KTTV News Director on His Tsunami Coverage, and How Others Underplayed It

(Photo: Kyodo News)

Local Los Angeles stations hit the airwaves earlier than usual this morning, as more news emerged about the impact of a massive earthquake and tsunami in Japan (and tsunami waves threatened both Hawai'i and the west U.S. coast).

At Fox-owned KTTV, the station returned to wall-to-wall coverage at 4 a.m., just two hours after signing off from a marathon four-hour broadcast (10 p.m. to 2 a.m., led by anchors Christine Devine and Carlos Amezcua) the night before.

KTTV's decision to stick with earthquake/tsunami coverage long after L.A.'s other local stations returned to normal programming impressed several pundits out there, including me (see below) and The Hollywood Reporter's Matt Belloni.

"Tsunami coverage on LA's Fox 11 is far better than on CNN right now," Belloni wrote on Twitter last night.

KTTV news director Jose Rios (right) told Franklin Avenue that he was a bit surprised that L.A.'s other stations didn't stick with coverage.

"I thought it got underplayed last night," Rios said. "To me it was just a huge story."

KCBS, KABC and KNBC went back to regular programming at 11:35, after their local news, while KCAL stuck with coverage until 12:30. (KCET ran Al Jazeera English coverage until midnight, while KSCI's digital 18.2 ran a feed of NHK World.)

"It was a big quake for one, and for us in earthquake country, that resonates broadly for us," Rios said. "And while people think that the cable channels will be covering, the fact is, not everyone has cable. We thought it was a public service that everybody would be interested in."

Rios said KTTV attracted a much larger than usual late night audience right up until 2 a.m.

By going wall-to-wall last night and again this morning, KTTV blew out commercials . Rios expected to be back to normal programming by 1 p.m., as the threat of a tsunami in Southern California subsided. But he has no regrets.

The coverage kudos is likely a big morale booster for KTTV's news team, which has been hit hard by huge layoffs in recent years. Given the station's limited resources, Rios said he was "proud of the news team. Everybody worked hard."

Japan Earthquake/Tsunami Coverage: KTTV Leads All L.A. Outlets

I was quite impressed with KTTV/Fox 11 tonight; as of 1 a.m., the station is still carrying live coverage -- anchored by Carlos Amezcua and Christine Devine. The station has been wall-to-wall for hours, not even breaking for commercial.

Compare that to KABC, KCBS and KNBC -- none of which went with full coverage, and all of which went to regular network programming (Leno, Letterman and "Nightline") at 11:35. (At least KCBS' independent sister KCAL continued with coverage until 12:30 a.m.)

Insult to injury: The pre-taped "Nightline" was filled with fluff, and obviously no mention of what was going on in Japan.

Back to KTTV: Amezcua and Devine did a great job of juggling callers, describing the utter devastation and adding context without being too sensational. The station utilized NHK video but also ran clips from YouTube, answered (and read) tweets and spoke to a wide range of folks, such as eyewitnesses in Tokyo, tsunami and earthquake experts and even an emergency staffer in Honolulu.

As many have mentioned, CNN (using its CNN International feed) was an embarrassment. BBC America completely dropped the ball, airing a "Star Trek: The Next Generation" repeat instead of a BBC World News feed (epic fail, BBC America). And here in L.A., KCET ran the Al Jazeera feed until around midnight.

Beyond KTTV, KSCI Channel 18's digital subchannel 18.2 continued to carry live coverage of NHK World.

UPDATE: KTTV finally signed off at 2 a.m. But both KTTV and KTLA were both on live at 4, earlier than normal. (Not sure about KABC, KNBC and KCBS.) Over at B&C, Ben Grossman has the ABC News explanation on why they didn't go with a live edition of "Nightline" for the west coast. Simple answer: They made a communication error.

Friday morning, and it looks like both Hawai'i and the west coast have been spared from any major damage. I've been watching a bit more of the KGMB/KHNL coverage from Honolulu, but at this point they don't have much more to say.

Meanwhile, the Atlantic has the most stunning collection of photos from the disaster and its impact in Japan. Jaw-dropping images.