One Year Ago on DFS News...(Jan 4, 2002)

At the time of this writing, the Viejas fire in the East County had consumed over 8,000 acres, a mere fraction of the over 180,000 acres the Laguna fire consumed back in 1970.

http://www.kogo.com/ KOGO 600 was the only San Diego radio station that brought us continuous coverage of the Viejas fire with its own news department while KFMB-AM had regular programming for the most part with sometime fire coverage done by its TV news department masquerading as part-time radio news reporters (hint, hint, KFMB-AM needs their own radio news department...again!), but KFMB's advertisers offered to volunteer their services for the Alpine residents in need.

KOGO featured full time news and information about the story of the breaking Viejas fire coverage with Cliff Albert, Marilyn Hider, Phil Ferrar, Roger Hedgecock, and Stacy Taylor (doing fill-in shifts for the time being, when is KOGO going to give him his own show?). KOGO fielded many callers volunteering their services for transporting livestock out of the affected danger areas, where to send non-perishable donations, and telling the station their eyewitness accounts of the fire.

KOGO also dispensed the hazards of the heavy ash-filled air that is very dangerouns for just about anybody and told the listeners the various drop off points where donations are being accepted.

KGB's building on 5745 Kearny Villa Road set up a donation center where people could drop off blankets, canned food, clothing, and other needs. The truck then transported all the stuff to Alpine where the people who lost their homes would get some help they need to get back on their feet again. KGB is opening up their donation drive again this morning at 6:30am.

Roger Hedgecock and Stacy Taylor broadcasted live from the Alpine Community Center where KOGO set up the special on-location mini broadcast booths for them to host their shows in the middle of the action. Jimmy Valentine, Hedgecock's producer, was evacuated from his home in Dehesa Valley.

"Shotgun" Tom Kelly paid another phone-in visit to a hometown radio station, this time, during Stacy Taylor's shift at KOGO Wednesday. Kelly told us about the Viejas fire getting national coverage on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, as well as a helicopter from KTTV-11 in Los Angeles flying in the area for aerial coverage on its Fox station in Smog City, USA.

KOGO bumped Dr. Laura and Rush off for fire coverage. No biggie since fans of those shows could get them easily on Clear Channel's sister "San Diego" Los Angeles clear channel station KFI 640.

http://www.kgtv.com KGTV, http://www.kfmb.com KFMB-TV, KUSI, and http://www.knsd.com/ KNSD had fulltime coverage of the fire, bumping off the chat and soap stories in order to give priority to the breaking emergency story that is of paramount importance. While people may complain about Jerry Springer and Bo and Hope being bumped, they should understand that this breaking story is affecting everybody in the area including the folks in Oceanside where the ashes traveled en route all the way past the Catalina Islands off Long Beach. The TV fans need to keep the priorities in proper order (they can get the soap summaries off the Internet anyway) and understand that the continous news coverage warrants broadband channel coverage (not just on SDNC-15 on cable) for the benefit of informing the public about the danger of the fire 30-40 miles to the East and how this affects the air that they are breathing right now. Those with VCR's may have heard that KGTV and KNSD aired the soaps in the wee hours, the first time ABC's entire soap opera daypart was seen at the time, and to boot, the first time more than one local station was airing the soaps in the hours when many people are asleep.

TV Consolidation Thought (Jan 4, 2002)

It's a small media world after all.

What is D.T. Watching Tonight? (Jan 4, 2002)

 8:00pm WB  Sabrina the Teenage Witch (rerun)
 A NEW SHOW IS COMING NEXT WEEK! I PROMISE!

What is D.T. Listening Tonight? (Jan 4, 2002)

7pm-11pm 98.9 Rewire
9pm-1am  93.3 Club 93.3
12am-2am 92.1 Hard Drive
MID-4am  102.7 Full Frequency (also available on XM Radio on channel KIIS-XM)
2am-4am  90.3 House of Z

Sets 102.1 Update (Jan 4, 2002)

None sent out this week.

Radio Wires (Jan 4, 2002)