen to AM radio because they left the Limbaughs and Savages and Hannitys and Owenses on the air for 100 years. They can't reverse the damage they've done.

    But I am POSITIVE they'll pretend to have all of the answers.

    Kudos to KCBS, again, for a job well done.

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  9. I usually don't watch weekend news, but on KTVU, Mike & Claudine did exceptional. I don't particularly care for Claudine's reporting style, but yesterday she was great. Mike was controlled and calm during the coverage. It is tough anchoring breaking news for hours on end, and they did great considering they were running on fumes. I love Mark Tamayo's scientific knowledge. What an asset. KPIX did a great job, too, particularly the male anchor in the morning (sorry, they never EVER showed who was anchoring, but your voice is amazing and your information was excellent)... but... PIX is annoying now, like KRON is, in that they don't show the anchors during a breaker. I'm sorry, but if you want us to keep watching, we need to feel a connection to the people presenting the information to us. When you go double-box on me without ever showing who is bringing us the info, I have to turn you off. Why show off Juliette in Napa but never your anchors? For that, I kept it on KTVU.

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  10. I will sat it again,Claudine Wong's long monotone drone was so much of a tune out even ch2 reporters just talked right over her. I know I zoned at what sounded like white noise..then went to the other channels. She turned the quake into a reading of the instruction manual on yer blender.

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    1. The drone went on so long, I think she said something about a quake in Sweden under the band "Abba".
      None were killed, PTL. I would miss Agnatha...

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  11. KCBS' coverage confirmed to me what I've known all along. They're tops in Bay Area news, period.

    Also wanted to point out that Rich highlighted (in a previous post) the best live shot of the entire earthquake. It involved Tom Vacar (KTVU) showing how deep the crack in the earth was via a phoner while Chopper 2 hovered was overhead with visuals. That man should win an award.

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  12. KCBS was a god-send for those of us in Napa with extensive damage and no power. They were my only source of information for much of the morning.

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  13. Not every station needs to be broadcasting the same images and giving the same reports. I don't fault KPIX or KTVU for breaking away from earthquake coverage.

    As usual, the media exaggerates and sensationalizes the damage caused when these types of events occur.

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  14. Rich, Tom Leykis mentioned you, the blog, KGO and the earthquake in his 3pm hour...

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  15. I can sum up the lack of coverage in two words.

    Nobody died.

    Sad to say but if this had happened during the day and those bricks had buried some techie spending his weekend in wine country we'd have headlines. No fatalities and the fact that this happened in the "burbs" or vacationland leads to the lack of headlines. The lives changed, injuries sustained and the homes lost are as real in Napa as they would be in SF or Silicon Valley. Too bad local media doesn't agree.

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