Sacramento TV's News10 turning 50 with flourish

Veteran News10 reporter Dan Adams is loathe to admit it but he's been told that his search for vintage footage to mark the Sacramento TV station's 50th birthday has unearthed some choice Ron Burgundy moments. Drumbeat. Of himself.After 24 years with the station, Adams has survived the days of big hair (on men as well as women) and bold-checked suits from newscasts past that comedian Will Ferrell deftly caricatured in the movie "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy."Adams emerged from the editing room Thursday to provide a sneak preview of highlights of an hour-long special - "50 Years of News10" - that airs at 7 p.m. March 19. He also sheepishly admitted that several station employees who saw some of the early 1980s footage mentioned the striking Burgundy resemblance. Adams is playing a major role in splicing together news and TV show segments from KXTV's past five decades. As a lead-up to the special, he'll air a series of reports starting Sunday on evening and night-time newscasts that highlight some of the rare footage.Perhaps the gem is a Kinescope from the station's first newscast in 1955. Adams tracked down Hank Thornley, News10's first anchor, who is now retired and living in Las Vegas. During the early years, the station's call letters were KBET - "The Best Bet in Television." Thornley had 15 minutes for what was then the Shell News. Thornley will do some reminiscing on the special, as will familiar News10 faces like Alan Frio, Beth Ruyak and Sacramento legend Dick Cable. Betty Stoddard, now Betty Stoddard Ford, the station's first talk-show host with "Take 10," will also take a nostalgic look back to those early days. Some of the earliest clips planned to be shown will be of the Yuba floods in 1955. In 1959, KBET changed its name to KXTV. The "X" stands for the Roman numeral "10." From a Placer County perspective, the journey through time will include footage of a news bulletin from the early 1970s, when munitions exploded in the Roseville rail yard. News10 had the first film on the air from the scene, Adams said.The News10 files have also yielded film from the 1975 assassination attempt by Charles Manson follower Lynette "Squeaky" Frome on President Gerald Ford outside Sacramento's old Senator Hotel.On the lighter side of the test pattern, News10 will be providing plenty of nostalgia with clips from some of the series that have flickered across the screen. A CBS affiliate until 1995, the station will be showing scenes from small-screen classics like "I Love Lucy," "The Dick Van Dyke Show," "Green Acres," "The Beverly Hillbillies," and "All In The Family." The search through the station's musty archives also turned up a tape of the original CBS "blinking eye."Much of the later footage was Adams' doing. From 1981 on, he was an inveterate VCR taper, ensuring that some of the best on-air moments over the last quarter century were preserved for posterity.News10 is also holding an open house March 19 but, with 600 openings and plenty of interest, the station's Margaret Mohr said it didn't take long for all those slots to fill up.Adams, who's excited about the emerging high-definition television revolution, also was able to check around at the station and answer one burning question. Sacramento Kings games are starting to be shown in true high-def on News10's HD signal. That means a full-screen picture for hoops fans instead of the pillar-box, lower-resolution image that's been popping up for most of the season. But the only games telecast in HD will be at home. And not all of the games will get the high-definition treatment, he added.Chasing down Chevy Those Chevy-Chase-lives-in-Winchester rumors just won't quit.The idea of a sometime-A-list Hollywood star living in the midst of Meadow Vista sounds intriguing to say the least.And, indeed, there is some truth to the story.But to get to that kernel of truth was an exercise in sleuthing, starting with Placer County Clerk Jim McCauley's office. A check of property transactions showed no record of anyone named Chevy Chase buying one of Winchester's majestic mansions. Of course, that could still mean that the "Vacation" star had incorporated and bought an estate under that name. Chevy Chase is his real name, by the way.Hitting one dead-end, it was time to take a drive into the pine-shaded Valhalla we know as Meadow Vista to see if there had been any Chevy Chase sightings.A natural first stop was The Video Place. Plenty of Chevy Chase movies were there but no Chevy. Video Place employee Stacey Parker said she had heard that John Travolta had lived in the area but nothing about Chevy Chase.At the post office down the street, a local noted that Meadow Vista could boast residents with celebrity names like Barbara Bush, Jesse James and Lois Lane - but if you don't count Western States pioneer and sunning advocate Gordy Ainsleigh or former heavy metal drummer Mick Brown of Dokken, it's slim pickings on the celebrity beat.The pizza place and gas station along Placer Hills Road were equally as perplexed.Back at the Journal, a burst of inspiration to type the words "Chevy Chase" and "Winchester" bore fruit on Google - and put the rumor to rest.The first entry showed a Winchester newsletter with a proud and bespectacled Chase placing the Winchester Apple Blossom Festival crown on his daughter's head. A little more surfing through the Winchester site revealed that, yes, he's a Winchester resident - Winchester, VIRGINIA, that is.The Journal's Gus Thomson can be reached at gust@goldcountrymedia.com.