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Forty years on the air isn't the same kind of milestone as, say, 50 years, or even 25.
But it's as good an excuse as any when you're KLAS TV-8 and you feel the need to do an hour-long self-promotion reel.
The station, which went on the air on July 22, 1953, and was the first in Nevada, recently ran a program hosted by the estimable Paula Francis and Gary Waddell (in snappy evening dress, no less). It had some good historical stuff in it, about the beginnings of television here, but ruined that educational opportunity by doing enough self-congratulatory backslapping to wrench several arms out of their sockets.
The parts you really wanted to see _ such as more glimpses of news reporters, anchors and weathermen from the past _ were in short supply. We did get to see the late Bill McCarty, the popular anchorman whose promising career was cut short when he died of cancer at age 32 in 1980.
And we were treated to brief shots of Ned Day, George Knapp, Gail Westrup and former news director Bob Stoldal, people who helped create the best broadcast news department in the city. An accomplishment unequaled since, by the way. But where was Barry Savan the Weatherman, the first goofy weather guy in the valley?
Those were the people you really wanted to see and hear more...