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KCBS 2/KCAL 9 - CBS Los Angeles News Thread


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46 minutes ago, TheRolyPoly said:

 

Umm... KTLA's 3pm news is on for an hour.

 

It will actually soon be 4am-2pm, hour break from 2-3pm, 3-7:30pm, 30 minute break at 7:30pm and 8-11:35pm once KABC's news on KDOC end due to the latter's sale to TCT.

My bad didn’t know KTLA had a full hour at 3pm I thought it was online streaming and I thought KDOC was a full hour per it’s tv listings on its site. 

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58 minutes ago, SFTV said:

My bad didn’t know KTLA had a full hour at 3pm I thought it was online streaming and I thought KDOC was a full hour per it’s tv listings on its site. 

Either way, that seems like an obscene amount of local news for the market. There’s a midterm election coming up, so they’ll certainly be raking in the ad dollars. Also, I suppose this gives doctor’s offices something to put on in the waiting room.

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I think this is actually a good move, because like awards shows being taped and edited, the network morning show ending up with the same type of treatment when you've got it available live through SXM or your streaming service has gotten downright stupid; it's why Pacific Time stations are taking the 6:30pm ET newscasts more and more live at 3:30pm PT, and where the network overnight newscasts used to be live in all time zones, you only have World News Now done and out by 2:30am, then onto the morning newscasts by 3:00am.

 

If you're a CBS station with no morning news, that means if you air the CBS Morning News at 6:30am PT...that's a six hour old newscast you're carrying (with a twelve-hour old newscast leading into that). And then you're leading into a morning show when Today is already onto Hota and Jenna outside breaking news days and CBS Times Square is empty and unused. It's an outmoded model, and there shouldn't be this artificial wall up around watching a morning show live in PT because 'that's the way it's always been'.

 

I know KCBS will take a ratings hit, but you gotta start experimenting, and why keep KCAL in infomercial hell when they can be live 4-11? Most Fox stations are already in this mode, so it's basically CBS being adventurous and being the first here. I don't mind that they're going for it, and frankly, KPIX/KBCW should be next, and KOIN/KRCW should get incentives to try it themselves. You already basically had KOVR/KMAX as a half-model of this (their local show is active 4:30-11), and that seems to work pretty well for Sacramento.

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5 minutes ago, mrschimpf said:

I don't mind that they're going for it, and frankly, KPIX/KBCW should be next, and KOIN/KRCW should get incentives to try it themselves. You already basically had KOVR/KMAX as a half-model of this (their local show is active 4:30-11), and that seems to work pretty well for Sacramento.

THIS!! KPIX needs to hire more staff and ramp up KBCW again.
 

Why don’t you just cut the KPIX 5 News 6am simulcast off in place of gospel programming that currently airs at 7am.
 

Then this is when you take advantage and air CBS BAY AREA NEWS at 7am that you just launched yesterday that’s only available online and on PlutoTV in that 7am time slot.

 

10pm is when you bring back an evening newscast since you cancelled Bay Area Nightbeat.

 

However KRON and KTVU have been dominating Mornings and the 10pm slot. It would be hard to try and enter the competition race. 

 

 

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50 minutes ago, mrschimpf said:

I think this is actually a good move, because like awards shows being taped and edited, the network morning show ending up with the same type of treatment when you've got it available live through SXM or your streaming service has gotten downright stupid; it's why Pacific Time stations are taking the 6:30pm ET newscasts more and more live at 3:30pm PT, and where the network overnight newscasts used to be live in all time zones, you only have World News Now done and out by 2:30am, then onto the morning newscasts by 3:00am.

 

If you're a CBS station with no morning news, that means if you air the CBS Morning News at 6:30am PT...that's a six hour old newscast you're carrying (with a twelve-hour old newscast leading into that). And then you're leading into a morning show when Today is already onto Hota and Jenna outside breaking news days and CBS Times Square is empty and unused. It's an outmoded model, and there shouldn't be this artificial wall up around watching a morning show live in PT because 'that's the way it's always been'.

 

I know KCBS will take a ratings hit, but you gotta start experimenting, and why keep KCAL in infomercial hell when they can be live 4-11? Most Fox stations are already in this mode, so it's basically CBS being adventurous and being the first here. I don't mind that they're going for it, and frankly, KPIX/KBCW should be next, and KOIN/KRCW should get incentives to try it themselves. You already basically had KOVR/KMAX as a half-model of this (their local show is active 4:30-11), and that seems to work pretty well for Sacramento.

Exactly. And the “ratings hit” that KCBS will take on isn’t the worst thing in the world. They’re already ratings-challenged in the morning, so they might as well blow it up. They’ll at least have the distinction of being the only LA station airing live national morning news, while the morning shows on 4 and 7 will be 3 hours old.
 

Meanwhile, KCAL can compete in the morning with something other than infomercials and “The 700 Club.” If they do it properly, they might be able to provide a more straightforward alternative to the infotainment-oriented shows on KTLA and Fox 11.

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3 hours ago, SFTV said:

My bad didn’t know KTLA had a full hour at 3pm I thought it was online streaming and I thought KDOC was a full hour per it’s tv listings on its site. 

 

No, it is. I'm just saying that once KABC's news on KDOC goes away (and it will, thanks a lot TCT), there will be that 7:30 p.m. break.

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Maybe I overestimate the market for this kind of thing but I'm surprised none of the non-big-three stations on the west coast (that I know of) is doing the reverse of KCBS and doing a live nation/world focused newscast up against the three-hour-old network newscasts. Nexstar could even slap a NewsNation logo on the version from KTLA or KRON and simulcast it on cable. I know Hawaii is pretty late to the party both in terms of how much things are delayed and how long it took them to get satellite feeds instead of flying in videotapes, but it seems to work well enough for KHON to have kept it all these years.

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Interesting move. KCBS has never been competitive in the morning, so yes...capitalize on the KCAL brand. As we all know, KTLA dominates and KTTV is languishing. KCAL will have to do something different beyond the headlines, weather and traffic reports to gain eyeballs. I'd also assume they would have to add a secondary anchor team. I would assume the current KCBS AM anchor team of Chris Holmstrom and new hire Marci Gonzales would transition over to KCAL as the A team, but they will need a secondary B team to keep the seat warm for them. Think KTLA's B team of Chris and Megan (which can definitely be an A team) and A team of Frank and Jessica.

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I think this is a brilliant idea. KCBS isn't going to take a ratings hit – they have nowhere to go but up.

 

6am hour

P25-54
27 Jun - 1 Jul

 

KCBS
0.0 rating, 1 share

 

KNBC
0.1 rating, 2 share

 

KTLA
0.5 rating, 15 share

 

KABC
0.2 rating, 7 share

 

KCAL (Relative Justice)
0.0 rating, 1 share

 

KTTV
0.2 rating, 7 share

 

Sure, it's only July when morning ratings are pretty soft anyway with school not in session, but May didn't look any better for KCBS.

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3 hours ago, C Block said:

I think this is a brilliant idea. KCBS isn't going to take a ratings hit – they have nowhere to go but up.

 

6am hour

P25-54
27 Jun - 1 Jul

 

KCBS
0.0 rating, 1 share

 

KNBC
0.1 rating, 2 share

 

KTLA
0.5 rating, 15 share

 

KABC
0.2 rating, 7 share

 

KCAL (Relative Justice)
0.0 rating, 1 share

 

KTTV
0.2 rating, 7 share

 

Sure, it's only July when morning ratings are pretty soft anyway with school not in session, but May didn't look any better for KCBS.

 

Thanks for posting this. Haven't seen LA Ratings in so long. Keep posting, interested in these numbers. 

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Even though KCBS has never been a factor in early-morning newscast ratings --  Kent Shocknek in a dozen years couldn't move the needle an inch--  still I think this is an unusual move.  It almost seems to render Channel 2  a weaker sister to independent KCAL.   I had thought that maybe if anything Channel 9 in the era of budget slashings might go the way of WNYW,   little but sitcom reruns and courtroom shows with maybe one repurposed CBS 2 newscast at 9 p.m.   Shows how little I know about the business.

They're going to have to do some serious hiring; they haven't enough people for that long block and for 5-6:30,   8-10:45,   and 11-11:35 too.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Nick
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On 7/12/2022 at 11:16 PM, C Block said:

I think this is a brilliant idea. KCBS isn't going to take a ratings hit – they have nowhere to go but up.

 

6am hour

P25-54
27 Jun - 1 Jul

 

KCBS
0.0 rating, 1 share

 

KNBC
0.1 rating, 2 share

 

KTLA
0.5 rating, 15 share

 

KABC
0.2 rating, 7 share

 

KCAL (Relative Justice)
0.0 rating, 1 share

 

KTTV
0.2 rating, 7 share

 

Sure, it's only July when morning ratings are pretty soft anyway with school not in session, but May didn't look any better for KCBS.

 

Thanks for posting these. I didn't realize how far KABC had fallen. KABC had been especially strong in the 6 a.m. hour . Do you have any numbers for the 7am hour? 

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4 minutes ago, Nick said:

Even though KCBS has never been a factor in early-morning newscast ratings --  Kent Shocknek in a dozen years couldn't move the needle an inch--  still I think this is an unusual move.  It almost seems to render Channel 2  a weaker sister to independent KCAL.   I had thought that maybe if anything Channel 9 in the era of budget slashings might go the way of WNYW,   little but sitcom reruns and courtroom shows with maybe one repurposed CBS 2 newscast at 9 p.m.   Shows how little I know about the business.

They're going to have to do some serious hiring; they haven't enough people for that long block and for 5-6:30,   8-10:45,   and 11-11:35 too.

I’m assuming you’re referring to WLNY, now WNYW. Thing is, you can’t really compare the two. WLNY was a small LI station that was allegedly bought in exchange for a golf membership. There were never serious investments made, and when CBS bought the station, they actually cut WLNY’s news department entirely. Meanwhile, KCAL is a station that built a solid reputation for itself in the 90s, and carved out a niche audience by doing news in prime time. It also helps that they hired away Jerry Dunphy to give them credibility on day 1. By the time CBS bought them, they had been well-established for a while. I’m not an expert on the market, but it seems to have gotten to the point that KCAL has a better reputation than KCBS, even though they’re under the same umbrella.
 

And besides, if your stations are going to air local news from 4-11am, why split it between KCBS and KCAL and force viewers to change channels at 7am? KCBS gets to show live national news (which no other station does), while KCAL gets better programming in the morning than it has now. Both stations can concentrate on their specific audiences. It’s better than showing a newscast that pulls a whopping 0.0, which in turn hurts the national morning show.

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7 hours ago, nycnewsjunkie said:

I’m assuming you’re referring to WLNY, now WNYW. Thing is, you can’t really compare the two. WLNY was a small LI station that was allegedly bought in exchange for a golf membership. There were never serious investments made, and when CBS bought the station, they actually cut WLNY’s news department entirely. Meanwhile, KCAL is a station that built a solid reputation for itself in the 90s, and carved out a niche audience by doing news in prime time. It also helps that they hired away Jerry Dunphy to give them credibility on day 1. By the time CBS bought them, they had been well-established for a while. I’m not an expert on the market, but it seems to have gotten to the point that KCAL has a better reputation than KCBS, even though they’re under the same umbrella.
 

And besides, if your stations are going to air local news from 4-11am, why split it between KCBS and KCAL and force viewers to change channels at 7am? KCBS gets to show live national news (which no other station does), while KCAL gets better programming in the morning than it has now. Both stations can concentrate on their specific audiences. It’s better than showing a newscast that pulls a whopping 0.0, which in turn hurts the national morning show.

No, you're right, sorry for the typo.   Indeed you're right on all points.

I'd read the story about Peter Dunn's winning WLNY as a prize, like the trophy on the 18th hole.    And that it was nothing like the heritage market station KHJ / KCAL is.  And it is very true that since Disney  (when it owned Channel 9) created the three-hour prime-time news block in 1990 the newscast has always created very solid ratings as counter-programming.       And it retained loyal viewership long after Dunphy's passing too, even hitting #1 at ten p.m. a few times in the early 2010s.

I guess I was thinking it was odd that the KCAL brand has been elevated above KCBS'  in a meaningful time slot,   but then again I didn't realize just how bad 2's numbers were.   I didn't know there was such a thing as 0.0.  At that point,   sure you make a move.  And zero means no lead-in for the network show.

 

And it's true,  KCAL's news rep is a good one   -- and more often than not industry stories about KCBS refer to it as either "beleaguered"  or "underperfoming."

 

 

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8 hours ago, fan of la tv said:

 

Thanks for posting these. I didn't realize how far KABC had fallen. KABC had been especially strong in the 6 a.m. hour . Do you have any numbers for the 7am hour? 

 

The 7-9am block was pretty much identical for all the stations as the 6am hour. The thing that's a little shocking to me about the LA ratings is just how low the share is across the board – so much competition I guess, not just from all the other news options, but just everything else that's on the air too. I can't see the Spanish stations, but maybe those take most of the viewers, perhaps?

 

I suppose you could say that KTLA and KABC are the leaders, but neither of them seem to have anything that's a dominant news hour over everyone else like what you see in other markets. KTLA stays a pretty constant .5 rating / 12 share in the demo all morning long, which isn't bad, but not a runaway. Compare that to the Bay Area market, for example, where KTVU averaged a 1.0 rating / 23 share in the 7 and 8am hours.

 

Another insight I saw is that I can see why they'd want to do more with KCAL. The primetime block is actually quite strong. KCAL's 9pm hour last week averaged a .6 rating / 4 share in the demo, which was not only the best rating of any KCAL/KCBS newscast, but also one of the better ratings of any English language newscast in LA.

 

I think trying to do something local on KCAL in the morning while leaving all the network garbage on KCBS is a pretty good idea. That doubles the ad inventory, and it at least gives them a chance at maybe siphoning some viewers away from KTLA and KTTV. What KCBS is currently doing in the morning clearly isn't working.

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Good points all.   (As for running network news twice,  true. KABC puts on "World News Now"  at 3:30 and then again at 6:30.  Or at least last I saw.

More important,   besides the channel position and newscast name,  there is no difference at all between CBS 2's and KCAL 9's content.  As for the field reporting,  the only difference is which way the reporter turns the mic flag,  the "9" instead of the "2."    All anchors appear on both stations anyway.

 

But it's a lot to ask for KCAL to do much cutting into KTLA's ratings right off the bat.     KTTV and "Good Day LA," which once dominated in the heyday of Steve Edwards, Jillian Reynolds, and Dorothy Lucey,  has been playing catch-up with KTLA for some time.  "The KTLA Morning News"  is a pretty strong brand.

Edited by Nick
Changed a couple of words for clarity.
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14 minutes ago, Nick said:

Good points all.   (As for running network news twice,  true. KABC puts on "World News Now"  at 3:30 and then again at 6:30.  Or at least last I saw.

More important,   besides the channel position and newscast name,  there is no difference at all between CBS 2's and KCAL 9's content.  As for the field reporting,  the only difference is which way the reporter turns the mic flag,  the "9" instead of the "2."    All anchors appear on both stations anyway.

 

But it's a lot to ask for KCAL to do much cutting into KTLA's ratings right off the bat.     KTTV and "Good Day LA," which once dominated in the heyday of Steve Edwards, Jillian Reynolds, and Dorothy Lucey,  has been playing catch-up with KTLA for some time.  "The KTLA Morning News"  is a pretty strong brand.

I agree, and I don’t think CBS is expecting to cut into KTLA (that would be more of an added bonus than a realistic expectation.) I think it’s mainly about putting on programming that’ll at least get better ratings than morning programming they currently offer on 2/9. And if KCBS takes a ratings hit (as if it hasn’t already,) it doesn’t matter. They’re all under the same umbrella anyway.

Edited by nycnewsjunkie
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  • 1 month later...

The weekend anchor team was chatting with tonight's sports anchor, and they noted that the just-concluded 10pm newscast is their final one on the KCAL set. A neglected relic of the late 2000s, they're saying it's finally getting replaced.

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  • 24994J changed the title to KCBS 2/KCAL 9 - CBS Los Angeles News Thread
6 hours ago, 24994J said:

The weekend anchor team was chatting with tonight's sports anchor, and they noted that the just-concluded 10pm newscast is their final one on the KCAL set. A neglected relic of the late 2000s, they're saying it's finally getting replaced.


Wonder if it’s gonna be shared with KCBS.

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On 8/29/2022 at 4:55 AM, Georgie56 said:


Wonder if it’s gonna be shared with KCBS.

Good point.  They've done that a lot since KCBS debuted its new set in 2016  (which took three months to build), but I wonder if there is sufficient turnaround time between the 4 and 5 pm newscasts or 10-11, even allowing for the fifteen minutes of "Sports Central."

On 8/29/2022 at 1:04 AM, C Block said:

Amazing to think that set held up pretty well for 15 years with very few modifications.

I think but for maybe giving the anchors new chairs and some different monitors,  the set is absolutely identical since April 2007.    For an idea of how long ago that was,  Harold Greene and Ann Martin were still anchoring KCAL's 4 pm newscast then.

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I’m surprised they didn’t have a custom engraved KCAL logo for the desk and use a plain metal sheet instead to cover the CBS2 logo or at least upgrade the anchor desk to a monitor screen like WCBS and KPIX has. 
 

Then again KCBS was the first to debut this look so everything is still original.

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5 hours ago, SFTV said:

I’m surprised they didn’t have a custom engraved KCAL logo for the desk and use a plain metal sheet instead to cover the CBS2 logo or at least upgrade the anchor desk to a monitor screen like WCBS and KPIX has. 
 

Then again KCBS was the first to debut this look so everything is still original.

WCBS used to cover their engraved logo during WLNY’s newscasts from 2017-20. This pic was taken in 2017.

C78E3BF8-1E6C-4E0E-8B97-02E4CA0FF102.jpeg

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