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Chapter Four: Pictures Through the Air In some ways, the "good old days" weren't so good. Early scheduled newscasts consisted of little more than an announcer reading radio-style copy over a slide. Some news programs included crude graphics, still photos, or newsreel films several days old. When news or weather announcers appeared on camera they were likely to also read commercials or wear the logos of their sponsors. Lacking natural sound, news films were "scored" with often corny music matching the mood of the story. The most exciting coverage occurred as "special events," in which stations pre-empted programming to stay with unusually dramatic or important stories. This chapter will include the 1952 atomic bomb tests, covered nationally by local station KTLA. We'll also recount the first live coverage of a crime investigation, the Patty Jean Hull kidnapping. Even in the 1950s, crime coverage was a staple of local news. New York had its own version of Kathy Fiscus as a little boy named Benny Hooper was rescued from a backyard pit. Technological advances such as the first news helicopter (1958, KTLA) brought dramatic pictures of such disasters as the Bel Air fire and the Baldwin Hills dam collapse. |