News at Ten: Fifty Years with Stan Chambers

KTLA-TV, Los Angeles, news reporter, later news director, Chambers offers an annoying personal account of 50 years of media history in Los Angeles. Beginning with his start on college radio, Chambers recalls his own story and those that received more national attention-the 27-hour continuous broadcast of the attempt to rescue little Kathy Fiscus, who fell into a well in 1949; California earthquakes; Nevada atom-bomb tests; Rodney King; and more. While his memories of the drama of live television and the evolution of tape delay are entertaining, the Pollyanna-ish glossing of his personal life is distracting. Most problematic, though, is the writing. Veering from the overly general (``I had no idea about the impact of the [Rodney King] beating tape, but I knew it was bad.'') to the unnecessarily specific (``I had a meeting a few days later over coffee and bran muffins.''), his style is particularly irritating in its random shifts of tense and voice. Unfortunately, Chambers's intriguing life does not stand up to this telling of it. Photos not see by PW. (Sept.)