Independent from Long Beach, California • 77

LOG OF.THE AND THE EVENING NEWS By BOB MARTIN TV-Radio Editor Clcte Roberts is my idea of a broadcast I mean; he has had the experience and he looks the part He fills the rple so well hie has appeared in a score or more of movies a newscaster over die years. His latest acting assignment came -last yeairin Portrait. A Man Whofce Name Was John, a dramatic special starring Raymond Burr on was based on incidents in the life of Pope John XXIU, many of his fans. They somehow seemed to think I had something to do with getting rid of him. I mentioned that Putnam, on leaving, -had said KTLA was goihg into, a cheaper operation." They did not cheapen the opera-" turn' said In fact, theyve been infusing more moiiey into it all the time.

Ill match the broadcasts we put on against any of those of the network owned-and-operated stations and against and Clcte did the same thing he had done at the Vatican on Oct 28, 1958: most of the network news programs, report on the election of the new Pope. "I was exceedingly well paid at When Clcte' saidlo Butt I. feel like KNXT (Channel 2) and I am exceedingly well paid at KTLA. He cast doubt on the frequently published reports that Putnam had been getting as. much as $300,000 a year on TV at one time and $200,000 annually when he left KTLA.

til-only-met -George -a-couple of times, but I him well, Clete said of the conservative, highly dramatic newscaster who has not yet caught on with another station. I'm reliving that day, the Buzz Kulik, told him to ignore the script do it in your own wordsl so the newscaster broadcast the scene from Roberts has, indeed, been around. Whereas some, of the. news reporters we see 'on television these days look like homecoming queens or recent college graduates and may never have been closer to a news story than their studio newsroom, Gete has been an on-the- scene broadcaster of wars," revolutions "HOVTTSTR 10-to-ll time period atomic bomb tests, Berlin airlifts, earth- for news? I inquired. CLETE ROBERTS the world is his oyster broadcaster: most difficult time we could be on the air.

In that time slot; hes up against the prime-time programming of the. three major network stations, which save their late-evening news shows until 11. During his yean on Channel 2 from -1962 to December 1973, Roberts was one of the most popular anchormen on Los Angeles area television. In the later yean on KNXT, he anchored that stations Saturday and Sunday newscasts, and occasionally did commentaries on. the6 p.m.

news. Do you ever regret not having been -a network TV newscaster? I wanted to know. No, answered the graying Roberts. "I'm not a very good hired hand. Im not temperamentally suited to be anchored in New York.

I like my freedom, and I've always had itchy feet. At KNXT, our weekend news pro-' grams were consistently among the 'highest rated. It was a sinecure but Im not ready for a sinecure. WHEN CLETE returned- to KTLA last December he had been with' Channel 5 from 1958-62 John T. Rey- quakes, floods, political campaigns and what-have-you for more than four decades.

When Gen. Douglas MacArthur made 1 his I have returned declaration in the Philippines in 1944, it was Clcte whti held the mike. When the Ger-man forces collapsed in 1945, Roberts was there, too. Why, I halfway expected him to show up for my interview in a trenchcoat ROBERTS IS a West Coast pioneer in newscasting on both radio and television; Next year will mark his 45th year as a news broadcaster and his 25th year in television, if memory serves him correctly. Since last Dec.

27, Clele has been anchorman and news analyst on the 10- news on KTLA (Channel 5). The World at 10 With Clete Roberts it's now called. Clete replaced the controversial, much-loved-and-much-hated George Pub nam, whose contract was not renewed. Do. you think you kept many of Putnams viewers? I asked.

No way, quickly replied Roberts. I know I have an entirely different, audience. Why, I got angry letters from nolds, KTLAs general manager, said: JWe feel, he is the most distinguished newscaster in Southern California. And, prior to his leaving Channel 2, KNXT had been advertising Gete as "Southern Californias No. 1 Weekend Anchorman.

with-'-The Best Background in the He has been, the recipient of four other awards: Clete still likes to get as many stories firsthand as I interviewed him at lunch at the Los Angeles International Airport restaurant He wanted it there because that afternoon hejvas going to be -covering -the arrival -of -the Anglo-French supersonic transport plane Con-. corde from Anchorage on its first visit to Southern A. couple of days later he was one of three newsmen to'fly on the Concorde to Peru. The newscaster is quite a flying buff. A resident of Beverly Hills, he spends -much of Us spare time arotrnd the air port at Santa He.

hplds.a commercial pilots license for both planes and helicopters and builds Us own antique-style planes. Yes, I build them from scratch with my own he told me. But dont think it takes any great talent just takes persistence. And I follow the de-. signs.

He said he has built three plane and reconstructed a fourth. They include I a 1931 BuM a 1946 J-3 Piper Cub and a 1948 Stinson Stationwagon. What is more, he flies the planes after he constructs them. No man hath greater faith in his work! CLETE LEARNED how to fly at 16 -as an apprentice airport bum at Redwood Gty, Calif. Id wash and help dismantle planes, he said.

There was no pay Id just get flying time. He was born in Portland, and bounced around from Portland to Seattle (Continued Page 7).