Since there is no longer a specific messageboard for television in Los Angeles or California, I'll post this message here.
Today (August 11th) is the 87th birthday of legendary KTLA-5 anchor/reporter/commentator Stan Chambers, who has been with the station since it went commercial in 1947.
Today, Chambers announced that he is retiring, but admitted that he may file occassional stories or commentaries for KTLA in the future.
A couple of friends I have who live (or once lived) in the Los Angeles area once told me that Chambers was "the Walter Cronkite of Southern California", and is both very popular and well-respected there.
Outside of the L.A. area, Chambers is known for his reporting of three stories: The Kathy Fiscus tragedy in 1949 (when Fiscus, a little girl, was trapped in a well and KTLA devoted hour-after-hour of live wall-to-wall coverage, one of the first such instances in television history), the 1965 Watts riots (where he did reports from above the scene on board the station's helicopter---the first news chopper owned by a U.S. TV station), and the Rodney King case (where he was handed the original videotape of policemen allegedely beating-up King; the acuqittal of the officers at a subsequent trial led to rioting in the neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles that Chambers likewise reported on from the KTLA helicopter).
KTLA news story: http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-stan-chambers-retires,0,4515498.story .
On the evening of August 23rd, KTLA will broadcast a special program looking back on Stan's career and some of the major stories he's covered.
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