Stations Also Pay a Price for the Blaze : Television: The last two weeks of prolonged fire coverage has put the heat on commercial stations--overtime pay, lost advertising and other costs add up to several million dollars.

Braving rugged, steep terrain in 200-degree heat. Dodging hungry rivers of flames and showers of fiery embers. Trying to be at every hot spot at once. Struggling to protect sensitive eyes and noses from treacherous smoke and ash. Sticking with the crisis until the bitter end, even as the costs piled up.

Yes, the task for local television stations of covering the Malibu and Topanga Canyon fires this week was a dirty, dangerous, expensive job. And almost every station felt it had to do it--despite financial resources and manpower already stretched thin by the preceding week’s marathon fire coverage.

Indeed, the prolonged fire coverage of the past two weeks cost the seven commercial stations a combined several million dollars in overtime and hazard pay, helicopter expenses and the loss of advertising revenue that resulted from commercials being dropped for hours on end. The financial hit was all the tougher coming at a time when the stations are still dealing with the weakened local economy, having pared their reporting and production staffs.

Struggling to provide a comprehensive picture of the massive fires, stations pushed all available reporters and crews into the field, with many pulling extra-long shifts. With everyone committed to working the fires, the stations mostly ignored coverage of Tuesday’s election results, community reaction to the denial of bail for Damian Monroe Williams in the Reginald O. Denny beating case, and other local stories.

KCBS-TV Channel 2 even called in reinforcements. Reporters and cameramen from Minneapolis, Philadelphia and New York were brought into town to help out.

Specialty reporters who do not report on general breaking news stories were also thrust out to the scene. KCAL-TV Channel 9 sports anchor Tom Murray filed live reports from a helicopter above Malibu, while financial reporter Alan Mendelson and entertainment reporter John Corcoran worked with crews on the ground. KTLA-TV Channel 5 entertainment reporter Sam Rubin filed several live reports from Malibu and other areas.

Most of the local news directors and station managers said the importance of the story and the desire to keep people in the endangered areas informed outweighed the financial and logistical difficulties.

“The cost of covering this is stretching into the hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said KCAL spokeswoman Stacy Okonowski. “It’s a difficult situation. But we are covering the fires as a service to our viewers, and that takes precedent. Right now the focus is on doing the best job we can.”

KNBC-TV Channel 4 President and General Manager Reed Manville said, “These fires put a tremendous strain on our organization in a profound way. There’s a significant loss in revenue, plus the incremental cost of creating this massive coverage. This really hurt our profit potential.

“On the other hand,” Manville continued, “there is an excessive amount of public service being demonstrated. I got a personal phone call from a couple in the Palisades who thanked me for staying on the air in the middle of the night. They had their car all packed and were ready to leave if we told them there was danger. They were thankful we didn’t abandon them in the middle of the night.”

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Manville estimated the total cost for KNBC in expenses and lost advertising revenue in covering the fires this week and last to be about $1 million.

Although officials at KCBS also estimated their combined loss at $1 million, “I haven’t thought about the money, and I’m not going to,” said Channel 2 General Manager Bill Applegate. “The story is much bigger than that.”

KTTV-TV Channel 11 News Director Jose Rios agreed. “On Wednesday, I kept wanting to get off the fire, but each time I did, there was another flare-up,” he said.

Not every station flooded the airwaves with flame-filled images, however. KCOP-TV Channel 13 largely stuck to regular programming, although special reports were interspersed during the day and evening.

“The story is terrible, true. But what you’ve got is everyone doing a duplication of the same thing. What about the rest of the audience?” KCOP News Director Jeff Wald said. “There can only be so many descriptions of a house that’s burning down. People need a relief, and there was no place else for people without cable to go to.”

He added, “Of course, I would be lying if I said economics was not part of our decision. The only way this station can make money to do what it does is by selling advertising time. The economics of the market are not healthy. If this were an earthquake that affected the entire population, it would be different. But as devastating as these fires are, gavel-to-gavel coverage of them just doesn’t make sense to me.”

The fires took a physical toll as well as a financial toll on the TV news crews.

KTLA traffic reporter Jennifer York was in the air almost nonstop from 6 a.m. Tuesday until midnight. KTLA reporter Gail Anderson was hit by fire retardant dropped by an airplane, turning her black hair red. KCBS reporter Harvey Levin got so close to one flame that his pocket was singed. KCBS reporter Bob Tur had to be taken off his helicopter at one point because he had an allergic reaction to the fumes above the fire.

Several correspondents filing live reports had to cut their stories short because flames were racing toward them.

“We were on a virtual war footing,” said KTLA News Director Warren Cereghino. “Everybody is tired and they all stink like hell because they all smell of fire. It’s very tough to keep the thread from unraveling.”

The fire also affected the stations in more personal ways. The Malibu home of KCBS Vice President and Station Manager Steven Gigliotti was gutted Wednesday. At the time his house was burning, Gigliotti was at the Calabasas home of KCBS general manager Applegate, which was also threatened by fire.

“Steven was helping me load up the car with family mementos and valuables,” Applegate said. “It’s a terrible, terrible irony that this happened to him. Perhaps my decision to stay on the air came because the fire is a lot more personal when you’re affected by it.”