TV STATIONS SHOW ARTILLERY FIRE INSTEAD OF SOAPS, TALK PROGRAMS.

Byline: Keith Marder Daily News Television Writer

Soap operas and talk shows were pre-empted by a sea of green anti-aircraft fire showering the midnight skies over Baghdad on local television stations Wednesday afternoon as newscasters announced the U.S. military strike against Iraq.

Coverage started about 1:40 p.m., with local stations relying on their network counterparts to provide them with live coverage of what appeared to be - a scene mostly shown through green-tinted night scope filters.

It was the first time networks have broken from regular programming to cover U.S. military action since the Persian Gulf War nearly eight years ago.

It was a well-organized production, with local news managers getting updates from their corresponding networks as to planned coverage and most visuals coming off cameras outfitted with state-of-the-art technology. CBS (Channel 2) appeared to be the only network without the night vision device.

Local stations were poised to break for news on the presidential impeachment debate today, but Wednesday's announcement ushered in a sudden change in plans in news control rooms around the nation.

Schedule changes are not cheap, as commercials do not run during war coverage, but Los Angeles' local stations each fed their viewers everything its network offered up.

``I don't think there is a station around that worries about what it costs at a time like this,'' said KTTV (Channel 11) news director Jose Rios, who supplemented network coverage with reports from local reporter John Schwada on assignment in Washington. ``It's not something we look forward to covering, but what it costs to cover isn't a consideration.''

Networks have the resources to best cover an international story and that is what local stations mainly relied on. KABC (Channel 7), for instance, switched to ``The Oprah Winfrey Show'' when the network took a break in its coverage. KCBS added a half hour of local news to fill a gap.

Often when networks change their schedules to cover breaking news stories, fans of soap operas and talk shows will call the station to complain.

``When things like this happen and it's in the public interest to find out what's happening in the country, there's not even a thought,'' said KNBC (Channel 4) news director Nancy Bauer Gonzales. ``I can't even tell you what we're giving up. It doesn't even enter our minds.''

On a story of this magnitude, she said, viewers generally understand the decision to pre-empt programming and don't complain.