405 closure, Carmageddon; TV and radio stations put pedal to the metal on coverage

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L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa and City Councilman Tom LaBonge join officials and media as they wave to the first motorists to travel under the Mulholland Drive bridge after the reopening of the 405 Freeway. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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Escorted by the California Highway Patrol, the first cars head southbound under the Mulholland Drive bridge. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)

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Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appears with other officials at a venue overlooking the work site to announce that the 405 Freeway will reopen about 17 hours early. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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A worker removes debris that could fall on the freeway below as crews finish clean-up and inspection. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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Crews clean dirt and debris from the 405 Freeway after the demolition project on the Mulholland Drive bridge is completed. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

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With the power of three battering rams, the western pillar of the bridge is knocked down. (Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times)

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Demolition work on the Mulholland Drive bridge continues in the early morning hours Sunday. (Arkasha Stevenson / Los Angeles Times)

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An aerial view of the empty 405 freeway as construction continues on the Mulholland bridge. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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People clad in CalTrans orange spell out 405 in a park near the Mulholland bridge. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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A ten mile portion of the The 405 freeway remains closed while work continues on the demolition of the Mulholland Bridge. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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About noon Saturday, demolition of the Mulholland Drive bridge continues. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

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Shiho Nakaza holds a sketch she made of the 405 Freeway at the Sunset Boulevard bridge. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

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Rod Liber holds daughter Samantha, 3, as Ava Liber covers her eyes at the Sunset Boulevard bridge over the 405 on Saturday. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

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Members of the media tour a section of the closed portion of the 405 Freeway. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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The view looking south from the 17th floor of the Angeleno Hotel at Sunset Boulevard shows a deserted stretch of the 405 freeway along part of the closure area. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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LAPD officer Jason Azpeitia takes a picture with his cellphone of the deserted 405 Freeway looking north from the Sunset Boulevard bridge. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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The 405 Freeway as seen from the 17th floor of the Angeleno Hotel at Sunset Boulevard. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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The view south of an empty 405 Freeway on Saturday as workers remove part of the Mulholland Drive bridge. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Bel Air resident Noreen Shortway has her picture taken by a friend on the Sunset Boulevard bridge with the deserted 405 freeway behind her. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

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Just after midnight, work begins to raze the southern section of the Mulholland Drive bridge over the Freeway 405 Saturday morning. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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A construction crew member walks on a blanket of dirt spread over the 405 Freeway. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Dirt is spread under the bridge to protect the 405 Freeway from falling debris. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Damir Loretic a photojournalist with CNN, starts setting up Friday morning near the Mulholland Drive bridge. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

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A crew closes the Skirball Center Drive onramp to the northbound 405 Freeway in preparation for the Mulholland Drive bridge work. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Pedestrians cross Sherman Oaks Avenue minutes after the 405 onramp was closed at 7 p.m. Friday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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Ralph Lopez greets guests for a KFI radio event hosted by Tim Conway Jr. celebrating “Carmageddon” at the Sherman Oaks Marriott Courtyard hotel, near the 405 and 101 freeways. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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Daniel Rojo, right, and Felix Jaquez man the registration table for a KFI radio event near the 405 and 101 freeways. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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Rodney Brown, 47, of Silver Lake plays freeway closure music, “Much Hoo-Doo About Nothing,” at the closed Skirball Center Drive onramp on Friday evening. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Traffic control personnel block the southbound 405 onramp at Ventura Boulevard and Sherman Oaks Avenue on Friday evening. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

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Kenny Stephens of Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. carries a bundle of fencing material as workers prepare the southern half of Mulholland Drive bridge for overnight demolition work. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

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Adam Kessel, left, and Glen Greenberg hawk “Carmaggedon 405” T-shirts for $10 apiece at the corner of Ventura and Van Nuys boulevards. A dollar from each sale is to be donated to the Make-a-Wish Foundation. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

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Actor David Caruso buys five “Carmaggedon 405” T-shirts at the corner of Ventura and Van Nuys boulevards. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

By Greg Braxton, Los Angeles Times

July 14, 2013 9:04 PM PT

Covering “Carmageddon” is driving some local television and radio stations a bit crazy.

One news director bluntly told the traffic reporter not to expect much sleep for the next two days. A news crew from another station will be living in a recreational vehicle near the 405 freeway. Still another station is avoiding using the “C” word in its coverage, hoping that the dire predictions for gridlock will not materialize.

Although varied in their approaches, local news stations uniformly are increasing staff, planning live cut-ins and using real-time driving reports and social networking to keep viewers abreast of the impact of the weekend closure. Much of the coverage launched Friday with live footage of the shutdown of the freeway ramps and is expected to continue until Monday morning when the critical roadway artery is slated to reopen.

Photos: ‘Carmageddon’ closes the 405 Freeway

“We take what’s going to happen very seriously,” said KABC President and General Manager Arnie Kleiner. “We’re going into this expecting the worst, then we’ll adjust, hoping for the best.”

The following is a scheduled round-up of coverage:

KCBS Channel 2 and KCAL Channel 9: The sister stations will have extensive coverage all weekend. KCBS will have live 60-second cut-ins on the hour starting at 7 a.m. Saturday and continuing into the evening. KCAL’s 8 p.m. newscast will also have expanded coverage. The stations will have a time-lapse camera on their website, while crews of reporters and cameramen will be deployed. The station will also staff a recreational vehicle which will be parked near the Mulholland Drive bridge all weekend “so we don’t have to worry about getting crews in and out,” said Scott Diener, KCBS news director.

Diener added, “We’ve been measured in how we’re presenting this. We have avoided the word Carmageddon. Generally we have a countdown clock to the 405 closure. I don’t know if it will be Carmageddon, but my hope is it won’t be.”

KNBC Channel 4: KNBC Assistant News Director Keith Esparros said the station would provide hourly cut-ins, and if it turns out to be worse than anticipated, “Then we have the option of staying on the air.” The station will also have a news truck station deployed near the freeway for live coverage (“We have the best location because we won the lottery to determine where trucks would be parked,” he said). The station will also have a “souped-up Skype”-type technology called LiveU that allows for live mobile transmission of full-resolution video over the Internet to be broadcast on air and on KNBC’s website.

Said Esparros: “There’s a very strong possibility that things will go smoothly, but we’re dancing on the knife’s edge. All it takes is one big rig to overturn, and we’re in big trouble.”

KTLA Channel 5: The station, which like the Los Angeles Times is owned by the Tribune Co., will be expanding its weekend newscasts. The morning newscasts, which usually start at 7 a.m., will start at 5 a.m.; the Saturday evening newscast, which normally starts at 6 p.m., will start at 5 p.m. The Sunday morning newscast will also begin at 5 a.m. Both days will also feature hourly live cut-ins.

The Monday morning newscast that usually begins at 5 a.m. will start at 4 a.m. and focus on the scheduled reopening of the freeway. Said news director Jason R. Ball: “This is a breaking news story we can plan for. Hopefully we did our jobs in getting the word out, and everyone stays home.”

KABC Channel 7: The station for the last few weeks has teamed up with Waze, a traffic app, that uses social networking to provide drivers with turn-by-turn directions to navigate out of bad traffic conditions. “We’re looking for ways to help our viewers even when they’re not watching us,” said News Director Cheryl Fair.

Expanded newscasts starting at 5 a.m. Saturday and Sunday will also be largely devoted to the closure. Two helicopters will provide aerial coverage, and a special traffic page on the station’s website will be devoted to the closure. Monday’s newscast, which normally begins at 4:30 a.m., will begin at 4 a.m.

“If history is our guide, everything will be fine and everybody will be too scared to death to go anywhere,” said Kleiner.

KTTV Channel 11: The station is adding 405-related news specials at 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday, and at 6 a.m., 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Sunday. The Monday 4:30 a.m. newscast will start at 4 a.m.

Radio:

KNX 1070 AM: Reporters will be deployed around the closure area and all over the city, including the Emergency Operations Center. The 24-hour coverage will include a report on a wedding taking place in Santa Monica.

KPCC 89.3 FM: The news and information station is not a traditional traffic and weather station, but it will transform into one this weekend. The blanket coverage will include dispatches from reporters driving from the Valley to the Westside, and stories from reporters and a videographer bicycling around the 405 Freeway.

KABC 790 AM: The talk radio station plans constant updates all weekend. Also, listeners who get stuck in traffic on La Cienega Boulevard between Washington and Jefferson boulevards can stop near KABC’s headquarters and get free lemonade and water and perhaps win some Dodger tickets.

Photos: ‘Carmageddon’ closes the 405 Freeway

TV, radio stations put pedal to the metal on Carmageddon coverage

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