From @orbital.demon.co.uk:satnews@cix.compulink.co.uk Wed Jan 19 04:35 EET 1994 Return-Path: <@orbital.demon.co.uk:satnews@cix.compulink.co.uk> Received: from gate.demon.co.uk (gate.demon.co.uk [158.152.1.65]) by cs.tut.fi (8.6.4/8.6.4) with SMTP id EAA14831 for ; Wed, 19 Jan 1994 04:35:11 +0200 Received: from orbital.demon.co.uk by gate.demon.co.uk id aa03180; 19 Jan 94 0:05 GMT Received: from (server@[127.0.0.1]) by orbital.demon.co.uk (8.6.5/8.6) with SMTP id XAA16173; Tue, 18 Jan 1994 23:09:32 GMT Received: from post.demon.co.uk ([158.152.1.72]) by orbital.demon.co.uk (8.6.5/8.6) with SMTP id XAA16136 for ; Tue, 18 Jan 1994 23:07:36 GMT Received: from post.demon.co.uk via puntmail for satnews@orbital.demon.co.uk; Tue Jan 18 23:06:09 1994 Received: from demon.demon.co.uk by post.demon.co.uk id ab13032; 18 Jan 94 22:59 GMT Received: from eros.britain.eu.net by demon.demon.co.uk id aa13980; 18 Jan 94 22:58 GMT Received: from compulink.co.uk by eros.britain.eu.net with UUCP id ; Tue, 18 Jan 1994 22:06:12 +0000 Received: from smtpsrvr by cix.compulink.co.uk id aa17117; 18 Jan 94 22:03 GMT Received: by gonzales.compulink.co.uk. (5.65/25-eef) id AA14808; Tue, 18 Jan 94 22:03:21 GMT Date: Tue, 18 Jan 94 22:03 GMT0 From: Darren Ingram Subject: LA QUAKE-SATNEWSWIRE REPORT 180194 To: satnews@orbital.demon.co.uk Reply-To: satnews@cix.compulink.co.uk Message-Id: Sender: satnews@cix.compulink.co.uk X-Mailing-List: Satnews Content-Type: text Content-Length: 4913 Status: RO -BROADCASTERS REACT TO LA EARTHQUAKE-GLOBAL REPORT 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. -