Alan Styles Kaul, 64; NBC News producer based in Burbank

Alan Styles Kaul, 64, a veteran news producer for NBC News based in Burbank, died Dec. 22 at the USC-Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center after a long battle with colorectal cancer, fellow NBC producer Cecilia Alvear said.

During a career that spanned 33 years with NBC News, Kaul produced hundreds of stories for the “NBC Nightly News,” the “Today Show” and the MSNBC cable network.

Born and raised in Spokane, Wash., Kaul was educated at Whitworth College and the University of Washington. He began his TV news career in Spokane before moving on to Seattle.

In the early 1970s, Kaul was hired by KNBC-TV Channel 4 in Los Angeles as a news producer. In 1980, Kaul became the West Coast producer for the “NBC Nightly News” with Tom Brokaw. In 1985 he was sent to Jordan as Middle East bureau chief for NBC News and in 1990 Kaul returned to Los Angeles.

He covered the 1979-81 U.S. hostage crisis in Iran, the 1980 presidential campaign, numerous national political conventions and several Olympics.

Kaul was a technical advisor on the 1979 movie “The China Syndrome” and briefly appeared in the film as a TV control room director.

An amateur radio operator, Kaul worked with former CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite on a 2003 documentary, “Amateur Radio Today,” about the communications role that ham radio operators play in emergencies.