In the fifties and sixties, the place to go for news in Southern California was not one of the network affiliates but KTLA, a local station. That was especially true when the news was of a local nature — a fire, a shootout, etc. When something happened, you tuned to Channel 5…and I can think of three reasons why that station achieved its standout position. One was that it seemed to have a bigger (and probably earlier) commitment to covering what was going on. Another was that they had the only helicopter equipped with a live video camera. When there was a big fire, other local stations — with permission and credit — would cut to the Channel 5 video feed of it. Naturally, there was no point in watching excerpts from the Channel 5 video on Channel 4 when you could turn the dial one notch and watch all of it on 5.
And the other reason was that KTLA had some fine news reporters, especially a gent named Stan Chambers, who is unmentioned in today's clip but who did remarkable work. When there was trouble anywhere in L.A., Stan Chambers would be there covering it sooner than anyone else and from some amazing vantage point. When we had the famous police shootout with the Symbionese Liberation Front, the joke was that every other reporter was covering it from outside while Chambers was in the house with the suspects.
Today's presentation here is a few minutes of openings from old KTLA nightly news broadcasts. You'll catch a brief glimpse of George Putnam, who fronted the news there for many years. Ted Knight's character on The Mary Tyler Moore Show borrowed much of his on-camera attitude from Mr. Putnam and also from another local news anchor, Jerry Dunphy. You'll also catch a brief glimpse of a very young Keith Olbermann and no glimpse of Tom Snyder, who worked for a few years on the KTLA news team.