Covering the Fire Coverage: A Return to Normalcy?

Above, coverage of the San Diego fires from that market's CBS affiliate, KFMB Channel 8.

As San Diego becomes the focal point to the fire disaster, Los Angeles' TV stations are finally pondering a return to normal programming.

KABC, for example, is expected to return to "Good Morning America" this morning for the first time this week. But every station is still likely to go back on the air this morning at 4 a.m. with the latest local coverage.

Stations again spent much of Tuesday commercial-free, broadcasting non-stop news as the Southern California inferno got more out of hand. With nearly 1 million people evacuated from their homes, the story continued to grow in scope.

One local TV general manager I spoke to said he knew exactly how much money he had lost so far -- "down to the penny" -- by dumping commercials. But in cases like this, it's important to take a leadership role -- partly because community service is still a factor in TV licenses, and partly because it brands you as the go-to TV station in times of crisis.

Meanwhile, over at KNBC, the station once again bucked the trend and kept much of the "Today" show on the air -- while KABC jettisoned "Good Morning America" (actually, it ran "GMA" on its digital sub-channel) and KCBS pre-empted "Early Show." Why? According to KNBC news director Bob Long, he's trying to send a message to the East Coast "Today" show folk, who were already producing a special live west coast edition. By airing "Today," which was pretty much wall-to-wall fire coverage anyway, Long is still trying to get the New York news operations to pay more attention to the world out west.

In radio, L.A.'s all-news KNX and KFWB stuck to the story, but for the most part kept their ads (after all, this is more their usual duty). In evening, however, the fire coverage waged enough out of the control.

In San Diego, radio stations banded together to share resources and simulcast feeds, much like the New Orleans radio stations did in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. All of the Clear Channel stations, for example, went with one feed, from news/talk KOGO. Also, in the spirit of cooperation, alternative rocker FM 94.9 turned its signal over to public broadcaster KPBS, after the station's transmitter was shut down by the fires.