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Book Trailer for Inventing TV News, Live and Local in Los Angeles

It’s always a pleasure to share the screen with the legendary KTLA reporter Stan Chambers. Here’s the book trailer for “Inventing TV News, Live and Local in Los Angeles.

Stan was one of the many people who shared their stories with me for the book. I also interviewed the brave “sandhogs” who risked their lives in the attempt to rescue Kathy Fiscus, the toddler who was trapped in an abandoned well pipe in San Marino, California. Sadly, Kathy did not survive. Her mother was kind enough to answer my questions about what it was like to be the first family to lose a loved one on live television. Klaus Landsberg and his talented team of engineers are the technical heroes of the story.

The first live TV coverage of breaking news was disruptive technology in 1949. It touched off a debate over what kind of news should be broadcast into people’s homes. The KTLA team would go on to develop the world’s first TV news helicopter and even broadcast the live detonation of an atomic bomb into America’s living rooms. You’ll even find out how the image of the local TV news anchorman was defined by two larger-than-life TV newsmen in Los Angeles.

I wrote this book while I was anchoring at KTLA. I had permission to go through the crumbling files in a dank basement underneath the newsroom. What I found was a treasure trove of primary source documents on the early history of television news. Although few of the actual broadcasts have been preserved, they live on in the memories of the many “news geezers” who shared their stories with me. Read more about it here.

Download on Amazon and read on any device with the free Kindle app. Also available worldwide on most popular ebook platforms. You can order a paperback to be shipped to you at slightly higher cost.