Quake Hits TV in the Wallet : Local stations: Ad-free news reporting is expensive, but the coverage is expected to be less costly than for the fires and riots.

Los Angeles television stations are still tabulating the financial impact of their mostly advertising-free extended coverage of Monday’s earthquake, but one general manager believes the costs will be lower than for last fall’s wildfires or the 1992 riots.

“It all adds up quicker than I can count,” KTLA-TV Channel 5 General Manager Greg Nathanson said. “But no matter what any station says they lost, they can make a lot of the money up.”

Nathanson said the reasons for the difference from the previous incidents is that the quake coverage is shorter, involves fewer elements and comes during a month when less advertising is sold.

KCBS-TV Channel 2 General Manager Bill Applegate agreed, saying that unless the major aftershocks continue for several more days, the earthquake will have less of an impact on advertising revenues than the fires because the fires were spread over a longer period.

The costs come from two factors--overtime paid to employees and lost revenues from advertisements that didn’t air. At most stations, the overtime sums won’t be calculated until next week and final figures on the advertising losses won’t come until mid-February. At KCBS, the advertising loss is, “about at $500,000,” Applegate said.

By comparison, an L.A. network affiliate estimated that the wildfires cost each channel $400,000-$500,000 for every day of lost advertising and $50,000-$100,000 a day for the additional news coverage.

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Because most advertisers do not buy time on a specific show, stations reschedule missed commercials by moving them into unsold slots. Because of the recession-weakened ad market, stations do have openings for many of the preempted advertisements.

But there are plenty of exceptions. KTLA found itself stung when it had to preempt Monday’s heavily promoted premiere of the made-for-television biography of civil rights pioneer Vernon Johns.

“We sold a lot of advertising for that,” Nathanson said. “A lot of advertisers had bought just that show. We lost all that money until we run it.”

KTLA has tentatively rescheduled the movie for Feb. 7, but Nathanson said certain advertisers, such as film studios with movies premiering later this week, may not be interested in buying time then.

One compensating factor Nathanson pointed out is that “The Vernon Johns Story” received a 14 rating and won its time period when it was carried by fellow Tribune Broadcasting-owned station WGN in Chicago, with those high ratings possibly prompting other advertisers to step in.

Another hard-to-determine cost is how the earthquake will impact on the future advertising market. KTTV-TV General Manager Tom Capra said some retailers have called his station asking that it not run their commercials because their outlets have been closed because of the earthquake.

But Capra said the estimated $15 billion to $30 billion in repairs and reconstruction needed because of the earthquake could mean that firms will seek out new advertising.

“If I had to hazard a guess, the net effect would probably be a wash, but it might even be a plus,” Capra said.

All the executives interviewed for this story had one common comment--the coverage expenses are not a concern.

“In these kinds of situations, you don’t (ask) how much are we spending,” said KCBS’ Applegate, whose station ran 40 consecutive hours of commercial-free coverage. “This is what we’re here to do. It’s a gigantic news story. We’re a CBS station committed to news and information and you do what the story requires.”