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KCBS-TV (channel 2) is a
television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
in
Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
, United States, serving as the
West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...
flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...
of the CBS network. It is
owned and operated In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...
by the network's
CBS News and Stations CBS News and Stations (formerly CBS Television Stations) is a division of the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global that owns and operates a group of American television stations. , Paramount owns 28 stations, broken down as follows: ...
division alongside
independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...
outlet
KCAL-TV KCAL-TV (channel 9) is an independent television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS West Coast flagship KCBS-TV (channel 2). Both stations share studios at the C ...
(channel 9). Both stations share studios at the
CBS Studio Center Radford Studio Center, alternatively CBS Studio Center, is a television and film studio located in the Studio City district of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley. The lot has 18 sound stages from , of office space, and 223 dressing rooms. T ...
on Radford Avenue in the Studio City section of Los Angeles, while KCBS-TV's
transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna (radio), antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which i ...
is located on the western side of Mount Wilson near Occidental Peak. Aside from being affiliated with
CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...
, since 2017, KCBS-TV has had no connection to KCBS radio (740 AM) in
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
. The 2017 sale to Entercom (now Audacy) of KCBS radio and KCBS-FM (93.1) in Los Angeles ended almost seven decades of co-ownership among the three stations under CBS.


History


Early years (1931–1948)

KCBS-TV is the oldest continuously operating television station in the western United States. It was signed on by Don Lee Broadcasting, which owned a chain of radio stations on the Pacific coast, and was first licensed by the Federal Radio Commission (FRC), forerunner of the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...
(FCC), as experimental television station W6XAO in June 1931. The station went on the air on December 23, 1931, and by March 1933 was broadcasting programming one hour each day on Mondays through Saturdays. The station used a mechanical camera, which broadcast only film footage in an 80-line image, but used all-electronic receivers as early as 1932. It went off the air in 1935, and then reappeared using an improved mechanical camera producing a 300-line image in June 1936. By August 1937, W6XAO had programming six days each week, with live programming starting in April 1938. By 1939, the station used a fully electronic system and the image quality was improved to
441 lines __NOTOC__ Year 441 ( CDXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Seleucus without colleague (or, less frequently, year ...
. At the time, an optimistic estimate of the station's viewership was 1,500 people. Many of the receiver sets were built by television hobbyists, though commercially made sets were available in Los Angeles. The station's six-day weekly schedule consisted of live talent on four nights, and
films A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
on two nights. By 1942, there were an estimated 400–500 television sets in the Los Angeles area, with Don Lee Broadcasting placing television receivers at the following public places: Wilshire
Brown Derby Brown Derby was a chain of restaurants in Los Angeles, California. The first and best known was shaped like a derby hat, an iconic image that became synonymous with the Golden Age of Hollywood. It was opened by Wilson Mizner in 1926. The chain ...
, Kiefer's Pine Knot Drive-In, Vine Street Brown Derby,
Griffith Planetarium Griffith Observatory is an observatory in Los Angeles, California on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood in Griffith Park. It commands a view of the Los Angeles Basin including Downtown Los Angeles to the southeast, Hollywood to the south, ...
,
Miramar Hotel Miramar Hotel and Investment Company Limited (Miramar Group) () () is a group with a diversified service-oriented business portfolio comprising hotels and serviced apartments, property rental, food and beverage, and travel services in Hong Kong a ...
( Santa Monica), Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and The Town House on Wilshire Boulevard. During World War II, programming was reduced to three hours, every other Monday. The station's frequency was switched from Channel 1 to Channel 2 in March 1946 when the FCC decided to reserve Channel 1 for low-power community television stations, before eliminating it completely. The station was granted a commercial license (the second in California, behind
KTLA KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is the seco ...
) as KM2XBD, but calling it KTSL, on May 6, 1948 (and officially changed the call sign to KTSL on October 9, 1950), and was named for Thomas S. Lee, the son of Don Lee. The station became affiliated with the
DuMont Television Network The DuMont Television Network (also known as the DuMont Network, DuMont Television, simply DuMont/Du Mont, or (incorrectly) Dumont ) was one of America's pioneer commercial television networks, rivaling NBC and CBS for the distinction of being ...
later that year. KTSL also launched Peter Potter's '' Jukebox Jury'' that year, a musical/quiz series that began to be broadcast nationally during the 1953–1954 season on
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
. Many later well-known entertainers appeared on the program to judge the latest releases from the recording companies.


CBS acquisition (1949–1984)

Starting in 1949, CBS had been affiliated with KTTV (channel 11, now a
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
owned-and-operated station), a station in which the network held a 49% minority ownership stake. Don Lee's broadcasting interests were placed for sale in 1950 following the death of Thomas S. Lee. General Tire and Rubber agreed to purchase all of Don Lee's stations, the centerpiece being KHJ radio, but chose to spin-off KTSL to CBS. Subsequently, CBS sold its share in KTTV to the station's majority partner, the ''
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'', and all CBS programming moved to KTSL on January 1, 1951. On October 28, 1951, KTSL changed its callsign to KNXT (presumably meaning "KNX Television") to coincide with CBS' Los Angeles radio outlet,
KNX KNX is an open standard (see EN 50090, ISO/IEC 14543) for commercial and domestic building automation. KNX devices can manage lighting, blinds and shutters, HVAC, security systems, energy management, audio video, white goods, displays, remote ...
(1070 AM). The station also moved its transmitter from Mount Lee, where it had been based since its experimental days, to Mount Wilson.


As KCBS-TV (1984–present)

On April 2, 1984, at noon, KNXT changed its call letters to the present KCBS-TV. The former KNXT call letters were later used by an unrelated TV station (now KIFR) in Fresno from 1986 to 2021. In 1997, it adopted the "CBS2" moniker for its on-air image, following the lead of sister stations
WBBM-TV WBBM-TV (channel 2) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the CBS network. Owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division, the station maintains studios on West Washington Stre ...
in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
and
WCBS-TV WCBS-TV (channel 2) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Riverhead, New York–licensed independent station WL ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. For a time during the 1980s and 1990s, KNXT/KCBS-TV had several locally produced programs such as ''2 on the Town'', a local show similar to ''
Evening Magazine ''Evening Magazine'' is the name of various news and entertainment-style local television shows in different markets. Concept On August 9, 1976, Westinghouse (Group W) Broadcasting-owned KPIX in San Francisco debuted a locally-produced magazin ...
'' and KABC-TV's ''Eye on L.A.'', and ''KidQuiz'', a Saturday morning children's
game show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or Let's Play, demonstrative and are typically directed b ...
hosted by longtime weathercaster Maclovio Perez (for a time in the mid-2000s, its sister station KCAL-TV had broadcast a show called ''9 on the Town''). In 2002, KCBS-TV became a sister station to KCAL-TV after the latter was purchased by
Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...
from Young Broadcasting. On April 21, 2007, KCBS and KCAL moved from the historic CBS Columbia Square in
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...
to an all-digital facility at the
CBS Studio Center Radford Studio Center, alternatively CBS Studio Center, is a television and film studio located in the Studio City district of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley. The lot has 18 sound stages from , of office space, and 223 dressing rooms. T ...
in Studio City. With the move, KTLA became the only broadcast station (either in radio or television) in Los Angeles to be based in Hollywood. KCBS-TV shut down its analog signal, over
VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...
channel 2, and switched to
analog nightlight The Short-term Analog Flash and Emergency Readiness Act, or SAFER Act, (, ) is a U.S. law that required the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to allow the continuation of full-power analog TV transmission (radio), transmissions in 2009 for ...
service at 1:10 p.m. on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.List of Digital Full-Power Stations
The station moved its digital signal from its pre-transition
UHF Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
channel 60, which was among the high band UHF channels (52–69) that were removed from broadcasting use as a result of the transition, to UHF channel 43, using PSIP to display KCBS-TV
virtual channel In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
as 2 on digital television receivers. On October 21, 2014, CBS and
Weigel Broadcasting Weigel Broadcasting Co. is an American television broadcasting company based in Chicago, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV (Channel 26), at 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood. It currently owns 25 television sta ...
announced the launch of a new
digital subchannel In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
service called Decades, scheduled to launch on all CBS-owned stations in the second quarter of 2015, including on KCBS-TV on channel 2.2. On September 3, 2018, Decades was replaced on 2.2 by Start TV with Decades moving to Weigel's
KAZA-TV KAZA-TV (channel 54) is a television station licensed to Avalon, California, United States, serving the Los Angeles area as an owned-and-operated station of the classic television network MeTV. It is owned by Weigel Broadcasting alongside Bishop ...
. On December 4, 2019, CBS Corporation and
Viacom Viacom, an abbreviation of Video and Audio Communications, may refer to: * Viacom (1952–2006), a former American media conglomerate * Viacom (2005–2019), a former company spun off from the original Viacom * Viacom18, a joint venture between Par ...
remerged into ViacomCBS (now
Paramount Global Paramount Global (doing business as Paramount) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned and operated by National Amusements (79.4%) and headquartered at One Astor Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York. I ...
).


Programming


Syndicated programming

In addition to the CBS network schedule, syndicated programs on KCBS-TV (as of September 2020) include '' The Drew Barrymore Show'', ''
Dr. Phil Phillip Calvin McGraw (born September 1, 1950), better known as Dr. Phil, is an American television personality and author best known for hosting the talk show '' Dr. Phil''. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased rene ...
'', '' Inside Edition'', ''
Entertainment Tonight ''Entertainment Tonight'' (or simply ''ET'') is an American Broadcast syndication, first-run syndicated news broadcasting news magazine, newsmagazine program that is distributed by CBS Media Ventures throughout the United States and owned by Para ...
'' and '' Judge Judy'', all of which are distributed by corporate cousin
CBS Media Ventures CBS Media Ventures, Inc. (formerly CBS Television Distribution, Inc. and CBS Paramount Domestic Television, Inc.) is an American television distribution company owned by CBS Studios, part of CBS Entertainment Group, a division of Paramount Glob ...
.


Sports programming

In 1956, CBS began broadcasting
NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...
games, and with it, the
Los Angeles Rams The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The Rams play ...
had their games aired on Channel 2. This alliance would continue through the
1993 season File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...
, when
Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...
took over the rights to broadcast
NFC NFC may refer to: Psychology * Need for cognition, in psychology * Need for closure, social psychological term Sports * NFC Championship Game, the National Football Conference Championship Game * NCAA Football Championship (Philippines) * Nati ...
games, which led to KTTV being the new home station for one season in
1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
, before the Rams moved to St. Louis. With the Rams' return to Los Angeles in
2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...
, Channel 2 will air games in which the Rams play host to an AFC opponent, and any cross-flexed games aired by CBS; the station previously aired Rams preseason games from 2016 to 2019, and intermittently in past years during the team's first stay in greater Los Angeles. From 1982 to 1993, Channel 2 also aired all home inter-conference games of the Raiders during their time in Los Angeles including their win in Super Bowl XVIII. The station also gave coverage to
Super Bowl XIV Super Bowl XIV was an American football game between the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Los Angeles Rams and the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Pittsburgh Steelers to decide the National Football League (NFL) champi ...
, which the Rams were runners-up in, and
Super Bowl XXI Super Bowl XXI was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for the ...
, both of which were hosted at the Rose Bowl in nearby
Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. Its ...
. As the first Super Bowl was held at the
Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (also known as the L.A. Coliseum) is a multi-purpose stadium in the Exposition Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Conceived as a hallmark of civic pride, the Coliseum was commissioned in 1921 as a mem ...
, and was televised nationally on both CBS (the exclusive home of the pre-merger NFL at the time) and NBC (the home network of the
American Football League The American Football League (AFL) was a major professional American football league that operated for ten seasons from 1960 until 1970, when it merged with the older National Football League (NFL), and became the American Football Conference. ...
), the game was blacked out locally on KNXT and
KNBC KNBC (channel 4) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Corona-licens ...
(channel 4), due to home-game blackout policies that both leagues had at the time (and carried over into the leagues' merger in 1970) that did not allow home games to be shown locally regardless of whether the game was sold out, and this policy also extended to the host city of the Super Bowl game; starting with the 1973 season, the blackout rules were relaxed; home games were allowed to be televised in the local market, so long as the game sold out 72 hours in advance (the blackout rules were lifted completely in 2015). In 2017, the station became the unofficial "home" station of the NFL's Chargers franchise, which announced on January 12, 2017, that it had exercised an option to leave its longtime home of
San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
and join the Rams in Los Angeles; the newly relocated and rechristened Los Angeles Chargers are part of the AFC, and therefore most of their games (the vast majority of road games, home games against AFC opponents and select games cross-flexed from Fox) are carried by CBS. Because Los Angeles was previously a secondary market of the Chargers during their time in San Diego, the station was already under requirement to carry the team's road games. KCBS was scheduled to resume carriage of Chargers preseason games starting with the 2020 season, however with the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
affecting the United States, preseason games across the NFL were cancelled and not rescheduled; KCBS ended up broadcasting the Chargers' 2021 preseason games. The station previously televised Charger preseason games from 2002 to 2015. Sports director Jim Hill, a former Charger, was a sportscaster for
CBS Sports CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W 5 ...
during his first stint at KNXT/KCBS-TV, from 1976 to 1987. Hill then left to become sports director at KABC-TV, but returned to KCBS-TV in 1992 and has remained sports director at the station since. Other ex-athletes who are also sportscasters for KCBS and KCAL-TV are Eric Dickerson,
Jim Everett James Samuel Everett III (born January 3, 1963) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons, primarily with the Los Angeles Rams. He played college football for the Purdue Boilermak ...
, James Worthy and Eric Karros. From
1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...
to
1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...
, the station aired
Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their ...
games via the ''
NBA on CBS The ''NBA on CBS'' is the branding that is used for weekly broadcasts of National Basketball Association (NBA) games produced by CBS Sports, the sports division of the CBS television network in the United States. CBS aired NBA games from the 19 ...
''; this included eight
NBA Finals The NBA Finals is the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western Conference champions play a best-of-seven game series to determine the league champion. The team that wins the series is awa ...
appearances by the Lakers during their
Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...
era, where they came out victorious five times. Through CBS' contract with Major League Baseball, select
Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Established in 1883 in the city of Brooklyn ...
and Angels games aired on Channel 2 from 1990 to 1993.


News operation

KCBS-TV presently broadcasts 30 hours, 25 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5 hours, 5 minutes each weekday and 2½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). On December 5, 2022 sister station KCAL-TV took over all news operations, which ditched the morning news programming on KCBS-TV's 4-7am schedule and instead put news programming on KCAL-TV's 4-7an schedule for the first time in KCAL-TV's history. ViacomCBS additionally ditched the station's channel numbers for news program and branded all newscasts as "KCAL News" on both stations.


News department history

In 1961, KNXT created one of the nation's first "newshours." It began with 45 minutes of local news, ''The Big News'', which featured Jerry Dunphy, along with legendary weatherman
Bill Keene Bill Keene (1927 – April 5, 2000) was a television and radio personality who became famous in the Los Angeles, California market as a traffic and weather announcer. He was particularly known for his colorful humorous traffic reports which inclu ...
and sportscaster
Gil Stratton Gil Stratton Jr. (June 2, 1922 – October 11, 2008) was an actor and sportscaster who was born in Brooklyn, New York. He most recently resided in Toluca Lake, California, until his death from congestive heart failure. Early life Stratton was ...
. It aired from 6:30 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. weeknights, leading into the then-15-minute-long '' CBS Evening News'', which completed the news hour. Also featured were special assignment reporter Maury Green and "Human Predicament" essayist
Ralph Story Ralph Story (born Ralph Bernard Snyder; August 19, 1920 – September 26, 2006) was an American television and radio personality. He was best known as the host of '' The $64,000 Challenge'' from 1956 to 1958, and as the writer and host of ''Ralph ...
. The team and format helped make KNXT the top-rated news station in Los Angeles. At times, a quarter of Los Angeles television sets were tuned to ''The Big News'' and its late-evening companion, ''Eleven O'Clock Report'', the highest ratings ever for a television newscast in the area. The station eventually added reporters such as Howard Gingold and Saul Helpert, among others, and added news bureaus in
Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
,
San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
and Orange County, each with full-time correspondents and camera crews. ''The Big News'' expanded to a full hour in September 1963, leading into the new half-hour-long ''CBS Evening News''. Color broadcasts of ''The Big News'' and ''Eleven O'Clock Report'' began in August 1966. Eventually, KNXT expanded to 2½ hours of local news programming, as well as a late night newscast. KNBC went head-to-head with KNXT with viewers during the 1960s. However, in the mid-1970s, rival KABC-TV began gaining ground in the local news ratings at KNXT's expense. In 1975, KNXT fired Dunphy (who was quickly hired by KABC) and was replaced by Patrick Emory, who had anchored at then-CBS owned-and-operated station KMOX-TV (now KMOV) in St. Louis. KNXT then adopted a format similar to KABC-TV's ''
Eyewitness News ''Eyewitness News'' is a style of television news presentation that emphasizes visual elements and action video, replacing the older "man-on-camera" newscast. History Pioneered by Westinghouse The earliest known use of the ''Eyewitness New ...
'' with its "happy talk" between anchors. However, the change went nowhere. Just as most of its fellow CBS-owned stations were dominating their cities' ratings, KNXT rapidly fell into last place. For most of the period from 1975 to 2006, KNXT/KCBS-TV was not a major competitor in the Los Angeles television ratings among the area's local television newscasts. During the period, Channel 2 had frequently changed newscast titles (from ''The Big News/Eleven O'Clock Report'' to ''Channel 2 News'' in 1973, then to ''Newsroom'' in 1976 and back to ''Channel 2 News'' by 1978) and formats to styles that often became unsuccessful and even controversial. In September 1986, Channel 2 implemented a news-wheel format for its 4–6:30 p.m. news block, with each hour of news beginning with a 20-minute newscast, followed by two 20-minute programs devoted to certain topics and themes (for example, there was entertainment and lifestyle news early on and harder news stories later in the program), concluding with a half hour-long local news report; this format was heavily panned by critics and audiences alike, and was dropped after only a month in favor of standard newscasts. As part of the aforementioned changes, from 1986 to 1987, KCBS produced a 7 p.m. newscast, airing ''CBS Evening News'' immediately beforehand at 6:30 p.m. KCBS was also the last station in the Los Angeles area to offer a local early evening newscast at 6:30 p.m., when its 6 p.m. newscast ran for an hour during that time period; CW affiliate KTLA later launched a newscast in that timeslot in January 2009. KCBS produced late afternoon newscasts at 4 p.m. at various points in time. It was the first in the Southland region with a 4:30 p.m. newscast, that was later expanded to an hour. The late 1980s and early 1990s brought to KCBS the ''
Action News ''Action News'' is a local television newscast format originating in the United States. First conceived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, it is characterized by a tight format with strict time limits on set packages, a focus on surrounding suburbs, ...
'' format, in which the station's newscast adopted a
tabloid Tabloid may refer to: * Tabloid journalism, a type of journalism * Tabloid (newspaper format), a newspaper with compact page size ** Chinese tabloid * Tabloid (paper size), a North American paper size * Sopwith Tabloid, a biplane aircraft * ''Ta ...
-style format; the format grated on the news staff, which circulated a memo that resulted in the firing of news director John Lippmann in 1993. Lippmann was heavily criticized by many, and reportedly had many confrontations with news staff, notably a shoving match between him and anchor Michael Tuck. The station's ratings quickly declined. CBS management, highly embarrassed at KCBS-TV's subpar performance, responded by bringing in Bill Applegate as general manager. Applegate had previously served as general manager at Chicago sister station WBBM-TV, and was employed at that station as a reporter in the early 1970s. While Applegate had been criticized for making WBBM-TV's newscasts flashier than they had been previously, he set about toning down the format of KCBS-TV's newscasts. One of his strategies involved bringing in popular anchors and reporters from other Los Angeles area stations including Jerry Dunphy, who returned to channel 2 two decades after his earlier firing from the station (Dunphy went on to anchor at KABC-TV and KCAL-TV, both of whom achieved high ratings for their newscasts during each of Dunphy's stints). Also joining Dunphy were colleagues Ann Martin,
Dr. George Fischbeck George Richard Fischbeck (July 1, 1922 – March 25, 2015) was an American television weatherman on KOB-TV in Albuquerque, New Mexico from the early 1960s to early 1970s. In 1972 he moved to KABC-TV in Los Angeles, replacing Alan Sloane, where h ...
, Paul Dandridge and Mark Coogan from KABC-TV, and Larry Carroll (who worked with Dunphy at KABC and KCAL); two KNBC personalities, Linda Alvarez and consumer reporter David Horowitz also joined the team. The station's ratings improved, but Applegate eventually became a casualty of CBS' merger with the
Westinghouse Electric Corporation The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" in ...
in 1996; Applegate had bickered with Westinghouse over the station's syndicated programming not long after he had arrived. Westinghouse executives never forgot this, and Applegate was one of the first executives to be let go. Channel 2's momentum ground to a halt, and it soon dropped into last place. The ''Action News'' branding was dropped in late 1996 and the station's newscasts were briefly reverted to ''Channel 2 News''; it was later renamed to the present ''CBS 2 News'' in spring 1997. Dunphy, who was dismissed from KCBS in March 1996 because of the aforementioned CBS merger with Westinghouse, returned to KCAL in November 1997. KCBS dropped its 4 p.m. newscast in 1998 in favor of the short-lived syndicated talk program ''
The Howie Mandel Show ''The Howie Mandel Show'' is an American television variety show hosted by comedian Howie Mandel. The series was launched in daytime syndication on June 22, 1998, and ran for approximately a year before it was canceled in April 1999. Background ' ...
'', which was canceled after its first season, then, in 1999, the ''Women 2 Women'' public affairs show. After Viacom's purchase of KCAL-TV, KCBS reintroduced the 4 p.m. newscast, but with it now airing exclusively on KCAL. KCBS-TV began another attempt to get out of the ratings basement at the start of the 21st century. Kent Shocknek, former anchor of KNBC's '' Today in L.A.'', joined KCBS to become its morning co-anchor in 2000. The station then hired longtime KABC anchor Harold Greene in 2001 as anchor of its 5 and 11 p.m. newscasts. The following year, Greene was joined by his former partner at KABC, Laura Diaz. In 2004, Paul Magers, longtime anchor at
KARE Kare or KARE may refer to: * Kare (Žitorađa), a village in Serbia * Kare language, several languages with the name * Kare (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) * Kare Kauks (born 1961), Estonian singer * Kåre or Kaare, ...
in
Minneapolis–Saint Paul Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a metropolitan area in the Upper Midwestern United States centered around the confluence of the Mississippi, Minnesota and St. Croix rivers in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is commonly known as the Twin Cities ...
, replaced Greene on the 5 and 11 p.m. newscasts, bumping Greene to the 4 and 6 p.m. programs. The 4 p.m. newscast moved to KCAL-TV with the arrival of ''Dr. Phil'' on KCBS in September 2004. At the beginning of 2005, longtime KABC weatherman
Johnny Mountain Johnny Mountain is a retired weathercaster for both KABC-TV and KCBS-TV in Los Angeles, California. He has been described as "one of the most recognizable faces -- and names -- in local TV news."Greg Braxton"KCBS' Johnny Mountain to retire" ''Los ...
moved to KCBS, surprising many. At first, it seemed that none of these changes brought KCBS any closer to becoming a factor in the Los Angeles news ratings. However, in April 2006, KCBS grabbed the No. 2 spot at 5 p.m. from KABC due to a strong lead-in from ''Dr. Phil''. KCBS shot past both KABC and KNBC to take first place at 11 p.m. for the first time in 30 years. The 2007 move to Studio City marked many changes at KCBS and KCAL-TV, with several news personalities having departed, including David Jackson (who returned to the duopoly after anchoring at KCAL in the early 1990s), Kerry Kilbride, reporter Jay Jackson, Paul Dandridge, Dilva Henry, Linda Alvarez, sports anchor Alan Massengale and Dave Clark (who left for
KTVU KTVU (channel 2) is a television station licensed to Oakland, California, United States, serving as the San Francisco Bay Area's Fox network outlet. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside San Jose ...
in
Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...
). Both stations also began broadcasting all their local newscasts, sports shows and public affairs programming in
high definition High definition or HD may refer to: Visual technologies *HD DVD, discontinued optical disc format *HD Photo, former name for the JPEG XR image file format *HDV, format for recording high-definition video onto magnetic tape * HiDef, 24 frames-pe ...
, becoming the third and fourth stations in Los Angeles to do so (following KABC-TV in February 2006 and KTLA in January 2007). In addition, KCBS and KCAL-TV now operate in a completely tapeless newsroom. This newsroom is named in honor of the late former anchor of both stations, Jerry Dunphy. The Dunphy Newsroom is also shared with
CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...
, operating as its Los Angeles/West Coast bureau. On April 1, 2008, the
CBS Television Stations CBS News and Stations (formerly CBS Television Stations) is a division of the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global that owns and operates a group of American television stations. , Paramount owns 28 stations, broken down as follows: ...
division enacted some of the biggest budget cuts in television history, as well as staff
layoff A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees (collective layoff) for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing (reducing the ...
s across all of its stations. As a result of the cuts, roughly 10 to 15 staffers were released by KCBS/KCAL. The 6 p.m. anchors Harold Greene and Ann Martin, who both also anchored KCAL-TV's 4 p.m. newscast, chose to retire from television news (Greene and Martin were slated to have their contracts expire in June of that year and were both considered for layoffs). Additionally, longtime KCBS reporter Jennifer Sabih, and reporters Greg Phillips and Jennifer Davis, were let go by the station.


=NewsCentral era

= On September 19, 2009, KCBS and KCAL adopted the uniform ''NewsCentral'' brand (unrelated to the news organization of the same name formerly operated by
Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, t ...
). The newscasts were refocused to cover more community news, including stories from outlying communities. Local news headlines from the Los Angeles Newspaper Group and other
MediaNews Group MNG Enterprises, Inc., doing business as Digital First Media and MediaNews Group, is a Denver, Colorado-based newspaper publisher owned by Alden Global Capital. The company has been growing its portfolio and as of May 2021, owns over 100 newspa ...
newspapers were shown on a news ticker, "street team" submissions of video and photos from viewers were featured, reporters ended stories with ''NewsCentral'' rather than the individual station brands, and microphone flags and news vehicles were branded to show both stations' logos at once (the KCBS and KCAL logos were previously displayed on alternating sides). The newscasts claimed that it produced more local news than any other television station in the United States, with reporters in Ventura County, the
Inland Empire The Inland Empire (IE) is a metropolitan area and region inland of and adjacent to coastal Southern California, centering around the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, and bordering Los Angeles County to the west. It includes the cities o ...
and
Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...
, and the only Los Angeles television station with two helicopters (subcontracted to Angel City Air, owned by reporter Larry Welk). Ed Asner introduced the new newscast. CBS denied that the move was made in response to other stations pooling news gathering resources. Ratings under the new format during the November 2009
sweeps Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...
showed KCBS lagging behind KABC-TV and KNBC in crucial timeslots. On December 10, 2009, Patrick McClenehan resigned after one year as president of KCBS/KCAL and was replaced by Steve Mauldin, who had overseen the CBS-owned duopoly in
Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. According ...
. That week, the ''NewsCentral'' brand was rescinded, restoring the ''CBS 2 News'' and ''KCAL 9 News'' identities. The NewsCentral graphics, microphone flags and logos were retained in the interim, though on-air talent no longer referred to the ''NewsCentral'' brand.


=2010–2022

= By spring 2010, the new management had made significant changes to KCBS' news operation. Veteran forecaster Johnny Mountain retired and was replaced by sister KCAL's Jackie Johnson; joining anchor Paul Magers on the lead newscasts was KCAL veteran Pat Harvey. The morning broadcast was also revamped, and the newly renamed ''CBS 2 News'' was given new graphic design and theme music by
Frank Gari Frank Daniel Garofalo (born April 1, 1944), known professionally as Frank Gari, is an American singer-songwriter and composer. Early life Gari was a popular singer and songwriter from the late 1950s and early 1960s. His best known songs as a ...
based on the longstanding ten-note logo originally written by
Dick Marx Richard Henry Marx (April 12, 1924 – August 12, 1997) was an American jazz pianist and arranger. He also composed for film, television, and commercials. Personal life Marx and wife Ruth (née Guildoo) had a son, Richard Marx, pop singer, s ...
and previously used by KCBS on-and-off since the 1970s. The August 3, 2011, edition of the ''CBS Evening News'' with
Scott Pelley Scott Cameron Pelley (born July 28, 1957) is an American journalist and author who has been a correspondent and anchor for CBS News for more than 31 years. Pelley is the author of the 2019 book, ''Truth Worth Telling'', and a correspondent for th ...
was produced live from the Dunphy Newsroom, being the first CBS national newscast to originate from the Studio City facility. On January 14, 2012, KCBS (and sister KCAL) began broadcasting morning newscasts on weekends, that compete with those offered by KABC-TV, KNBC and KTLA. The station was one of the last major-market CBS-owned affiliates to schedule local news broadcasts on Saturday and Sunday mornings. In June 2019, CBS News launched a Los Angeles version of its
CBSN CBS News (formerly CBSN, also known as the CBS News Streaming Network) is an American streaming video news channel operated by the CBS News and Paramount Streaming divisions of Paramount Global. Launched on November 6, 2014, it features blocks ...
online news network, featuring exclusive programming to the channel, as well as simulcasts of all KCBS and KCAL newscasts, and selected CBS News programs. This is the second cable/streaming news channel targeted to the Los Angeles area currently in operation, besides the cable-based Spectrum News 1 Southern California, which launched in November 2018. The Los Angeles television market's first cable news network was the
Orange County Newschannel The Orange County Newschannel (often branded as OC Newschannel and OCN) was a regional cable news network pioneering a rolling news format, serving Orange County, California south of the Greater Los Angeles area. The channel also pioneered the pr ...
, which was in operation from 1990 to 2001, although it was only available and specifically targeted to cable viewers within that county; in OCN's final years, KCBS was a news partner with the channel, with OCN reporters and stories featured on various KCBS newscasts, including a headlines segment on Channel 2's morning newscasts.


=2022–present

= On July 13, 2022, it was announced that KCAL would launch a new morning newscast, running from 4:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., and that KCBS would drop its existing morning newscast. As a replacement, KCBS would air the live East Coast broadcast of '' CBS Mornings'' from 4 to 6 a.m. PT, followed by a simulcast of the 6 a.m. hour of KCAL's morning show, and then the West Coast edition of ''CBS Mornings''. CBS News and Stations president Wendy McMahon referred to the changes as "an audience growth opportunity", citing that KCAL's early morning lineup had largely consisted of paid programming, and that the changes would provide additional options for both local and national news to viewers. Concurrently, it was also revealed that CBS planned to promote KCAL as the main local news outlet of its Los Angeles duopoly, with all of its newscasts to eventually be simulcast from KCAL.


Notable current on-air staff

* DeMarco Morgan – anchor * Pat Harvey – anchor


=Sports on-air team

= * Jim Hill – sports director


Notable former on-air staff

*
Ross Becker Ross Becker is a journalist who primarily works in television, radio, and digital. He is the president and CEO of TvNewsmentor.com, dedicated to growing and mentoring talent. He is also the founding partner of Top News Talent, LLC, a coaching, tra ...
 – reporter/anchor (1980–1990); later with
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in Austin, Minnesota and now CEO TvNewsmentor.com *
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 – formerly with KSNV-DT in
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; now with
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in
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* Connie Chung – anchor/reporter (1976–1983) *
Joel Connable Joel Connable (February 5, 1973 – November 6, 2012) was an American television host, news anchor, and reporter for KOMO-TV in Seattle, Washington. He also worked as a travel journalist, running a travel website and a company called Travel T ...
 – later at
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in Miami and
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in
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; deceased * Tony Cox – anchor/reporter (1982–1985); later with KTTV and NPR * Ann Curry – reporter (1984–1990) *
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 – anchor/reporter (2016–2019); demoted and subsequently fired; now at
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in Palm Springs * Laura Diaz – anchor/reporter (2002–11); now with KTTV *
Linda Douglass Linda Douglass is an American political advisor, former government official, and former journalist who served as the head of communications for Bloomberg L.P., as well as a correspondent for ABC News, often reporting for '' World News Tonight''. ...
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, CBS News and ABC News; senior strategist and spokeswoman for the
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presidential campaign * Jerry Dunphy – anchor (1960–75, 1995–96); deceased * Steve Edwards – weather forecaster/''Two on the Town'' host/entertainment reporter (1978–1981); later worked on KTTV's ''
Good Day LA ''Good Day L.A.'' is an American morning television news and entertainment program airing on KTTV (channel 11), a Fox owned-and-operated television station in Los Angeles, California, owned by the Fox Television Stations subsidiary of Fox Corpor ...
'' * Rich Fields – weather anchor (2010–2016) *
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 – sports anchor/reporter (1977–1985) *
Dr. George Fischbeck George Richard Fischbeck (July 1, 1922 – March 25, 2015) was an American television weatherman on KOB-TV in Albuquerque, New Mexico from the early 1960s to early 1970s. In 1972 he moved to KABC-TV in Los Angeles, replacing Alan Sloane, where h ...
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Gary Franklin Gary Franklin (March 18, is– October 2, 2007) was a well-known German American broadcast film critic based in Los Angeles, California. He was born to a Jewish family in Leipzig, Germany on September 22, 1928. His father was a doctor for the Ger ...
 – entertainment reporter (1981–1986); deceased * David Garcia – anchor/reporter (1983–1986); deceased *
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 – news anchor *
Carlos Granda Carlos Granda is a reporter for KABC-TV News in Los Angeles. Background Carlos Granda holds a Bachelor's degree in Mass communication, Mass Communications and Journalism, Broadcast Journalism from the University of South Florida. He became i ...
 – now at KABC-TV * Harold Greene – anchor (2001–2008); retired *
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*
Joel Grover Joel Grover is an investigative journalist for KNBC in Los Angeles, California. He is nationally known for his undercover investigations, exposes and consumer reports. Education and early career Joel Grover graduated from Ulysses S. Grant High ...
 – reporter (1996–2002); now at KNBC * John Hart – reporter (1962–1965) *
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 – feature reporter (1994–1998); now at
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*
Steve Hartman (sportscaster) Steven Ward Hartman (born July 4, 1958 in Hollywood, California) is the host of The Loose Cannons, a sports radio talk show on Fox Sports Radio based in San Diego, California. He also hosts a national sports radio show for the Fox Sports Radio Ne ...
 – (1998–2010); now with
KTLA KTLA (channel 5) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of The CW. It is the largest directly owned property of the network's majority owner, Nexstar Media Group, and is the seco ...
*
Sandra "Sandy" Hill Sandra Marth Hill (born February 2, 1946) is an American television journalist and Miss Washington; she is also a writer and commercial real estate broker. Early life Born Sandra Lee Marth in Centralia, Washington, she was raised on a farm the ...
 – (1974–1976, 1982–1986) * Louisa Hodge – meteorologist; general assignment reporter * Lester Holt – reporter (1982–1983); now anchor of '' NBC Nightly News'' * David Horowitz – consumer reporter (1993–1998); deceased *
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 – features reporter (1981–1987), later at
KCET KCET (channel 28) is a secondary PBS member television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the Public Media Group of Southern California alongside the market's primary PBS member, Huntington Beach–licensed KOCE-TV ...
; deceased * Jackie Johnson – meteorologist * Ken Jones – anchor/reporter (1976–1982); deceased * Lisa Joyner – entertainment reporter (2002–2006); now at
TVGN The American cable and satellite television network Pop was originally launched in 1981 as a barker channel service providing a display of localized channel and program listings for cable television providers. Later on, the service, branded Prev ...
*
David Kaye David Kaye may refer to: * David Kaye (voice actor) (born 1966), Canadian-American voice actor * David A. Kaye, actor who played Jesse Waingrow in the film ''3000 Miles to Graceland'' * David Kaye (footballer) (born 1959), English footballer * Dav ...
 – station announcer (2003–2010) *
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 – reporter/entertainment critic (1980–1992) * Jim Lampley – news and sports anchor (1987–1992); now at
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*
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 – ''Women 2 Women'' host (1999–2001); retired * Harvey Levin – legal analyst (1987–1997; now with
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, TMZ on TV and '' The People's Court'' * Dorothy Lucey – anchor/reporter (1987–1992); later at KTTV * Paul Magers – anchor (2004–2017); retired * Dave Malkoff – reporter (2007–2010); now at The Weather Channel *
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 – consumer affairs reporter/"Noontime" host (1969–1977); deceased * Rory Markas – sports anchor (1990–1996); deceased *
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 – anchor (1980–1986); later at KNBC; deceased * Ann Martin – (1994–2008); retired from journalism *
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 – reporter (2000); now reporter/host for Spectrum News * Butch McCain – reporter (2000); now weather anchor for
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/
Grand Junction, Colorado Grand Junction is a home rule municipality that is the county seat and the most populous municipality of Mesa County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 65,560 at the 2020 United States Census, making Grand Junction the 17th mos ...
*
Gary Miller Gary Miller may refer to: *Gary Miller (politician) (born 1948), American politician * Michael Dunn (actor) (Gary Neil Miller, 1934–1973), American actor * Gary L. Miller (1947–1969), American soldier and Medal of Honor recipient * Gary Miller ...
 – sports anchor (2005–2017); now with WKRC-TV in
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* Dan Miller – anchor/reporter (1986–1987); previously and later at
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/
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; deceased * Sandra Mitchell  – anchor/reporter (2000-2020); laid off May 27, 2020; now with
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*
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 – entertainment reporter/anchor (1984–1987); now with '' Inside Edition'' *
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in New York *
Johnny Mountain Johnny Mountain is a retired weathercaster for both KABC-TV and KCBS-TV in Los Angeles, California. He has been described as "one of the most recognizable faces -- and names -- in local TV news."Greg Braxton"KCBS' Johnny Mountain to retire" ''Los ...
 – weeknight weather anchor (2005–2010); retired * Terry Murphy – anchor/reporter (1980–1984, 1987–1989) *
Brent Musburger Brent Woody Musburger (born May 26, 1939) is an American sportscaster, currently the lead broadcaster and managing editor at Vegas Stats and Information Network (VSiN). With CBS Sports from 1973 until 1990, he was one of the original members ...
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and the Las Vegas Raiders * Pat O'Brien – anchor/reporter (1978–1981, 1986–87); now with KLAC * Kevin O'Connell – weather anchor; later with WGRZ in Buffalo; retired *
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 – sports anchor (1988–1991); currently hosts The Resistance with Keith Olbermann on GQ *
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radio * Mike Parker – investigative reporter (1977–1980); later at
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in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
; now deceased *
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in Washington, DC * Maury Povich – anchor (1977–78); now syndicated talk show host * Clete Roberts – anchor/reporter (1954–1959 and 1966–1973); deceased *
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 – anchor (1983–1988); deceased *
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 – anchor (2007-2020); laid off on May 27, 2020 * Ruth Ashton Taylor – anchor/reporter (1951–1958, 1962–1989); now retired *
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* Bob Tur – helicopter pilot/reporter * Charlie Van Dyke – station announcer (1987–1993) *
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in Greenville
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*
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 – anchor/reporter (1988–1994); now with
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 – anchor/reporter (1986–1987)


Technical information


Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:


Translators


See also

*
KNX (AM) KNX (1070 Hertz, kHz) is a commercial radio, commercial AM radio, AM radio station in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. It airs an all news radio, all-news radio format and is owned by Audacy, Inc. KNX is one of the oldest stations in the U ...
* KCBS-FM *
KCBS-TV/FM Tower KCBS-TV/FM Tower (formerly the KNXT/KNX-FM Tower) is a 296.4 meter (972 ft) high guyed radio/television tower on Mount Wilson above Los Angeles (near the Mount Wilson Observatory) at 123 CBS Lane.FCC Antenna Structure RegistrationApplication ...


References


External links

*
Photos of KCBS's news set

KCBS-TV logos and screenshots from 1950s to the present day

FCC History Cards for KCBS-TV
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kcbs-Tv 1948 establishments in California CBS network affiliates CBS News and Stations Dabl affiliates National Football League primary television stations Start TV affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1948
CBS-TV CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...