In the Eye of the Storm : Deluge Pushes Local TV News to Do What It Does Best

There’s a special place in our memories for unforgettable TV moments.

On the world-shaking scale, it can range from the shooting of J.F.K. to Peter Arnett reporting solo to the world from Iraq. But there are other moments, seemingly in your own back yard, that stay with you forever.

The defining TV moment of the 1989 Northern California earthquake was the shot of the moving car that suddenly sank into the Bay Bridge.

And for many, the defining TV moment of this week’s torrential Southern California storm was that heart-stopping, infinitely sad footage of the 15-year-old boy being swept helplessly away down the Los Angeles River as those on shore tried desperately and vainly to rescue him. His body was found Thursday.

But as the footage was shown over and over again Wednesday, and despite the presumption that he had drowned, you hoped against hope that somehow, somewhere, he would suddenly and miraculously emerge safe.

It was a medium-to-long-distance shot, by CBS, and the boy’s face was not recognizable as he battled the 35-mile-an-hour current Wednesday, missing at least one rope thrown to him from shore.

At KTLA Channel 5, anchor Hal Fishman at one point showed the clip twice almost within seconds. It was beginning to seem like the Rodney King tape repetition. But Fishman said later that he was keenly aware of not wanting to exploit the footage.

“The rationale for running it twice,” he said, “was that it was such a brief clip that we didn’t give full perspective, and I wanted to stress how fast it could happen and how difficult it was to make the rescue.

“Some people in the booth at the end of our broadcast said, ‘Shall we run that dramatic video again?’ and I said no--that would be exploitation. It would be exploiting a very sad story.”

Unfortunately, KCAL Channel 9, which otherwise was superb in its daylong coverage as it continues to emerge as a local news force, took the exploitation route.

Shortly before it went off the air Wednesday evening--before returning for its nightly three-hour newscast--it broadcast what seemed to be a freeze-frame close-up of the boy’s face. Many viewers may well have shuddered.

“It wasn’t a shot of the tape,” said KCAL managing editor Sylvia Teague. “It was a still picture. A man brought us the picture. He called us, told us he had this picture and we told him to come.”

Without naming KCAL, Fishman, managing editor of KTLA, said that he saw what appeared to be “some freeze-frame close-up, and I disapprove of it.”

As the storm’s ferocity increased on Wednesday, local stations were all over the story with the kind of blockbuster, continuous coverage that has become all too rare because of costs.

Not all viewers were thrilled with the multi-channel saturation of the storm. An operator at KABC Channel 7 said that the switchboard was flooded throughout the day with callers protesting the preemption of such soap operas as “All My Children” and “General Hospital.”

But the stations made the right decision. For viewers involved in nature’s upheaval, which brought added rain Thursday and threatened to return with more downpours during the weekend, this was virtually the quintessential local story.

It touched everyone. Sitting in your car listening to such stations as KNX and KFWB, or watching TV, viewers shared the same concerns: Was your neighborhood flooded? Was your house still there? Your car? Could you get to work or home? Were your family and friends safe?

It may not have been an earthquake, but as reports of deaths began to emerge Wednesday--the couple buried in a Ventura mudslide, the RVs swept into the water at a Ventura Beach trailer park, that poor boy carried away in the Los Angeles River--real concerns about life and safety surely intensified.

In TV terms, it was precisely the kind of story that local stations can and do cover best. No controversy or issues or deep thinking or philosophy--no Bill Clinton, no Mike Tyson, no Japan-bashing, no national economic problems to deal with.

Instead, it was a transfixing viewer nightmare with the kind of visual images at which TV excels at covering: roaring flood waters, wrecked and damaged houses and trailers, human stories of suddenly homeless people discussing their fate--not to mention the permanent homeless who also were stricken during the storm.

Helicopter rescues. Sandbags. Mudslides. Canyons, creeks and cars under water. Miles of ocean suddenly polluted with escaped waste.

It was almost as geographically all-encompassing as a local TV story could be--from Malibu to the high desert, from the San Fernando Valley to Ventura to the Santa Monica mountains. And more.

“It was pretty darn close to an earthquake mode as far as getting all our people on the street,” said KNBC Channel 4 news director Nancy Valenta. “The problem with an earthquake is that you just have to react. With this, at least you had 12 to 15 hours to give people notice.”

John Lippman, news director of KCBS Channel 2, said that “in addition to crew costs, the station probably donated $40,000 in commercial revenues for the day (Wednesday). But the network (CBS) was very cooperative. This was one of those few stories that unifies the Southland, one of those stories where you don’t say, ‘This is a Hispanic story, this is a city story.’ ”

KCAL and KABC beat the competition in carrying Mayor Tom Bradley’s news conference. And KTLA, KCAL, KABC, KCBS and KNBC led the way with their blanket coverage of breaking events.

For KCAL, revitalized and built up under the new ownership of Disney, it was generally a prestigious showing, indicating that the station can hang in there with the established major channels. Some payoff was indicated starting with Monday’s prime-time telecast, which fared strongly with its reporting of the rains.

The story may also have been a franchise-maker for KTLA’s new, two-hour morning newscast--which not only beat NBC’s “Today,” ABC’s “Good Morning America” and “CBS This Morning” on Tuesday, but gave KTLA the momentum to wallop every station in town between 10 a.m. and noon Wednesday, when the storm story was peaking.

KTLA earned a 28% audience share during that period, nearly double the 15% of runner-up KABC.

On at least one occasion Wednesday morning, KTLA’s coverage was picked up live on the radio by KFWB.

“A few years ago (before KTLA’s new morning news program), it would have been difficult for us to do what we did,” said Fishman, “because we were geared mostly to our 10 p.m. news. And I would also say this disaster had greater impact than the (1963) Baldwin Hills disaster because it affects literally the entire Southern California area.”

True. But the vision of that 15-year-old boy being swept to his fate transcends all other images captured by the omnipresent TV cameras.