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Start Free Trial NowTitle: Local TV covered Henderson explosion with expanded news
Description: 13D; PEPCON; KRLR
a Sunday, May 15, 1988/Las Vegas Local TV covered Henderson explosion with expanded By Carol Cling — I lt?W£> By Carol Cling Review-Journal The smoke has long since cleared from the Henderson indus trial complex where, just before noon on May 4, three thunderous explosions at the Pacific Engineer ing and Production Co. left South ern Nevada all shook up. But the reverberations are still being felt at Las Vegas’ six televi sion stations, which all had a part to play in the day’s drama — some as information sources, some as victims of the blast, some as both. The earthquake-force explosions knocked three stations off the air. . KVBC-TV, Channel 3, and ' KWU-TV, Channel 5, managed to ; return to the air in minutes. But KLVX-TV, Channel 10, and . KRLR-TV, Channel 21, weren’t quite so lucky. Channel 21 was “off the air for 28 hours, because the power was out to Black Mountain and we don’t have an emergency genera- 1 tor,” explained Rick Scott, the sta tion’s general manager. At Channel 10, the lack of power “was the only thing that kept us from coming back on the air,” said KLVX Operations Manager Larry Nightclub Around the Dials Ciecalone. “We didn’t seem to have any damage to our equipment or facilities. ” Channel 5’s new $7 million Hen derson studios, located “about two miles, as the crow flies” from the blast site, sustained minor damage, according to General Manager Rusty Durante. “Some ceiling tiles blew down and one of the garage doors out back, facing the blast, caved in.” Channel 5 was off the air for about two minutes before the station’s emergency generators kicked in. KWU has no news department, but “we were the first ones to break in (to regularly scheduled programming) with live coverage,” said Durante. “When the first blast went off, we evacuated the build ing, what with the ceiling tiles fall ing, and we went out back. We could see the smoke and fire and we had the camera going. We caught the second and third blast.” That footage, he said, wound up on KLAS-TV, Channel 8 — and from there, to various other news operations, including “The CBS_ Evening News” with Las Vegas’ favorite anchor, Dan Rather. KRLR also played an indirect role in network newsgathering when one of the station’s subcon tractors, Dennis Todd, happened to be working on the Channel 21 tower on Black Mountain, when the explosions began. “He video tapes some of his work and that’s why he was up there on the tower with a video camera,” said Scott. “Talk about being in the right place at the right time ...” “Being in the business, he knew enough to hold the shot steady,” said Mike Cutler, news director of local NBC affiliate KVBC. “He called L.A. directly — he didn’t even get into here.” NBC in Bur bank reportedly flew Todd and his footage to Southern California, where it was beamed to local affili ates — including Channel 3. All three network affiliates — or, more precisely, their news depart-, ments — shifted into high gear immediately following the shatter ing blasts. Channel 8 had a crew on its way to Boulder City Wednesday morn ing and “we were two minutes away from the explosion,” said News Director Bob Stoldal. "We didn’t even know what it was and we sent both live trucks in the direction of the smoke,” re called Steve Minium, news director at ABC affiliate KTNV-TV, Chan nel 13. The network helped out at Channel 13 by sending an eight- member crew and a satellite uplink truck from ABC’s Los An geles bureau to handle much of the demand for pictures of the explo sion to other stations. Channel 13 even wound up sending footage to an NBC affiliate in Milwaukee that happens to be its sister sta tion. Channels 3 and 8 also played host to crews from stations across the U.S., from Phoenix to Cleve land, transmitting pictures of the explosions and their aftermath via telephone line and satellite. Reporters and anchors from all three stations, however, kept the focus on local coverage — from the potential toxicity of the blast cloud to shelters and other rescue facili ties. Once Channel 3 came back on the air Wednesday afternoon, “the initial decision was to stay on the air live with continuous coverage,” Cutler said. “We were on for five straight hours — we threw out a lot of soaps and syndicated pro gramming.” The disaster also prompted a 1V4 hour local newscast at 5 p.m. Wednesday and an hour- long special on the disaster at 10 p.m. that preceded the 11 p.m. newscast, followed by 6:30 and 11:30 a.m. specials on Thursday. KLAS’ regularly scheduled noon newscast led off the Channel 8 cov erage and “we started thinking im mediately of the need to put to gether a prime-time special,” Stoldal said. Channel 8 resumed its coverage at 1:45 p.m. Wednesday and stayed on until 7 p.m., “close to eight hours,” according to Stoldal. The station’s 10 p.m. special led direct-, ly into the 11 p.m. newscast. Channel 13 broke into regularly scheduled programming immedi ately after the explosion to broad cast pictures of the blast from the station, then provided coverage in 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. newscasts, Min ium said. An expanded 11 p.m. Channel 13 newscast ran about 45 minutes. Thursday’s 5:30 p.m. newscast in cluded a 20-minute, call-in segment with legal and insurance experts that prompted more than 100 tele phone calls, according to Minium. All three news directors praised the performances of their news crews, each one citing examples of exclusive and first stories that highlighted their station’s cover age. When it comes to competition, “We all three live with that on every story,” said Minium. “But in a situation like this, the adrenalin pops in and you get into the mode and start reacting to the story." COME HIDE
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Clipped 5 months ago
- Las Vegas Review-Journal
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- May, 15 1988 - Page 55