ON THE AIR

ON THE AIR Watching the local, national news Cincinnati viewers tuning in to today's election coverage on local stations will get enough crawl lines, squeeze-backs and cut-ins to keep them up to the minute on election results. On the national level, ABC, NBC and CBS begin all-night coverage at 7 p.m. and break only for local news at 11 p.m. Fox News begins coverage at 8 p.m., breaks for the 10 p.m. news and then resumes coverage. Here's a rundown of the plans: • ABC: Peter Jennings will take the anchor desk beginning at 7 p.m. until coverage ends, probably about 1 a.m. It will resume at 2 a.m. Wednesday with a new anchor team. Channel 9 will supplement network coverage during the daytime with cut-ins as often as needed. During coverage between 8 p.m. and 12:25 a.m., Channel 9 will have seven local cut-ins 3- to 5-minutes long anchored by Clyde Grayand Carol Williams. There will also be a crawl with continuous updates. • CBS: Dan Rather will anchor from New York with commentary from Bob Schieffer, Leslie Stahl and Ed Bradley. Channel 12 will run a continuous crawl during network coverage and supplement it with 7-minute live cut-ins on hot issues and races at :23 and :53 on the hour, anchored by Rob Braun and Kit Andrews. • NBC: Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert (Washington bureau chief) will anchor from Democracy Center at Rockefeller Plaza with a map of the states projected onto the complex's famous ice rink. When a state goes Bush, it will turn red. When one goes Kerry, it will turn blue. Channel 5 will update local results with squeeze-backs (that's where the screen shrinks by one-third and leaves a blank at the bottom for something more complete than a crawl line). There will also be live cut-ins throughout the evening, anchored by Dave Wagner and Sandra Ali. • Fox News: Brit Hume and Tony Snow will anchor for Fox with frequent commentary from the network's campaign reporters. Channel 19 will have cut-ins throughout the day as needed anchored by Jack Atherton and Tricia Macke, then go to two 4-minute cut-ins an hour between 8 and 10 p.m. and still more after the 10 p.m. local news. TV 19 will also supply UPN25 with cut-ins and crawls, anchored by Sheila Gray. --Jim Knippenberg

The race between President Bush and Democratic Sen. John Kerry appears so close - and the Electoral College so dependent upon the outcome of at least 10 divided and campaign-weary states - it's possible that the country could see its second consecutive presidential election decided without the victor winning the popular vote.

Some are bracing for a long night, but there will be clear indicators along the way:

• 7 p.m.: Last polls close in western Kentucky and South Carolina. Bush is expected to win both handily, but both are battlegrounds for control of the Senate. If Republicans hold both, it could be good news for Republicans. If not, it could signal a long night for Bush and his party.

• 7:30 p.m. - The first pivotal presidential state, Ohio, closes its polls. While Kerry or Bush could win without Ohio this time, the state's winner will have a decided early-evening advantage as the Electoral College votes begin piling up.

• 8 p.m.- A slew of states end voting, but four in particular are indicators: Florida, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. If either man is declared a winner in three of the four, the road for the other candidate gets steeper. If none of the four states is declared at this point in the evening, get ready for an all-nighter. Florida and Oklahoma also have pivotal Senate races.

• 9 p.m.- Polls close in five states in the Midwest and West that could potentially make or break the presidential election: Michigan, Colorado, Minnesota, New Mexico and Wisconsin. South Dakota - clearly for Bush - holds the fate of Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, locked in a fierce struggle with popular Republican John Thune, a former congressman. Colorado also has a close Senate race.

• 10 p.m.- Mostly small states come in at this hour, but if the election is hanging in the balance, two in particular could be very important. Iowa (seven electoral votes) and Nevada (five electoral votes) have been among the most heavily fought-over states all year.

• 11 p.m.- In every election, there is a sleeper battleground. Hawaii became that very late this year. If it's still up to Hawaii at this hour, chances are vote challenges already will be under way in other states. Washington and Oregon once were considered swing states but now trend toward Kerry.

• Midnight - The presidency might be decided by this hour, but the Senate might not. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska is in a tough fight with former Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles.