KNX-AM 1st Radio Station to Report Quake

On Tuesday about 5 p.m. KNX-AM reporter Tom Vacar was on the phone with a friend in San Francisco. A few minutes into the conversation, a massive earthquake struck Northern California, and KNX (1070) put Vacar’s friend on the air and became the first local radio station to broadcast the news.

A short while later, CALNET--the statewide news service for public radio stations headquartered at KLON-FM (88.1) in Long Beach--made it possible for San Francisco public station KQED-FM to broadcast in spite of a power outage. CALNET took the San Francisco station’s reports via telephone and sent them out by satellite to National Public Radio stations, said Rich Dietman, CALNET managing editor.

“They called us on the phone and fed us live stuff and we put it up on satellite,” Dietman said. “We were broadcasting via the telephone lines . . . and it was heard all over the state and as far away as Provo, Utah. We put it up for our listeners and served as a relay for KQED to keep them on the air.”

Although radio broadcasts, like many television reports, were often fraught with technical difficulties Tuesday night, several local stations performed feats of broadcast wizardry to provide listeners with reports fed by affiliate stations in the Bay Area.

Throughout the night, news stations KNX and KFWB-AM (980) broadcast continuous earthquake coverage, with live reports from Bay Area affiliate stations. Both Los Angeles stations quickly dispatched reporters to San Francisco and surrounding areas and, like their television counterparts, featured segments from sports reporters in San Francisco for the World Series.

“I think both stations have really done a pretty admirable job of covering this thing,” said KFWB general manager Chris Claus.

KFWB eliminated all commercial interruptions from 6 p.m. Tuesday to about 6 a.m. Wednesday.

“All commercials got blown out in favor of continued coverage of the quake,” Claus said.

KFWB reporter Pete Demetriou took off for the Bay Area in his car just after he heard the news. He arrived by 11 p.m. and provided feeds to ABC, NBC and Group W radio affiliates, said Jan Cromartie, KFWB marketing and promotions manager.

Back at KNX, Vacar took off with helicopter pilot Bob Tur minutes after he heard the news. “They landed in a neighborhood park and probably gave a few people a start,” news director Bob Sims said. “And while that was going on we had two more people driving up.”

Most Los Angeles radio stations spent Wednesday updating the latest news from earthquake-ravaged San Franciso and interspersing reports from local officials on the possibility of devastation in Southern California and how to prepare for it.

While news station KNX spoke with Caltrans officials on the structural ability of Southland freeways to withstand a quake of similar magnitude and talk station KABC-AM’s Michael Jackson held a segment with seismologists, rock stations such as KLSX-FM (97.1) and KLOS-FM (95.5) tried to mobilize listeners to donate money, blood, clothes and food to quake victims.

KLOS’ off-the-wall morning duo Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps suspended their usual humorous high jinks to devote their four-hour program to serious earthquake coverage.

They released a statement Wednesday morning saying: “It’s difficult to attempt comedy and act like nothing has happened when there’s so much going on, not only in San Francisco but in our own city. The jolting reality is this could have been, and probably will be, our own reality some day.”

Even the softer side of radio, the psychologists and hosts of call-in shows chose the Bay Area temblor and earthquake trauma as subjects for their programs.

Dr. David Viscott and Sonya Friedman on KABC-AM (790) looked at how people dealt with tragedies like this massive quake. And Tuesday night, KFI’s “Mother Love” also featured a segment on her late-night show on earthquake preparedness.

“When an earthquake hits, it shows no mercy,” she said. “That could very well happen here. How prepared are you?”

There were a few calls but within an hour she had moved on to a more typical topic for her show, “What is it that makes you lie?”