Product Description

For sixty years Stan Chambers, KTLA s Channel 5 News most beloved reporting icon, has come into Southern California s (and sometimes the nation s) homes. From KTLA s inception as the first commercial TV station this side of the Mississippi to KTLA s first news telecopter, Stan Chambers was an integral part of those achievements. His over 22,000 stories include the Bobby Kennedy assassination, the 1984 Olympics, the Watts riots, the Baldwin Hills dam disaster, and the devastating Northridge quake. Stan and KTLA were the first to break the Rodney King beating that sent Los Angeles into turmoil. Stan is also involved with the Stan Chambers Journalism Awards, an annual essay competition that awards senior high school students interested in journalism careers with cash awards. Other honors include several Emmy and Golden Mike awards, the Sigma Delta Chi Broadcaster of the Year award, the Governor's Award from the Television Academy, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, an L.A. Press Club Award, L.A. City and County proclamations, and from his alma mater, the USC Alumni Association Award. The Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California-Nevada also annually presents the Stan Chambers Lifetime Achievement Award. He s still out there, mic in hand, sixty years after covering his first big story, the rescue efforts of the Kathy Fiscus case in Pasadena. As Chambers puts it, When you report news in Los Angeles, you are broadcasting to the biggest hometown in America.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1143187 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 220 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781933016504
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Customer Reviews

Excellent History of KTLA
I 've always wanted to be in broadcasting, but in the great scheme of things I was destined to get a job that was dependable and not interesting.

Growing up in the midwest radio and TV stations were copying things that "big city" stations accomplished first...but on a smaller scale.

One of those big city stations that did things on a grand scale was KTLA-TV. It was not the first experimental station in los Angeles, but it was the first commercial TV station west of the Mississippi River.

A friend of mine whetted my appetite for KTLA by sending me a copy of the station's 40th Anniversary program back in 1987. I was floored by the things they did. Starting with on the spot news coverage for events that would last several hours, which in those days meant taking a big van with several cameras and associated video equipment out to a scene and showing the viewing public what was going on.

KTLA recorded live entertainment TV programs on kinescope so that stations in other cities could have high quality programming. There was the live coverage of an atomic bomb test that was fed nationwide that would not have been coovered if not for ingenuity of the station's founder, Klause Landsberg.

The phone company wanted several months to construct the relay, but Klause only had a few weeks. By studying topographical maps he found a way to microwave the TV signal to Los Angeles and the networks then carried the signal across the country. Granted, an atomic bomb test may not be your cup of tea, but the fact that a major problem was solved in a hurry was most interesting.

The book, "KTLA's News at Ten: 60 years with Stan Chambers," covers the entire history of KTLA mainly because the author has been at the station since late 1947. It is a very good book, and a good addition to the other Stan Chambers book about KTLA printed ten years ago. The two books complement each other in that a lot of the same subjects are covered by vastly reworded.

If you are as interested in broadcasting history as I am then this book is a must for your library. It's easy and pleasant to read and impossible to put down. (You can take that two ways: you'll want to read it cover to cover in one sitting and you'll never say anything bad about it.)

I highly recommend this book and its predecessor. (DISCLAIMER: I receive no compensation to say that, nor do I have an interest in the book publisher.) The TV stations on the east coast may have similar stories and people to tell them, but my heart tells me these books are the very top. Everything else is a distant second.

Happy reading.

Stan.
A well known, loved, and respected
TV Journalist here in the Los Angeles area.

Have watched Stan most of his 60 year career,

reading this book brought back a lot of memories.