Local TV News Matters in Crisis | Los Angeles’ Ash Problem

(January 21, 2025) 
LA wildfires coverage shows why local TV news matters in crisis. Los Angeles’ ash problem. Tourists love Los Angeles… will the fires change that?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
six forty KFI Handle here on a Tuesday morning. It
is a Taco Tuesday, January twenty one, and I want
to spend a minute or two talking about the coverage
of the LA wildfire. And it is a story of

(00:23):
the La Times that really struck me as I was
thinking about that, and it sort of followed what I thought,
or I followed what it wrote about. And it has
to do with local coverage of the fire, particularly local
TV news coverage. Now, usually I don't give much credence

(00:44):
to local TV stuff. It's a lot of happy talk.
It's a lot of stories that are kind of they're
just stories, feel good stories. They don't spend a lot
of time on what I consider hard news, which is
why I don't pay much attention to local TV. I
pay lots of attention to national TV, certainly CNN, Fox,

(01:08):
I watch BBC, and so I pay attention to that
because I'm much more interested in that. But local TV
during the fires was extraordinary. Now, obviously I'm a big
fan of radio because I make my living at it.
But one of the things that radio does that TV
will never do is a theater of the mind, and

(01:31):
that is it's such a powerful medium that when I'm talking,
I'm explaining, or people are involved in reporting, it's in
your head and you are hearing it and imagining it
from you. You don't do that in local TV or
national TV. It's all visual. Well, what happened during the

(01:54):
fires was where local TV not only dominated or nominated,
but it was really the only way for people to
experience the fires that weren't in the middle of it.
And even in the middle of it, people were not
turning to Netflix. Local TV was the was the go

(02:16):
to for residents who wanted immediate information. The anchors, the
correspondents spent hours and hours in the field because it
was literally wall to wall coverage for three days. No
one else did that, and on the air, life saving
details were provided, evacuations, damage, as well as the emotional support.

(02:38):
The emotional support part, you know, I don't think that
the mayor is saying we care about you, or a
public official will say a lot of kumbai ya. I
get really impatient with that. When they were doing these
news conferences eight o'clock every morning, usually right on time,
which those of us in the media appreciate and love.

(03:03):
So outside of that, what we all wanted were facts.
What was burning, Where were the evacuation areas, Where were
the firefighters, Which way was the burn going? Where could
people go if you had a large animal, if you

(03:25):
had a horse, for example, or let's say a rhino
or a restaurant or an elephant. There were evacuation centers,
There were shelters for large animals horses. There were shelters
that were other for people. There were shelters available for

(03:45):
small animals, dogs and cats predominantly. We needed to hear there.
We needed to hear them. Where do I take my dog?
Because I Am now living in a hotel where I'm
scrambling or I'm in the car for the next few days.
The performance of local stations were for phenomenal. Jonathan Wall,

(04:07):
the veteran TV producer, has worked for NBC CNN and said,
in the face of incredible tragedy, they are knowledgeable, they
keep their heads as they cover what's happening, and there
is well a real quick one. Traditional TV viewing has
been in steady decline while we're streaming things and about

(04:29):
half of all video consumption is online. But even with
these ratings going down, down, profits going down down. We're
experiencing that right here. The number of people actually listening
to me right now is a whole lot less than
it was five years ago. Now, it turns out most

(04:51):
of the people have left still listen online. It's not
the same as live radio. It just isn't the same.
So what ended up happening was the local real time
TV particularly was where we went to. I had the
TVs going and it was all local during the entire

(05:11):
time here in the studio on my monitors, watching every
minute of it. And why because it was real, it
was visual. I mean, we had to see what was happening.
We saw the firefighters at work, we saw what the
houses look like, the neighborhoods look like. I mean, that's

(05:33):
important stuff. And those press conferences. We had the fire chief,
we had the police, we had the DA, we had
first responders. That was critical information. The Kumbaya stuff I
could live without, but the rest of it was critical.
And for the most part, that's what we got. And
then there's one more aspect. I want to share with

(05:54):
you what local TV did which nobody else did at all.
The local television coverage was so extraordinary. Now, this was
an international story. This was a national story, but it
was a bigger local story. I just did an interview

(06:16):
with the Barrett Media where I think came out today,
where I was asked about local coverage on the radio side,
and I compared what we did and what happened here
to what happened nine to eleven. Nine to eleven, of course,
was a massive international story beyond comprehension. It was also
a massive national story, but it was also a local

(06:39):
story because people knew who were in the towers, and
it became a local story. This fire. Even though these fires,
even though there it's a huge national story, and if
you watch national news, which I did, eighty percent of
the news for days was our fires, and then there

(07:01):
was just a couple of other stories. Well, here we
were walled wall, and here the big difference is not
only did a lot of us know who lost houses,
who had to be evacuated. My family had to be evacuated,
Marjorie had to be evacuated, my daughter, one of my
daughters had to be evacuated and didn't know if the

(07:22):
fire was going to hit their houses or not. But
here is also I want to add something to this,
is the local reporters were part of the story. They
knew the area, or they do know the area knowing
people knew the geography. I mean, I knew where the

(07:44):
palisades were. I knew where these streets were. A national
reporter doesn't know that. It just comes in, does the news,
or is maybe has a bureau here. Nothing like living here.
I've been living here for well. I came to Los
Angeles when I was five years old. I've spent my
life here. I know this town and I can give

(08:07):
you a perspective that a national reporter, national radio reporter
simply can't do. And that came out and that's why
local TV did so well. That's why the national programs
use local feeds, use local reporters, because we just have

(08:30):
a connection that simply doesn't exist if you are not local.
On top of it, know the people, can talk to people,
know who was affected, know the areas, maybe being evacuated yourself.
That's why local TV did so well. Station saw viewership

(08:53):
double triple for news programs or news programming. Long local
TV reporters and anchors and people on radio. We have
ties to southern California. Well. Here at KFI, we've had
several people that lost their homes. I had a meeting

(09:17):
with one of the management people and I got a
text saying I lost my house, I lost my businesses
or my wife had a business. She had a couple
yogurt shops on Pacific Coast Highway and we lost it.
I mean that's real, that's real, and that is what
makes or made local TV a very different way of covering.

(09:42):
And of course, and here's the difference between radio and TV.
And usually, as I said, you know, happy news, et cetera,
is usually local TV. This is a time when visuals
were critical. We had to see what was going on.
We had to know what areas so our reporters knew

(10:05):
that that street over there is not as important as
that other street over here, because there was a better
story we wanted to know. And local TV brought it
to the table. And there should be some big wins
for local TV. They scored beyond scoring. I mean, usually,
you know, a woman in Pacoima has a pet clam

(10:28):
that can talk to you. I mean, just really nothing
TV and it's just crap. Well this was real. Okay.
Now let me talk a little bit about the ash
problems in the Atlantic interviewed a family lived in Santa Monica.

(10:52):
The house was fine, air quality was quote good. Schools
will reopen. The ash from the palace sides palisades fire
burning five miles north came all over Santa Monica, coating
the car, and the interviewee don't have his name, walked.
He said. Next morning we walked to school, looked at

(11:14):
blue sky, but the eight year old pointed out piles
of ash by the curb, and a city owned sweeper
went past. And how the sweepers work is the bristols,
of course go clean the streets. Well, when they hit
pocket of ash, kicked up these plumes of ash, sending

(11:37):
all of this back up into the air. On Tuesday
last the debris was continuing to fall. Gardeners armed with
leaf blowers were blowing the ash to the next door neighbor.
So you don't have it in front of you. La
County temporarily you banned leaf blowers because they threw up

(11:59):
in do throw up so much dust. But no one
knows exactly how do you clean this mess? And it
is dangerous stuff. And I'm going to make a point
in just a moment. With smoke, you see it, you
smell it, you get out of the way. You get
air quality indexes with smoke, but they don't measure ash.
And what is safe We don't know. But I tell

(12:22):
you the residue from house fires is far more dangerous
and residue from the wildfires that happen out in the brush.
Why Well, houses have PBC pipes, lithium ion car batteries,
plastic siting, flooring, everything else that goes up in the air,

(12:43):
and a soup of chemicals nickel, chromium, arsenic mercury doesn't
exist out in the wilderness. Boy does it exist. And
older homes also have lead an asbestos, and it all
goes up in the air. And we happen to be
an outside town. I mean all year long, people are

(13:05):
eating outside. We're in the middle of a cold snap.
It's in the sixties. No rain in the forecast that
will tamp down or wash out the ash. But where's
the ash gonna go into reservoirs? The water goes into reservoirs,
goes out to the ocean. I mean, we don't know

(13:27):
what's going on. And once ash comes into your home,
because it can be really small, microscopic, it comes through
doors and windows, and it's on shoes and clothes when
you step out and come back in the house, it
is a lot harder to get rid of it. Cleaning
can actually bring that kind of pollution into your home,

(13:49):
which makes it very hard to get rid of. And
the real questions regarding health and how long is it
gonna last? No one knows when it comes to ash.
Researchers have only recently started to investigate how the ash
differs from that of wildfires. The one's the structural fires,

(14:10):
and all we do know it is way way different.
By the way, clearing ash and fire zones is a
regulated process. However, the ash flies up in the air
and goes miles and miles. You go out to the ocean,
I mean some great view. Did you notice the sunsets

(14:34):
when there's ash in the air? I mean gorgeous? Go
out there, take a deep breath, take a picture. Use
that when you are when you're diagnosed with lung cancer
and you're in your coffin because you've died. But make
sure that the picture they put of you has that

(14:55):
sunset in the background. Let's talk about tourism. Let's talk
about this fire and tourism. Now I'm gonna give you
a couple of facts. Do you know what the number
one the number one city in the United States, that's
the most visited any idea? Amy New York City, that

(15:16):
is correct. What is there to see in New York
City buildings? Virtually nothing? All right? You walk around and
there's New York City. Now there is Broadway, but not
for straight guys, so that doesn't exist. Number two city,
any idea? What the number two city is? Las Vegas. No,

(15:39):
not even Las Vegas. I don't even think it is
in top five. Miami. Miami is a number two city.
What does Miami have? It has a bunch of Cubans
and my mother these old Jewish yentas. That's Miami. Number
three is lostient. And what does Los Angeles have? Look

(16:05):
at the theme parks, look at the ocean, look at
the mountains, I mean extraordinary. I think we have more
theme parks here in Los Angeles than anyplace else. And
of course the original theme park is here, Disneyland nineteen
fifty five. So you would think we'd be the number

(16:27):
one place in the country. We're at number three. Now,
tell you what's really important to us more so than
New York and I think more so than Miami are tourists.
Tourists are really critical to our business. By the way,
we of course have Hollywood too, so people come out
here to look at movie stars. And have you ever

(16:48):
gone on those star tours? You know they have those
vans look at the homes of the stars and you
get to drive around. You know, all those stars have
been dead for forty years. Kerry Grant used to live
right there, but moved out in nineteen fifty six. It's
just a quick aside that I thought I would share

(17:09):
with you. In any case, we rely on tourism, and
there is right now a precipitous drop in people coming
to Los Angeles. Why because the obviously because of the
fires and the aftermath. Now there wasn't one major tourist

(17:31):
attraction that was burnt down, not one, not even fairly close.
Yet the fire struck tourism just as we recovered from COVID.
We were almost there to pre COVID levels in terms
of COVID, and then boom these hit and so a

(17:55):
big component of the tourist industry is still scheduled to
go as planned. For example, the lineup includes one of
the big ones is the National Association of Anesthesiologists, of
which NPR just won. By the way, I just want
to let you know that was number one radio station
for the anesthesiologists. And most of the conventions are still

(18:17):
moving ahead. That is the better news. Annual meetings are
really hard to cancel, so that seems to be okay.
And the hotels are all there, and the events are
all there, right, and the convention setters are all there.

(18:40):
They haven't been affected. But the hotels. Can you imagine
where people are trying to get to every hotel within
miles of the burn zones. Occupancy in LA typically hits
a low point in January and it's way down. Normally
it goes that goes dropped to below sixty percent. Well,

(19:06):
it's certainly gone up. The average daily rates jumped that
this is the really bad news, thirty percent over last year.
Now you don't get thirty percent jumps in hotel rates,
certainly not in January. Yet it happened. So the bad
news of this fire, in addition to the extraordinary heroics

(19:28):
and people opening their homes and restaurant owners feeding masses
of people for free and clearly losing buckets of money,
and the donations that have gone on. Well, the other
side of it is the looting, which is still relatively small,
but the overcharging, the gouging, and we've just seen the

(19:52):
beginning of the gouging. And now it's let me tell you,
people do come back New Orleans. Remember Urricane Katrina in
twenty two thousand and five. Napa Valley came back after
the wildfire in twenty seventeen. Maui is still going on
and all of Lahina burnt. And now they're asking people

(20:14):
to come back to Maui. I was going to do that.
I was going to take a vacation in Maui just
to give them business. I couldn't believe what they were
charging for Maui. It was just weird. And you remember
in Maui, the originally said don't come, and then they realized,
wait a minute, we get our money from these tourists.

(20:35):
And now they're saying, please come. Are they up to
the levels? No they're not. We're just building and rebuilding,
and we're going to come back as most cities do,
and we're going to come back in a vengeance. And
I'm not big with the you know, Boston Strong those
statements because I don't live there, so I don't feel that.

(20:58):
For the most part. I report it, but I don't
feel that. LA strong. You bet, you bet. I'm feeling that,
And I will go on all day saying and wear
T shirts LA Strong. But Amy gave me one that
has Costco on the front of it. So which one

(21:19):
are you gonna wear? Oh? The Costco one? Okay, give
me a break, of course. And I don't believe there
was one Costco that was affected? Was there not that
we can report at this time? Okay, there we go.
We're done, guys, we are finished. Gary and Shannon are
up next. They have a lot to cover. Also, they'll

(21:40):
be post inauguration news and commentary and everything else that
Gary and Shannon do. I will see you tomorrow when
we do this all over again. Amy starts with wake
up call at five am. The rest of us are
here through nine o'clock, and I'm done. Off we go
until tomorrow. KFI AM six forty Live on KFI AM

(22:05):
six forty. You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
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