Sunday, October 28, 2007

How the L.A. and San Diego TV stations covered the wildfires

TV stations in Los Angeles and San Diego had their hands full covering major wildfires in their respective metro areas this week, and they did so by expanding their on-air coverage (including pre-empting network and syndicated programs) and expanding their web presence.

Many stations like NBC-owned KNBC in Los Angeles and McGraw-Hill's ABC affiliate KGTV in San Diego provided live streaming, and others like locally-owned San Diego independent KUSI-TV expanded their newscasts and added more video to its website. San Diego NBC O&O KNSD did all the above, plus provided cell phone text alerts.

Radio stations' websites, including KFMB-FM (Jack-FM) in San Diego also provided information.

But the round-the-clock coverage is costly. Coverage of the wildfires for media in both markets is expected to exceed more than $1 million (and that's a conservative estimate), with money lost due to advertising spots being pre-empted.

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