TV & VIDEO - May 23, 1989

KNBC-TV Channel 4--the station that featured Kent Shocknek jumping under his anchor desk in the middle of a newscast when the Whittier quake hit in 1987--has become the first local station to acquire its own seismograph. The new machine, which measures the intensity and duration of earthquakes, will have a camera permanently trained on it and will enable Channel 4 to provide pictures of the now familiar seismographic scrawls as soon as the ground shakes. Until now, all local TV and radio stations have had to rush reporters out to Caltech and wait for scientists there to analyze their official technical data on the quake. Channel 4 will still rely on the scientists for its definitive quake information, a station spokeswoman said, but with its own equipment, Channel 4 hopes to gain a leg up on its competition in the race to provide a rough estimate of the size and location of any local earthquake.