I always felt that KTLA had more of a character as a station than the other local stations (KCAL 9, KCOP 13, Metromedia 11 turned in to Fox 11 a long time ago). No doubt this is partly due to the continuity they've maintained with the Rose Parade coverage. The other stations were just outlets for TV shows. KTLA felt more local.<p>I didn't watch a lot of any of these, honestly, so it's just a gut feeling of them.<p>Interesting retrospective in the article.
I don’t know what it is about the culture of broadcast journalism and ENG that is so appealing. Despite not working in the industry, I’ve loved films like Broadcast News where I’ve felt great affinity to the struggle of it all and books like Bob Dotson’s Make It Memorable where I’ve picked up lingo like “stand ups”. I think it’s maybe the duck-taped-together underdog feel and (approximate) egalitarianism of the culture but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
The story of how KTLA developed the first live news helicopter is an amazing story in itself, well worth reading if you are interested in KTLA or broadcast ENG.<p><a href="https://www.smecc.org/ktla_telecopter.htm" rel="nofollow">https://www.smecc.org/ktla_telecopter.htm</a><p>Visiting the current KTLA studio at Sunset Bronson got way more complicated after Netflix moved in, but the lot is a huge part of TV history.