<\/p>\n
Dick Cable was an anchor at News10 for 29-1\/2 years. <\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n
About the time Dick Cable retired from being an anchor for KXTV in June 1998, his retirement party was held in a place that might have seemed unusual: Safetyville, where generations of Sacramento-area children learn the basics of safety.<\/p>\n
Cable, who died Wednesday at 89 following an illness, is most known to people in the region for the three decades he spent as an anchor for KXTV, but he was more than that. He was a husband and father of five. He was well-known for his charity work. And, as his wife of 48 years, Berta Gonzales Cable said Thursday, he was Safetyville\u2019s mayor.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe really admired what they did,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A giant on Sacramento\u2019s airwaves, Cable belonged to a different era, when people could only turn to a handful of trusted voices for local news. As the response to his death showed, he hadn\u2019t been forgotten.<\/p>\n
Who Dick Cable was and how he worked<\/p>\n
Born Richard Arnold Cable in New York in June 23, 1936, Cable wasn\u2019t the first journalist in his family. Berta Gonzales Cable said his father, Homer Cable worked for the military publication Stars and Stripes during and after World War II.<\/p>\n
Cable became an anchor for News10, then the capital\u2019s CBS affiliate, in January 1969. The early years had happiness, with Cable meeting Berta in 1973 when she interned at KXTV. They married in 1977.<\/p>\n
There were some bumps, too. Cable was briefly taken off the 6:30 p.m. newscast in the late 1970s when the station attempted a short-living youth movement before he was reinstated in 1981. Still, he worked hard and, in an industry where egos can rule, did his job with humility.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a wilting flower,\u201d Cable told The Bee in 1981<\/a>. \u201cI have a healthy ego \u2014 sometimes maybe an unhealthy one, I don\u2019t know, but the one thing the station has to know is that I toil here.\u201d<\/p>\n Jennifer Smith began working with Cable at KXTV around 1980 and would go on to co-anchor telecasts with him for the better part of two decades. Smith, who now lives in New Orleans, said in a phone interview Thursday that Cable\u2019s personality immediately appealed to her.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was so warm and real and no-nonsense and certainly not any kind of how some people view TV anchors as kind of pompous and slick,\u201d Smith said. \u201cHe was the opposite of that.\u201d<\/p>\n His approach drew notice from another well-known figure in Sacramento news broadcasting in those days, Stan Atkinson, who died in 2025. \u201cBeing a good guy may not carry the weight it once did, but Dick and I came from that old school where credibility was what it\u2019s about,\u201d Atkinson said in a 1988 Bee interview<\/a>. \u201cHe is a good guy and it shows.\u201d<\/p>\n Cable also crossed paths with Sacramento Kings broadcaster Gary Gerould. \u201cHe was just thoroughly a professional,\u201d Gerould said in a phone interview Thursday. \u201cI don\u2019t know if people recognized it at the time or not, but there was a very comforting style.\u201d<\/p>\n Cable was known for his community involvement. Traci Rockefeller Cusack worked as a promotion manager at KXTV before carving out a long public relations career in the Sacramento region. She recalled working on a \u201cFor Kids\u2019 Sake\u201d coat drive with Cable and a local businessperson that collected 23,000 coats its first year.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was just really out and about and his heart was in the community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n He was also known during his time at KXTV for providing \u201cCable\u2019s Comment\u201d weekly commentary.<\/p>\n Ultimately, Cable\u2019s capital journalism career was accomplished, with ABC10 President and General Manager Risa Omega noting in a statement that Cable had been honored in 1991 with a Silver Circle award from the Northern California Emmy Chapter. The ABC10 newsroom is also named in Cable\u2019s honor.<\/p>\n \u201cDick leaves a legacy in this building and in this town,\u201d Omega said.<\/p>\n Cable\u2019s retirement was announced in September 1997. He\u2019d dealt with pancreatitis multiple in the preceding years. He greeted his retirement with his trademark humility.<\/p>\n \u201cThe future of this station no longer hinges on what I do,\u201d Cable told The Bee in 1997<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ve had a wonderful run here.\u201d<\/p>\n He would go on to have a long retirement with many years of good health, Berta said. While he and Berta didn\u2019t have children, he had five from a previous marriage and would ultimately have 10 grandchildren.<\/p>\n He and Berta lived in the Sacramento area in retirement, though they also enjoyed traveling.<\/p>\n \u201cWe started putting our toes in the water,\u201d she said. \u201cWe went to Mexico a couple of times. We loved going to Hawaii, just the sunshine and the beaches. And then… we wanted to experience Europe, so we took some river cruises through France and Germany.\u201d<\/p>\n She noted that they also traveled to Scotland, England and Italy.<\/p>\n He appeared to remain, in his heart, a newsman and was a loyal print subscriber to The Bee. Berta had no problem disclosing her husband\u2019s cause of death, saying he had pneumonia and had trouble breathing. \u201cDick used to sometimes read the obituaries, he goes, \u2018I wonder what they died from?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Cusack noted a conversation she\u2019d had since Cable\u2019s passing with Berta. \u201cShe said he had had a rough night the night before he died, but he had got up and read the paper,\u201d Cusack said.<\/p>\n Aside from Berta, Cable is survived by a sister Elizabeth Brown, a brother Jonathan Cable and a sister Meredith Cable. He is also survived by his son Richard Cable, daughter Cynthia Davis, son Christopher Cable, son Scott Cable and daughter Margaret Cable.<\/p>\n Memorial arrangements for Cable are pending.<\/p>\n This story was originally published February 26, 2026 at 10:13 AM.<\/p>\n CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, Dick Cable\u2019s birthday was incorrect in a previous version of this story.<\/p>\n Corrected Feb 26, 2026<\/p>\n Related Stories from Modesto Bee<\/p>\n Dick Cable interviews then-Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1969. Courtesy
Dick Cable on the News10 set in 1991. LEILANI HU Sacramento Bee file Why Cable retired and what he did in retirement<\/p>\n
Dick Cable, former Channel 10 anchor, relaxes at home with his dog Ami in 1999. LEILANI HU Sacramento Bee file <\/p>\n
![\"Profile](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/SAC_4089_GrahamWomack_HA_250908.jpg\")