Quake: The Breaking Story : Television: San Diego’s three network stations scrambled to provide live coverage of disaster.

At 6:35 p.m., Tuesday, as the most dramatic news story of the year unfolded in the Bay Area, KNSD-TV (Channel 39) was showing “Jeopardy.”

Throughout the evening, the local television news operations had to make tough decisions about coverage of the Bay Area earthquake. Television is the first source for information on major breaking stories, but there was little information available early Tuesday evening.

The three local stations were faced with a variety of problems, and each handled them in different ways.

For Channel 39, an NBC affiliate, the first and foremost problem was finding video.

The NBC affiliate in San Francisco, KRON, was knocked off the air by a power outage. NBC was, in effect, blind.

Channel 39’s new 6 p.m. newscast further complicated matters. While channels 8 and 10 were in their network coverage of the quake, Channel 39 was, to a certain degree, stuck doing a regular news-weather-sports newscast. Most of the newscast was dedicated to the quake, but Channel 39 was talking sports while people were desperate for more information about the quake.

Then, at 6:30 p.m., Channel 39--with the options of staying live with no NBC video or using old CNN feeds--decided to go to “Jeopardy.”

“We didn’t have any video,” Channel 39 News Director Don Shafer explained. “All we could do at that point was talk about (the quake).”

About 15 minutes into “Jeopardy,” KRON finally returned to the air and Channel 39 switched to the NBC network feed.

But Channel 39 was not the only station faced with tough decisions.

KFMB-TV (Channel 8) did something almost sacrilegious--it bumped Dan Rather from the air. As events unfolded, Channel 8 switched back and forth between the network feed, anchored by Rather, and the direct satellite transmission from the CBS affiliate in San Francisco, KPIX.

When it became clear that KPIX was on top of the scene, Channel 8 stuck with the KPIX broadcast, providing the most-interesting and up-to-date coverage from a local affiliate.

“They were where it was,” said Channel 8’s news director, Jim Holtzman. “It was a matter of putting on the most complete information.”

KGTV (Channel 10), the local ABC affiliate, was not prepared to do a newscast at 5 p.m. because of the World Series telecast. When the quake knocked the World Series off the air, the network first put up a graphic, then switched to a sitcom.

About 5:10, Channel 10 came on the air with a special report, and by 5:30, ABC was back on the air with the most complete network coverage, thanks to the crews and blimp already on the scene for the World Series.

Fortunately for Channel 10, most newsroom personnel were in the studio having a pizza party to celebrate the completion of a special program, which made it easy to mobilize the staff.

At 8 p.m., Channel 10 broke into the network coverage for a half-hour local newscast that had been scheduled to air after the World Series game had ended. It might have been better served sticking with the network reports.

One of Channel 10’s lead stories in this segment featured reporter Michael Finney interviewing his mother. Equally irrelevant were interviews with commuters at the airport--the obligatory attempts to localize the story--and Channel 10 sports anchor Larry Sacknoff with Padre Tony Gwynn, on hand for the World Series, discussing structural damage at Candlestick Park.

At 8:30, Channel 10 switched back to network coverage, but switched to a rerun of “Magnum P.I.” at 10 p.m., when the network ended coverage to the East Coast.

At 11 p.m. Channel 10 returned with full coverage during its regular news show.

Earlier in the evening, while each newsroom was deciding how to cover the breaking events in the Bay Area, they also were trying to figure out ways to get reporters to the area, to add that extra local touch.

Channels 39 and 10 chartered a plane together and flew crews into San Jose.

Channel 8 flew four crews up on Padre owner Joan Kroc’s private plane. The flight was arranged by Channel 8 sportscaster and Padre broadcaster Ted Leitner, Holtzman said.

All three were doing phone reports by late in the evening.

To supplement the coverage, channels 10 and 39 also had crews drive to the area. Channel 39 sent its satellite transmission truck, which is now supplying video for its sister Gillett Communications stations, NBC and CNN.

By Wednesday morning, Channel 39 had four crews in the area. Channel 10 had sent two up on Tuesday night and sent a third crew Wednesday. One of the Channel 10 crews was due to return Wednesday, but, like the Channel 39 team, the rest are there for an indefinite stay.

Besides general coverage, each station will be seeking any San Diego ties to events.

“We go cover the news,” Channel 10 news director Paul Sands said. “We try to localize the news.”

Channel 8’s four crews were due to return to San Diego today, but two more were being sent up to replace them. Channel 8 also will keep its crews on the scene for as long as Holtzman sees fit.

“They can do specific stories on items we ask for,” Holtzman said. “KPIX has its own agenda. Plus it gives us a local presence. There are concerns for the local audience that need to be addressed.”

On public television tonight, as something of a supplement to local news coverage, KPBS-TV (Channel 15) has decided to air “Surviving the Big One: How to Prepare for a Major Earthquake” at 10 p.m.

San Diego’s independent stations, unlike their counterparts in Los Angeles, lack news departments and continued with regular programming.

* RELATED STORIES: Pages F6, F7, F9, F10 and F12