Station to Give Listeners a Feeling for ‘Big One’ and Its Impact on San Diego

It is every Californian’s worst nightmare.

“Virtually the entire Pacific Beach area looks like it’s been hit by a tornado,” an excited KFMB-AM reporter tells listeners. “I can see damaged buildings everywhere. We flew over the harbor area a couple of minutes ago . . . . It looks like thousands of gallons of fuel is spilling into the bay . . . .”

Shortly after 10 a.m. today, KFMB-AM (760) listeners will hear a reporter say those words, part of a frightening game of “what if . . . ?” the station will play with San Diegans. It will present a half-hour, Orson Welles-type program depicting the effects of a major earthquake on San Diego County.

An earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale has never hit modern San Diego. If it does--when it does, some experts say--portable radios could be the public’s only link to the world. The Emergency Broadcast System, with a shrill tone that annoys listeners when periodically tested by stations, will bring current information to listeners.

On Friday, KFMB will use the Emergency Broadcast System in much the way it would be used in a real emergency, warning listeners that important information is to follow. The broadcast will feature the recorded voices of San Diego schools Supt. Tom Payzant, county Supervisor Susan Golding and Sheriff John Duffy, as well as representatives of San Diego Gas & Electric, Pacific Bell, retail establishments and KFMB reporters. Each will play a role similar to those they would fill if a major earthquake did strike San Diego. Every two minutes a message

will remind listeners that the broadcast is only a dramatization.

Although the program might frighten some and entertain others, its primary purpose is to educate. The severity of the quake is based on worst-case estimates of movement along the Rose Canyon fault line, believed to be the most threatening to San Diego County, according to Steve Danon, operations officer with the San Diego County Office of Disaster Preparedness.

The idea for the broadcast stems from a similar program produced by the Los Angeles-based KHJ-AM (now KRTH) a few years ago. Danon heard the broadcast when he was an employee of the city of San Fernando, and he wanted to try to recreate it when he moved to San Diego in 1984.

“It adds a sense of realism to emergency exercises,” Danon said. A radio broadcast provides “the opportunity to get a lot of people to step back and think. The only thing with more impact is an earthquake.”

However, Danon was unable at first to interest a local radio station in the project.

“I forgot about it,” Danon said, after he had been turned down or ignored by three stations. “I figured it was never going to happen.”

Danon’s attitude changed when KFMB’s Cliff Albert called him. A few years earlier, Albert and KFMB had produced “Bethlehem Report,” a dramatization of the birth of Jesus Christ as covered by modern radio.

“I’ve always wanted to do something like this,” Albert said.

Danon had the KRTH broadcast transcribed, then rewrote the script. However, when he asked KRTH for permission to use it, he was turned down. When Albert said KFMB would gladly give KRTH credit, they were told no again.

KRTH’s stubbornness forced a complete rewrite of the script, after it had already been sent out to the various agencies for revisions and final approval. It fell to Albert to write a new, final script.

The result is a matter-of-fact look at an earthquake. Traffic reporter Steve Springer tells of collapsed roads. A SDG&E; spokeswoman explains the dangers of fallen power lines and gas leaks. With Scripps Hospital in La Jolla severely damaged, a County Emergency Medical Services spokeswoman tells listeners about plans to evacuate patients to Orange County. A representative of a department store assures listeners his store is still open for business.

Albert said KRTH’s script was geared more toward sensationalism than education, with screaming people and dead bodies spread around Los Angeles.

“Our revision was more subdued,” Albert said.

The goal of the script is to give people practical information should an earthquake strike, in addition to steps they can take to prepare for such a disaster. Danon’s office sent letters about the program to the principals of local schools, hospital administrators, every city in the county and every county department head. The schools also received a brochure, “Almost Everything You Wanted to Know About Earthquakes . . . but Were Too Shook Up to Ask.” County Chief Administrative Officer Norman Hickey has directed all county employees to tune in.

At last Thursday’s taping of the show, the mood was light. Participants, jammed into a small conference room, joked about the feigned hysteria called for in the script. Sound effects would be added later.

However, there was an underlying seriousness to the event. The next day an earthquake centered in the Newport Beach area vividly reminded everyone involved of the immediacy of the project.

“If an earthquake hits, people could be without electricity. It’s important that people be prepared to deal with that,” said SDG&E; spokeswoman Karen Duncan, a program participant. “When the real thing hits, there is not going to be time to go out and buy flashlights and batteries.”

Friday’s broadcast won’t signal the end of the project. Danon hopes to use the same script in a simulated earthquake exercise, complete with slide show, that his department is developing.

“This has an opportunity to reach a lot of the public and generate a lot of interest,” Danon said.

The only real danger is that it might create too much interest Friday morning, that some listeners may mistake it for a real emergency in much the same way of Welles’ infamous “War of the Worlds” broadcast. KFMB originally planned to run a disclaimer every 60 seconds, before finally settling on running it every two minutes.

“We thought every 60 seconds would be too much of an intrusion,” Albert said. “We can accomplish the same thing without sending anyone into the streets in fear.”