KTLA

Not to be confused with the NBC affiliate in Texarkana, Arkansas, KTAL.

KTLA

Los Angeles, California
Branding	KTLA 5 (general) (The) KTLA (5) News (newscasts)
Slogan	The Beat of Southern California
Channels	Digital: 31 (UHF) Virtual: 5 (PSIP)
Subchannels	5.1 The CW 5.2 Antenna TV 5.3 This TV
Translators	(see article)
Affiliations	The CW
Owner	Tribune Broadcasting (KTLA, LLC)
First air date	January 22, 1947
Call letters' meaning	K Television Los Angeles
Former channel number(s)	Analog: 5 (VHF, 1947-2009)
Former affiliations	DuMont (1947-1948) Independent (1948-1995) The WB (1995-2006)
Transmitter power	1000 kW
Height	948 m
Facility ID	35670
Transmitter coordinates	34°13′36″N 118°3′56″W
Website	www.ktla.com

KTLA, virtual channel 5 (digital channel 31), is the CW-affiliated television station in Los Angeles, California. Owned by the Tribune Company, which also owns the Los Angeles Times and has some news-sharing agreements between the newspaper and KTLA, the station's studios are located at the Sunset Bronson Studios on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Its transmitter is located atop Mount Wilson.

KTLA was the first commercially-licensed television station in the western United States, having begun operations in 1947. Although not as widespread in national carriage as its Chicago sister station WGN-TV, KTLA is available as a superstation throughout North America via Dish Network, as well as on cable providers in select cities within the southwestern United States and throughout Canada.

History

Experimental years

KTLA's first commercial station logo, from 1947, under Paramount ownership. This logo combines Paramount's mountain and stars logo with a TV transmitter.

Originally owned by Paramount Pictures subsidiary Television Productions, Inc., and located on the Paramount Studios lot, the station was licensed by the Federal Communications Commission in 1939 as experimental station W6XYZ, on channel 4, but did not go on the air until September 1942. Klaus Landsberg, already an accomplished television pioneer at the age of 26, was the original station manager and engineer. On January 22, 1947, it was licensed for commercial broadcast as KTLA on channel 5, becoming the first commercial television station in Los Angeles, the first to broadcast west of the Mississippi River, and the seventh in the United States. Estimates of television sets in the Los Angeles area at the time ranged from 350 to 600.

Bob Hope served as the emcee for KTLA's inaugural broadcast, which was broadcast that evening from a garage on the Paramount Studios lot. The program, titled as the "Western Premiere of Commercial Television", featured appearances from many Hollywood luminaries. Hope delivered what was perhaps the most famous line of the evening when, at the program's start, he identified the new station as "KTL" – mistakenly omitting the "A" at the end of the call sign. A 10-minute fragment from KTLA's first broadcast exists at the Paley Center for Media.

KTLA originally carried programming from Paramount's partner, DuMont, but it disaffiliated from the network in 1948. Despite this, the FCC still considered KTLA and its Chicago sister station WBKB (now WBBM-TV) to be DuMont owned-and-operated stations because Paramount held a minority stake in DuMont. As a result, the agency would not allow DuMont to buy additional VHF stations – a problem that would later play a large role in the failure of the DuMont network, whose programming was splintered among other Los Angeles stations until the network's demise in 1956. Paramount even launched a short-lived "Paramount Television Network" in 1948, with KTLA and WBKB as its flagship stations. The programming service never gelled into a true television network, but during KTLA's early years, the station produced over a dozen series syndicated in many parts of the U.S., including: Armchair Detective, Bandstand Revue, Dixie Showboat, Frosty Frolics, Hollywood Reel, Hollywood Wrestling, Latin Cruise, Movietown, RSVP, Olympic Wrestling, Sandy Dreams, and Time for Beany.

In 1958, KTLA moved to the Paramount Sunset Studios on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. For many years, those who have worked on Stage 6 at KTLA have been told that it was the site where Al Jolson's landmark film The Jazz Singer was shot in 1927, when the lot was known as the Warner Bros. Sunset Studios; Mark Evanier, who wrote for one such show in 1978, points out on his website that Stage 6 did not even exist at the time The Jazz Singer was produced and the actual location used was probably what is now Stage 9. The former Warner Bros./Paramount lot is now known as Sunset Bronson Studios, where shows such as WKRP in Cincinnati, Judge Judy, Hannah Montana, The Gong Show, Solid Gold, Name That Tune, Family Feud, The Newlywed Game, MADtv and Let's Make a Deal have been produced over the years and where KTLA's facility remains based to this day. KTLA is currently the only Los Angeles area broadcaster that is based in Hollywood as many other television and radio stations have moved to locations in other parts of the region.

Golden West Broadcasters

In 1964, KTLA was purchased by actor and singer Gene Autry and merged with his other broadcasting properties (including Los Angeles' KMPC radio) into an umbrella company, Golden West Broadcasters. During the 1970s, KTLA became one of the nation's first superstations, and was eventually carried on cable providers across much of the country west of the Mississippi.

In the late 1960s and 1970s, KTLA sought a different programming strategy from the competition. It would emphasize syndicated reruns of off-network programs (with a heavy emphasis on western-themed programs such as The Gene Autry Show), first-run talk shows, movies and sports programming. Children's programming, with the exception of weekend morning Popeye cartoons (which originally came from former parent Paramount, but had been sold off to what became the syndication arm of United Artists Television), were also phased out. It also launched a 10 p.m. newscast in the mid-1960s, the simply-titled News at Ten (also known over the years as The George Putnam News, NewsWatch and KTLA Prime News).

Acquisition by Tribune Broadcasting

In 1983, Golden West sold KTLA to investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts for $245 million. Only two years later, KKR sold the station to Tribune Broadcasting, for a then-record price of $510 million. Under Tribune, KTLA continued to acquire high rated off-network sitcoms as well as talk shows. In March 1991, KTLA was the first station to air the infamous video of the Rodney King beating by Los Angeles police.

In July 1991, KTLA debuted the first live, local morning newscast in the Los Angeles market, the KTLA Morning News, to compete with the network morning shows on KABC-TV, KCBS-TV and KNBC. At first, the program suffered from low ratings. However, the ability to cover breaking news live (as opposed to the network morning programs, which were aired on a three-hour tape delay) attracted more viewers to the program. As time went on, the KTLA Morning News has enjoyed great ratings success, generally ranking number one in its main 7-9 a.m. time period. The program's success spawned rival KTTV to launch its own local morning program, Good Day L.A., in 1993. From 1994 to 1995, the station aired gavel to gavel coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial anchored by Marta Waller (notably, this coverage was rebroadcast by other stations such as Portland, Oregon WB affiliate [and future Tribune sister station] KRCW-TV, then known as KWBP).

The WB comes to KTLA

On January 11, 1995, KTLA became a charter affiliate of The WB Television Network, in which station parent Tribune Company held a minority ownership stake (initially 12.5%, which later expanded to 22%). That fall, KTLA added afternoon cartoons from Kids' WB, bringing weekday children's programs back to channel 5 for the first time in many years.

KTLA's Halo logo, used from 2005 to 2009; The CW logo and "5" were added in 2006.

Tribune Company purchased the Times-Mirror Company (then-owners of the Los Angeles Times) in 2000, bringing the newspaper into common ownership with channel 5; ironically, the Los Angeles Times was the original owner of Fox owned-and-operated station KTTV from 1949 (under a joint venture with CBS through 1951) until it sold the station to Fox Television Stations predessor Metromedia in 1963. KTLA launched a new branding campaign in January 2005, that omitted all references to its over-the-air channel 5 position (although the references returned after the station became a CW affiliate the following year). The new look included a new logo, and changed its branding to KTLA, The WB.

KTLA joins The CW

On January 24, 2006, Time Warner and CBS Corporation announced that they would partner to launch The CW Television Network, as a replacement for The WB and UPN, initially featuring a mix of programs carried over from those two networks and newer series. Through a ten-year affiliation agreement with the network that saw all except three of Tribune's 19 WB affiliates join The CW, KTLA became the Los Angeles affiliate of the new network. The station rebranded itself as "KTLA 5, The CW" on September 17, 2006 after The Night of Favorites and Farewells.

On January 22, 2007, KTLA celebrated its 60th anniversary of continuous broadcasting. Two days later, on January 24, 2007, KTLA became the first television entity to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In addition to the station itself, six other individuals associated with the station – former owner Gene Autry, newsmen Hal Fishman, George Putnam, Stan Chambers and Larry McCormick, and KTLA founder Klaus Landsberg – have received stars on the Walk of Fame. In addition, KTLA continued its celebration on the weekend after Thanksgiving by airing a 60-hour marathon of classic shows that aired on KTLA in the past such as The Honeymooners, The Jack Benny Program, The Little Rascals, Wonder Woman and Peter Gunn. KTLA also aired retrospectives of historic Los Angeles news stories during its weekend newscasts, until November 24 due to coverage of the Corral Canyon fire in Malibu.

KTLA tower on Sunset Boulevard in 2007.

On February 14, 2008, the Tribune Company sold Tribune Studios and related real estate in Los Angeles to Hudson Capital LLC for $125 million, with the studio lot adopting the current Sunset Bronson name following the sale. There had been speculation that KTLA might move into the Los Angeles Times Building in Downtown Los Angeles, combining operations and staff with the Los Angeles Times newspaper; this arrangement is also used by two other Tribune combined newspaper/broadcast operations; Miami's WSFL-TV is based out of the offices of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, while WTIC-TV/WTXX moved into new facilities in the Hartford Courant building in December 2009.

On October 14, 2009, KTLA unveiled a new logo and a redesigned news set, bringing back the classic stylized number "5" previously used by the station from 1981 to 1997, and eliminating The CW network logo from regular usage (though it is still used in promotions for network programs). The "LA" in the KTLA callsign is in bold lettering to emphasize the station's Los Angeles location and coverage area, similar to a previous logo used from 1997 to 2005.

Digital television

Digital channels

Channel	Video	Aspect	PSIP Short Name	Programming
5.1	1080i	16:9	KTLA-DT	Main KTLA programming / The CW
5.2	480i	4:3	Antenna	Antenna TV
5.3			This TV	This TV

Analog-to-digital conversion

As part of the digital television transition, KTLA shut down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009. Veteran newsman Stan Chambers, who was hired by KTLA almost a year after its launch in 1947 and remained there for more than six decades, was given the honor of "throwing" a ceremonial mock switch from the analog to digital position, signaling the engineers to shut down the analog signal at its Mount Wilson transmitter site at 10:45 p.m., during that night's telecast of the KTLA Prime News. Covering the on-air event for KTLA was Stan's grandson, reporter Jaime Chambers. KTLA continued to broadcast on its pre-transition digital channel 31 using PSIP to display its virtual channel as its former analog channel 5.

Although no mention was made of it beforehand, the analog signal temporarily returned to the air 15 minutes later at 11 p.m. to air an analog nightlight video, joining KCBS-TV and KNBC in the post-transition practice. KCBS-TV and sister station KCAL-TV cut their analog signals earlier in the day (1:10 p.m.) while KNBC's analog signal switched to the nightlight video during the station's 11 a.m. newscast.

Programming

Today, KTLA is a typical network affiliate, running a blend of syndicated shows and local newscasts, in addition to primetime and Saturday morning programs from The CW. Syndicated programs seen on KTLA include Maury, Friends, Two and a Half Men and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. KTLA also broadcasts the annual Tournament of Roses Parade from Pasadena as well. The station has aired the Rose Parade since 1948, and while other local stations also broadcast the parade over the years, KTLA remains the sole English-language outlet in the Los Angeles area to continuously broadcast the event. The station also served as host broadcaster of the Hollywood Christmas Parade, which was later syndicated to all Tribune-owned stations.

Sports programming

From 1964 to 1995, the station was the broadcast television home of the Los Angeles/California Angels baseball team, which was also owned by Autry. KTLA carried select Los Angeles Lakers games from the early- to mid-1970s. KTLA was the over-the-air home of the [[Los Angeles Clippers] from 1985 to 1991, and again in 2002 to 2009. Channel 5 also held the local broadcast television rights to Los Angeles Dodgers games from 1993 to 2001.

News operation

KTLA 10 p.m. newscast title card.

KTLA presently broadcasts 56 hours of locally-produced newscasts each week (with nine hours on weekdays, four hours on Saturdays and seven hours on Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the largest local newscast output among Los Angeles' broadcast television stations, beating Fox-owned KTTV's weekly news total by 9½ hours and that station's weekday news total by a half-hour. It is also the second-highest weekly newscast output among Tribune Broadcasting's television stations, falling behind Indianapolis Fox affiliate WXIN by four hours.

KTLA's news department is located inside the former Warner Bros. Cartoons studio at the corner of Van Ness and Fernwood in Hollywood. Although KTLA does not cover police pursuits as much as other stations, it has put more emphasis in local crime stories, as opposed to politics, health and other serious news. KTLA has also created synergy between Tribune Company entities. For example, entertainment reporter Sam Rubin is often seen on WGN-TV in Chicago. Los Angeles Times columnist Dave Lazarus also frequently reports on consumer stories from the paper's headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles.

For many years, Channel 5's news department was considered the benchmark of Los Angeles television. Its evening news program was often serious and no-nonsense in nature and has received many awards and distinctions. KTLA news anchors Hal Fishman, Larry McCormick and George Putnam became icons in Los Angeles television news over the years. Accompanying his news anchoring career, McCormick also hosted a public affairs program for KTLA called Making It!, which featured stories on the entrepreneurial successes of ethnic minorities. Its veteran field reporters have included Stan Chambers (who had been with the station since after its 1947 inception until his retirement in 2010) and Warren Wilson. Stu Nahan, Keith Olbermann and Ed Arnold (now anchor of KOCE-TV's Real Orange) were formerly the sports anchors. In 1958, KTLA began operating a well-equipped helicopter for newsgathering known as the "Telecopter", and was the most advanced airborne television broadcast device of its time; it was ultimately sold to another Los Angeles station, KNBC, which flew the Telecopter with pilot Francis Gary Powers and cameraman George Spears until its fatal crash on August 1, 1977.

The station briefly ran a midday newscast at noon beginning around 1995, but it was cancelled in 1997. In recent years, KTLA's newscasts have become more tabloid-based in nature, perhaps to compete with KTTV. Both stations have rivaled each other in the ratings for many years. As part of the change, KTLA has placed more emphasis on entertainment news, and has featured personalities such as Mindy Burbano Stearns, Zorianna Kitt, Ross King and most recently Jessica Holmes as entertainment reporters. In 2004, KTLA debuted a segment on its morning newscast titled "The Audition", in which several actors and actresses competed for a role as weathercaster on its 10 p.m. newscast. Ross King was the winner of the first installment, followed by Jessica Holmes as the winner of the second installment (Holmes now serves as co-anchor of the 9 a.m. hour of the KTLA Morning News).

On January 13, 2007, KTLA became the second Los Angeles television station to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition (after KABC-TV). On July 30, 2007, Hal Fishman anchored what would be his final news broadcast for KTLA. Following several days of hospitalization for a liver infection, Fishman died on August 7, 2007. KTLA's newscasts that day were dedicated to Fishman, for whom the station dedicated its news studio in 2000. After Fishman's passing, longtime Morning Show co-host Carlos Amezcua became the interim co-anchor on the 10 p.m. newscast. Local media speculated that Amezcua would become a full-time 10 p.m. anchor, but on September 4, Amezcua announced his departure from KTLA to replace John Beard as co-anchor of KTTV's 10 p.m. newscast,. Morning co-anchor Emmett Miller took over as interim evening anchor, and was named as Fishman's permanent replacement on December 4.

After former KCBS/KCAL general manager Don Corsini was appointed as KTLA's president and general manager in January 2009, the station's local news programming underwent an expansion that year. On January 19, KTLA soft-launched a nightly half-hour 6:30 p.m. newscast (the market's first since KCAL-TV and KCBS-TV ran newscasts in that slot – KCBS's being part of an hour-long 6 p.m. newscast – during the mid-1990s, prior to CBS's 2002 purchase of KCAL). Then on April 1, 2009, the KTLA Morning News was expanded by a half-hour to start at 4:30 a.m., and an hour-long midday newscast at 1 p.m. debuted. On April 4, the weekend edition of the 6:30 p.m. newscast expanded to a full hour at 6 p.m., with the 6:30 p.m. weekday newscasts following suit that September. Shortly afterward, KTLA expanded the station's traffic reports to the afternoon and evening newscasts (the weekday edition of the Morning News utilizes a dedicated traffic anchor, while traffic reports for all other newscasts are done by channel 5's on-air weather staff).

In April 2011, KTLA added weekend morning newscasts (an hour-long newscast at 6 a.m. on Saturdays, which expanded to two hours at 5 a.m. in September 2012, and a three-hour Sunday newscast at 6 a.m.; the Saturday morning edition airs in the early timeslot on Saturdays due to The CW's Vortexx animation block). In August 2011, KTLA added a two-hour expanded primetime newscast titled the KTLA 5 Sunday Edition from 8-10 p.m. on Sunday evenings, leading into that night's 10 p.m. newscast. On February 2, 2012, KTLA expanded the weekday edition of the KTLA Morning News to begin at 4 a.m.

Controversies

• In 2004, People and Hollywood Reporter entertainment writer Zorianna Kit was hired as an on-air reporter despite having no television news experience (Kit had previously served as a panelist on the short-lived TV series Movie Club with John Ridley). Kit then raised ethical questions in January 2005 when she made an on-air criticism of Brad Grey's appointment as the head of Paramount Pictures, without disclosing that her husband, producer Bo Zenga, had sued Grey over profits from the film Scary Movie. The issue was reported in the Los Angeles Times and in mid-January, Kit apologized on-air. She left KTLA in July 2005.
• In January 2006, KTLA management came under fire for changing the hosts for the station's annual broadcast of the Tournament of Roses Parade. Stephanie Edwards, who emceed the parade for nearly three decades with Bob Eubanks, was moved out of the booth and became a street reporter (being replaced in the booth by Michaela Pereira). The move was widely seen as insensitive and created a storm of controversy, including a scathing Times column by Patt Morrison. This situation was made worse by the fact that it was raining that day, and Edwards was forced to stay out in the rain. Pereira fully replaced Edwards in 2007, though in September 2008, KTLA management announced that Edwards would resume co-hosting duties with Eubanks for the parade's 2009 telecast.
• In February 2006, the Pasadena Star-News reported that three KTLA personalities – Carlos Amezcua, Sam Rubin and Michaela Pereira – accepted free rooms at the recently renovated Ritz-Carlton Huntington Hotel and Spa in Pasadena. The station was broadcasting an entire Morning News broadcast from Pasadena, although the hotel was not specifically mentioned. Still, it was widely seen as a significant ethical lapse, one that violated Tribune Company guidelines.
• On March 4, 2006, the Times reported that Michaela Pereira had accepted $10,000 worth of furniture for her Pasadena home. The furnishings, delivered in September 2005, were to be part of an unaired "Extreme Home Makeover" segment on the Morning News. The furniture company was never paid, stating that it was under the impression that the work was in exchange for favorable coverage.
• In a 2007 MSNBC.com investigation into partisan journalists and newspersons who donate to political parties and causes, KTLA news writer Diana Chi was found to have donated to the Republican National Committee 19 times between 2002 and 2006.
• In June 2009, the Los Angeles Times reported that anchor Lu Parker began a relationship with Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in March of that year. KTLA management was reportedly unaware of this until May 2009. Parker reported several stories on Villaraigosa's political future before being reassigned.

News/station presentation

Newscast titles

• Newsroom (1939–1947; as W6XYZ)
• Telenews/Newsreel (1947–1955)
• The News Live on 5 (1955–1962)
• Newspicture 5:30 (1962–1966)
• Big 5 News (1966–1969)
• The News (1969–1973)
• (The) George Putnam News (1973–1975)
• News Watch (1975–1977)
• (Channel 5/KTLA/KTLA 5) News at Ten (1977–2005 and 2009–present)
• KTLA Morning News (1991–2006 and 2008–present)
• KTLA Prime News (2005–2009)
• KTLA 5 Morning Show (2006–2008; formerly used for the 7-10 a.m. portion of the news)
• KTLA 5 News (2009–present)

Station slogans

• "The Number One Prime Time News Hour" (1969–1995)
• "L.A.'s Very Own" (1990–1993; variant of sister station WGN-TV's slogan "Chicago's Very Own")
• "KTLA 5, L.A.'s WB" (1995–2004)
• "where _LA lives" (2005–2009)
• "L.A.'s Local News Leader" (2009–2010)
• "Get Connected" (2010–2011)
• "The Beat of Southern California" (2012–present)

On-air staff

Current on-air staff

Anchors

• Frank Buckley - weekday mornings on KTLA Morning News (7-9 a.m.)
• Chris Burrous - weekend mornings on KTLA Morning News; also weekday reporter
• Cher Calvin - weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
• Rick Chambers - weekends at 6 and 10 p.m., and Sunday evenings on KTLA 5 Sunday Edition (8-10 p.m.); also weekday reporter
• Megan Henderson - weekday mornings on KTLA Morning News (4-7 a.m.)
• Jessica Holmes - weekday mornings on KTLA Morning News (9-10 a.m.) and weekdays at 1 p.m.; also weekday entertainment reporter and weekday morning fill-in anchor
• Mary Beth McDade - weekends at 6 and 10 p.m., and Sunday evenings on KTLA 5 Sunday Edition (8-10 p.m.); also weekday reporter and fill-in weekend weather anchor
• Micah Ohlman - weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
• Lu Parker - weekend mornings on KTLA Morning News; also weekday reporter
• Michaela Pereira - weekday mornings on KTLA Morning News (7-10 a.m.)
• Chris Schauble - weekday mornings on KTLA Morning News (4-7 a.m.)
• Glen Walker - weekdays at 1 p.m.; also reporter

5 LIVE Weather / 5 LIVE Traffic

• Jim Castillo (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist/traffic anchor; Wednesday-Fridays at 1, weekends at 6, 6:30 and 10 p.m., and Sunday evenings on KTLA 5 Sunday Edition (8-10 p.m.)
• Ginger Chan - traffic anchor; weekday mornings on KTLA Morning News (4-10 a.m.)
• Liberte Chan - weather and traffic anchor; weekend mornings on KTLA Morning News, and Mondays and Tuesdays at 1 p.m.; also weekday repoter
• Henry Dicarlo (AMS Seal of Approval) - meteorologist/traffic anchor; weekday mornings on KTLA Morning News (4-7 a.m.)
• Vera Jimenez - meteorologist and traffic anchor; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
• Mark Kriski - weather and traffic anchor; weekday mornings on KTLA Morning News (7-10 a.m.)

Sports team

• Derrin Horton - sports anchor; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.
• Steve Hartman - sports anchor; fill-in, also sports reporter
• Rebecca Hall - sports anchor; weekends at 6 and 10 p.m., and Sunday evenings on KTLA 5 Sunday Edition (8-10 p.m.)

Reporters

• Gayle Anderson - weekday mornings and 1 p.m. feature reporter ("Gayle on the Go")
• Wendy Burch - general assignment reporter; also fill-in anchor
• Stefan Chase - general assignment reporter
• Carolyn Costello - general assignment reporter; also fill-in anchor
• Rich DeMuro - technology reporter
• Elizabeth Espinosa - general assignment reporter
• Jennifer Gould - general assignment reporter (wife of weekday morning weather anchor Mark Kriski)
• Terra Hall - general assignment reporter
• Jane King - NYSE business reporter
• Doug Kolk - general assignment reporter
• David Lazarus - consumer reporter; also columnist for the Los Angeles Times
• Allie MacKay - general assignment and "Allie at Work" feature reporter
• Dave Mecham - general assignment reporter
• Manny Medrano - "Inside the Law" reporter
• Jim Nash - general assignment reporter
• Christina Pascucci - general assignment reporter
• Lynette Romero - general assignment reporter; also fill-in anchor
• Sam Rubin - entertainment reporter
• Eric Spillman - weekday morning reporter; also fill-in anchor
• Sara Welch - general assignment reporter
• Chris Wolfe - general assignment reporter
• Chip Yost - Orange County bureau reporter

Sky 5 HD

• Mark Kono - pilot/reporter; weekday mornings KTLA Morning News (5-10 a.m.; husband of weekday morning traffic reporter Ginger Chan)
• Tim Lynn - pilot/reporter; weeknights at 6 and 10 p.m.

Notable former on-air staff

• Carlos Amezcua (now with KTTV)
• Asha Blake
• Jann Carl (later with Entertainment Tonight)
• Stan Chambers (retired)
• Richard de Mille (deceased)
• Tom Duggan (deceased)
• Dick Enberg (now doing play-by-play for the San Diego Padres, and sports anchor for CBS Sports)
• Giselle Fernández
• Hal Fishman (deceased)
• Lissette Gonzalez
• Tom Harmon (deceased)
• Tom Hatten
• Desiree Horton
• Brad Johnson - announcer and stage manager; also played Deputy Lofty Craig on the syndicated series Annie Oakley (deceased)
• Ross King
• Dick Lane (deceased)
• Dave Malkoff (now at The Weather Channel)
• Rory Markas (deceased)
• Larry McCormick (deceased)
• Brett Miller
• Emmett Miller
• Jim Newman
• Keith Olbermann
• Stu Nahan (deceased)
• Ron Olsen
• George Putnam (deceased)
• Victoria Recano
• Clete Roberts (deceased)
• Brandon Rudat
• Michele Ruiz
• Willa Sandmeyer
• Bob Starr (deceased)
• Bill Stout (deceased)
• Tom Snyder (deceased)
• Sharon Tay (now with KCBS/KCAL)
• Marta Waller
• Jane Wells (now with CNBC)
• Warren Wilson
• Jennifer York

Rebroadcasters

KTLA is rebroadcast on the following translator stations:

List of translators 

California translators
City	Callsign
Daggett	K35BQ
Lucerne Valley	K48AD
Morongo Valley	K40HX
Newberry Springs	K03EK
Ridgecrest	K05FO K39HT-D
Twentynine Palms	K16FI K29GK
Colorado translators
City	Callsign
Cortez, Colorado	K29GO
Peetz, Colorado	K32EX
Sterling, Colorado	K58GH

In popular culture

• KTLA gained a bit of notoriety among fans of the television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 on November 30, 1991 with the airing of their mockery of the movie War of the Colossal Beast. In the movie, there are scenes of a KTLA news anchor predicting where the title character Glen Manning will end up next. That anchor is the real KTLA reporter Stan Chambers. The anchor ends up pronouncing the station's call letters as "KIT-lah". In a skit segment later in the show, Joel Robinson, portrayed by Joel Hodgson, mocks the anchor's "KTLA Predicts" style of newsreading and parodies The Amazing Criswell. The phrase "KTLA Predicts" became a catchphrase among fans of the show.
• During the 1950s, while Paramount owned the station, that company was also producing Popeye cartoons. In one cartoon, "Punch and Judo" (1951), Popeye's nephews turn on their television to "chanel number 5" (not the perfume, but channel 5 – KTLA).
• KTLA has also been featured in other media (usually with its newscasts). Hal Fishman was featured reporting for Channel 5 News at Ten in the movie Malibu's Most Wanted. In one scene in the 2002 movie Showtime, the KTLA SkyCam 5 (later renamed the KTLA HD Telecopter, now renamed to Sky 5 HD) was seen among a group of helicopters surrounding the Bonaventure Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles.
• A fictionalized version of KTLA is seen on occasion on the Nickelodeon TV show Big Time Rush. It is identified as KULA and is seen on channel 6 instead of 5.
• Another fictionalized version of KTLA is seen in the movie Blue Thunder. It is identified as KBLA and is seen on channel 8 not 5.
• In the film Friends with Benefits, Dylan (Justin Timberlake), and Jamie (Mila Kunis) appear in a news story seen on KTLA.

External links

• KTLA.com - Official website for KTLA
• KTLA.ThisTV.com - Official website for KTLA-DT3 ("This TV Los Angeles")
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KTLA
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on KTLA-TV
• Program Information for KTLA at TitanTV.com
• "Look Out, W6XAO, Here Comes Paramount" Metropolitan News-Enterprise column on KTLA when it broadcast as experimental TV station W6XYZ, taking on the sole existing experimental station in L.A. (now KCBS).
• "A Tale of Two Stations" Metropolitan News-Enterprise column on operations in the 1940s of the stations that are now KTLA, Channel 5 (then W6XYZ, Channel 4) and KCBS, Channel 2 (then W6XAO, Channel 1)
• KTLA archived television icons, 1942-1972
• KTLA logos and screenshots from the 1950s to the present day