Late News10 anchor Dick Cable memorialized: ‘The Walter Cronkite of Sacramento’
Within 10 minutes of the Loma Prieta earthquake hitting on Oct. 17, 1989, Dan Adams was live on KXTV from Candlestick Park in San Francisco. He faced the familiar, exacting voice that pushed him to be a better reporter, that of Dick Cable.
Cable, who died Feb. 25 at 89, spent roughly 30 years as a News10 anchor until his 1998 retirement, working with reporters like Adams. Shortly after the earthquake struck, just as the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics were readying to play Game 3 of the World Series, Adams saw video from a Bay Area news station that a portion of the Bay Bridge had collapsed.
Adams got on a phone line to News10 and told Cable about the bridge, live on-air. But that wasn’t sufficient for Cable, who asked during the live report if that meant the entire bridge had collapsed into the bay. Adams then clarified that it had not. It was not an out-of-the-ordinary exchange for Adams and Cable.
“If you did a story, he would listen when you were on the air, and if he had questions when you were done, he’d ask pertinent questions,” Adams said.
Adams and other former colleagues joined members of Cable’s family Saturday for his memorial service at The Invitation Room in Old Sacramento. They paid tribute to a veteran Sacramento newsman who set a standard for fairness, accuracy and a style of journalism that remains appreciated by those who knew him.
What Dick Cable did in Sacramento
Cable was born June 23, 1936, and grew up the son of Homer Cable, an editor for Look magazine and Stars and Stripes. Homer Cable provided both a professional and personal example for his children.
“My dad helped liberate Dachau,” said Dick Cable’s younger sister Elizabeth Brown. “And my grandfather was Jewish, so his family all was killed in the Holocaust. That affected all of us. And that’s where I think the fairness and the equity and all of that was just part of how we were all raised.”
Cable joined KXTV in January 1969 after having worked in Boise, Idaho. He treated everyone he came across at News10 the same, according to Adams. But Cable could also be a champion for people like his longtime co-anchor Jennifer Smith, who began working for KXTV at a time when women were just starting to get opportunities in broadcast news.
“He was the real deal,” Smith said. “He was genuine, smart, kind — great writer, great storyteller, great thinker. He would think about things that are happening and the impact of them.”
During his time at News10, Cable became known for his “Cable’s Comment” segments.
“He would purposely, sometimes during his comments, take an opinion or share an opinion that wasn’t his and take the opposite and look at it from both sides,” his son Richard Cable said. “Look at from this side. Take the conservative approach. Take the liberal approach, because everything’s in the middle.”
He added, “That’s how he raised us as a father and how he conducted his business.”
Mark Hedlund began as a News10 reporter on the day John Hinckley shot and wounded then-President Ronald Reagan in 1981 in Washington, D.C. Hedlund said that in general, Cable was always prepared as a journalist and wouldn’t get rattled.
“He was so solid,” Hedlund said. “But the thing that really that impressed me about Dick for all those years was, while he was one of the icons of broadcasting here in this town, for many, many years, he was just a regular guy. He didn’t have an ego.”
Cable cared about giving back to the community, hosting his News10 retirement in 1998 at Safetyville, where he was the honorary mayor. In a tribute video at Saturday’s memorial put together by Adams, Cable said he was a proud donor.
“He was such a kind person,” said Kevin Hale, a former local news employee who has since become a film editor in the movie industry.
Aside from his reporting skill and his humility, Cable had a sense of humor that could come through, even live on-air.
Adams drew laughter from among the 200 or so people at the memorial by recalling he’d once mentioned the musical act Hall & Oates during a broadcast. Cable’s response: “You mean like haulin’ wheat?”
Another of Cable’s reporters, Dan Elliott, recounted how in 1991, after months of lobbying a supervisor, he’d gotten approval to bungee jump on-air. At the last minute, though, Elliott couldn’t go through with the jump. Elliott drew laughter by recounting how Cable had remarked on-air, “What a wuss.”
Elliott, who later became an anchor for KXTV, knew Cable well enough to know that the comment was coming from a place of love. The next time Elliott saw Cable in the newsroom, the veteran anchor smiled at him, winked and told him, “You’re still a wuss.”
How Sacramento media veterans remember Dick Cable
The memorial functioned as a reunion of sorts for veterans of local broadcast news, attracting people like KFBK afternoon host Kitty O’Neal and former KCRA and News10 anchor Walt Gray.
Gray recalled that at one point in Cable’s tenure with News10, he engaged in difficult contract negotiations. This spurred KCRA to reach out to Cable to offer him a potential landing spot.
“We would have been more than happy to have had him,” Gray said.
Gray and O’Neal were each close with the other giant of television news in Sacramento in Cable’s era, longtime KCRA anchor Stan Atkinson, who died in 2025 at 92. O’Neal said Dick Cable didn’t have Atkinson’s panache or flash but that he “certainly carried his own in the news business” and that the two were equals as journalists.
“He was part of an era that I don’t think we’re gonna see again,” O’Neal said of Cable.
Richard Cable, one of five children born to Dick Cable and his first wife, acted as an emcee during Saturday’s memorial. Dick Cable was known for his booming, authoritative voice. As his son began to speak, media and public relations specialist Traci Rockefeller Cusack, who did promotions work at News10, remarked: “That sounds like Dick.”
Dick Cable’s wife of nearly 50 years, Berta Cable, also gave a eulogy. She became choked up saying she had hoped for additional time with her husband. She also noted his professional prowess.
“His colleagues called him the Walter Cronkite of Sacramento,” Berta Cable said during the eulogy. “And that was exactly right.”
This story was originally published May 9, 2026 at 4:54 PM.
