KTLA Morning News
The KTLA Morning News is a morning television newscast airing on CW affiliate KTLA (channel 5) in Los Angeles, California. The program is broadcast weekday mornings from 4:30-10 a.m. The 4:30-7 a.m. portion is a general news/traffic/weather format; the 7-10 a.m. portion also features news, traffic and weather, but emphasizes entertainment and other light-hearted stories.
The 7-10 a.m. portion of the program was simulcast on its San Diego sister station KSWB-TV (channel 69, owned by KTLA's parent company Tribune Broadcasting) from March 2005 until July 29, 2008 (under the name The WB Morning Show, and then to The CW Morning Show upon becoming a CW affiliate); KSWB later relaunched an in-house news department on August 1, 2008, after switching its affiliation from The CW to Fox and debuted its own locally-produced morning newscast on the date of the affiliation switch.
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[edit] History
The program began on July 8, 1991 as The KTLA Morning News[1][2], anchored by Carlos Amezcua and Barbara Beck, with weathercaster Mark Kriski, and Eric Spillman and Michele Ruiz reporting from remote locations. It was created under the direction of then-general manager Steve Bell[3] and produced by Raymond J. Brune. The show's emphasis was mostly on news, with very little on lighter features. With the emphasis on hard news, the show received poor ratings and some negative reviews.[4] Near the end of 1991, Joel Tator, a new executive producer, had been brought in to help revive the show, by giving the show a more relaxed atmosphere by spreading out newspapers on the desk. The anchors, feeling that the show was in its final weeks, also relaxed and they started joking around.
The critical moment for the Morning News came in February 1992, when a series of rain storms hit the Southland, causing severe flooding in the San Fernando Valley. At that time, the only other news programs on in the morning were the morning news shows on ABC (Good Morning America), NBC (Today) and CBS (CBS This Morning), which were all broadcast on a three-hour tape delay in the Pacific Time Zone, with limited live coverage during the local news segments. Filling a need, KTLA set aside its normal programming and provided extensive coverage of the flooding. That brought in large numbers of Southland viewers; once the flood crisis ended, the viewers stayed with the show. And as a result, ratings improved dramatically.
Another critical moment for the Morning News occurred on January 17, 1994, when the Northridge earthquake rocked the area, causing widespread damage, collapsing freeways, sparked power outages, ruptured water and gas lines, prompted the stoppage of television and film production and altered public events and flight schedules, due to precaution closures in Hollywood and Los Angeles International Airport. The quake almost trashed the KTLA newsroom when reporters Eric Spillman, Larry McCormick, Stan Chambers and Michele Ruiz were producing special reports throughout the morning.
With the new relaxed atmosphere and a need to provide live, local news when the other stations could not, the show survived. The program continued to succeed even as the newscast saw new competition with the debut of Good Day LA on Fox-owned KTTV (channel 11) in July 1993.[5] Around 1998, Michele Ruiz left for NBC-owned KNBC (channel 4) and Jim Newman also left for ABC-owned KABC (channel 7). On May 2, 2001 Barbara Beck resigned from KTLA[6], and Giselle Fernandez later became co-anchor. In 2003, Giselle Fernandez left and was replaced by Michaela Pereira.[7][8] In September 2007, Carlos Amezcua left KTLA for KTTV to replace John Beard on that station's 10 p.m. newscast.[9]
On February 4, 2008, KTLA changed the titles of each portion of its morning newscasts. The 5 a.m. hour (called First Edition) was renamed KTLA Morning News @ 5. The 6 a.m. hour (called Early Edition) was renamed KTLA Morning News @ 6. The KTLA Morning Show reverted back to its original title as the KTLA Morning News, while the 9 a.m. hour became known as KTLA Morning News @ 9. In April 2011, KTLA added a weekend morning extension of the newscast, airing on Saturdays from 6-7 a.m. (airing in the early time slot due to The CW's Toonzai animation block), and on Sundays from 6-9 a.m.; it is currently anchored by Chris Burrous and Wendy Burch. The addition made KTLA the fourth Tribune-owned station to carry a weekend morning newscast (the others being fellow CW affiliate WGN-TV in Chicago, and Fox affiliates WXIN in Indianapolis and WTIC-TV in Hartford).[10]
[edit] Personalities
[edit] Current on-air staff
[edit] KTLA Morning News at 4:30 (4:30-5 a.m.)
- Chris Schauble - co-anchor
- Megan Henderson - co-anchor
- Henry Dicarlo - meteorologist
- Ginger Chan - traffic reporter (KTLA Traffic Center)
[edit] KTLA Morning News at 5 (5-6 a.m.)
- Chris Schauble - co-anchor
- Megan Henderson - co-anchor
- Henry Dicarlo - meteorologist
- Ginger Chan - traffic reporter (KTLA Traffic Center)
[edit] KTLA Morning News at 6 (6-7 a.m.)
- Chris Schauble - co-anchor
- Megan Henderson - co-anchor
- Henry Dicarlo - meteorologist
- Sam Rubin - entertainment reporter
- Ginger Chan - traffic reporter (KTLA Traffic Center)
- Mark Kono - traffic reporter ("KTLA Telecopter HD")
[edit] KTLA Morning News at 7 (7-9 a.m.)
- Michaela Pereira - co-anchor
- Frank Buckley - co-anchor
- Mark Kriski - weather anchor
- Sam Rubin - entertainment reporter
- Ginger Chan - traffic reporter (KTLA Traffic Center)
- Mark Kono - traffic reporter ("KTLA Telecopter HD")
[edit] KTLA Morning News at 9 (9-10 a.m.)
- Michaela Pereira - co-host
- Jessica Holmes - co-host
- Frank Buckley - news updates
- Mark Kriski - weather anchor
- Sam Rubin - entertainment reporter
[edit] KTLA Weekend Morning News
- Chris Burrous - Co-anchor, Weather Anchor, and Traffic Reporter
- Wendy Burch - Co-anchor
[edit] Reporters
- Gayle Anderson - 7-9 a.m. field reporter and "Watercooler Buzz" contributor (9-10 a.m.)
- Wendy Burch - 7-9 a.m. field reporter and "Watercooler Buzz" contributor (9-10 a.m.)
- Rich Demuro - technology reporter
- Jennifer Gould - 4:30- 10 a.m. field reporter
- Mark Kriski - weather anchor and "Watercooler Buzz" contributor (9-10 a.m.)
- Roger Lodge - sports talk 6 and 7 a.m.
- Allie MacKay - 7-9 a.m. field reporter
- Lynnete Romero 7-9 a.m. field reporter
- Sam Rubin - 7-9 a.m. entertainment reporter and "Watercooler Buzz" contributor (9-10 a.m.)
- Eric Spillman - 7-9 a.m. field reporter
- Note: Sam Rubin, Mark Kriski and Eric Spillman are the only holdovers left from the original team of the show.
[edit] Notable former staff
- Carlos Amezcua - original anchor (now with KTTV)
- Barbara Beck - original anchor
- Asha Blake
- Cher Calvin (now weeknight anchor at KTLA)
- Elizabeth Espinosa (now reporter for the 1 and 6:30 p.m. newscasts on KTLA)
- Giselle Fernandez
- Lu Parker
- Michele Ruiz (now founder and CEO of SaberHacer.com)
- Sharon Tay (now with KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV)
[edit] See also
- WGN Morning News - a morning news and entertainment program on sister station WGN-TV in Chicago, Illinois.
[edit] References
- ^ KTLA A.M. News Off to Slick Start, Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 12-10-2010.
- ^ Television, Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 12-10-2010.
- ^ Steve Bell, 66; Executive at KTLA-TV Launched Brash Morning News Show, Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 12-10-2010.
- ^ Memo to 'KTLA Morning News'--You Blew It, Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 12-10-2010.
- ^ They Carry a Big Shtick; Television: KTTV is pitting 'Good Day, L.A.' against 'The KTLA Morning News.' So far, there's no contest., Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 12-10-2010.
- ^ Barbara Beck Leaves KTLA in Reported Dispute, Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 12-10-2010.
- ^ Fernandez to leave KTLA, Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 12-10-2010.
- ^ [1]
- ^ KTLA morning news anchor jumps ship for slot at rival KTTV, Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 12-10-2010.
- ^ KTLA Channel 5 expands morning news block to weekends, Los Angeles Times, March 25, 2011. Retrieved April 19, 2011.
