Dave McElhatton for KPIX-TV Channel 5, the first television station in San Francisco starting in 1977 upon leaving KCBS radio. The hiring of McElhatton, a radio broadcaster, was noted by some to be a bold stroke. He remained as a news anchor with KPIX until his retirement in 2000. He was noted, along with that of CBS newsman Walter Cronkite, to be among two good reporters during a forum by U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein. At his peak, his salary as a newscaster was reportedly approximately $750,000 per year. For a decade from the late 1970s to late 1980s, his co-anchor was Wendy
Walter Cronkite assassination on November 22, 1963. Another factor in Cronkite and CBS' ascendancy to the top of the ratings was that, as the decade progressed, RCA made a corporate decision not to fund NBC News at the levels that CBS provided for its news broadcasts. Consequently, CBS News acquired a reputation for greater accuracy and depth in coverage. This reputation meshed well with Cronkite's wire service experience, and in 1967 the "CBS Evening News" began to surpass "The Huntley-Brinkley Report" in viewership during the summer months. In 1969, during the Apollo 11 (with co-host and former astronaut Wally Schirra) and Apollo