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| OFF CAMERA Kevin Wing Editor |
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EMMY® 2016
Atkinson, Zettl
To Receive 2016 Governors' Award
Chapter's Highest Honor
Celebrates Television
Legends
at
Emmy® Gala in S.F. June 4
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Stan Atkinson Herbert Zettl
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By Kevin Wing
Chapter Vice President, San Francisco
Two legendary Bay Area and northern California television icons representing journalism and education will be honored at next month's 2016 Northern California Area Emmy® Awards Gala in San Francisco with the Governors Award, the highest, most distinguished honor that can be bestowed upon an individual by the San Francisco/Northern California Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
Stan Atkinson (SC '86) and Herbert Zettl (SC' 98, GC '12) will each receive the special honor at the Emmys®, to be held Saturday, June 4, at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco.
During an illustrious 45-year career in television news, Atkinson worked as a primary news anchor and reporter in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, but is known most notably for leaving his indelible mark in Sacramento, where he unequivocally became the Sacramento Valley's most well-known television news anchor during an 18-year career with KCRA from the 1970s through the 1990s, and later, during a five-year stay at KOVR, until his retirement in 1999.
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Read more about the careers of Stan Atkinson and Herbert Zettl in a special edition of "Gold & Silver Circle Profiles", featured in this month's Off Camera.
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Atkinson's career began in Spokane, Washington, in 1954. In 1957, he began the first of his two tenures at KCRA, staying until 1963. He moved to Los Angeles for a year to produce documentaries with his production company. Then, in 1964, he resumed his television news career when he moved to the Bay Area to join KTVU in Oakland as a news anchor, remaining there until 1967. Moving to Los Angeles to work at KNBC in 1969, he was back in the Bay Area by the early 1970s as one of the founding partners of a then-new Santa Rosa television station, KFTY. In 1973, Atkinson rejoined KTVU for three years before heading to Sacramento and partnering up again with KCRA.
He remained at KCRA until 1994, when he joined crosstown rival KOVR for five years until retiring in 1999.
Zettl was directing television programs and working as a floor manager at KPIX in San Francisco in the early 1950s when he was approached by San Francisco State University if he would consider leaving the world of television broadcasting for teaching it in the classroom.
Zettl hesitated at first, but then accepted the opportunity. The rest is, as they say, history.
As of today, Zettl has mentored thousands of television broadcasting students throughout the years, from news anchors and reporters to photographers and directors, all of whom remember him as a caring university professor who helped them immensely to get where they are today.
In next month's Off Camera, it will be announced who will introduce the two to receive their honors.
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EMMY® 2016
S.F. Hosts 45th Emmy® Awards Gala
Honoring NorCal Area TV Excellence at SFJAZZ Center
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By Karen Sutton
2016 Emmy® Gala Chairperson
The 45th Northern California Area Emmy® Awards Gala is coming to the Bay Area!
The Gala will be presented Saturday, June 4, at the SFJAZZ Center, a cultural landmark in the heart of San Francisco.
This year's program will be an intimate and memorable experience. The black-tie evening begins with a reception at 6 p.m. with hors d'oeuvres of charcuterie and cheese platters followed by hearty hors d'oeuvres served from 8 to 10 p.m. Later in the evening, there will be a presentation of dessert stations from 10 to 11 p.m. No-host bars and food stations will be provided throughout the evening in the lobby and on the second floor. Attendees may  take drinks into the auditorium.
The program begins at 7 p.m. in the Robert N. Miner Auditorium with reserved seating. The Marcus Shelby Trio will be performing live jazz music throughout the evening beginning with our own "Emmy® Etiquette Sing-a-Long".
Recipients of the Emmy® statuette will be presented by the Board of Governors of the San Francisco/Northern California Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Recipients will then be escorted from the stage to the Joe Henderson Lab for Red Carpet photographs and interviews, co-hosted once again by Da Lin of KPIX 5, Kim Stephens of KMPH Fox 26 and Kevin Wing of ABC News.
 A
dual webcast will be broadcast, allowing online viewers to watch LIVE streaming content of the Emmy® Gala and the Red Carpet interviews on
www.emmysf.tv.
Real-time, individual recipient speeches will be posted to NATAS' YouTube, Facebook and Twitter pages. Please share your memorable moment with your family, friends and colleagues. Add #EmmySFTV to all of your Emmy® Gala posts.
All seats are by reservation only. Tickets must be purchased in advance. Center and floor seats are $90 each; all other seats are $80. All prices increase $10 on May 26.
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EMMY® 2016
KNTV NBC Bay Area, KUVS Univision 19 Lead Chapter with 33 Nominations
KDTV's Gomez Nabs 10 Nominations, KNTV's Nguyen Nets 9
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KNTV NBC Bay Area in San Jose and KUVS Univision 19 in Sacramento nabbed top
 nomination honors May 4 for the 45th Northern California Area Emmy® Awards, to be held Saturday, June 4, at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco.
Top individual nomination honors went to
Maria Leticia Gomez of KDTV in San Francisco; she was nominated 10 times. Following right behind her is
Vicky Nguyen of KNTV with nine nominations.
This year, a record number of 757 English and 179 Spanish entries were received in 67 categories. A minimum of seven peer judges from other NATAS chapters scored each entry on a scale from 1 to 10 on content, creativity and execution. Craft categories and were judged only on creativity and execution. The total score was divided by the number of judges. The mean score was sorted from highest to lowest in each category. The Chapter Awards Committee looked at blind scores (not knowing the category) and decided on the cut-off number for nominations and recipients. The results were tabulated by the Chapter's accounting firm, Spalding and Company.
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EMMY
®
2016
Woohoo! Nomination Parties Return
Fun Evening, Big Turnout, from Sacramento to the Islands
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SAN FRANCISCO: Emmy nomination party at Beyond Pix Studios. About 50 people showed up to watch the nomination announcement webcast from Sacramento.
San Francisco Photography by Kevin Wing,
Chapter Vice President-San Francisco
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| HONOLULU: Aloha from Buca di Beppo! Hawaii Chapter members treated themselves to dinner while celebrating this year's nominations. |
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SAN JOSE: South Bay Chapter members appreciated the nominations venue being held at KNTV NBC Bay Area.
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San Jose Photography by Keith Sanders,
Chapter President
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OAKLAND: Jubilation and smiles at the KTVU nomination party
at Jack London Square.
Oakland Photography by Mike Moya,
Chapter Governor, San Francisco
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SACRAMENTO: Big celebration at the Coloma Community Center,
which hosted the Chapter's main nomination party,
where nominees were announced. |
Sacramento Photography by Tia Gemmell,
Riverview Media Photography
By Kevin Wing
Chapter Vice President, San Francisco
It looks as though the resurrection this month of Emmy
® nomination party events, once a tradition in the Chapter for many years up until about 15 years ago, was a very popular decision to make if sheer attendance numbers are any indication.
In past years, these nomination parties -- where Emmy® entrants could attend with the hope that they would go home with a very cool Emmy® nomination certificates -- were held at venues in San Francisco and San Jose. This year, when the Board of Governors of the San Francisco/Northern California Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences decided to bring back the nomination parties, Chapter officers and governors kicked it up a notch to have parties in as many of the Chapter's regions as possible.
The result: well-attended parties in Sacramento -- where this year's nominations were announced and subsequently streamed via the Chapter website, with production assistance from Access Sacramento -- as well as in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and Honolulu. About 50 Chapter members showed up at the Beyond Pix Studios in San Francisco to enjoy pizza and refreshments while watching the announcements from Sacramento on a large projection screen in Beyond Pix's Studio "D".
"It's an honor to celebrate these nominations with our friends and colleagues who work so hard throughout the year on stories that serve our community," says Vicky Nguyen, an investigarive reporter for KNTV NBC Bay Area, who attended the San Jose party there. "The Emmys are an opportunity to take a moment and recognize outstanding journalism, and it's inspiring to see such great work making a difference for our viewers and readers."
"It was very emotional to see all the nominations of my team, says Gaby Dellan, a weather and traffic reporter for KSTS Telemundo 48. "There were nervous moments, followed by hugs! And then to hear my name in multiple categories, you could breathe the happiness in that room."
Joe Inderhees, an executive producer at KNTV NBC Bay Area, perhaps says it best. "We are humbled to be nominated and feel grateful that our craft work is appreciated."
It is an honor to bring the untold stories of the Bay Area to our discerning audience."
"This was a very cool experience," says Leanne Cozart, lead coordinating producer with the Golden State Warriors. Cozart attended the East Bay party at KTVU.
The Sacramento party was held at the Coloma Community Center. In Oakland, KTVU hosted the East Bay party; KNTV in San Jose held the event for the South Bay. In Hawaii, Chapter members there took themselves to dinner at Buca di Beppo.
Nomination certificates were distributed to local nominees at each regional party. All other nomination certificates will be handed out at the Emmy® Awards Gala in San Francisco.
The Chapter wishes to thank Access Sacramento for providing the Sacramento venue, production, cablecast and live webcast. The Chapter is also grateful to Beyond Pix, KTVU FOX 2 and KNTV NBC Bay Area for providing the venues for the San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose parties, respectively.
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2016 Emmy® Gala Preview in June Off Camera
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In the June issue of
Off Camera, to be published before the 45th Northern California
Area Emmy® Awards Gala in San Francisco on June 4, you can expect to find all the very latest details about the Chapter's biggest and brightest event of the year!!
Curious to know who will be walking on stage this year as Emmy
® presenters? We'll reveal who they are, along with more on your co-hosts holding court on the famous red carpet to conduct Emmy
® recipient interviews. And, finally, we will have details on who the major sponsors are for this year's Gala!
Off Camera has a lot in store for you! Stay tuned for the June issue of your Chapter's award-winning monthly newsletter!
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Are You a Past Emmy
® Recipient? We Want to Know!
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Have you received an Emmy
® Award for your work in television in our Chapter? Do you remember how excited you were? If you are a previous Emmy
® recipient, we would like to hear from you! In the June issue of
Off Camera, we will feature a handful of previous Emmy
® recipients who recall how exciting it was for them to receive television's most coveted award! In 50 words or less, we'd like to know what it felt like for you after the envelope was opened and you walked on stage to receive your Emmy
®!!
If you're interested in sharing your story, please write to
Off Camera Editor
Kevin Wing at [email protected]. Deadline is May 24.
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| Handlery Union Square, Official Hotel Sponsor Of The 2016 Emmy® Awards Gala, Offers Attendee Discount |
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Emmy® Awards Gala Attendee
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rom the
Official Hotel Sponsor
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2016 SF/NorCal Emmy® Awards
HANDLERY UNION SQUARE HOTEL
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$189/night Historic Rooms
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2016 Board of Governors Election;
Ballots To Chapter Members May 15
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Chapter Members! Get ready to cast your vote! This year's Board of Governors election is coming up fast. Ballots will be sent to you on May 15. Be sure to vote. Make your vote count. Send your ballot in to the Chapter office no later than June 1.
Off Camera's July issue will have special election coverage showcasing the newly-elected and/or re-elected governors as well as the new officers of the Board of Governors of the San Francisco/Northern California Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
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College Scholarships Deadline May 13
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The San Francisco/Northern California Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences will award four undergraduate student scholarships in television reporting, videography, production and writing. Graduate students are eligible to apply for the graduate student scholarship for work in production, reporting, videography and writing.
The deadline is May 13. The scholarships are: the Jerry Jensen Memorial Scholarship, the Steve Davis Memorial Scholarship, the Peter J. Marino Jr. Memorial Production Scholarship, the Rigo Chacon Repoting Scholarship, the Sheldon "Shelly" Fay Memorial Videography Scholarship, the Kenneth Sloat Langley Memorial Scriptwriting Scholarship and the "Miss Nancy" Besst Graduate Memorial Scholarship.
The Chapter will be awarding outstanding graduate and undergraduate student scholarships. All entrants will be considered for one of these two special awards.
The Chapter awards these scholarships to encourage students who demonstrate leadership and talent in advancing the artistic, cultural, educational, and technical qualities of television.
Scholarship checks will be presented at the annual
Gold & Silver Circle Induction Luncheon in October.
Student recipients will be notified prior to the luncheon.
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Vern Hawkins, Ex-KTVU Reporter, Dies
Veteran Newsman Also Worked at KPIX, KCRA, KVIQ
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By Kevin Wing
Chapter Vice President, San Francisco
Vern Hawkins, the longtime, venerable Bay Area and northern California reporter who capped his indelible journalistic mark on the northern California television industry with more than 20 years as a beloved and respected reporter for Oakland's KTVU from the 1970s to the 1990s, died March 10. He was 82.
Hawkins, an Emmy
® Award-winning reporter, was a member of the
Silver Circle of the San Francisco/Northern California Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He was inducted in 1993.
Hawkins joined KTVU in 1976, eventually retiring in 1998 after four decades in northern California television. Prior to joining KTVU, he worked several years at KPIX in San Francisco in the early 1970s, and before that, at KCRA in Sacramento. Early in his career, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Hawkins was an anchor and reporter at KVIQ in Eureka.
Rita Williams
(SC'2001), Hawkins' longtime friend and a retired KTVU reporter herself, remembers Hawkins as kind and sweet.
"As the "youngster" at KTVU in 1978 among so many accomplished veteran reporters, I was touched when this handsome man showed me the ropes in the old station, sharing a typewriter, editing film, giving the typed script to a managing editor to approve," Williams recalls. "Of course, that was Vern. The mentorship lasted until he retired.
Williams says Hawkins, as a reporter, was unflappable and unassuming.
 "
He was a quick and concise writer, every word counted," she says. "He had a dry, wry wit accompanied by that great smile. I was jealous that I was not a camerawoman/man who got to spend time in the field with him. In part, that's because Vern could find (long before internet searches) the best restaurant wherever a story took him.
Don McCuaig
(SC'2002), also a longtime friend and a retired KTVU photojournalist, says he learned a lot from Hawkins.
"Vern taught me a lot about travel and how to shoot," McCuaig says. "He was a shooter at one time. He was never pushy and had great patience with new and old crews. He also was a lot of fun."
After their many years of working together at KTVU, McCuaig says he began to see a different side of Hawkins.
"At the end of his working career, I saw a side of Vern I'd never seen before. He had a great love of animals. Doing stories at the San Francisco Zoo became a his favorite job. When Vern passed, I wrote
Nancy Chan, the PR person at the zoo in those years. She was heartbroken and told me he was her favorite reporter of all time."
Chan is now public relations director at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo.
Fred Zehnder
(SC'1991), who served as news director at KTVU from 1978 to 1999, worked with Hawkins throughout their careers in Bay Area and northern California television. Many years before KTVU, both of them worked at KVIQ in Eureka: Hawkins was an anchor and reporter there, and Zehnder was news director.
"Vern and I had radio station backgrounds," Zehnder says. "We were both just out of the Army in the late 1950s, and ended up at KVIQ, a small, understaffed TV station in Eureka where Vern was the "
11 o'clock
News" anchorman as well as announcer and transmitter engineer, and I was the news department and the film director."
Zehnder says the hours were long and the station didn't pay them much, but adds it was a lot of fun for both of them.
"Probably the most fun either of us ever had working in TV news," Zehnder says. "If we'd kept discrepancy reports they would have run to several pages every day. He and I would relive some of those nightly disasters every time we got together after work. He was one of the few still around who had gone through that do-it-yourself TV era. I'll miss him a lot."
Memorial services will be held at a later date.
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Jerry McEowen, 77
Former KRON Photojournalist Dies
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By Don Knapp
Special to Off Camera
Bay Area television audiences only rarely, if ever, heard cameraman Jerry McEowen's name, but many saw at least some of the thousands of news stories he shot during his 30 years with San Francisco's KRON.
On April 7, McEowen passed away peacefully, surrounded by family members. He had been battling pancreatic cancer for the last 10 months.
McEowen was 77.
McEowen always wanted to be a cameraman, his son, Shawn, told Off Camera. He loved the job and gave as good as he got. When Dwight Clark caught "The Catch" that led to the defeat of the Dallas Cowboys and sent the 49ers to their first Super Bowl in 1982, McEowen shot the video from behind the goal line. In 1985, he was the shooter for the first live shots ever broadcast from Yosemite National Park. And, as son Shawn says, most importantly, his Dad was the first television cameraman to stand on Oakland's collapsed double-decker Cypress Freeway following the devastating Loma Prieta earthquake on Oct. 17, 1989.
Shawn McEowen says the earthquake gave him his first chance to see his father in action as a serious, resourceful, take-charge professional. Jerry McEowen was working in the Oakland bureau when the quake knocked out the bureau's link to KRON across the bay in San Francisco. McEowen called his wife, Sandy, and told her he wouldn't be coming home, and that she  should send Shawn with a bag of clothes to the collapsed freeway where rescue and recovery operations were ongoing. Shawn McEowen made his way over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, along back streets and around damaged areas and police lines with the clothes and then acted as his father's assistant.
The next day, Shawn McEowen returned to the collapsed Cypress Structure with fresh tape, and before his father sent him back to the station with all the tapes he had shot, he pulled out his wallet, gave his son all the cash, and told Shawn to find whatever food he could find, and bring back as much as the money would buy for the news crews. Shawn McEowen says the experience left him with a great memory of his father and "...the thrill of the whole news thing, helping get out the news."
Friends recently writing on Facebook frequently remembered Jerry Mceowen's good humor, his sincerity, and his smile. The word "sweet," comes up a lot, as does "compassionate," and "good guy."
After Jerry and Sandy McEowen were devastated by the death of their 22-year old daughter, Erin, Sandy became involved with a support group for families who had lost children. Jerry played a lesser role, Shawn says, becoming a quiet consoler.
Dennis O'Donnell, KPIX sports anchor, wrote on Facebook of arriving at a funeral for a 4-year-old child and being surprised to see Jerry greeting people at the door. Jerry did not know the family of the child, Dennis wrote, but "he came to help the family heal because he understood the pain more than anyone else in the church. Such a good man."
When another KRON cameraman, Rick Greenwell, died in 2014, McEowen again stepped in. He told Greenwell's wife, Pat, not to worry about getting all the family members to the celebration of his life, saying he would take care of it. The day of the celebration, McEowen arrived at her house in a van and picked everyone up and, after the service was over, he took them home. Pat Greenwell says it was a huge help on a day that was just a blur and she will always remember McEowen as a sweet man who stepped up and helped her with his gift of kindness in a time of great need.
Besides his wife, Jerry is survived by son, Shawn, and his wife Chandos, and their three children.
Don Knapp (SC '09, GC '14) is a former Bay Area-based correspondent for CNN and a former news reporter for KTVU, KRON and KPIX. Knapp was a friend of McEowen's and a KRON colleague.
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Coming Up: More News on KRON
New 10 p.m. Newscast to Challenge KTVU Tradition
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San Francisco's KRON, which already broadcasts more news than any other television station in the Bay Area, is adding a one-hour, 10 p.m. newscast that will air seven days a week.
The new newscast, KRON 4 News at 10, launches May 16. It will go head-to-head with others in that time slot, including the venerable 10 p.m. newscast at Oakland's KTVU, which has been on the air since that station's inception in 1958.
KPIX also produces a 10 p.m. broadcast, which airs on sister station KBCW.
 It is not the first time that KRON has aired a 10 p.m. newscast. During an "early prime" programming schedule experiment in the early 1990s when the station was an NBC affiliate, KRON started its network prime-time schedule an hour earlier, at 7 p.m., leaving room at 10 p.m. to compete with KTVU in the news arena. With its CBS schedule, KPIX also participated with the "early prime" experiment at that time as well. Both stations eventually resumed their respective network prime-time programming schedules to start at 8 p.m.
KRON's new 10 p.m. broadcast will be anchored by station veteran, Pam Moore (SC' 10). Moore joined the station in 1991. Co-anchoring with Moore will be Steve Aveson, recently hired by the station. Longtime sports anchor Gary Radnich, with the station since 1985, and meteorologist Brittney Shipp, who joined the station in January, will join Moore and Aveson.
The station's 11 p.m. newscast will be shortened to 15 minutes to become a fast-paced broadcast of the day's major news developments. At 11:15 p.m., KRON will air Inside Edition.
"We are committed to being 'The Bay Area's News Station' and providing this additional coverage is both an important and exciting opportunity," says Ashley Messina, KRON's vice president and general manager.
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Gold & Silver Circle Profiles
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Editor's Note: In this month's Gold & Silver Circle Profiles, we salute Stan Atkinson and Herbert Zettl, who, individually, will be honored with the Governors Award at the 45th Northern California Area Emmy® Awards Gala on June 4 in San Francisco. Atkinson's profile was originally published in Off Camera in November 2008; Zettl's profile appeared in May 2011. This month, we feature excerpts from the originally-published profiles.
Stan Atkinson
During the more than 45 years when Silver Circle inductee and
three-
time
Emmy
®
award winner
Stan Atkinson was a
popular,
well-known
television anchor and
reporter,
one could say he was also a foreign correspondent of sorts - not for a network news division, but for some of the local stations his work impacted during that time.
Atkinson traveled regularly to the world's most turbulent, politically charged nations to bring a deeper insight to his local nightly newscasts. From Bosnia and Afghanistan to Somalia and El
Salvador,
he nearly did it all, risking life and limb to help viewers better understand what was going on in the world and how it was going to affect them.
 Atkinson, inducted into the
Silver Circle in 1986, is likely best known for his many years as the principal news anchor for KCRA in Sacramento.
His newscasts on KCRA dominated the ratings so much that the combined ratings of the station's competitors couldn't even equal the
numbers for
Atkinson's
newscasts.
It has been nine years since Atkinson retired from the television news business, leaving the anchor desk at KOVR in 1999. Five years before, he had jumped ship after spending 18 years at crosstown rival KCRA. He'd also worked at KCRA
early in his
career.
His many years in Sacramento, the Bay Area and Los Angeles made Atkinson a household name across the Golden State.
"I've had the most wonderful life and
career," Atkinson said
recently.
Atkinson's TV news career is legendary and nearly unprecedented. In the 1950s, after studying journalism at Pasadena City College and a U.S. Army tour of duty during the
Korean
War, he got into radio as an announcer and newsman. But, Atkinson was destined for television.
He started in Spokane in 1954. By 1957, he began working as an anchor at KCRA (his first of two tenures at that station).
Staying until 1963, he took what turned out to be a temporary respite from TV news, leaving KCRA to move to Los Angeles to work on documentaries with the acclaimed
producer,
David Wolper (of Roots
fame).
 Atkinson produced and wrote three projects for
Wolper, including TV specials about actress
Bette Davis and crooner
Bing Crosby. After a year and a half at
Wolper, Atkinson partnered with a friend to form an independent production
company. The irony of Atkinson's move to Hollywood in 1963 meant that, as fate would soon have it, he would have no involvement in covering one of the worst tragedies in American history: the assassination of President
John F. Kennedy in November of that
year.
"It felt strange to be watching the events unfold on TV, and not to have a part in covering it," he remembered.
Atkinson's production company didn't last.
Unsatisfied by what they were doing, he and his partner closed up shop. "I missed daily
news,"
he recalled. In 1964, Atkinson moved to the Bay Area to anchor at KTVU in Oakland, where he'd remain until 1967.
His experience at KTVU in the 1960s (he would return in the early 1970s) was "great." But, Atkinson added, the Bay Area didn't care much for news from KTVU at the time. "We were on at (what was considered then) this cockamamey hour of 10 p.m. We produced an excellent newscast, and we had interesting people reporting the news. But, it was the heyday for the affiliates and we got no respect." Eventually, Atkinson said, advertisers warmed up to KTVU's 10 p.m. news.
He remembered how interesting it was to anchor on Friday evenings. The KTVU newscast followed wrestling throughout the 1960s. "The wrestling was live in the studio every Friday night. We'd go into the men's room before the show to put makeup on. By then, all the sweaty bodies, using the same restroom to take showers in, had steamed it up like a sauna. Made it impossible to get the makeup on without a layer of your own sweat underneath."
Leaving KTVU, he was offered a Ford Fellowship (known today as the John S. Knight Fellowship) at Stanford
University. Atkinson wanted to develop a skill as an environmental
reporter. At that time, there was only one TV environmental reporter in the coun
try. In 1969, Atkinson headed south to Burbank, where he was hired as KNBC's environmental reporter and weekend
anchor.But, destiny had something else in mind. His beat would dramatically change with the murders of actress
Sharon Tate and the La Bianca
family, a crime that terrorized Los Angeles. Soon
after, authorities arrested
Charles Manson and, for the next 16 months, Atkinson covered Manson's and his
"Family's"
murder
trial. 
"There was craziness in the courtroom," Atkinson recalled. "It was just absolute weirdness, punctuated by much drudgery."
"It was a fascinating time for me.
Working at KNBC became my greening years as a television reporter and as an
anchor, too. Professionalism at KNBC was very high. I was working with a lot of immensely talented people.
(Tom) Brokaw
was there, as well as
Tom Snyder and
Bob Abernathy
."
After KNBC, Atkinson returned to northern California, becoming one of the founding partners of KFTY Channel 50 in Santa Rosa. Atkinson had always loved northern California's Wine
Country. A colleague at KNBC pitched the idea to launch a station. They raised money with limited partnerships and a"stellar list" of local investors, got the FCC to grant a license, and in 1973, KFTY took to the airwaves.
Starting up KFTY and keeping it on the air came at a time when the nation was in the midst of a "huge recession, "Atkinson said. A year after signing on, KFTY went dark.
"It was one of the saddest experiences of my
life," Atkinson said.
"We had taught 35 staffers
TV. It was really hard to tell them that we were going dark. That was a real
downer. I never though I'd go back into TV
again."
After KFTY came to an end (it returned in 1981 with new owners), Atkinson taught a summer graduate journalism program at Stanford. By then in his early 40s, the Stanford experience turned Atkinson around. The failure of KFTY went through his mind constantly.
Atkinson became a casual reporter at
KGO-TV in San Francisco, hoping to get on full-time. That's when KTVU came calling again for a second anchoring stint. During his time at KTVU, he landed the first one-on-one interview with Manson, who, by then, was imprisoned at San Quentin." Charlie remembered me from
L.A.," Atkinson recalled." His mind was a jumble. The interview reflected that
madness."
Fred Zehnder, KTVU's news director from 1978 to 1999, was working his first stint at the station as assistant news director and assignment editor when Atkinson rejoined it in 1973.
"Stan was a real gentleman, just terrific to work with," Zehnder said. "He had strong standards about news, and he did some really groundbreaking things while at Channel 2. He loved to do documentaries.
He was a great anchor and
reporter, and a dream to work
with."
In 1976, Atkinson returned to KCRA. His legacy in Sacramento was about to take
off.
For 18 years, Atkinson, his co-anchors and the news team ruled the Sacramento airwaves, and he established his newscast tease trademark line,
"We have news for you...
next," as he folded a single copy of script. He also established his closing line at the end of his 11
p.m. broadcasts - "Sleep well, and have a good tomorrow."
KCRA's principal anchor shared the news desk with many. But, Atkinson also wanted to get out from behind the anchor desk to cover foreign stories. He eventually would travel to 18 countries-in- crisis, in 31 assignments.
"(The KCRA years were) really terrific because of all of the foreign assignments I got to do," Atkinson said. "For me, that was the best part of my career, the most memorable."
Atkinson's war stories include being chased down by a Soviet helicopter gunship in Afghanistan (he was there in 1982 and 1985), and being held up and robbed by leftist guerrillas in El Salvador. While covering a story in Cambodia, he was shot at.
Atkinson also reported from Baghdad just before Operation Desert Storm began, and later, from Kuwait, a month after it was liberated. In the early 1990s, he covered the collapse of a nation into anarchy in his reports from Somalia, right after the downing of two U.S. Blackhawk helicopters and the resultant withdrawal of American forces. He has slipped across Marxist-controlled borders with resistance fighters to produce documentaries in Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia and Central America. Atkinson also covered the remarkable transition of South Africa. He also has a long history with Vietnam. He was there twice in the early 1960s.
By the mid-1990s, KCRA "started pinching pen
nies",
and Atkinson was told there would be no more foreign assignments. Feeling as if he'd done all that he could at KCRA, Atkinson, in 1994, dropped a Sacramento bombshell: he was resigning from KCRA, and leaving for rival KOVR.
It was a year of change and tragedy for Atkinson, devastated with the sudden, unexpected death of his son, Lance, at age 34. Atkinson also has three sons and a daughter, two grown stepchildren and 14 grandchildren.
He remained at KOVR for five years, retiring in 1999 after an illustrious television
career.
"I've had great anchor partners throughout my career," Atkinson said. "Every one of them was a gem. I was really blessed in that regard. They all helped to make my career the way it turned out, in a substantial way."
He has never forgotten his roots. Atkinson, who still lives in Sacramento with wife
Kristen, is active as ever in community service. In fact, his Stan Atkinson Foundation helped to fund 'River Cats Independence
Field', a multi-use sports and recreation facility in Sacramento that's designed for disabled youth and adults. Atkinson has raised more than $8 million for Sacramento-area agencies and charities. He's been honored many times for his philanthropy; most recently on
Nov. 5 - National Philanthropy
Day. All of Sacramento's numerous non- profit and charitable organizations got together to award him the 'Lifetime Achievement
Award.'
"I've really been lucky in so many
ways,"he said.
"To stay active, even
now, is so terrific. Right now, as a senior
myself, I love the freelancing and the chance to make other seniors aware of options that can improve their lives. But for the death of Lance, my life has been blessed!"
Herbert Zettl
Dr.
Herbert Zettl almost made a decision not to teach television broadcasting at San Francisco State University. In hindsight, it could've been one of those career decisions he might've regretted down the road.
"By then, I was a young director on the
go," says Zettl, who, in the 1950s, was directing programs and working as a floor manager at KPIX in San Francisco. Zettl had been asked by the chairman of San Francisco State's broadcasting and electronic communication arts department if he would consider moving from a television station into a classroom.
 "I said to him, "are you crazy?" Zettl recalls.
The man who asked Zettl was Dr. Stuart Hyde (Silver Circle class of 1996), the longtime chair of the university's broadcasting department.
"I knew Stuart from Stanford (University), where we both
attended," Zettl says. The year was 1958, and, by then, Zettl had already been at KPIX for several years, and he had some serious credentials: he had an associate's degree from Santa Rosa Junior College, and a bachelor's degree from Stanford, where he majored in speech and drama and minored in jo urnalism. He later earned his Ph.D. from the University of California,
Berkeley.
Zettl, inducted into the
Silver Circle in 1998, who came to California after growing up in Austria and Switzerland, was enjoying his burgeoning, promising television career.
"I liked what I was
doing," he says. While he was attending Stanford, Zettl began interning at KPIX, in 1953. The station and the university worked together to produce summer television workshops, and Zettl was the student
producer. While still attending Stanford, Zettl advanced from a station intern to floor
manager, and
later, to directing many of the station's programs, including its newscasts and a
dance-party program.
Zettl learned a lot from working on live remote broadcasts, as he did frequently for the likes of Edward R. Murrow and
Arthur Godfrey
, both of whom had popular programs on CBS like Person to Person for Murrow and a long-running variety show for
Godfrey.
would consider joining the faculty to teach television broadcasting, Zettl wondered where his career might take him 10 years into the future.
 "I knew that I didn't want to go to Los Angeles or New
York," he says. "Who do I want to be
who's already above me? Do I want to be a general manager someday?
No."
Zettl called Hyde at San Francisco State, going there to visit the campus. But, when he arrived, he didn't understand how he could teach television production without a studio, or without equipment.
"Stuart told me that would be up to me to make all those things happen," he says.
So Zettl joined the
faculty, started making things happen, and eventually managed to have a TV studio built on campus at a cost of $4million-a lot of money back in 1959. It would become the cornerstone of Zettl's next four decades at San Francisco State.
As Zettl settled in to his new job on campus, he hung on to his connection with KPIX until 1963, directing shows during the summer months when he didn't have any classes to teach at the
university.
While there, Zettl headed the Institute of International Media Communication, which facilitated international visitors through the auspices of the State Department's International Information Programs.
Considered by former students, peers and colleagues as a "teacher-scholar," Zettl was a leader in the classroom in more ways than one. His influence in the professional world of television production persists to this day, 12 years after he formally retired from the university.
It's easy to see
why. Zettl taught courses in media aesthetics, television production and seminars in
experimental
production.
In his experimental production courses, Zettl spearheaded various experimental television projects such as dramas for simultaneous multi-screen and inductive narrative presentation techniques.
Through his methods, he explored the use of multi- screens in contrast to split-screens, quad-screens and other ways of dividing up a single frame. He once said that multi-screens "represent an extension of the space-time entity of the single
screen."
Much of Zettl's research is defined by his theory of applied media aesthetics. It is a theoretical approach for understanding, and creating, mediated
imagery. In fact, he wrote about his theories in Sight Sound Motion: Applied Media Aesthetics, one of the many books he has authored on television production. "That book is my pride and
joy," Zettl says.
The book, first published in 1999, is now in its sixth
edition.
Zettl has written his books with one goal in mind:so students can learn. His Television Production Handbook, the textbook mainstay of his teachings for four decades, had a new edition - its 11
th-published in 2012. The book is also printed into several foreign languages, including Spanish,
Greek, Chinese and Korean.
Today, all of
Zettl's books are used in key television production centers and universities around the
world.
Now in his early 80s, Zettl is still devoted to his passion for television production. He's currently finishing the seventh edition of another book, Video Basics Workbook 7.
"It keeps me going," he says, laughing.
Through the years, many of Zettl's former students have entered the broadcasting
industry, from journalists and managers to production executives.
"Quite a number of people went into the broadcasting industry. It's amazing how many people there are. There are a lot here in the Bay Area, and quite a few down in L.A.," he says modestly.
Outside of the classroom, Zettl shared his research and knowledge of innovative television production techniques on a global scale, but not just with his many books on the subject. For many
years, Zettl would travel to other nations as a production consultant for the United States Information
Agency,
visiting places like Bangladesh, Iraq, Pakistan, Germany and
China.
"I enjoyed international lecturing," he says. "It was fun. I was so active."
Zettl has received many honors through the years, including a California State Legislature Distinguished Teaching Award in 1966. In 2004, he received the Distinguished Education Service Award of the Broadcast Education Association.
These days, Zettl and
Erika, his wife of 58 years, reside in the Marin County community of Forest Knolls. Married in 1953, Hyde- the man who hired Zettl at San Francisco State - served as Zettl's best man, and Hyde's wife served as maid of
honor.
The Zettls have two children: daughter, Renee, who has five children; and a son, Alex, who teaches physics at UC Berkeley.
"I enjoyed every minute of my teaching at San Francisco State," Zettl says. "Those were great years for me."
Kevin Wing (SC '13) has been exclusively penning "Gold & Silver Circle Profiles" for "Off Camera" since 2007. He is editor of "Off Camera" and serves the Chapter as Vice President-San Francisco on the San Francisco/Northern California Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. He is a Bay Area-based producer for ABC News' "Good Morning America."
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The Health Reporter
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Is Your Diet Causing You Wrinkles?
Concerned about aging and looking older than you really are?
Then don't eat white sugar.
Why?
Because processed sugar binds to and eventually weakens the
collagen
in your skin. Save your money if you're buying expensive skin creams, but eating processed sugar- the number-one ingredient to avoid if you want firm, resilient and radiant skin.
The skin is the largest organ of the body and one of the most revealing places where aging occurs.
Over time, your skin may lose its original 'snug fit' and begin to wrinkle and sag due in part to your collagen cells breaking down. Collagen is the main structural protein in connective tissue that provides strength to the skin. It's abundant in blood vessels, cartilage, ligaments, tendons, and bone as well.
The sugar-collagen reaction can lead to premature wrinkles and sagging. Sweet Tooth = Wrinkles. All those sugary donuts, danishes and cookies may be hard to resist despite knowing they could end up settling on your hips and waistline, but perhaps thinking about them showing up as wrinkles on your face and neck or as 'crepey', loose skin may help strengthen your will to resist them.
Remember... sugar speeds up the aging process. Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits every day to get the essential components for healthy skin - AND a strong heart! Eat 8-10 total servings daily of fruits and vegetables.That is,
5 or more vegetable servings + 3 fruit servings.
Coming soon in a future column...
why your heart needs collagen too!
VIDEOS
: Watch Karen's videos on what to eat for healthy skin. Get science-based info on skin nutrition in less than 3 minutes.
The skin needs essential vitamins to function and look its best. Discover which ones you need and where to get them. You'll get an overview of the foods to eat to get the key vitamins necessary for healthy, youthful and glowing skin.
 Healthy skin needs essential minerals and fats to do its job and to look its best. Find out which ones you need and where to get them. Karen identifies the essential fatty acids and minerals that keep your skin smooth and radiant.
Karen Owoc is a Clinical Exercise Physiologist specializing in cardiac rehabilitation at a San Francisco Bay Area hospital. She is a cancer survivor and the founder and creator of Get Real Food!™, a heart-healthy, cancer-protective lifestyle program. She is a former NATAS Governor and produces/hosts healthy living TV segments. Visit her website for more healthy how-to's at http://TheHealthReporter.tv.
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On the Move
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Frank Mallicoat
KTVU
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Frank Mallicoat joins KTVU in Oakland as a news anchor and reporter. Formerly with KPIX in San Francisco, where he anchored that station's weekday morning newscast, Mallicoat will anchor KTVU's weekend edition of
Mornings On 2.
Alyssa Deitsch joins KVVU in Las Vegas as a reporter. She spent the last two years
as a reporter and weekday morning anchor at KHSL/KNVN in
Chico. For the last year, she served on the Board of Governors of the San Francisco/Northern California Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, first as a Governor representing the Chico-Redding market, then as Vice President, Small Markets.
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Steve Aveson
KRON
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Steve Aveson joins KRON in San Francisco as a news anchor. Aveson, who began May 2, co-anchors the station's 6, 8 and 11 p.m. newscasts. He will also co-anchor the station's new 10 p.m. newscast when it premieres May 16. Previously, Aveson was an anchor at New England Cable News. Before KRON, Aveson worked in Boston, Baltimore, Atlanta and New York City.
Have a new job? Got a promotion? Retiring? We'd like to know about it. Please write to
On the Move
and
Off Camera
Editor
Kevin Wing
at
[email protected]
.
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Our People
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KGO-TV ABC7's
Scott Arthur has been working in the Bay Area market for many years. As one of the San Francisco ABC station's longest-tenured photojournalists, he's based out of the South Bay Bureau in San Jose. Cerebral. Creative. Quick on his feet. And experienced. And how does "talent" look so good on camera, time after time? Leave it to someone like Arthur, who puts a lot of thought and energy into every shoot, every live shot, he's assigned to. Bet you didn't know this about him. Arthur's a former reporter and anchor, too. Yes, he used to be in front of the camera, but that goes back -- way back -- to his days in Bakersfield. Perhaps his days as an on-camera "talent" are long behind him, but let's put it this way. Scott Arthur is a talent behind the camera, too.
PHOTOGRAPHY:
WAYNE FREEDMAN/NATAS
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Do You Remember?
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How many
Emmy® recipients can you name?
What year was this, and what station
did they work for?
If you know the answer to this month's
Do You Remember?, please write to
In the April edition of Off Camera, we asked you to identify the art director pictured here
and for which station this map was for?
Answer:
Les Krames
(Silver Circle '86) was
KRON's art director, starting in the basement of
the
San Francisco Chronicle building before relocating
to the station's studios on Van Ness Avenue.
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Write Us! Off Camera Wants to Hear From You!
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Off Camera wants to hear from you. Have a great story idea? Interested in writing a story for us? Want to tell us how we're doing? Whatever it may be, please feel free to drop us a line.
Write to
Off Camera
Editor
Kevin Wing
at
[email protected]
.
Thank you!
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The Board of Governors
S
AN FRANCISCO/NORTHERN CALIFORNIA CHAPTER
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS & SCIENCES
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OFFICERS
President:
Keith Sanders,
San Jose
State University
Vice President-
San Francisco:
Kevin Wing*, ABC-TV Good Morning America
Vice President-Sacramento:
Cynthia Zeiden*,
Zeiden
Media
Vice President-
Fresno:
Kim Stephens*,
KMPH Fox 26
Vice President-
Hawaii:
Pamela Young*, KHON 2
Vice President-
Reno:
Terri Russell,
KOLO 8
Vice President-Smaller Markets: (Vacant)
Secretary:
Randy Forsman,
KCRA 3
Treasurer:
Jim Spalding,
Spalding & Company
Past President:
Javier Valencia*,
Consultant
NATIONAL TRUSTEES
Linda Giannecchini*,
KQED 9
(National Awards Chair)
Alison Gibson,
Media Cool
(National 2nd Vice Chairperson)
John Odell*,
CCSF Emeritus
Steve Shlisky*,
KTVU Fox 2
Alternate: Kevin Wing*,
ABC-TV Good Morning America
GOVERNORS
Kent Beichley, Pac 12 Net
Wayne
Freedman*
,
KGO-TV ABC7
Luis Godinez,
KDTV Univision 14
Andi Guevara, KTVN 2
Richard Harmelink,
KFSN ABC30
(Nominating Chair)
Pablo Icub,
KUVS Univision 19
Brian Johnson,
KFSN ABC30
Sean Karlin, Independent
George Lang*,
The Big Picture
Da Lin,
KPIX 5
Terry Lowry*,
LaCosse Productions
(Gold & Silver Circle Chair)
Melissa Mapes,
KITV 4
Joyce Mitchell*,
4 U Productions
Michael Moya, fotografx
David Paredes,
KNTV NBC Bay Area
Pat Patton,
Consultant
Ross Perich,
ProMotion Studios
Manny Ramos*,
Manny Ramos Communications
Erik Rosales,
KMPH FOX 26
Brenda Salgado,
KGMB/KHNL Hawaii News Now
Don Sanchez*,
KGO-TV ABC7 (Retired)
Matt Skryja,
CSAA
Karen Sutton,
Independent
(Emmy Gala Chair)
Melanie Woodrow,
KGO-TV ABC7
Noemi Zeigler Sanchez, Laney College
COMMITTEE CHAIRS
Activities/Programs:
Cynthia Zeiden*,
Zeiden Media
Archives/Museum:
John Catchings*,
Catchings & Associates
Linda Giannecchini*,
KQED 9
Awards:
Julie Watts,
KPIX 5
Education:
Steve Shlisky*,
KTVU Fox 2
Finance:
Alison Gibson,
Media Cool
Legal/Bylaws:
Mark Pearson,
ARC Law Group
Membership:
(Vacant)
Marketing:
Patty Zubov,
Platonic TV
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Darryl R. Compton*,
NATAS
* Member of the Silver Circle
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Contact Information:
National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
San Francisco/Northern California Chapter
Darryl Compton, Executive Director
4317 Camden Avenue
San Mateo, CA 94403-5007
Phone: 650 341-7786 or 415 777-0212
[email protected]
The name "Emmy®" and the graphic image of the statuette, are registered trademarks of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
"GC" and "SC" references, following someone's name in a story, refers to that person being an inductee of the Chapter's Gold Circle and/or Silver Circle, followed by the year, or years, that they were inducted.
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