By David Wiegand

San Francisco Chronicle 

      The alarm went off early on Sunday morning when a 6.0 quake hit just north of American Canyon, causing widespread damage in Napa and elsewhere, and injuring more than 250 people. It also immediately roused Bay Area media and especially local television with the reminder that no one can be too prepared when disaster strikes.

         Overall, TV coverage of the quake ran the gamut from sadly useless to stunningly exhaustive. At its best, local TV coverage proved that it can and should still play an important role in covering disasters and getting vital information to local residents.

         It is, of course, worth noting that we are only a few months away from the 25th anniversary of the Loma Prieta quake. Both the actual landscape and the media landscape have changed dramatically since the October 1989 event: The Central Freeway is gone, and the Internet and social media have revolutionized how we get information. Doomsayers like to say that the Internet is killing legacy media, and that includes television. In truth, television news is often doing a fine job of killing itself with a greater and greater reliance on fluff in broadcast and cable, and agenda-driven hot air as a substitute for fact-based reporting on Fox News and MSNBC.

        From the early hours of Sunday, however, we often saw how social media and TV can actually work together to cover breaking and evolving news. Within minutes of the 3:20 a.m. temblor, Twitter was buzzing about the quake. I'm sure I wasn't alone in going immediately to the Internet, Twitter and TV to confirm that the quake had occurred and to find out how big it was. Twitter did confirm it, the U.S. Geological Survey site told me the magnitude and the epicenter, and in short order, local TV and newspaper websites posted briefs as well.

       Soon, there were news crawls on KGO and KPIX screens, both of which were airing infomercials at that hour. And not too long after that, those two stations as well as KNTV were on the air with live, seat-of-the-pants coverage. KTVU, surprisingly, lagged behind the others in getting on the air, and while it eventually found its footing, it never really rose to the level of thoroughness and currency we have come to expect from the channel until its 10 p.m. broadcast on Sunday. By Monday morning, KTVU was doing a solid job.

       KRON was still airing infomercials long after the others were doing what they could to cover the news. Although KRON got around to covering the quake, much of its coverage consisted of airing press conferences and aerial footage fed from Sky7.

      Although the NBC and CBS outlets did a great job through the day, they couldn't hold a candle to what KGO did. Yes, it stayed on the air far longer than the other stations, but that was, in part, because the other stations were committed to sports events like preseason football and the PGA tour. ABC's Matt Keller was first on the air Sunday morning with the breaking news that the quake had occurred, shared the anchor desk for a while with Cheryl Jennings and Kristen Sze, and then went to Napa to report live from the scene. He was still on the air into the late afternoon.

     Something tells me KGO is going to have a chunky overtime bill when this is all over, but that is probably true for most of the other local stations as well.

     That said, there was room for improvement with even the better local stations and at this point, that shouldn't be the case. While it may be understandable that the newsroom wasn't fully staffed at that hour, it took too long for the news crawls to start appearing on the screen during the infomercials. However, KPIX was very quick to get a brief story on its website, as was KGO. I wasn't monitoring the time similar stories were posted on the other channel sites at that point.

    (The San Francisco Chronicle and the Contra Costa Times contributed to this report.)

       October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and to kick off the observance, Friends of Faith is hosting a fabulous event.  

      Harry Sweet was the Sacramento Valley's first television news photographer. He was known for his many years at KCRA, but was also renowned as the man who had great foresight to keep his news footage, donating more than 25 years of Sacramento history on film to local archives. 

     The pioneering TV news cameraman died in mid-August from pneumonia, according to his family. Sweet was 93 years old. 

     In 1986, Sweet was inducted into the first class of the Silver Circle of the San Francisco/Northern California Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In 1999, the Chapter honored Sweet with the Governors' Citation for his contributions to northern California television.

     Sweet was a historic figure in broadcast journalism as the first television news photographer in the Sacramento Valley. He started at KCCC (now known as KTXL FOX 40) in 1953 and filmed the capital's first TV broadcast, which included a special greeting from Gov. Goodwin Knight. In 1957, he joined KCRA and went on to witness decades of history through the camera lens.

     He filmed leaders and celebrities, including Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford; five California governors; entertainment legends Bob Hope and Bing Crosby; and major sports stars. He filmed infamous figures, including death-row inmates Caryl Chessman and Aaron Mitchell, mass murderer Juan Corona, and Patty Hearst and her captors.

     Sweet traveled more than two million miles on assignments in more than 30 countries - and survived five plane crashes. Besides innovating techniques in time-lapse photography and pioneering camera shots that are used today, he filmed a moving story with music about the Sierra Nevada ghost town of Bodie that won national recognition, says Mel Boyd, a former KCRA news photographer. .

    "He was one of the nicest people you'd ever meet, and I think it was because he was a creative person," Boyd said. "He wasn't always trying to be first at things; he was trying to be good at what he did and to be innovative."

    Sweet took home film cans from work "to keep a record of how I was progressing professionally," he told the Sacramento Bee in 1985.

    Over time, he amassed hundreds of thousands of feet of news film that overflowed his closets, garage and backyard storage shed. When space limitations forced him to move his collection back to KCRA, he persuaded station officials to donate the footage to the city of Sacramento.

    Before retiring in 1988, he spent four years editing and indexing the material for KCRA and for the Center for Sacramento History, the city's archive. Today, the center's KCRA Film Collection contains more than 9 million feet of 16mm news film from 1957 to 1982, including images of historic regional and national events that have been licensed in major film documentaries.

     "We thought he was a little crazy," former KCRA anchorman Stan Atkinson said. "Back in the '50s, we just thought you shoot the film, use it and throw it out. Harry had that sixth sense about history, and he knew it would be valuable in time."

    In 1990, Sacramento station KOVR planned to dump more than 1,100 miles of news film in preparation for moving to its new studio in West Sacramento. Instead, Sweet rented a U-Haul van, retrieved the footage and drove it to California State University, Sacramento.

    Today, the Harry Sweet Film Collection at the campus Library Media Center preserves footage of major events from 1967 to 1981 - including Ronald Reagan's 1967 gubernatorial inauguration, Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign and the Hearst kidnapping - as a learning and research tool.

    Born with a twin sister in 1920 to Armenian immigrants in Fresno, Sweet was 5 when his family moved to Sacramento. He graduated from Sacramento High School and worked as a watchmaker and in a civilian job at McClellan Air Force Base before going into broadcasting.

    He married Mauvis Allen in 1942 and had four children. Although he traveled often for work, he was a devoted husband and father who "always had great stories when he got home and brought great souvenirs," his daughter Sue Norton said. A lifelong bowler with a 195 average in his 70s, he played the sport with his wife and children every Sunday for many years at Country Club Lanes.

    "That was our family time," his daughter says. "Our motto was, 'The family that bowls together never splits up.'"

    Sweet's wife of 61 years died in 2003. In addition to Norton, he is survived by three sons, Michael, Mark and Tim Sweet; 15 grandchildren; and 19 great-grandchildren.

    A memorial service was held Aug. 31 in Sacramento.

(The Sacramento Bee contributed to this article.)

"A year from now you will wish you had started today."  

~ Karen Lamb

       When the subject came up the other day, I realized that it's been a year since my skin cancer diagnosis. It's unbelievable that an entire year has passed. All is well, by the way, and I am grateful every day for my dermatologist, Dr. Minh Dang, who found the nondescript lesion and performed my surgery.

       Then yesterday, I received a reminder note that it's time for my annual mammogram. How could that be? If you had asked me, I would have said I had my last one about five or six months ago... max.

       Do your days zip by in the flurry of day-to-day activities? When you reflect on the past year, do you wonder where the time went? You vowed to lose 15 pounds a year ago, but ended up gaining 10. Sound familiar?

       If you have goals you want to achieve, dreams you want to fulfill, and things you want to experience, then start TODAY. It doesn't have to be anything monumental -- just one tiny step closer to getting where you want to be. By doing so, a year from now you won't wish you had started today.

       If you always wanted to write a book, then type a few lines TODAY. If you want to 'get in shape', then start a habit of putting your shoes, socks and sunscreen by the door TODAY. Whatever it is you want to do, start now... and enjoy the journey. =)

Karen Owoc is a San Francisco Bay Area-based reporter and producer and is host of The Health Reporter. She also served on the Board of Governors of the San Francisco/Northern California Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. 

      Kelly Simek joins KHON in Honolulu as the station's new morning weather anchor. 

      Matt Otstot, reporter at KSEE in Fresno, has left the NBC station to work in public relations for Children's Hospital Central California in Fresno. His last day at KSEE was Aug. 15. 

      George Kiriyama, who was a nightside reporter at KNTV NBC Bay Area in San Jose from 2006 to early 2014, joins KEYT/KCOY/KKFX in California's Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-San Luis Obispo market. He will be managing editor for KCOY. He begins his new position in late September. 

     Jahmai Webster, weekend sports anchor at KITV in Honolulu, joins the sports department at KMGH in Denver. He begins work in late September.

     Have a new gig or a promotion? On The Move and Off Camera would like to spread the word!  Please drop us a line at [email protected] and let us know!