Fire and rescue

-- Broadcasting & Cable, 5/22/2000

TV stations in New Mexico last week were feuding about who didn't give video to whom during coverage of the inferno raging in Los Alamos, but we chalk that up to competitive fires, which are almost as hard to quell as the material ones. More important, and the bickering notwithstanding, when called to duty by their own unique position in the life of their market, TV stations gave up thousands in ad dollars to go wall-to-wall, commercial-free with coverage, including information on how to get aid and where the fire might spread next.

Seeing further opportunity to help, stations went beyond supplying critical coverage to the community and nation. KOB-TV Albuquerque, for instance, set up phone banks to further speed the relief effort, seeded a disaster relief fund with a $25,000 check and teamed with Federal Express to collect and transport nonperishable goods to the hundreds left homeless by the fire.