Sad time for Los Angeles; KTLA's Hal Fishman passed away

[kx250rider]

Sadly, I need to report that the TV community of Los Angeles has lost one of the most recognized figures in the history of TV early this morning. KTLA News Anchor Hal Fishman died at 3:00 this morning at age 75 after a very sudden and short illness.

I learned that he had fallen ill through a friend at KTLA on Friday night. Hal evidently had a fast-moving cancer which had gotten into his liver undetected.

Hal was the full-time evening news anchor for KTLA without interruption since 1965, when one of his first stories to report was the assassination of Robt. Kennedy. Gene Autry, owner of KTLA at the time, hired Hal personally in 1965 after seeing his talent at a competing station. Hal was the icon for all newsmen, and was the ever-trusted newsman for just about every Los Angeles resident for the past 40 years. I grew up watching Hal, and there just wasn't anyone else. If you just wanted to put the news on in the background to hear the weather, it didn't matter who you listened to. But for a real news item, you would only trust Hal (and his longtime reporter Stan Chambers.) The day of the Northridge Earthquake, it was hard to get any TV since power and phone service was out to all of the city, and some of the TV transmitters were bumped off. But an hour after the quake, I pulled out my 3" Sony B&W TV with batteries, and got a signal: Hal Fishman, complete with crooked tie (NEVER a crooked tie or thread out of place under normal circumstances.) He was broadcasting the news while looking upward nervously with the lights swaying over his head.

I had met Hal on several occasions, and his licence number was 'MR W6XYZ". W6XYZ was the experimental TV station callsign issued to Paramount in the late 1930s, which became KTLA in 1947 when Bob Hope introduced the first TV broadcast from KTLA. I loved to tease him by showing him my license plate "MR W6XAO", which was the Don Lee TV experimental station before W6XYZ. Hal was one of the most intelligent men I ever met, and his ever-present, reliable manner made me look to him like a Grandpa. As I wrote this post, KTLA has gone to a special broadcast mode with many guests on the news stage to honor the memory of Hal.

To have lost Hal is to have lost television in Los Angeles as we knew it. God rest Hal's soul, we will all miss him greatly.

Charles

[radio63]

Very sad news. I grew up and live in San Diego but very often used to watch Hal Fishman and the KTLA 10 o'clock news. I very much liked the anchor team of Hal Fishman and Larry McCormick, who, sadly has also passed away. KTLA news could be relied upon for the best coverage and I remember watching it during coverage of earthquakes and the riots in Los Angeles as well as the 10 o'clock news. Hal Fishman as well as Stan Chambers were institutions at KTLA and Mr. Fishman will be missed by all. KTLA and Southern California Television News will never be the same. May he rest in peace.

Gilbert

[dtuomi]

Very sad, I guess the age of well done newscasts is truly dead.

David