Steve Bell, a television pioneer who changed the way local morning news was presented in Los Angeles, died of a heart attack in his Pacific Palisades home on June 30. He was 66. Bell was perhaps best known as the senior vice president and general manager of KTLA-TV who spurred the launching of KTLA’s brash local morning news programming. Born in Boston, Bell attended Harvard University for both his undergraduate and graduate degrees in English literature. He first became interested in broadcasting when he and his brother Alan were living in New York City. He became general manager of WLVI-TV in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in 1981 took the same position at KTLA, where he helped to build the station into a ratings giant by delving into new approaches such as simultaneous Spanish-language audio broadcasts on the news programs and broadcasting movie classics with the films’ stars as hosts. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Bell said of his station’s innovative style, “when others zig, we zag.” For example, he told another interviewer, “we ran hour action-adventure shows at 6 p.m. when the indie competition ran sitcoms. The affiliates ran their nightly news at 11 p.m., so we ran ours at 10 p.m.” Bell built the “KTLA Morning News” team, many of whom are still on the air, including co-anchor Carlos Amezcua, entertainment reporter Sam Rubin and weatherman Mark Kriski. The show was unusually casual, with news team members joking around on air with each other, a style which proved popular with viewers. But the news group took the news seriously and was acclaimed for their coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial and the L.A. riots. In 1992, KTLA Morning News won the prestigious Peabody Award for the station’s coverage of the Rodney King beating. Bell said winning the Peabody was one of his proudest moments. When he left KTLA in 1992, the station was the most successful independent station in the Los Angeles market in most time slots. After leaving the station, Bell joined 20th Century Fox, where he ran Network Television Production and founded Foxstar Productions, which produces shows for TV. He then worked for Tele-Communications Inc., where he supervised 12 channels for the Starz/Encore Media Group. After retiring in 2000, Bell taught courses at UCLA Extension and lectured on the history of opera for the L.A. Opera, the Los Angeles Opera League and the Wagner Society of Southern California. In addition to his brother Alan, who is chief executive of Freedom Communications (publisher of the Orange County Register), Bell is survived by his wife of 35 years, Bernice; son David, a graduate of Northwestern University, and daughter Elizabeth, a senior at Vassar. Services were held July 1. Contributions in Bell’s name can be made to Inner-City Arts L. A., 720 Kohler St., Los Angeles 90021, or L.A. Opera Education and Community Program, 135 N. Grand Ave., Los Angeles 90012.
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