Dann Shively Interview: Sacramento Traffic

by Alex Cosper on Feb. 6, 2012

This video wraps up the five part SacTV interview series with Dann Shively, who talks about his familiarity with Northern California and the layout of Sacramento streets. He comments on the hand-crafted SacTV map in the background and says he was more familiar with Sacramento from the air than the ground, as he would find news stories just from flying above Sacramento 800 feet and higher. He scanned for forest fires in the summer, looking for bright spots through haze. In 2010 he was able to cover the Galleria fire in Roseville, despite spending the day earlier taking aerial shots in the Salinas/Monterey area for KCRA's sister TV station there, KSBW (Channel 8). KCRA received an Emmy Award for the station's coverage of the Galleria fire.

Sacramento's growth as a metropolis has created heavier traffic congestion. Dann remembers how under-developed the highways were when he started at KCRA in 1972. Highway 50 ended past Watt Avenue with a big space between Sacramento and Rancho Cordova, I-80 was the bypass 880 and Highway 99 was the main North-South highway before I-5. "When the freeways opened, population followed it seems," he observes, remembering how traffic would only be heavy for about 20 minutes in the morning with only a few major intersections jammed up. These days traffic stays heavy in many places weekeday mornings and early afternoons through early evenings.

A few days before his retirement, Dann's reporting caught the area's first tornado live on the air. Since retiring from television broadcasting in July 2011 Dann has been relaxing and working on video projects. His experience reporting on major events from the air is unique, bold and memorable. His story coincides with many local historic events in which he delivered the news first. His longevity in the broadcast industry spanning decades is also noteworthy considering all the names and faces that have come and gone in local media.

Dann Shively Interview (Part 1): Pilot of the Airwaves
Dann Shively Interview (Part 2): Early Radio Days
Dann Shively Interview (Part 3): Helicopter Stories
Dann Shively Interview (Part 4): Live TV Reporting
Dann Shively Interview (Part 5): Sacramento Traffic


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