whle a bit old, it is still interesting to note the vitality of the new information infrastructure

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Date: Sat, 22 Jan 94 22:03 GMT
From: Darren Ingram <satnews () cix compulink co uk>
Subject: Broadcasters React to Los Angeles Earthquake
Reply-To: satnews () cix compulink co uk




This following report is from today's Satnewswire. Permission is granted
for the entire to be redistributed free of charge as long as there is no
commercial use. We also released one for Telecomworldwire earlier today.


SNW-18 January 1994-BROADCASTERS REACT TO LA EARTHQUAKE- GLOBAL REPORT
SATNEWSWIRE--(C) 1994 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD


LOS ANGELES/WASHINGTON, USA/LONDON, UK- At 1231GMT yesterday (17
January) Los Angeles was hit by a massive earthquake centred 20 miles
northwest of downtown LA in the San Fernando Valley.  While the
earthquake has killed at least 28 people with its 6.6 Richter scale
shakings most of the public remain calm, TWW and SNW correspondents
report at 0100GMT Tuesday.


Telecommunications services throughout the area were disrupted by the
early morning quake although emergency service communications on the
whole remained operable. The effects of the quake on America's second
city were felt as far away as Las Vegas (275 miles east). Broadcast
stations were understandably busy covering the event. Interest from
international broadcast stations was also high


Local television stations who were able to come to air did so and even
in the San Francisco Bay Area, about 400 miles north of the earthquake
area, virtually all local TV stations immediately began rebroadcasting
satellite feeds from the disaster zone. ABC, CNN, CBS and NBC
continued live coverage although some of the local independent
stations reverted back to their usual programming schedule around
teatime.


CNN had two of its anchors in LA by chance when the quake struck and
they filed reports by phone within minutes.  The other networks flew
their anchors in to present the evening news shows.


CNN lost power to its LA bureau and for a while reports were sent from
a Ku-band uplink truck. It took Bernard Shaw about 2 1/2 hours to get
his first stand-up to camera interview on air.  In the race to get to
air CNN was first with a report by 4.38PST, followed by NBC at 4.42
and ABC/CBS at around 7.45. In the UK ITN reported at about 1255
(4.55PST) followed by the BBC about ten minutes later. Data for Sky
News is not available.


There has been a plethora of news feeds carried for all of the main
major networks over North American satellites including: G4/8 --
Telemundo feeds in Spanish; G4/12 -- KABC, Los Angeles; G4/17,19 --
CBS raw feeds; G3/20 -- ABC feeds; G3/11,15 -- CNN feeds; T2/10 -- ABC
feeds; T2/13 -- feeds; G2/6,7 -- ABC feeds and G2/18,20 -- CNN feeds.


CNN Airport Channel on GSTAR2 stopped its usual programming menu and
relayed CNN live and CNN International (Ku-band) dropped Leitch
encryption and went in-the-clear so that rebroadcasts of its signals
can take place.  CNN drew heavily on its local affiliates KTLA and
KTTV for coverage, often coordinating its reporters live while on air.
NBC used KNBC, ABC used KABC and CBS used KCBS.


In many of the airborne news reports, there has been frequent evidence
of co-channel interference on the internal TV station microwave feeds.
Obviously there are so many news agencies using the limited number of
channels that the field feeds suffer visible video damage and
sometimes total loss.


In Europe Sky News was relaying live footage throughout the day and
night from Fox.  The Intelsat-K satellite was used to distribute the
live broadcast.  The European Broadcasting Union used Intelsat 601 to
link its New York news bureau to the Eurovision distribution network.
Eutelsat II-F1 acted as a rebroadcast feed for Reuters Television and
WTN amongst many other broadcasters.


GE reports that all is well at its South Mountain Earth Station,
located approximately 45 miles north of the epicentre. Although
commercial power was lost all four diesel backup generators provided
TT&C and Communication control of F2R(72W), C1(137W), C3(131W),
C4(135W), C5(139W), K1(85W), K2(81W) uplink and monitors.


"After-shocks are occurring but except for a few fallen ceiling tiles
and a slightly disturbed 21 meter autotracker, we are doing fine,"
said Grant Koehler, a spacecraft controller for GE at the site.


It appears that not all Americans sympathised with the plight of their
fellow countrymen. ABC Television said that they received hundreds of
phone calls that continuous news coverage interrupted their soap opera
viewing.


CNN was also the victim of a phone hoaxer who posed as a LA fire
department spokesman who gave out a toll-free number for information.
The number turned out to be a recorded order- taking service for
raunchy Howard Stern videos.  Bernard Shaw aired the number and
subsequently apologised to viewers before hitting out at the prankster
for being "not funny and in fact very stupid."


*Prodigy Services Co. in White Plains established a free bulletin
board system which linked Prodigy's online community in the quake area
with the rest of the United States. Nearly a thousand notes were
posted within hours of creation. CompuServe set aside a special forum
for on-line queries and information for anguished US citizens.


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