Coverage of the Mexican Earthquake

KDTV-TV is a full-time, Spanish-language television station in San Francisco. In September 1985 the disastrous series of earthquakes struck Mexico City and within two hours KDTV-TV was involved in an ultimate test of commitment to the audience they serve. Within this short span of time they had live reports from Mexico City and they became the San Francisco area’s primary source of news of this event. They made their own direct coverage available to other television stations and, indeed, the story of their coverage became one of the major news stories in the Bay area. Not satisfied to report what had happened, KDTV set out to raise funds for relief and subsequently raised almost a half-million dollars. For a monumental effort by a station with limited financial and personnel resources, a Peabody Award to KDTV-TV, San Francisco.