Don Shirley: Pianists make history
Iris Schneider on Annie Leibovitz
"SoCal Connected" returns Oct. 9 with a new focus on long-form investigative documentary pieces, starting with the LA Times and other local newsrooms in transition.
Archive: Television
"SoCal Connected" returns Oct. 9 with a new focus on long-form investigative documentary pieces, starting with the LA Times and other local newsrooms in transition.
Fox 11 morning anchor Elex Michaelson will host the 10:30 p.m. show.
The station that used to be the PBS flagship in Los Angeles — KCET — and the current flagship — PBS SoCal, or KOCE — are going to save themselves and combine in a "merger of equals."
LA Observed Notes: News designer tweets the end, media moves, selected tweets and more.
Long time host of "Good Day LA" has been scrubbed from the Channel 11 website. Website FTV Live says there were "sexual harassment allegations."
LA Observed Notes for midweek: Peabody and Murrow awards, an era ending at NPR, new on Jimmy Wales and Steve Bannon plus more.
Alvear started at KNBC and became NBC's first Latina news producer when she led Latin America coverage.
Osborne's TV credits begin in 1954, but in 1977 he took up writing for the Hollywood Reporter and became the genial first host of TCM movies.
New attorney general appointed. An anchor leaves the news desk. What to do with P-45.
"Your impact on this town is difficult to measure," Fox 11 anchor Steve Edwards says in a video tribute.
Ifill died of cancer complications. Co-anchor Judy Woodruff gave viewers the news on "PBS News Hour," where Ifill was managing editor.
Friday night pre-game ceremony at Dodger Stadium will air at 6:30 on KTLA Channel 5, SportsNet LA and KLAC radio.
The station will also air live the pre-game tributes at Vin Scully Appreciation Day on Sept. 23.
Long worked on "The Big News" at KNXT and was VP and news director at NBC 4.
Halpert reported for all three network stations in LA and hosted "KNBC News Conference."
The chief meteorologist for CBS 2 and KCAL 9 will be the LAPD's new public information director.
The set rolled out on Monday's 5 p.m. news on CBS LA. Photos include an interview area and backstage green room.
The managing editor for digital strategy lasted just over a year.
The outrage that isn't about the scandal that wasn't crosses over from the web.
Liberte Chan says it was her co-anchor's joke when she was handed a cardigan sweater to wear over her sparkly black dress.
Longtime TV reporter Scott Collins will be TV editor, and Michael Schneider joins Penske Media. Plus more.
Other female reporters tell Sports Illustrated a depressing story of hyper-vigilance, fear and never feeling truly safe in their rooms.
Channel 11's longtime weathercaster and host showed up over the weekend and will be around for awhile.
"Bridging the Divide: Tom Bradley and the Politics of Race" runs Thursday night at 8 p.m. on PBS SoCal.
After losing badly in his try to join the LA City Council, Davis is now on the media side of the presidential campaigns.
New series about Los Angeles and history hosted by Nathan Masters is a co-production with the USC Libraries.
They are hiring. LAist is also looking for an editor-in-chief, and another former LA blogger-in-chief is in the news.
You too can be an overnight success after 20 years, says the writer on the new Fox show "Bordertown."
New season of the award-winning series debuts on Jan. 27 with Val Zavala back as anchor and EP.
Flick survived the attack on journalists covering Jonestown that killed Rep. Leo Ryan in 1978 and helped to start "Entertainment Tonight."
The actor does not have AIDS and says he has paid "into the millions" including to insiders to keep his status quiet over four years.
Sam Quinones is the author of "Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic." CBS didn't go for his pitches, then he saw "60 Minutes" last night.
May 15, 1965 was a bigger than usual Saturday taping night in the KHJ Channel 9 studios.
LA Observed contributor Cari Beauchamp brings her film historian chops to a month-long series highlighting female directors back to the industry's first years.
There's nothing secret about KNBC's Santa Susana nuclear accident package -- the station broke the story for TV in 1979 with Warren Olney reporting.
They take to KTLA this morning to announce they are hanging up their microphones -- voluntarily. They go way back in LA broadcasting.
Producer Peter Jones wants the show to feel inpired by Ralph Story and Huell Howser, "who taught me the best quality to have as a journalist: listening."
Chicago station says it "failed to recognize that the image was an offensive Nazi symbol."
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck credits Milner's Pete Malloy with inspiring him to join the force.
Scott Glover will be a justice reporter based in Los Angeles. Everybody at the LAT seems to expect a new round of buyouts soon.
Byers will be the senior reporter for media and politics at CNNMoney and CNN Politics.
"One of the great news producers of all time, anywhere," says Bob Tarlau on Facebook.
Over the quarter-century that he hosted ‘‘Larry King Live,’’ King was always asking his guests, ‘‘What do you think happens when we die?’’
WDBJ photographer Adam Ward, 27, and reporter Alison Parker, 24, were interviewing a chamber of commerce official at a strip mall this morning. The shooter was a former reporter at the Roanoke station.
Local 53 plans a rally outside the Bundy Drive studios on Thursday in support of Cheryl Bacon, who has been at KTTV for 39 years.
Hill will report and comment on TV in the paper, for the web and on Twitter.
"Viewers deserve more than having someone on the air for 17 years just disappear," Rubin says, chiding KABC-TV. Plus: Kemp's new Twitter feed.
Station announces resignation on his official social media accounts. Later in the day his bio dropped off the ABC 7 site.
Veteran news executive Bill Dallman was named Vice President and News Director of KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV, the CBS-owned duopoly in Los Angeles.
Channel 11 gets a new general manager but its live-shot gets bombed by a sign about unfair practices at—Fox 11!
Sources tell THR the magazine is close on an "aggressive exposé — more than a year in the works — about the unorthodox reporting tactics" of TMZ and Harvey Levin.
It wasn't even close. The top LA newscasts last year were all in Spanish, the judges said.
As for getting old, he sings, isn't that the goal?
KCBS and KCAL weatherman has left the duopoly for rival Channel 5.
Stanley is shifting to a newly created beat that will be part of the NYT's gathering coverage of income inequality in the U.S.
Diener has been the Vice President and News Director of the KCBS-KCAL duopoly stations since January 2010.
The Emmy Award nominations will no longer be held at a ridiculous hour of the morning in Los Angeles (well, North Hollywood.)
He brought out the staff to take a bow on camera. Nice touch.
Channel 5 was the first Los Angeles television station to deploy a news helicopter. Watch.
The CEO of Charter Communications says the company will start to offer Sports Net LA within a few weeks, while its $56 billion deal for Time Warner Cable proceeds.
Jimmy Kimmel will air a re-run of his show tonight so that his fans can switch over to CBS and watch Letterman's final show.
Tornado genesis from Jim Cantore at the Weather Channel.
Previous season openers did better in the ratings than the series finale, according to first-night numbers from Nielsen.
This is what Hollywood's acceptance of sexism looks like in real life, writes BuzzFeed LA's Susan Cheng -- despite a lawyer letter trying to dissuade her.
With David Letterman's TV run coming near the end, his writers of the past reveal the jokes they wish they had been allowed to put on the air.
Good for Marques. After a dude invaded her shot and began talking dirty, she put his pic on Facebook. "Do you know this face?"
County health inspections are spotty even at restaurants with confirmed cases of poisoning, says report by Joel Grover.
Salinas, the former Telemundo reporter who had an affair with then-mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, had been the local anchor on KRCA-62.
It's the longest-running show on Univision and possibly the longest-running variety show in television history.
Lopez says she is going to grad school fulltime. Alex Ben Block among those leaving the Hollywood Reporter, report says.
Nothing he can say about gender issues would trump his participation in the "cultural crime" of Kardashian hype.
Local surfers who are observant Muslims and female and the challenges they face, tonight on 'SoCal Connected.' Plus orcas, an urban farm and Hollyhock House.
Fischbeck was Channel 7's weatherman for nearly 20 years in the 1970s and 80s.
Kimmel's audience for Obama was up 30 percent over the previous Thursday and turned out to be the show's fourth highest rating ever.
HBO could not have gotten a luckier PR break with the final episode of "The Jinx" airing tonight.
McIlvain was the Troubleshooter on Channel 2 news in Los Angeles for many years. He died Monday.
Simon donated his fortune from "The Simpsons" to children, animals and other causes.
Hale has been at Channel 11 since 2004 and with Fox TV Stations for 18 years. No replacement has yet been named.
Fairchild's fans from 1960s TV, "Head" and "Up in Smoke" found her again dancing on YouTube. She recovered from a bout of homelessness on Skid Row.
Pico, Fry's Burbank and Cedars-Sinai are among the LA locales name-checked on Sunday's reunion show. Plus: Jane Curtin on Update.
Best known for "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," Owens was an LA radio fixture first. "One of the most famous broadcasters in Los Angeles radio history," says LA Radio's Don Barrett.
KTLA just announced that Stan Chambers died this morning at his home in Holmby Hills. He did 22,000 stories in 63 years at Channel 5. Obits and tributes inside.
New president for KABC-TV. Johnson Publications selling off photos. Los Angeles Magazine gets more vintage. Plus more.
Kraska is now the sports director at CBS 8 in San Diego. He was wounded outside his home.
"This was wrong and completely inappropriate for someone in Brian’s position,” the president of NBC News informs the staff.
"He is a comic genius, generous with his time and talent, and will always be a part of the Comedy Central family," says the channel's president.
Maureen Dowd writes that for NBC, Williams puffing up his exploits "was a bomb that had been ticking for a while."
Turns out that the NBC Nightly News anchor has been using his bogus claim of being shot down in Iraq over the years.
This week's "SoCal Connected" on KCET features the author and founder of Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore.
Maybe not everyone watching would know that Jones is biracial, but TNT's reporter and producers should have.
Is the right wing's fantasy war on Christmas to blame? Maybe it's just the novelty of a fake TV fire wearing off — or the competition.
KTLA morning traffic reporter Ginger Chan accidentally calls Rubin fat, thinking her mic is off. Everybody laughs, the video goes global, but he has some reflections on it all.
LA's longtime news anchor signed off KCAL last Friday (watch the video inside) and has the starring role in a new short film (watch it too.)
We mean the actual chairs. In the screen grabs from Friday night's news, watch just the height of the seat backs behind Leyna Nguyen and Sylvia Lopez.
Assuming you like Stefani, Shelton or Fallon. You don't even have to like all three.
Time Warner Cable will allow KDOC 56 to broadcast the last games of the season, starting with the Giants series next week.
The two stations will continue to operate separately but they will "share a single, over-the-air broadcast television channel," while auctioning off unneeded bandwidth and splitting the proceeds.
Conan O'Brien was taping his TBS show this afternoon when the news about Robin Williams reached the studio. Just before the end of the show, O'Brien informed the silent audience.
Studio SoCaL debuted Friday night as a weekly half-hour that repeats a few times. The first show had former LA mayor Richard Riordan and a discussion of "Silicon Beach."
Marlow had a long career reporting or anchoring on KNBC, KCBS and KCET — 37 years in all, ending with the old "Life & Times” program on KCET.
KCBS and KCAL announced today that longtime anchor Kent Shocknek will retire at the end of September. He has been on TV in Los Angeles for 31 years, most recently as anchor of the 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts on KCAL.
Quite a scene at UCLA on Tuesday. Plus Channel 7 falls for a fake DWP spokesman — but it takes a while.
NBC4's honors included for investigative reporting and for regularly scheduled daily evening newscast. Channel 4's Mary Harris also won the Emmy for news writing for the seventh time.
Burch takes to the station's morning show to explain the details of how, at age 45, she decided to go the frozen egg route. The report runs almost six minutes.
As the judge said in the final episode, their "callous indifference and utter disregard for everything that is good and decent has rocked the very foundation upon which our society is built."
The Kings and Ducks will meet to settle it on Friday evening in Anaheim. That's two big playoff games in LA in the past week where TV screens failed at the end. Not just Time Warner Cable either.
Sterling talks with Anderson Cooper in interview to air tonight on CNN. He asks forgiveness from the NBA — if his words offended, that is. "If I said anything wrong, I'm sorry."
The guy with no shirt on who asked out reporter Courtney Friel while both were live on the KTLA air last week is a new Inland Empire celebrity. Meet the ex-Marine behind the skin.
The U-2 was developed and built at Burbank Airport and played a major role in the Cold War. CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers, shot down over the USSR in 1960 and swapped for a KGB spy, later died flying the KNBC news chopper.
KTLA's Courtney Friel was covering the afternoon's brush fire in the Inland Empire foothills on Wednesday when a shirtless man carrying a dog asked her for a date.
New season begins May 14 with some of the old team and some new faces. Expect a show that's more like the KCET website than the TV series that won all those awards.
Ana Garcia, the former KNBC anchor and investigative reporter, shows up on a new issue of "Kitchen Nightmares" interviewing the overheated proprietors of Amy's Baking Company in Scottsdale, Arizona.
David Letterman announces he will step down in 2015 and quips he always knew "when this show stops being fun, I will retire 10 years later."
Channel 4's investigation of tour bus accidents and Lawrence Wright's "Going Clear" are cited by the judges, as well as an investigation into LA-area rehab scams. Details inside.
Brian Williams did a story on Friday about this being the final weekend for the NBC studios in Burbank. Lots of reminiscing about Johnny Carson, "Laugh-in" and Bob Hope.
Al Jerome is the longtime head of public television station KCET — only the third in its history — who will be known chiefly now for being the architect of the decision to leave PBS and become independent.
An April 5 fundraiser for Board of Supervisors candidate Sheila Kuehl is billed as "A Night at the Movies with Zelda" — and the contribution levels are right out of her old show, "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis."
Can you spot the misspelling tonight on KCAL 9's weather report? Hint: There is no T in KCAL.
Los Angeles bureau reporter Miguel Almaguer did a field report for the "NBC Nightly News" Friday night while standing thigh deep in runoff debris. His rescue was not shown.
Science and technology reporter Miles O'Brien ("PBS NewsHour," "Frontline," CNN) was wrapping up a trip to Japan and the Philippines this month when a camera case fell on his forearm. Ouch.
Robin Abcarian, the LA Times columnist, stopped in to see her Venice neighbor this morning. They talked about the event that re-injected the former CBS 2 anchor into the news stream last week: Walker's arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence in Anaheim, and the release of a police mug shot that showed her looking, in Walker's words, like rocker Steven Tyler.
She was reportedly stopped by Anaheim police after running a red light then failed a field sobriety test. Walker was released on a promise to appear in court.
Sample Q: How will the merger affect the price of my cable service? A: We will be introducing financing options, roughly similar to those that enabled you to attend college.
Caesar and Reiner spoof another popular staple of 1950s TV, "This is Your Life."
Caesar's 1950s NBC program "Your Show of Shows" featured Imogene Coca and writers such as Mel Brooks, Woody Allen and Larry Gelbart. Caesar died today at home in Beverly Hills.
Costas' red and swollen eyes are getting worse, not better. He will be replaced tonight by Matt Lauer.
The KTLA entertainment anchor made a mistake with Jackson on live TV this morning and has been the butt of jokes and social media comments the rest of the day. And probably will be tomorrow too, despite an on-air apology. Bad on KTLA: the video clip inside starts automatically.
"The first year of this show I lost my mom. The second year I lost my dad. Then my brother died. And after that I was pretty much out of family. And the folks here became my family."
Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alyokhina appeared last night on "The Colbert Report." Nothing is lost in translation.
Rather than require ticked-off viewers to make claims and complete a bunch of paperwork, TWC will give all Southern California customers a gift to make up for losing the Super Bowl feed on Sunday.
Conan Nolan, the host of "News Conference" on NBC 4, goes behind the scenes with a camera on the final show before the station moves a few miles onto the lot at Universal City.
Viewers across Southern California lost the game in the second quarter for about an hour. Time Warner Cable noted helpfully that the feed was still available if you were an HD customer.
Amy Poehler: "Seth, we are here to take you to the other side."
KCETLink is about to announce that it has received a $1 million grant from the Ahmanson Foundation for a new season of the award-winning news series, "SoCal Connected." No word on staffing or format.
"California saved my life," the "Good Day LA" entertainment anchor says of the tumor discovered after she moved here and got bonked on the head by a surfboard.
I guess that at 4:31 on Friday morning, Channel 4's tweets will begin. They did this before during the anniversary of the LA riots.
The former NBC 4 reporter will host a monthly show on the economic life of Southern California on PBS SoCal. The first episode airs Thursday evening at 5:30 p.m.
The two amigos of local Mexican-flavored media are part of the team for the new Fox show "Bordertown," and darn happy to be there it sounds like.
With NBC moving from Burbank to Universal City, and "The Tonight Show" returning to New York, the website Pro Video Coalition.com is remembering the first studio built specifically for color television.
Former Fox 11 anchor Carlos Amezcua will handle 3 to 6 p.m. on the new LA home of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck.
"This is not the first time I have passed out cold," KUTV's Brooke Graham blogs cheerily. "I am known to faint any time I am in high altitudes and get too cold. (So does my twin sister Britt)."
In Los Angeles in the 1960s, there were three huge local news stories that riveted people in front of their televisions — mostly to watch KTLA Channel 5, because that was the only station with a news helicopter.
The newsroom at Channel 11 was told this afternoon that co-anchor Carlos Amezcua's last day was Friday. The word is that he's leaving to focus on his outside media company.
Couple of updates to previous stories from the local TV news sector.
KABC Channel 7 will begin airing a live one-hour newscast in primetime — seven days a week at 8 p.m. — in January. But there's a twist.
"The Real Orange" with Ed Arnold has been on since 1997. Still no news about the station breaking from its OC roots to expand into LA and greater Southern California.
Ouch, it's been a bad run in whatever they call the Chyron department these days at KCAL 9.
Julie Chang is the entertainment news anchor on Fox 11's "Good Day LA" who joined the show about a year ago from New York. She explains that a surfing accident got her to the doctor.
Stelter, one of the most high-profile New York Times staffers, produced scoop after scoop on the media beat while this year publishing his first book, “Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV." He began TVNewswer in college and got hired full-time at the NYT at graduation.
CBS Los Angeles took a page from baseball and announced today that it is trading some of its big name on-air talent between stations CBS 2 and KCAL 9. Here are the details.
A reader emails this screen grab: "What were they smoking at KCAL when they wrote this caption?"
She lets Kingsley Smith off easy, I think -- but his eyes might be bleeding anyway.
The announcement this afternoon by Fox 11 general manager Kevin Hale that Smith had resigned to pursue that magical career path — other opportunities — ends a 20-year association with Fox stations. It also smacks of being pushed.
Anchor Alycia Lane arrived from Philadelphia in 2009 with such hoopla — and a lot of baggage. Her legal cases have concluded back there, and now her time at Channel 4 here as well.
KCAL's weathercaster is almost five months pregnant, she announced on the air tonight. They pretty much had to say something.
After starting in Chicago, Don Cornelius migrated "Soul Train" to Los Angeles and national syndication. This clip with the theme from "Shaft" is from Oct. 1971.
Brian Rooney, the former Los Angeles correspondent for ABC News (for 23 years), is now doing The Rooney Report, a daily news digest he will email you. Just ten bucks a year.
Egger arrives in October from The Weather Channel to take over as the meteorologist on "Today in LA" on NBC 4. She's a UC Santa Barbara grad from Grand Terrace in the Inland Empire.
Vin Scully will be the grand marshal of this coming Rose Parade, but it won't be his first brush with getting up early on January 1.
The layoff reaper finally came for ABC7's bureau chief in Sacramento. Now there will be no Los Angeles area TV stations with a presence around the state Capitol.
Fox 11 News in Los Angeles reported that its investigative reporter and producer Martin Burns was the hiker who died Sunday in a hiking accident in the foothills above Altadena.
The New York Times says new books could start to appear in 2015. Watch the trailer inside for the upcoming film, to screen in limited release starting Sept. 6.
Blankstein will take his deep law enforcement contacts list to NBC as an investigative reporter based here.
Kyle Hunter sued KCBS and KCAL last year. This time he alleges that KABC did not consider him for the job due to illegal sex and age discrimination. The job went to Bri Winkler.
Channel 13 is going to stop airing a re-packaged version of the Fox 11 news next month. Look for more "Simpsons" and "King of Queens."
We think so! Not counting Reagan in his acting days (because who knows, he was local for a long time, and a lot of actors lived in the West Valley.)
All of the streets that the LAPD is warning drivers to avoid during President Obama's brief visit to the area today and Wednesday are out in the Valley. Obama lands...
NBC4 at 6 p.m. again was the top daily newscast and David Ono of Channel 7 won three Emmy statuettes. Outstanding news writer: Daisy Lin of Channel 4. Video and link to full list of winners inside.
The former team of the award-winning news series has mostly dispersed, but KCET is actively raising support for a sixth season with a tentative launch date in January.
Robert G. Magnuson, a former top editor at both the LA Times Business section and the paper's former Orange County edition, was elected at a meeting last week at the City Club on Bunker Hill in downtown Los Angeles. The location is relevant.
President Obama is returning to California for a two-day swing that will include a stop at NBC in Burbank for his sixth appearance on "The Tonight Show."
The Channel 7 photojournalist popular among his colleagues and the LA press corps died Wednesday about two weeks after suffering a stroke. "Great guy, friendly and fair," Mayor Garcetti said by tweet.
The Los Angeles correspondent is Jennifer London, formerly with NBC News, MSNBC and KCET. The network launches Aug. 20. Full list inside.
Oakland Fox affiliate KTVU has reportedly dismissed at least three veteran producers after an internal investigation into how the station's news anchor read obviously fake names on the air, calling them the pilots of the Asiana Airlines flight that crashed at San Francisco's airport this month.
Two former Los Angeles TV guys who went on to national media fame are getting new television shows, but you'll only find them deep on your cable grid.
You know it's bad when the most surprising thing isn't that the station aired the names. First, the NTSB confirmed them. Watch the video.
The former anchor and reporter showed up today on the tough story of the 19 firefighters who died in Arizona. You can almost hear the cheering for her from Channel 4 friends on Facebook.
Karen Foshay, a senior producer on the award-winning investigations "SoCal Connected" team at KCET, has been hired at KPCC. Yes, she's moving from TV to public radio — but that's a route that could become more common as KCET abandons the on-air news coverage it was known for.
Richard Matheson wrote "I Am Legend," which was turned into films three times, and also wrote 16 episodes of the original "Twilight Zone" television series for Rod Serling. He was the screenwriter as well for "Duel," Steven Spielberg's 1971 TV movie debut.
TV Guide's Michael Schneider says at his blog Franklin Avenue that he has figured out the location of the run-down former Pennsylvania whorehouse depicted in the season's final scene. It's an 1887 home that is often filmed on Carroll Avenue.
This just went out in the newsroom at KNBC. "Ana has a lot to be proud of during her time here at NBC4. We wish her the very best in her future endeavors." The six-time Emmy winner was nominated last week for two more.
Here is a list of all 136 nominations for Los Angeles area Emmy awards. Channel 4 received the most. It's interesting to see how the categories are framed and what gets rewarded.
From 2004. "He is, as Tony Soprano might put it, a made man in the actor's studio," James Lipton said in his introduction.
The star of HBO's "The Sopranos" has died in Italy of a heart attack or a stroke.
Good lede from Associated Press: "Apparently, Men's Wearhouse Inc. doesn't like the way its founder looks anymore."
Nikki Finke certainly doesn't sound fired. Today she announced the hiring of new television columnist Lisa De Moraes, who spent about 15 years covering TV at the Washington Post.
The filmmakers "make spectacular use of Russian’s invasive paparazzi-style media freedoms on behalf of their movie, and create of a girl group that might not be the best band in the world, but is certainly the bravest." Trailer inside.
Dennis Lahti, a cameraman-editor for KNBC, posted this photo of his father, Richard Lahti, loaded up for "2 On The Town" on Channel 2: "We now do it with a camera, laptop/non-linear editing software, and a video-over-cellular live video transmission backpack."
Don Oliver covered the Vietnam War, the civil rights era and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King before coming to the NBC bureau in Burbank. He was with the network for 25 years. Video inside: Brian Williams pays tribute.
The first two games of the Kings-Blackhawks series will be in Chicago — on Saturday and Sunday. Play returns to Staples Center for Game 3 on Tuesday, June 4. Game 4 would be on Thursday, June 6. NBC or NBCSN will televise all the games.
Before airing a documentary about the Park Avenue building where Koch and a lot of other rich people live, the president of WNET gave the mogul a call and offered to water things down. It didn't help: Koch still resigned from the station's board.
A little taste of Scranton (and Dunder Mifflin) on Saticoy Street.
CBS 2 sifts the data for the most notorious places for LAPD traffic cops to nab speeders, while Joel Grover and NBC 4 turn their hidden cameras back on Jiffy Lube. May is always a busy month for local TV's investigative teams.
Hader is the next "Saturday Night Live" cast member to leave. He wants to do movies and TV in Los Angeles. We'll say this — he knows his way around the city (video.)
The head writer of “Saturday Night Live” and host of the show's “Weekend Update” segment will be the fourth host of NBC’s “Late Night,” following David Letterman, Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon.
Mario Machado was a familiar presence on Los Angeles TV and radio for a few decades starting in 1967, when he joined Channel 9 (then KHJ-TV) as the city's first Chinese-American TV news reporter. He was a soccer booster in LA before the sport was cool and a founder of AYSO. Girls play soccer today because of Mario Machado, a friend posted on Facebook.
KTLA reporter Lu Parker is doing some time on skates with the Derby Dolls for a piece on Thursday night's 10 p.m. news on Channel 5. "I try to conquer the track," she tweets.
Marcus was KCET’s chief content officer and executive producer of "SoCal Connected" until last week's layoffs. He hints that the award-winning 'Connected' team hopes to stay together somewhere else.
Last month, Marcus was the main voice at KCET insisting that "SoCal Connected" was just between seasons and might be back. It looked remote then, given the station's financial mess, and looks even more remote now.
The merger last fall of Los Angeles public television station KCET with Link Media became more real on Friday. CEO Al Jerome, who took KCET out of PBS a few years ago, appears to remain.
Jonathan Winters had one of those long, varied entertainment industry careers after working New York comedy clubs and moving to early television in the 1950s. "One of the great comedians of the 20th century," the LA Times says.
KCET says that while it doesn't look good for a sixth season of "SoCal Connected," it still might happen. "SoCal Connected depends on public funding and we don't know at this time what that funding will be."
KTLA 5 Morning News co-host Michaela Pereira is leaving the station at the end of May, after nine years, to join CNN in New York, the station announced. No replacement has been named.
It sounds as if Thursday night's episode of "SoCal Connected" on financially strapped KCET might be more than the final show of the fifth season. Co-host Madeleine Brand posted on Facebook that Wednesday's taping day was the show's last one. "A loss for good journalism in L.A.," she writes. We agree.
Next year's Oscar awards will be held on March 2, moving later in the year to avoid conflicts with the Winter Olympics from Russia. The show will then move back to February (Feb. 22 to be exact) for 2015.
In between pieces on Pussy Riot and Anderson Cooper diving with Nile crocodiles, tonight's "60 Minutes" reported on the former Long Beach Poly High football player who served several years for a sexual assault he did not commit.
Vulture compiled every facet of sex, relationships and New York that Sarah Jessica Parker's lead character wondered aloud about during the six seasons of "Sex and the City."
If you're NBC 4, you probably figure you have the TV footage of police chases, might as well cut the video together and put it on the web. The greatest hits reel from recent chases runs 2:44 and includes the man who huffed on balloons in the Valley and the woman who took off running while still on her cellphone.
Ramona Schindelheim, a former producer for the 10 p.m. news on Channel 11 in Los Angeles, is returning to KTTV later this month. She will be the managing editor, after stints as executive producer for CNBC's "Business Day," senior producer for "The Jane Pauley Show" and business editor at ABC News.
Bryan Frank, the photographer for the CBS 2/KCAL 9 duopoly, has been posting some really nice behind-the-scenes images — as well as some food, coffee and street life shots that make me wish I was back in Rome.
I'm told that what could be the final episode of the television drama "Southland" will shoot tomorrow morning in front of the Police Administration Building. Chief Charlie Beck is supposed to make a quick cameo appearance sometime between 11 a.m. and noon.
"SoCal Connected" aired a story tonight that analyzes where Los Angeles Archdiocese priests accused of sexual abuse were assigned. Author Daniel A. Olivas' experiences with an abusive priest are featured. Warning: the video starts automatically.
Los Angeles TV stations generally won't do Sacramento news (ABC 7 is the exception), but most sent their own people to Rome to cover the selection of the new pope — even though it is already one of the world's most adequately covered news events. Here's who is there.
KTLA News Director Jason Ball is new to Twitter and has been tweeting so much so that former Channel 5 reporter David Begnaud Twit-quipped to producers Tara Wallis and Marcus K. Smith: "Y'all take that twitter away from @jasonrball." Ball posted this photo the other day of the afternoon editorial meeting. It's nice to see inside the walls and have a mental picture of how they do things.
I only report this to finish the thought from earlier in the week. Paula Lopez, the news anchor at KEYT in Santa Barbara who was reported missing for several hours on Wednesday, was "experiencing a medical condition" that day, her family said in a statement.
Channel 7 political reporter John North talks with John Shallman, senior strategist for the Wendy Greuel campaign, at Greuel's Van Nuys headquarters on Thursday. North is scheduled to retire from ABC 7 on Friday after 34 years.
Tina Fey cuts Seth MacFarlane some major slack for disappointing many viewers of Sunday's Oscars show, telling Anne Thompson of IndieWire that "It's the hardest job there is. It's a tough room. Seth did great."
Channel 7's long-time political reporter, John North, is retiring at the end of this week. The newsroom in Glendale got a memo announcing North's departure from news director Cheryl Fair.
It's transition time at some of the local TV stations, if the drumbeats I'm hearing are accurate. One transition that's for sure is that of Al Naipo, the Orange County bureau chief for Fox 11. His classy farewell note went out to the Bundy Drive newsroom tonight.
Most (but by no means all) of the reviews for last night's Oscars show and host Seth MacFarlane have not been favorable. But the early ratings for the TV show are up about four percent over last year's show hosted Billy Crystal — and much younger. And that's entirely logical, says Richard Rushfield at BuzzFeed.
NBC's prime-time schedule looks as if it will finish the February sweeps period for the key age 18-49 demographic segment behind both Fox and Univision. It's the first time that NBC will finish in fifth place, according to Dominic Patten at Deadline.com.
Because the State of the Union speech by President Obama was going to depress TV viewership numbers on the West Coast on Tuesday night, the local stations sold half-hour blocks for infomercials on the movies. But then, voila, lots of eyeballs were watching TV in Southern California. TV Guide's Michael Schneider explains.
Channel 4 will pre-empt "Law and Order, Special Victims Unit" to air a one-hour special, "Manifesto for Murder: The Hunt for Christopher Dorner." Airtime is Thursday at 10 p.m.
The woman at the Mexican restaurant in Orange County told CBS2 reporter Michele Gile that she knew nothing about Dorner. Ten minutes later, she went inside the home he sometimes shared with his mother. Also: CBS 2 gets pranked.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck called in CBS2 anchor Pat Harvey for an exclusive interview today in which Beck said he would take a look at some of the allegations of racism made by disgraced ex-cop Christopher Dorner. Beck told Harvey that his motive in re-opening the case that led to Dorner's firing was to keep the department's trust among African-Americans. "I'm not doing this to appease Dorner," Beck said.
A pre-Grammys email from the CBS standards and practices department all but dares performers to show a little skin at the upcoming show. How many ways are there for a musician (or an audience member) to violate the CBS code? A whole lot.
Channel 4 is expanding its weekend newscasts, beginning this Saturday. Robert Kovacik and Kathy Vara, who now co-anchor at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on weekends, will also do a new "NBC4 News at 5PM" show.
Channel 4 won two Golden Mike awards last night for best TV newscast, and AM radio stations KNX and KFI won for the best radio newscasts. KPCC-FM won the most awards overall, ten Golden Mikes in a variety of categories. Steve Edwards, the longtime host of "Good Day LA" on Fox 11, picked up the lifetime achievement award from the Radio and Television News Association of Southern California.
The Pantages has put up a Channel 5 story on reporter Lu Parker getting harnessed up to fly like Cathy Rigby does in the upcoming production of Peter Pan.
If you don't get a $234 LAPD ticket this year for turning right at 7th Street and Broadway, you could have D.J. Prator to thank. He lives near the corner and noticed that LAPD traffic officers were always writing tickets there. Thus began a little crusade. Story on 'SoCal Connected.'
The Riverside County death certificate for Huell Howser says that the television host and producer died early on the morning of January 7 from metastatic prostate cancer. Howser was cremated and his remains scattered off the coast of Los Angeles County on Jan. 9.
This ran on this week's episode of "The Simpson's." Hat tip to KCET on Facebook. There is a sunset memorial to Howser scheduled this afternoon at Griffith Observatory.
O'Neill gained a measure of Los Angeles radio immortality when he became the first voice heard on KRLA when the AM station switched to rock and roll (from country western music) in 1959. He went on to become LA's top radio deejay, then at age 24 went national as the host of ABC's short-lived rock music show "Shindig" in 1964. Here's some video.
Temperatures have plunged into the 40s and the local news is freaking out.
Councilman Tom LaBonge, a friend of the public TV icon Huell Howser, said today he will join friends and fans for a public memorial at sunset on Tuesday, Jan. 15 at Griffith Observatory. Also: video of Huell in Tennessee as you may never have seen him.
Reportero, which debuted Monday night on POV on PBS, follows a veteran reporter and his colleagues at Zeta, a Tijuana-based independent newsweekly, "as they stubbornly ply their trade in one of the deadliest places in the world for members of the media." Watch the trailer inside or stream the entire film.
KCET has posted some great tributes to Huell Howser, including video of the longtime production team and the station's three-minute obituary from Monday night's "SoCal Connected." Also: Kevin Roderick and John Rabe with Jacob Soboroff on HuffPost Live.
Gustavo Arellano at the OC Weekly reported late this morning that California television icon Huell Howser has died. Arellano based his story on sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. A few minutes later, KPCC "Off-Ramp" host John Rabe tweeted that Howser's assistant confirmed that he died last night at home.
The New Year's Eve live show from Hollywood Boulevard watched by almost nobody on KDOC, but which then went viral on the Internet, kinda sorta went according to plan, says the host. Except for the unbleeped f-bombs, technical glitches and unplanned brawl.
Villaraigosa tells Conan Nolan on NBC 4's "News Conference" that he was in Cabo San Lucas on vacation, bumped into Charlie Sheen in the hotel, and that Sheen asked to take a photo. "I'm in the picture taking business. I've never said no to anyone that wants to take a picture."
Al Jazeera on Wednesday completed a deal to take over Al Gore's seven-year-old Current TV, which is based in San Francisco. A new channel, Al Jazeera America, will be based in New York, the NYT says. "Current will provide the pan-Arab news giant with something it has sought for years: a pathway into American living rooms."
Fontella Bass, a church choir singer in St. Louis who recorded as a soul singer for Chess Records and had a hit with "Rescue Me" in 1965, died Wednesday at age 72 in her hometown. She suffered a heart attack three weeks ago.
Executive producer Wendy Harris, at Channel 4 for three decades, is retiring from the station. Here's the newsroom memo earlier this month from the VP for news.
KCET's story on Los Angeles County's dependency courts was one of 14 winners of Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards announced this morning at Columbia. This is big in the world of broadcast news, considered by some to be their Pulitzers.
NBC's chief foreign correspondent and his crew were held five days then freed Monday in a firefight at a checkpoint in Syria, NBC News announced this morning. Engel, producer Ghazi Balkiz and cameraman John Kooistra appeared live on "Today" from Turkey.
Starting Monday, KCET will air SoCal Connected first at 5:30 p.m. then repeat at 10 p.m. "Rick Steves' Europe" is going into the old time slot on Monday, with various shows in the prime time hours the rest of the week.
Jenni Rivera, who was born in Long Beach, is a popular performer and songwriter in the Mexican Nortena and banda styles and a rising television star on both sides of the border. She recently signed a deal with ABC to develop a comedy around her. Rivera is divorced from former Dodgers pitcher Esteban Loaiza and leaves five children.
Anchor Sharon Tay, meteorologist Evelyn Taft in the middle and reporter Amber Lee in the KCAL studio. Tweeted by Taft.
"Off-Ramp" host John Rabe called and talked to me this afternoon for a piece he's doing on the end of Huell Howser's television career. Listen to some of the audio.
Tamar Brott profiled Huell Howser for Los Angeles magazine and found him to be defensive about his enthusiasm and his affection for finding the positive, or denying the negative, in any situation.
On Wednesday's show, I'm told that KCET's "SoCal Connected" digs into the ties between Supervisor Don Knabe, his son Matt Knabe, and the clients of Matt's lobbying firm, Englander Knabe and Allen.
Howser is "retiring from making new shows but does not want to make any formal announcements about it," says an email. Amazing.
After the city Department of Building and Safety quietly posted the location and permit status of every billboard structure in the city, KCET mapped the data and drew some conclusions about billboards in Los Angeles.
The producers call it a rare, "unflinching portrait." I suspect there's some flinching. Video: Geffen in love with Cher in 1973.
Ken Burns' latest documentary debuted on PBS on Sunday night. The great migration to California begins in tonight's second part. Watch a preview.
Federal regulators gave the go-ahead for Tribune Corp. to continue operating TV stations and newspapers in five markets where it holds both, removing a major obstacle to the Chicago company...
This morning the former Fox 11 reporter showed up on NBC 4 covering the wood shop fire at James Monroe High School in the Valley. "Yes. I'm now at ch.4 news," she tweets.
Friends on Facebook and Twitter and staffers at the duopoly newsroom in Studio City are saying that Joel Connable, a reporter at CBS 2/KCAL 9 for three years until 2005, has died. Connable had just started a new anchor gig at KOMO-TV in Seattle last month, after being out of the local news business since 2009.
Madeleine Brand gives an interview to the LA Times about leaving KPCC and her initial reactions to being seen on television.
Saturday morning on one of Los Angeles' longest-running radio programs, the hosts will announce the death of John Retsek, who created "The Car Show" on KPFK in 1973. They will talk about John and possibly take calls from the legions of listeners who have listened to the show or been guests in its nearly four decades on the air — the odd duck among the politically charged news, talk and revolutionary rhetoric at the Pacifica-owned radio station.
I went over to KCET's new studios in Burbank last week to catch the first day of run throughs for the made-over "So Cal Connected." Here's what to expect from the nightly show and some pictures of KCET's digs.
Channel 4's Robert Kovacik was live on the air from West Los Angeles when a roach crawled across his shoulders. No problem! Watch the video.
Young (OK, very young) versions of the former KNBC 4 stalwarts and a feature story on the Mojave Desert landmark.
I'm not sure I get the full impact of this, but KCET has announced what it's calling a merger with Link Media, the non-profit media company in San Francisco that produces LinkTV. Their new non-profit creation will be called KCETLink. No big changes on the air for now.
The longtime morning news anchor is the third high-profile woman let go by Channel 11 in recent months. "Wonder if this'll get my security desposit back?," she tweeted along with a picture of her cleaned-out desk.
KCET will announce today that former KPCC host Madeleine Brand will become a special contributor to "SoCal Connected." The show is also going daily — it had aired on a weekly cycle. Val Zavala will remain the show's news anchor, with Brand doing mostly interviews, it sounds like.
After 35 years at CBS, assignment editor Steve Crawford left the newsroom at Channels 2 and 9 on May 23 without revealing to anyone that he had stage 3 esophageal cancer. He insisted that no one know, his wife says in a note posted at the station today.
Whit Johnson, the new co-anchor at NBC 4, is married to new KCAL 9 reporter Andrea Fujii. He's a proud husband, per Twitter.
If you didn't grow up in the Los Angeles area during the baby boom, you can leave the room for a couple of minutes. Though if your parents fit the description, you might want to stick around.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who recently paid $20 million for a think tank at USC, gets a segment on "60 Minutes" tonight to give just enough mea culpa on the whole cheated-on-Maria thing to sound like it was a blip. But at the Daily Beast, Ann Louise Bardach says the chronology given to CBS' Lesley Stahl and in Arnold's new memoir is anything but true
Reynolds tweeted this morning that she was just informed that her "Good Day L.A." days were over. Steve Edwards' new co-host is Maria Sansone.
If things go right, there will be fewer media choppers hovering pointlessly above the ends of the closed 405 freeway during this weekend's traffic event. Or non-event, whatever.
In 2006, an LA Times and Paramount promotion for "Mission: Impossible III" went awry. They settled with the federal government for $75,000.
HBO's "Real Sports" on Tuesday night is a double Dodgers episode, with Magic talking about his role with the team and an update on Bryan Stow, the firefighter and Giants fan who was left brain damaged by a beating in the Dodger Stadium parking lot.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is busted on "The Daily Show" for his presiding over that bogus voice vote on the platform changes (re: God and Jerusalem) at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte.
Former co-host at "Good Day LA" says the new boss told her she "made his eyes bleed." That's what you like to hear when you're on-camera talent.
Everyone got down safely, but there was a scary moment over Hollywood Monday afternoon. Helicopters for Channel 5 and Channel 2 were covering the report of a gunman in Hollywood when Stu Mundel, the pilot for KCBS' SKY2, noticed smoke spewing from the engine of KTLA's Sky5.
KTLA sportscaster Rebecca Hall's weekend oops — in which she jokes during an on-air tribute to Vin Scully that he "should get his shit together" — has been pulled down from Big Lead Sports. Copyright claim by Tribune, which owns Channel 5, is the explanation. Well, the Tribune suits haven't made it to Deadspin yet, apparently.
Dodgers fans can breathe easy for another year. Check out our new story on Scully's five most memorable calls, by guest author Paul Haddad.
The new leadership team at Channel 4 continues to make changes in the newsroom lineup. Today the station will announce that Michael Brownlee will be getting up really early from now on as co-anchor of "Today in LA" with Alycia Lane. Plus some other moves
This is a few years old. But with producers announcing the end of "The Office" after next season, here's a look back at a clip of LA Observed video showing the filming location on Saticoy Street. A little taste of Scranton (and Dunder Mifflin) in industrial Van Nuys.
ABC is moving Jimmy Kimmel's late-night show into head-to-head competition with Jay Leno and David Letterman. "Nightline" flips back to 12:35, a big disappointment to the news types.
Once the LA Weekly dropped his longtime comic strip, the end was inevitable. "It was particularly aggravating that I wasn’t being printed locally in Los Angeles," Groening said. "If 'Life in Hell' were still in LA Weekly, it would probably have kept me going."
Longtime Channel 7 photographer Artie Williams died over the weekend while diving with a friend off Catalina Island, the station announced.
The actress has tweeted that she won't lose any fingers, despite a breathless report by TMZ from expert bystanders.
The undefeated Olympic champion shows she can handle 'The Daily Show' too. The episode re-airs tonight at 7:30 p.m.
The center in Berkeley will announce tomorrow a partnership with Univision to jointly produce investigative stories for Spanish-speaking audiences in the United States and Latin America.
Twitter has erupted with DirecTV customers in Los Angeles who want the last minutes of their Olympics. But no.
At Saturday night's local Emmy awards, the Governors Award for lifetime achievement went to Susan Stratton, Chick Hearn's producer on Lakers broadcasts for most of three decades. In the station count, NBC4, ABC7 and KTLA5 each won seven Emmys. Link to full list of winners inside.
For more than five years, Sacramento's CBS TV affiliate has been investigating reports by drivers in Northern California who get parking tickets from the city of Los Angeles when they swear they weren’t there. The latest case involves a Sacramento area man who says his new car has never been in LA.
A couple of readers have noticed the familiar voice of Jennifer York doing traffic reports for KNX 1070 radio. York was the very popular airborne traffic reporter on KTLA Channel 5 for 13 years, until she and the station parted ways in 2004.
This seems more than a little embarrassing for Twitter. Seems the service suspended the very active account of Guy Adams, the Los Angeles-baed bureau chief for UK's The Independent, after a siege of weekend tweets pummeling NBC's coverage of the Olympics — and a complaint by NBC.
These will be stationed in Business, and include yet another body devoted to coverage of entertainment industry awards and another covering TV, plus the return of a slot based in New York.
I really shouldn't be needling anyone else over typos, but reader Donald sent this in amused. Is Sharon Tay surprised to find there's no S in construction at KCAL? Is she just enunciating an O at that moment? "I'm amazed they spelled the recently coined (and lame) word 'Carmageddon' correctly!," says Donald.
Asher directed 100 episodes of "I Love Lucy," brought the Gidget character to television, directed the popular series of 1960s beach movies starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, and produced the "Bewitched" TV series that starred his then-wife, Elizabeth Montgomery.
Tribune's plan, endorsed by several of the company's largest creditors, would transfer ownership of Tribune Company — owner of the Los Angeles Times, KTLA and numerous other media outets around the U.S. — to a group of hedge funds and banks based in LA and New York.
KCET's longtime home near Sunset Junction, turned over to the Church of Scientology in April, will become the home of a religious broadcasting center to promote Scientology teachings over TV, radio and the Internet. No timetable was given.
"Global L.A." debuts July 24 at 8 p.m. on KCET and will be "examining the region’s ties to a number of destinations and cultures around the world," the station says. Zay Harding will host.
In a piece being well received at the Los Angeles Review of Books, television critic Phillip Maciak calls Aaron Sorkin "one of the only commercially bankable and socially conscious screenwriters now working; his writing style is fast, fluid, and instantly recognizable..." And yet.
KTLA reporter Lu Parker's rep confirmed today that she and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa have split up, ending their relationship after about three years. The LA Times has been asking Villaraigosa in recent weeks to explain his status with Parker, but his answers had been evasive.
Banfield, a television presence in Los Angeles for 43 years, had cancer. Also: Cindy Frazier, city editor.
So, let's see. if a small power outage in Studio City knocks out two stations for a prolonged period, I guess we should write off the CBS stations in a big earthquake.
So far in this Emmy campaign season, writes Variety's Jon Weisman, "it would be hard to top this Padma Lakshmi/Bravo page for most distinctive 'For Your Consideration' ad." See her ad bigger
NBC's telecast of the Stanley Cup winning game on Monday set a new record for a hockey game in the Los Angeles market, with a 13.6 local rating. (Duh.) Nationally, though, the game was down from last year's Game 6 in the Stanley Cup Final series.
For whatever reasons, NBC is sticking with its original plan to broadcast Wednesday's Game 4 only on NBCSN, the cable channel formerly known as Versus that is only available to most Angelenos on a premium tier on Time Warner Cable or the satellite dishes. But for Kings fans, Bob Miller and Jim Fox will record an account of the game.
The vacant position at the top of the Channel 4 newsroom is going to Todd Mokhtari, who has been at KIRO-TV in Seattle but is a former managing editor at KNBC.
Dorothy Lucey, let go last month as the longtime co-host on Fox 11's "Good Day LA" show, talked about it this morning on rival station KTLA's morning show. Go inside to watch her video clip.
Fans who have gotten used to watching the Los Angeles Kings in the Stanley Cup Final on NBC will possibly be disappointed tonight. Game 3, starting at 5 p.m., will be only on the NBC Sports Network, which is a completely different animal.
Rios, who had been the news director at Channel 2 in Los Angeles before going to Fox 11, where he became the top news executive, moved over a year ago to a corporate job as vice president of digital news applications at Fox Television Stations. He's retiring from there and he got an extended sendoff on the air during this morning's "Good Day LA" from hosts Steve Edwards and Jillian Reynolds.
The Dodgers yesterday afternoon kindly sent out PR images of the first Vin Scully bobblehead doll. Here you go - bigger inside.
Paratore was a television producer and president of Telepictures, a production division of Warner Bros. Television. He helped to create "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and "The Rosie O'Donnell Show," and in 2006 he teamed up with Harvey Levin to create TMZ.com.
Jillian Reynolds apologized to Dorothy Lucey for the bad things she has said about her "Good Day L.A." co-host all these years. Then they exchanged "I love yous" and hugged. "The most painful TV you'll watch all day: Jillian and Dorothy's cringe-worthy farewell and fake tears," TV Guide's Michael Schneider said.
Sascha Rice's film on her grandfather, the late two-term governor Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, aired tonight at 10 p.m. on the PBS station for Los Angeles. A lot of good that does you, I know. I see "California State of Mind: The Legacy of Pat Brown" on the schedule again for Wednesday at 9 p.m. and June 2 at 10 p.m., on the station's digital channel 50.2. It airs tomorrow night at 8 p.m. on KLCS. Read up
The morning show on Channel 11 has kept the same chemistry since 1995 or so, except that it became clearer through the years that Steve Edwards' female co-hosts didn't much like each other. Now Lucey's contract was not renewed, Jillian Reynolds will switch to freelance status, and on-air auditions will be held. Details
Sure, a lot of Angelenos have no interest in hockey and no idea about the Kings, the Ducks or anyone else. But the local team is the hottest thing in the sport right now, their games are on national television, and they pack more fans into Staples Center and downtown bars than the Clippers do. So what's the local sports media's excuse? Here's a little infographic to help them.
Channel 9 weathercaster Evelyn Taft tweeted her 5,000-plus Twitter followers a personal note this afternoon from Palm Springs. Included was a pic of her reclining on a hotel room bed.
Journalist Chip Jacobs' newest book, "The Ascension Of Jerry: Murder, Hitmen and the Making of L.A. Muckraker Jerry Schneiderman," spins out the tale of a truly interesting Los Angeles figure and a bunch of intriguing episodes. It's a murder mystery and more, but nonfiction (despite the interviewer calling it a novel.)
Sports talker Jim Rome's CBS Sports TV show depicts him in front of a window that appears to look down on Staples Center and across at the Los Angeles downtown skyline. As if he were in the Marriott or one of the other buildings at LA Live. Well, he's not. Daily News sports columnist Tom Hoffarth is concerned enough about this to do some checking.
The Kings open Sunday evening in Arizona. Tonight, Fox Sports West will re-air the two most memorable games from the only time the Kings ever made it to the third round of the Stanley Cup finals before.
It's not just Lara Logan. The presence of Anderson Cooper probably helps too. But it's an interesting ratings trend. "The oldest newsmagazine on television," writes Brian Stelter in the New York Times, "might have figured out how to halt the aging process."
High fives all around — the McCourt pox has passed from Dodger Stadium. The new owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers will be introduced Wednesday at 10 a.m. in center field.
The Berman campaign is rolling out a video spot with the backing of Betty White, the seemingly timeless former star of TV's "Golden Girls." She appears in the commercial with actress Wendie Malick talking up Berman, who is facing fellow Democrat Rep. Brad Sherman in the June primary. Berman is "the Valley leader who fights for the humane treatment of all animals," says White, who is known as an animal activist. "And he has very nice blue eyes." Watch the video.
Remember all those teachers who were summarily moved out of Miramonte Elementary School after two teachers were accused of sexually attacking children at the school? Fox 11's Phil Shuman found out what they are doing. It isn't teaching.
This is more interesting than the exercise of tweeting the sinking of the Titanic, because as you read the mundane tick-tock of events from the trial of the officers who beat Rodney King you know that something really big is coming. The idea came from Olsen Ebright, a member of the digital team at NBC4.com.
ABC devoted a two-hour "20/20" special edition this past weekend to Sunset Boulevard, "a curving slice of American romance running from the rough edges of East LA through the music of Hollywood, past the riches of Beverly Hills and ending at the Pacific Ocean." Well, not quite East LA, or even the Eastside, but hey it's the promotional side of national news — what do they know.
There is no way, "absolutely no way, that KCET can survive as a television station," says the former head of the California Community Foundation.
Television legend Dick Clark has died. The popularizer of "American Bandstand" in Philadelphia in the 1950s went on to become a true TV programming impresario. "The oldest living teenager" reportedly suffered a heart attack this morning after an outpatient procedure at St. John's hospital in Santa Monica.
The Kings have wrapped up their morning skate in El Segundo and tonight try to upset the NHL's top team and advance to the next round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Local TV will only be on NBC Sports Network on cable, reportedly with a Canadian feed.
Today's the day that television station KCET has to be out of its historic former movie studio on Sunset Boulevard. Everyone has been told to vacate by 3 p.m., I'm told. The new home is in Burbank in a media building adjacent to NBC.
The television newsman who pretty much invented the style of the tough interview in the early years of the medium died Saturday at a care facility in Connecticut. His last appearance on "60 Minutes," and on TV, was an interview with Roger Clemens in 2008. We have vintage video as tributes pour in.
He accuses Al Gore and Joel Hyatt of reneging on agreements and bungling the television channel. Current calls the allegations "false and malicious."
George Lewis, the recently retired NBC News correspondent in Los Angeles, reflects on the wars he has covered and a career "running toward the guns."
A memorial service is set for April 4 at Hollywood Forever for "the coolest news cat in town" and a revered figure at KCAL 9.
Suzanne Rico, the former morning co-anchor on Channel 2 who hit the road after losing her job two years ago, is back living in the Los Angeles area and blogging....
HBO is developing a drama series based on "The Madonnas Of Echo Park," the novel by Brando Skyhorse.
If you are still hearing in your head the French sex song interlude from last night's 'Mad Men' season debut, Slate's David Haglund provides the original (above) and some...
January Jones guests on Jimmy Fallon tonight. Jon Hamm is on Tuesday.
AMC posts cast photos from the fifth season of "Mad Men," which debuts March 25.
At 9 p.m. tonight KCET's new Open Call series is airing a documentary I helped produce on UCLA professor and jazz guitar legend Kenny Burrell. Then on Saturday, I'm showing photos from the old Valley Times newspaper at the Central Library.
"We are ending early - the earliest ever I think," says a KCET person. "No word if there will be another season. Hope we can return in the fall, but who knows."
Read the memo: Channel 4's news chief is headed back east.
In advance of her hosting gig on "Saturday Night Live" this weekend, Los Angeles County probationer Lindsay Lohan will sit at the desk tonight with Jimmy Fallon.
Susannah Rosenblatt, a Los Angeles Times staff writer for five years until 2009 (part of that time on the county beat) who is now living inside the Beltway, will appear on "Jeopardy" on Thursday night.
David Ono goes to Japan to see how things stand a year later.
Plus the comments from CBS' Lara Logan.
The Florida newscasters don't seem cool under pressure as much as....oblivious? Not a bad line by the in-studio anchor about high gas prices.
The final episode of "Downton Abbey" season two on Sunday night attracted a 2.3 rating and a 4 share in the Los Angeles market, ranking ahead of the programming on...
Lohan, a former inmate of the Los Angeles County jail system multiple times now, will host the next "Saturday Night Live" on March 3, the show announced on the air on Saturday. She has no movie or TV projects to promote.
Reporter Jane Yamamoto and Fox 11 went their separate ways in November, and now she's reporting for CBS.
All of the news operations at the longtime NBC home on Alameda in Burbank will move to a building formerly occupied by Technicolor on the Universal Studios lot.
KTLA brought in a full crew, I'm told, to pull together a nearly five-minute news piece on Whitney Houston's rise and fall. If the player doesn't show, here's the link....
The Channel 4 anchor was in Philly pursuing her lawsuit against CBS and a former co-anchor who snooped in her email. She claims he damaged her career, though the backstory includes plenty of signs that Lane may have helped her own downfall.
The actor gives CBS' "Person to Person" a tour of his Studio City home of 20 years. His dad became the anchor at KNBC News in 1984.
Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore told KPCC that a student's account of Miramonte Elementary School suspect Mark Berndt being helped by another teacher was fabricated and not true.
Los Angeles is likely to be well represented in the commercials that air during Sunday's Super Bowl. Like this one showing a flying saucer crash near Downtown.
Early "Soul Train" with a young Don Cornelius, the theme from "Shaft" and some classic Los Angeles dancers. The date of this episode is probably Oct. 23, 1971.
Police responded this morning to his Mulholland Drive home and found Cornelius dead, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot.
Mister Los Angeles, getting ready for his 63rd season in the Dodgers press box, is the local sports broadcasters' choice for best radio play by play. Oh, you think?
That's $212.9 million in professionals' fees since Sam Zell's Tribune Company slipped into bankruptcy court in 2008, plus another $17.8 million in lawyers’ expenses.
KCET's weekly news show "SoCal Connected" will receive this year's Public Service Award from the Los Angeles Press Club for exposing "lavish and out of control spending at the Los Angeles Housing Authority.
After 42 years (28 of them in Los Angeles), George Lewis' last day at work at NBC was today, not yesterday.
George Lewis, the venerable NBC News correspondent in Los Angeles, is hanging up his microphone on January 31. What's he doing today, on his last day in the field? Covering the Oscar nominations.
The board of directors of the Los Angeles Press Club selected CBS2/KCAL9 investigative reporter David Goldstein for this year's Joseph M. Quinn Memorial Award for journalistic achievement and distinction.
Channel 4 swept the best TV newscast awards at Saturday night's Golden Mikes, and KPCC picked up nine trophies in the radio categories.
Curt Sandoval of Channel 7 tops Daily News columnist Tom Hoffarth's annual list of the top 10 sports anchors and reporters on Los angeles television. A local female reporter leads his bottom ten list.
The CBS 2 and KCAL duopoly launch new morning news shows this weekend with Serene Branson and Kaj Goldberg anchoring.
The Layover, Anthony Bourdain's new food and (a little) travel show on the Travel Channel, has been to London, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Montreal, Hong Kong, Miami, Singapore and Rome and now comes to Los Angeles. Here's where he goes.
The Southern TV chef known for her Krispy Kreme doughnut bread pudding and similar recipes went on "Today" to explain that she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes three years ago.
The opener of the AMC show's fifth season will run two hours, it was announced Saturday.
The Dodgers won't try to sell the team's television rights now, and Fox agrees not to object to the settlement between baseball and Frank McCourt.
For the first time that I remember, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa talks about hiding under the bed with his sister while his mother was beaten by a drunken father. “It’s probably the only time in my life that I’ve ever felt helpless," he tells Channel 2.
John Miller, the TV reporter who came into the LAPD with William Bratton and left to work in counter-terrorism in Washington, is now at CBS News. He does a story on bomb-sniffing dogs at LAX.
Shervin Lalezary, the Beverly Hills real estate attorney and reserve deputy sheriff who made the bust of arson suspect Harry Burkhart, was on Ellen DeGeneres' show.
'Nuff said. Look at the photo.
Love, from Hawthorne, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year as "popular music’s greatest session vocalist and backup singer."
The guys at the KTLA Morning News had some fun the other day making new intern Irene bring them coffee on the air. Then anchor Megan Henderson stepped in.
On this morning's show, the weatherman and his colleagues made light of him storming off a live camera the other day.
Video: KTLA's morning weatherman stalks off camera after his segment is cut.
American Masters on PBS on Monday night aired "Charles and Ray Eames: the Architect and the Painter," about the famed Los Angeles design team and couple.
I can't imagine that Channel 2 weathercaster Jackie Johnson could be too happy at how the station's website arranges its photo galleries.
Heather Havrilesky's immediate point in the NYT Magazine is her disappointment in "Homeland" and "American Horror Story."
Shock and dismay in the Burbank newsroom over News Director Vicky Burns deciding to let reporter and sometime-anchor Jennifer Bjorklund go.
Guest spot on 'Weekend Update' as the pilot that threw him off his AA flight at LAX.
Even though Mayor Villaraigosa's office now admits the boss approved the sweet golden parachute with Rudolf Montiel, interim Housing Authority chief Ken Simmons "is resigning at the Mayor's request."
KCET quotes deputy chief of staff saying Villaraiogsa knew of and approved deal with Rudolf Montiel.
Tonight's report, at 8:30 p.m., focuses on extravagant spending by the agency and its officials, including on personal items.
"I'm so proud," she told co-host Steve Edwards during the live feed of the ceremony on "Good Day L.A."
The co-host of the Korean-language Prime News on Los Angeles-area TV channel LA 18 was found dead in her Koreatown apartment last Monday after not reporting to work.
Newsman-turned-artist Bill Lagattuta's latest project appears to be photographs behind the scenes of Channel 2 anchor Kent Shocknek at work.
Before Border Grill, City, the Too Hot Tamales and Street — and way before "Top Chef Masters" — chefs Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken had a game-changing little dive on Melrose called City Cafe.
On Nov. 5, ESPN Senior VP Joan Lynch woke up in her home to find a front tire of her vehicle slashed. This is notable for two reasons.
In the cold open from "Saturday Night Live," Gov. Perry has a bit of trouble finishing his points.
Here's what KCET has come up with to kick off its teaming with Eyetronics Media and Studios.
CBS News announced that Rooney died Friday night in a hospital in New York City of complications following minor surgery.
Frank Buckley of Channel 5 says his idea for an international thriller called "Portofino" is being made by JC Chandor, the director of "Margin Call."
Stephen Colbert offers up alternatives to the campaign ad showing Herman Cain's campaign manager smoking.
The White House and NBC have released excerpts of President Obama's sit-down with Jay Leno, taped this morning in Burbank for tonight's show.
It could have been worse. The final segment of Obamajam was avoided when the President flew by chopper from Burbank to LAX.
The show will air next Tuesday, the night after fundraisers in the Hancock Park area.
Rancic, the longtime host of various E! Entertainment shows and recently the co-host of the Style Network reality series "Giuliana and Bill," went on NBC's Today this morning to talk about her treatment for breast cancer.
Miller, a former TV newsman who came to the LAPD from New York with then-chief William Bratton, then became a national security official, is returning to the news business.
Old police cars and other emergency vehicles, many from TV shows and movies, will be on parade Tuesday starting at 11:30 a.m.
"SoCal Connected" begins a new season tonight on KCET with stories on deteriorating sidewalks and the link between obesity and fast food in L.A.
Lolita Lopez is a Harvard graduate and former sports anchor and reporter at WPIX. Also: Shane Goldmacher to leave LAT.
Mary Ann, Ginger, Lovey and The Castaways.
Rooney has been on "60 Minutes" since 1978 and this weekend's bit will be his 1097th essay for the show.
Fox 11 is flubbing its golden opportunity at 5 p.m. by going with an even dumber form of TV news than celebrities, animals and car chases: pre-planned "outrage" by the...
Jacob Adelman leaving AP for Bloomberg, Cecilia Vega joining ABC News here.
Steve Carlston is the new president and general manager of NBC4 Los Angeles. He comes from the CBS stations in Salt Lake City.
With the news that R.E.M. is breaking up, James Poniewozik warns: "For the next day or two, those of us who attended college in the '80s and '90s are going to be insufferable."
Kinde Durkee, the campaign treasurer suspected of absconding with the funds of many California Democrats, has been avoiding the cameras since her release on bail.
KPBS in San Diego plans to launch "Evening Edition," a weeknight local news and analysis show, on Sept. 26.
CBS 2 announced today that Diaz will leave after this Sunday's 9/11 special "to produce projects under her own banner."
Fred Mamoun was an L.A. Press Club journalist of the year in June.
Twitter user @veisandrew posted a cellphone picture of an NBC truck burning up just now on the 405 freeway in Sepulveda Pass.
Matt Chambers of Canyon Country brought home a safe he bought at Home Depot and inside it found family papers dating back to the 1800s.
Police are at the Channel 5 studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.
James Farkus Cohan says he has end-stage emphysema and, according to Channel 7, he has filed at least 161 lawsuits against small businesses claiming they violate his rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. But the camera doesn't lie.
The Los Angeles corner of Twitter (and my email box) just lit up with the news.
The former CBS News correspondent and local TV newsman in Los Angeles is now painting and sculpting at a studio in Elysian Valley.
KCET has posted a two-minute video listing the shows it will offer in the fall, including Roy Firestone's "L.A. Tonight."
KCET is announcing today a new partnership with Dominique Bigle, CEO of Eyetronics Media and Studios, to produce and air new local programs that will then be packaged domestically and globally.
Former CNN Business News correspondent Stephanie Elam will join Robert Kovacik at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Channel 4.
Add the National Association of Hispanic Journalists to those concerned about recent job shifts at NBC 4 here in Los Angeles.
City Council members Bill Rosendahl and Herb Wesson propose that Friday be John Schwada Day in the city of Los Angeles. Plus: Joe Saltzman.
Channel 4 took home 13 awards at last night's local Emmys, including a sweep of all three regularly scheduled newscast categories. The Governors Award went to FOX11 anchor Christine Devine...
Actor Jerry Lewis said in May that he was retiring from the muscular dystrophy telethon he had hosted since 1966, but that he hoped to make an appearance on this year's show.
Demoting one or two Latino anchors may be a coincidence; but "demoting five in the past year raises suspicions," writes Julio Moran of Latino Journalists of California to KNBC's boss. Read the letter.
Actually, he's in town to appear at the TCA press tour.
When dealing with pro football, don't ever assume anything.
Ana Garcia is moving back to the investigative team full-time. The new 6 p.m. anchor on Channel 4 is Lucy Noland, recently imported from Houston. She starts tonight.
The Los Angeles city parking and traffic officer who was filmed in uniform spanking and fondling the breasts of a porn actress has been fired, the city says.
Supervisor Yaroslavsky's website team has pulled together some insightful data points from the weekend closure of the 405 freeway.
It isn't even close, says Slate's Jennifer Reese. It's "America's Test Kitchen," the PBS show from the staff of Cooks Illustrated magazine.
Veteran TV reporter John Schwada has posted on Facebook about his firing by Fox 11. He's not happy about it.
A press release from Time Warner Cable says these were the movies its On Demand customers in Los Angeles demanded the most this past weekend: 1. The Lincoln Lawyer 2....
In tonight's episode of "The Closer" on TNT, City Council President Eric Garcetti returns to his role as "Los Angeles Mayor Ramon Quintero."
So far? Best traffic on the 405 through the Sepulveda Pass in years. Free flow in both direction under the Mulholland Bridge — at 7 p.m. on a Friday. Funny...
Political and investigative reporter John Schwada has been with the Channel 11 a long time, and last month picked up the L.A. Press Club's Joseph M. Quinn Award for journalistic excellence.
CBS 2 says it has an exclusive with the local murder suspect who was released from custody in Puerto Rico then disappeared.
Television writer and producer created Gilligan and "The Brady Bunch," TV sitcom milestones from the 1960s that remain popular in syndication.
I'm the reporter-narrator on a UCLA-produced program on the 405 closure that's airing as a special edition of "SoCal Connected" on KCET, Wednesday at 8 p.m. and Friday at 9:30 p.m. Here's the trailer.
It's a "Primetime" special airing tonight on ABC. Watch video.
The question, Patrick Goldstein asks, is why?
Nice interview by The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf with Rob Long, the Emmy-winning writer on "Cheers" who lives in Venice, does his weekly Martini Shot column for KCRW and continues to write for TV.
The New York Times media blog says Al Jazeera trails BBC in the ratings but beats both the Japanese and Israeli newscasts.
Mark Willes, the CEO who lost Times Mirror (and the Los Angeles Times) to Tribune, says NBC's "The Playboy Club" won't air on his LDS television channel.
As part of the deal NBC agreed to with the International Olympic Committee last week, NBC says it will start with the 2014 Olympics to make every event available live on one platform or another.
NBC 4 reports tonight that police have a jersey with blood stains that was dropped off at a cleaners.
Levy was working for CBS Newspath out of Los Angeles covering the Arizona wildfires when he failed to show up this morning to produce a live shot for "The Early Show." He was found dead in his hotel room, apparently of natural causes.
Ron Rapoport, the author and former sportswriter and columnist, stops in as an LA Observed visiting blogger on the occasion of Dick Ebersol leaving NBC and the network getting the rights to keep airing (on delay) the Olympic Games.
MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show will air live on Friday from the campus of Crenshaw High School — starting at 3 a.m. to reach the East Coast audience.
Scott Pelley took the anchor chair on the CBS network's flagship news program tonight, and the only real suspense was how would his show cover the Anthony Weiner sex scandal.
Armstrong's lawyers reportedly demanded that "60 Minutes" make an on-air apology for last month's report, and called the story "extraordinarily shoddy to the point of being reckless and unprofessional, or a vicious hit-and-run job."
CET says that all of the money raised during the three-hour telethon it aired on May 24 will go for Japanese tsunami relief efforts.
At the end of the news at 11, Channel 2 anchor Pat Harvey's voice was thick with emotion as she announced the unexpected death of colleague James Kang.
Jimmy Price will officially retire on June 4 from the LA Department of Transportation, several years ahead of his planned exit, Joel Grover reports.
A city inspector from the Department of Building and Safety showed up at the KCET studios on Sunset Boulevard on Wednesday.
KTLA reporter Jaime Chambers does the swim in 38 minutes.
Good lede from Channel 4 investigative reporter Joel Grover on his latest story about L.A. traffic officers behaving badly.
Where is this place: The Ranch? Turns out it's actually the historic former home near Malibu Canyon of razor heir King Gillette, one of the more interesting Angelenos of yore.
KCET is devoting the 8 to 11 p.m. block on Tuesday night to a live show raising money for Japan. All proceeds will go to tsunami and quake relief efforts...
A little follow to Saturday's post about the Channel 2 alumni who are burning up Facebook.
Actually, tonight's "60 Minutes" says it's the testimony of Lance Armstrong's former teammate and confidante, Tyler Hamilton, that threatens to rewrite the story of bike racing and its biggest American legend.
Stuart worked in episodic television during almost the entire run of the genre, starting with "I Led Three Lives" in 1954 and concluding with the Showtime series "Huff" in 2006.
If you worked at Channel 2 in Los Angeles any time back to "The Big News" years with Jerry Dunphy and Bill Stout, there's a Facebook group you might like.
Funny, I didn't realize Pakistan's terrain is chapparal.
MSNBC's lineup much of the day has been beamed from a stage set up in Exposition Park. Here's a clip.
Channels 2 and 9 reporter Suzanne Marques blogs that she's been reading Julia Child's autobiography — and woke up Sunday morning with an insatiable craving to make Julia's Boeuf Bourguignon recipe that had a starring role in the movie "Julia and Julia." So she did.
Lehrer will continue to appear on Friday broadcasts, moderating the weekly analysis of Mark Shields and David Brooks.
CIA chief Leon Panetta is interviewed by Jim Lehrer tonight on PBS NewsHour.
The New York Times says that the first authoritative tweet that "seemed to confirm" the news was posted at 10:25 p.m. Eastern Time by Keith Urbahn, the chief of staff for former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The city's Department of Transportation sent out a Sunday afternoon press release saying it had "launched a full investigation" of that KNBC report about two traffic enforcement officers appearing in a porn film while on duty and in uniform.
The plot of the April 9, 1969 episode of the television series "The Outsider," starring Darrin McGavin, hinges on the destruction of the Bunker Hill neighborhood in Downtown.
NBC 4 tonight at 11 p.m. will air an expose showing two uniformed Los Angeles Department of Transportation traffic enforcement officers appearing in a porn film.
The CBS News correspondent who was attacked in Cairo's Tahrir Square tells the New York Times that she was surrounded by 200-300 men who tore at her clothes, beat her and "for an extended period of time, they raped me with their hands."
The public TV station has agreed to sell its 4.5-acre studio lot on Sunset Boulevard to the Church of Scientology and will relocate within a year to a new production facility.
I was quoted on camera in the "NBC Nightly News" story about the Dodgers mess Saturday, plus other news of the day.
Davis and her writing partner Bob Carroll Jr. were writing for Lucille Ball on radio when they collaborated on a TV pilot. The rest was television history. Also: Kevin Jarre.
The artificial light we throw skyward in the city at night feeds chemical reactions that add to the haze of air pollution.
The preview portrays Eli Broad as L.A.'s top philanthropist and arts patron, one who is not shy about putting his name on things.
Channel 4 morning anchor Alycia Lane just tweeted her good news.
Rios, the VP and news director at Fox 11, has been named vice president of digital news applications at parent Fox Television Stations.
ABC's announcement today that 40-year-old soap operas "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" are coming to the end isn't good news for crews numbering at least in the...
'SoCal Connected' ties together two stories — on the animal rights activists who terrorize UCLA researchers and the clashes involving movie and TV characters who wait for tourists outside Hollywood and Highland — into an episode with a limits-of-free-speech theme.
Dive school at Chino is "perhaps the most unusual prison job rehab program in the country." Watch the video.
David Folkenflik's piece for All Things Considered on NPR thing put a different sparkle on the story.
While Sheen risks the livelihood of everyone at his show, Tina Fey lists as her greatest achievement "providing 200 people with a nice place to work."
A network executive, "who spoke on condition of anonymity because Couric has not officially announced her plans," reported the move to Associated Press on Sunday night,
The L.A. Times report cites unnamed "people who know about the pending deal," which as yet has no terms publicly attached.
Alberto Mier y Terán has been named Vice President and General Manager of Univision's Spanish-language Channel 34.
Pat Casey, the former managing editor at Channel 2 in Los Angeles, died Saturday in Cincinnati after a year-long battle with brain cancer.
Channel 5's morning anchor explains how he came to be sent to cover the Japan disaster on short notice — and why he and his crew, producer Toni Molle and photographer Mike McGregor, came back so soon.
Channel 5's morning anchor flew into LAX tonight and tweeted there's a new addition to the customs procedure: a radiation wand.
Ratings are down by half compared to a year ago and donations by former members have also dropped off, but KCET chief executive Al Jerome says that the station's broadcast...
Blogger Simone Wilson concedes she didn't know whether CBS' Logan was raped by crowd in Cairo's Tahrir Square.
Channel 4 reporter and anchor Chris Schauble is leaving KNBC to be a morning anchor on KTLA.
Times columnist Steve Lopez plays TV reporter on tonight's "SoCal Connected" on KCET for a story billed as a look at the politics of bringing the NFL back to a new L.A. stadium.
Starting on Monday, KCET will broadcast a daily one-hour block of morning newscasts from international sources.
The former Channel 2 anchor is blogging about being unemployed, seeing the world, getting older and quitting Botox. Plus her annoying former co-anchor.
Andrew Wallenstein moves from paidContent to be television editor at Variety.
I missed that longtime KNBC reporter (and the ex-anchor of "News Conference") Laurel Erickson returned to the local air waves last month as the correspondent on an episode of KCET's "SoCal Connected." She also has a piece this week.
More than 100 employees of the hit TV show shut down after star Charlie Sheen's recent outburst will get full paychecks for the season's final four unproduced episodes.
An NBC source says that "Today" will do a pre-Oscars piece about (or with?) Deadline's Nikki Finke in the 7:30 a.m. half-hour on Friday's show.
Kriski has been missing from the "KTLA Morning News" since early November while fighting an infection that led to pneumonia.
Part of the 55 freeway in Orange County is now the Paul Johnson Memorial Freeway.
KCBS had a good story at 11 p.m. tonight showing the valises, 1930s newspapers and silk wrappings that contained those two mummified newborns found in a Westlake area apartment last year.
Larry Mendte, a former news anchor in Philadelphia, is interesting here in L.A. pretty much only because he was the colleague who criminally snooped in co-anchor Alycia Lane's email.
The KCBS reporter who suffered the on-air "complex migraine" was on CBS' The Early Show today, again saying she's fine.
Channel 2 reporter Serene Branson will tell anchor Pat Harvey tonight at 11 that her on-air incident at Sunday's Grammys has been blamed on a migraine that mimicked stroke symptoms.
Nir Rosen joked that the sexual assaults on CBS chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan "would have been funny" if they happened to Anderson Cooper. Also, a Salon writer blasts LA Weekly.
Sara Catania, the talented L.A. journalist who conceived and wrote our Run On blog about preparing to compete in the 2009 Los Angeles Marathon, is the new Web Editorial Director at KNBC Channel 4.
CBS correspondent Lara Logan is back home in an undisclosed U.S. hospital after being beaten and sexually assaulted in Cairo's Tahrir Square last Friday.
On today's "KTLA's Morning News," Sam Rubin couldn't get all the way through a report on the new paper towel dispensers in the Channel 5 mens room without cracking up. Click the link to watch the video over there. Tribune's vertical video player doesn't embed well here.
The NYT quotes a stroke specialist who suspects, in the footage of Serene Branson that aired live on the Channel 2 news here Sunday night, that we saw rare and medically valuable video of an ischemic stroke as it is happening.
Monday night on the news, the anchors for CBS 2 and KCAL 9 addressed reporter Serene Branson's "health-related problems" during Sunday's Grammys report.
CBS has put in a copyright claim to get YouTube to take down all the videos it can find of Channel 2 reporter Serene Branson's on-air medical event last night.
Serene Branson's report from the Grammys Sunday night went awry soon after Paul Magers threw to her live.
Real-life Wall Street Journal reporter Amy Chozick pulled a shift as an extra on L&O:LA and ends up with blood on her face. Hat tip to Movie City News....
Looks as if Keith Olbermann is teaming up with a cable channel with an even smaller audience than MSNBC.
"We were not allowed to report what was happening in Tahrir Square," said Shaheera Amin, who resigned from the state-run English-language news channel, Nile TV, to join protests in the streets.
Downtown stadium, City Hall, Egypt and more.
ABC's Christiane Amanpour met today with Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. Here's her exclusive interview.
Jacki Wells Cisneros and her husband have put $1 million into a scholarship fund at the USC Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism, her alma mater.
All that new flexibility in the broadcast schedule can be a good thing. KCET today at 4 p.m. is airing Al Jazeera English News. It's the only station in Los...
That messy break-in we told you about Friday — at the home of food blogger Barbara Hansen — is the subject of a story coming tonight at 11 p.m. on Channel 2. Why isn't so clear.
Tonight's episode kicked off the first Los Angeles project ever of the venerable public television franchise.
Instead of national face time on MSNBC, the liberal ranter spent this State of the Union speech live-tweeting on Twitter.
Long before Jack LaLanne became an infomercial pitchman, he was America's best-known health and fitness advocate.
KNBC, KTTV, KNX, KFI and Regis Philbin win the top honors at tonight's Golden Mike banquet.
Keith Olbermann announced on the air that tonight's "Countdown" show was his last, and the network followed quickly with a press release.
If Howard Stern can be Piers Morgan's 2nd guest on CNN, Rubin asks, why can't he be the third guest?
KCET Chairman Gordon Bava was asked by Broadcasting & Cable if the Los Angeles station might return to the PBS fold. To much surprise, he said yeah, could be.
This was actually last night, just before the 10 o'clock news began on Fox 11 here, from anchor Jeff Michael.
The return of BBC World News with Mike Embley pushes that Japanese news program to 5:30 and Globe Trekker to 6 p.m
Somehow I'm not surprised that the whole Ted Williams/homeless guy with golden voice saga spawned either an imitator or a spoofer.
Ana Patricia Candiani will be the new 6 p.m. weekday anchor on KVEA starting Jan 31, forcing other moves in the lineup.
From Channel2's irrepressible Jackie Johnson.
KOCE president and CEO Mel Rogers still can't quite believe that his little Orange County station that nearly went off the air a few years ago has suddenly become the public broadcasting powerhouse of Southern California.
She posts on Twitter: "Ok, so i DIDNT win $300mil lottery, but I DID just win a new family! This #Adoptee found #biological family!"
Rose will be on KOCE starting January 17. Here's where in Los Angeles he runs in the meantime.
L.A. Philharmonic maestro Gustavo Dudamel took another step into the big media world with a guest appearance last night on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
This is the time of year when television reporters and critics descend on Los Angeles to receive the same canned pitching on shows.
Channel 5 reporter Eric Spillman blogs that Kriski, the morning guy at KTLA, is once again hoping to be released from the hospital soon.
Total viewing of broadcast networks and basic cable channels rose to an average of 34 hours per person per week.
Channel 5 reporter Elizabeth Espinosa began the day standing beside I-5 in the shivering Grapevine area talking about — and tweeting about — the cold weather. Then she popped out some other news.
Channel 2 and 9 weathercaster Evelyn Taft is certainly working a full shift today.
Oscar ballots go out, the falling murder rate, new execs at KCET and more.
Now the Hullabaloo Dancers — they dance.
KNBC reporter Robert Kovacik was attacked last night at the Polo Lounge in the Beverly Hills Hotel by a drunk man who had been bothering Lisa Vanderpump, the star of "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills."
Anchor Chuck Henry opened tonight's 11 o'clock news with an unusual first item.
KCET's weekly news show racked up another honor, a silver baton from the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards in broadcast journalism. Plus an Alicia Patterson fellowship winner.
n 1987, a man with mental health issues walked onto the set during KNBC's 4 p.m. news, stuck in the gun in the back of consumer reporter David Horowitz and told him to read a statement. Here's a YouTube clip.
A half-hour news special, "Eye on our Community: Black-Brown Relations," hosted by anchor Laura Diaz on Sunday at 6:30 p.m.
Here's what the station says it will air in primetime, after a news block at 6 p.m. with NHK Newsline and BBC World News at 6:30.
A memo obtained by Media Matters shows how Fox News staffers were directed to use the preferred Republican phrase in place of "public option" in the Obama health care plan....
Tonight his friend and KTLA colleague Jennifer Gould posted on Twitter that Kriski has been forced back into the hospital for treatment of pneumonia.
KTLA reporter Lu Parker is shifting to "special feature correspondent," a move that she says will let her work on stories "that inspire and represent residents in Los Angeles." She...
Fox 11's Gigi Graciette tweeted a little behind-the-scenes reality from the studio before she took the air at noon.
James Hibberd has been television editor at the Hollywood Reporter. He gets a gracious send-off in a memo to the staff this evening from editorial director Janice Min.
David Wright has been tapped to moves from ABC’s Washington bureau to Los Angeles, where he will join correspondents Mike Von Fremd and Abbie Boudreau,
Jacob Soboroff, who made all those great videos for LA Observed a few years ago, is now co-host of "School Pride" airing Friday nights on NBC. The show did a makeover at Hollenbeck Middle School last week and will do LACES this week.
"James Ellroy's LA: City of Demons" debuts Jan. 19 on the Investigation Discovery channel.
The newly independent public station wants your programming, especially if it's already paid for.
A documentary called "Out: The Glenn Burke Story" aired last night on Bay Area television.
Huell Howser made his television singing debut on last night's California's Gold, belting out a rendition of "California, here he comes."
When KCET loses most of not all of its PBS programming after Jan. 1, the replacement fare will lean heavily toward "Asia-focused news, cooking and science programs from Japan and Canada, and reruns of British sitcoms and dramas."
MSNBC's president has suspended talk show host Keith Olbermann indefinitely for donating to three Democratic candidates.
With the L.A. Kings' 1-0 win tonight, they remained the top team in the National Hockey League. Which makes the sports report by Jim Hill tonight on Channel 2 that much more ragged.
Zach Behrens, the editor of LAist for going on three years, is moving to KCET to help the newly independent station get deeper into blogging.
Dana Milbank says Tuesday's election for Fox News Channel was the culmination of two years of hard work to bring down Barack Obama - and it was time for an on-air celebration of a job well done.
Watch as Jim Lehrer hosts an interactive live-streamed web version of NewsHour, with columnists Mark Shields & David Brooks.
My column tonight on KCRW comments on the L.A. Times giving KTLA reporter Lu Parker a pass on probing questions about her animal activism.
KTLA reporter Lu Parker decided to finally talk to the media a little about her high profile as the girlfriend of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. The Times sent over Calendar reporter Greg Braxton, but it appears from the story they didn't talk about very much.
Roger Ailes throws a three-year deal worth $2 million at Juan Williams after he's fired by NPR.
Jim Rainey's media column in the weekend LAT agrees with my KCRW column from a week ago that KCET needs to come up with kick-ass programming — and fast — to give the station's newly declared independence a chance
The show's Bruce Lisker segment airs Saturday night.
KCET's new independence needs to include local programming that makes people mad — more Huell Howser folksiness and Sam Rubin hosting old movies won't cut it, I argue in my...
Channel 7 says that Time Warner aired Oprah in Spanish, so it will re-air at 1:06 tomorrow morning.
Frank Bourgholtzer was the first full time White House correspondent for NBC News and retired from the network's Los Angeles bureau.
KCET mainstay Huell Howser tweets that he hasn't been told what the future holds at the station now that it's going independent.
KCET will become an independent public station on January 1, the station announced, citing an "inability to reach an agreement on a reduction in PBS fees and greater programming flexibility
The creator of "Law and Order: Los Angeles" regaled the likes of City Council president Eric Garcetti, exiting Bon Appetit editor Barbara Fairchild and NBC correspondent Josh Mankiewicz with behind-the-scenes stories from the show.
The morning anchors at "Fox and Friends" reported today that the city of Los Angeles had ordered 10,000 space-age jetpacks for the police and fire departments — at $100,000 each. No, the broke city isn't actually spending a billion dollars so its cops can, you know, fly.
Channel 34's website has cut up the weekend debate between the candidates for governor into sixteen bite-size video segments.
Before he died in August, longtime "48 Hours" correspondent Harold Dow working for more than a year on a story about Southern California serial killer Rodney Alcala and his "40-year odyssey of rape, murder and eluding justice."
NBC is airing tonight's football game between the Jets and the Dolphins with some production graphics in Spanish. Those graphics and some commercials in Spanish have apparently sparked a bunch of complaints to KNBC.
Channel 2 has mapped the locations of what it calls the only cameras in the state placed to catch drivers running stop signs.
Alan Mendelson, the former Channel 9 business and consumer reporter, talks to the L.A. Business Journal about his kidney and pancreas transplant, his infomercials pitching paid products and how he sees his firing from KCAL after 16 years.
KNBC Channel 4's news operation and the Los Angeles bureau for NBC News will move to the vacant stage built for "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien" at Universal City, Michael Schneider reports at Variety.
City Council President Eric Garcetti takes a turn as the fictional mayor of Los Angeles on tonight's episode of The Closer on TNT.
There's been some chuckling around town, especially among TV news folks, about Channel 9 getting caught with its graphics out of synch on the night of the San Bruno disaster up north.
With protesters still running in the streets, and the LAPD on citywide tactical alert, KNBC 4 led the 11 p.m. news with the investigation into a possible threat on board...
David Westin writes "I’ve always admired those few who know when it’s time to move on." Read his entire email.
Jay Leno's overall audience is bigger than Conan O'Brien's was in the Tonight show chair, but it's way off what Leno used to get. And in the key demographic that advertisers look for, well, Leno is no Conan.
Sure, it's already Thursday and the Emmys were Sunday. But now, Bruce Springsteen has apparently given NBC the OK to post the full video of Jimmy Fallon's "Glee" spoof.
It's branded now as CBS Los Angeles and includes stuff from the two TV stations, CBS 2 and KCAL 9, and radio stations KNX and KFWB. Plus a whole lot that has little to do with CBS.
According to a Twitter post from Conan O'Brien, Wednesday is when he'll reveal what his TBS talk show will be called.
The number of American households that have a TV set on at 4:30 a.m. has doubled, to 16 percent, since 1995.
Jennifer Gould, the freelance GA reporter for KTLA Channel 5, says the news coverage of Donald Bren and former lover Jennifer McKay Gold has brought her some unwanted calls from the media — for interviews.
Just came across this piece with NBC 4 News Conference host Conan Nolan talking in some depth with Doug Smith, the data analysis editor who led the Los Angeles...
KTLA entertainment anchor Sam Rubin is executive producing and hosting a new weekly talk show for Reelzchannel they're calling "Hollywood Uncensored With Sam Rubin" and billing as "'The McLaughlin Group' meets 'Real Time With Bill Maher' with a Hollywood spin.
KTLA staffers on Emmy-winning coverage have to pony up $250 if they want a plaque — and prove they worked on the shows.
Apparently even many at KTLA don't know that Stan Chambers is a Knight Commander of the Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great, knighted by the pope for his service to the Catholic church and the community.
Keith Olbermann on MSNBC just ran a personal tribute to Channel 5's Stan Chambers. I missed most of it, but the sentiment was similar to a couple of tweets Olbermann...
Jay Leno last night asked people on Melrose Avenue some questions about places around the world. First question: In what country are the Hawaiian Islands? Everybody failed, of course.
They're holding the event for Stan Chambers right now at KTLA. Here's a photo.
KCET President and CEO Al Jerome has posted a message to viewers "to start a conversation with you" about whether the station should stay with PBS or break away to become an independent station.
The dean of Los Angeles television reporters — and it's not even close — turns 87 tomorrow and is expected to hang up his mike at an 11 a.m. party on the KTLA lot.
The main ingredients of American counterculture formation all guest-starred in last night's "Mad Men" episode: abortion, Berkeley, Vietnam and, most ominously, young people, says Natasha Vargas-Cooper.
Hugh Hefner will be on from the Playboy Mansion, and there's a California politics panel that includes the LA Weekly’s Jill Stewart and legal analyst Roger Cossack.
"Marketplace" host Kai Ryssdal this afternoon asked his listeners, via Twitter: "Okay, so if Jon Stewart grows a goatee, can I?"
Channel 4's news shows picked up six statues at the Los Angeles Area Emmy Awards on Saturday night.
Vickie Burns, named today as Vice President, News for KNBC, comes from WNBC in New York where she was Vice President of Content and Audience Development for NBC Local Media New York.
Josh Rubenstein gets the title of Chief Meterologist for the two stations and will take over weather responsibilities for the 5 a.m. and 11 a.m. newscasts, plus other personnel moves.
KTLA reporter has launched her Lu Parker Project, it has a website, a logo and a flack, boyfriend Mayor Villaraigosa is taking part in the kickoff event, and there's a story on the L.A. Times website.
Former District Attorney Gil Garcetti stood in on last night's episode of "The Closer" as the police chief of a certain major city who departs just before the department's new headquarters opens.
Al Jazeera's man in L.A. is Rob Reynolds, who has been with the network since 2006.
NBC's "Today" show packaged footage of Abby Sunderland at home in Thousand Oaks with a lengthy interview this morning at the studios in New York.
Sam Rubin wanted to talk to Larry King on the KTLA morning show about his forthcoming exit from CNN. So Rubin guessed right and sent a couple of interns over to Nate & Al's in Beverly Hills.
A couple of Los Angeles television news veterans retire from their stations this week. Gene Gleeson leaves Channel 7 and Mark Coogan departs Channels 2/9. They were feted by colleagues...
Johnson had been battling brain cancer and underwent surgery in January. He died Tuesday evening at age 75.
At the start of tonight's "Larry King Live" on CNN, King made it official. Before I start the show tonight, I want to share some personal news with you. Twenty...
Reporter Eric Spillman at KTLA hounded the City Controller's office until it gave up 95 pages of receipts from Mayor Villaraigosa's 9-day trip last year to Berlin, London and Copenhagen. Possibly along: Friend-of-Antonio Keith Brackpool.
Fox 11's John Schwada is riding the Mayor Villaraigosa ticket story hard.
It was just in November that KNBC Channel 4 bid adieu to veteran reporter Doug Kriegel. Now he has shown up reporting for KEYT 3 in Santa Barbara. In...
Both CBS-owned TV stations in Los Angeles were knocked off the air at 3:20 p.m. by a "severe power hit," remain off the air more than an hour later.
June 20 is the one-year anniversary of the videotaped shooting death in Tehran of Neda Agha-Soltan.
John Schwada follows up his original report on Mayor Villaraigosa's free tickets with a story last night saying the ethics commission has requested records from the mayor's office, including emails
Tonight at 8 p.m. is the debut on KCET of "Things That Aren't Here Anymore 3," the reprise I've mentioned a couple of times of the station's popular Ralph Story shows on vanishing Los Angeles (well, really SoCal.)
Anibal Archila was injured in the eruption that closed the airport at Guatemala City, declared missing then confirmed dead Thursday night.
The Huffington Post loves Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, or at least loves his press releases. And now Lu Parker promotes her stuff there too.
CNN's website has an interactive map of all 5,485 U.S. deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, each dot loaded with personal information and corresponding to a dot on the war zone maps.
Look whose bio has gone missing from the KTLA website. Victoria Recaño has co-anchored the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. news on Channel 5 just since last fall.
Fox 11's John Schwada went with a story Wednesday night on Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa sitting in free courtside seats at Lakers games with girlfriend Lu Parker or with his daughter ‐ seats not reported on gift forms.
Art Linkletter, who died today at home in Bel-Air, was a ubiquitous broadcast presence from the 1940s through the 1960s, and a voice and emcee at Los Angeles events for long after.
Gayle Anderson's segment at Santa Monica beach went on despite a parking officer scribbling out tickets, perhaps not knowing she was on live across Southern California.
During the upcoming pledge breaks, KCET Channel 28 will air a freshly made update of Ralph Story's popular "Things That Aren't Here Anymore."
Steve Lange arrived at KNBC as vice president for content just last January. Sources at the station today say he's leaving. Whether he was exactly fired or not will come...
Gustavo Dudamel, his roots in Venezuela's El Sistema, and the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles were the subject of a segment tonight on "60 Minutes."
Not sure what this is about, but KTLA reporter and Villaraigosa companion Lu Parker just tweeted that she will be live on "The O'Reilly Factor" on Fox News at 5 p.m. Pacific.
Now this is one story you can find on the Channel 4 website.
Legendary Detroit Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell died today at age 92. Legendary Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully takes to the air for tonight's game against the Brewers on KCAL Channel 9...
Video from the folks at Funny or Die.
Whoa, what got into Jim Rainey? The L.A. Times' media writer not known for his bite channeled his inner Howard Rosenberg in a piece today saying KNBC News has "devolved from cheese to cheesier to, perhaps, cheesiest of them all."
TV loves to "investigate" valet parking in Los Angeles, but this time Channel 4 turned up the interest factor to show that there are few rules governing valets and fewer protections for drivers. Ana Garcia became a valet.
Guess which one of these young men is Huell Howser circa 1966, and which one is the Tennessee senator Howard Baker.
KTLA reporter Lu Parker blogged recently about taking her boyfriend's 16-year-old daughter out for a driving lesson in Parker's car. I guess we can assume that is Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's daughter Natalia Fe she's talking about.
A public service message from Channel 2 and LAO: if you feel the urge to whip out a brush and start painting after a violent sneeze, seek medical attention.
Host Conan Nolan will put questions to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Republican candidate for governor Meg Whitman on this weekend's "KNBC News Conference." Proposition 17 and its impact...
Joe Adalian just joined the Wrap last June, but he's taking his address book and his TV MoJoe blog (originally started at TV Week) to New York Magazine's entertainment site Vulture.
Remember that video I posted the other day by a fan devoted to KCBS weathercaster Jackie Johnson? She tweeted just now that it's going to be featured tonight on sister station KCAL (Channel 9.)
In honor of the rain blowing into Los Angeles tonight, here's YouTube songster Parry Gripp's recent ditty devoted to Channel 2/9 weathercaster Jackie Johnson.
Fox 11 reporter Gigi Graciette was in the Calexico area, preparing to cross the border to Mexicali on earthquake duty, when she tweeted this a little while ago: Man just...
The biggest move is that Pat Harvey officially switches to Channel 2 and wil anchor at 5 and 11 p.m. with Paul Magers. Laura Diaz gets 6 p.m. solo.
This year's Peabody Awards, which the broadcasters really value, include KCET's "SoCal Connected" for its story Up in Smoke.
No way to know how many, if any, of these positions will actually be filled by hiring from outside, but KABC has posted more than a dozen news jobs for which they'll take your application.
Suzanne Rico, who lost her job last week as morning co-anchor on Channel 2, distributed an open letter that clarifies how it happened.
After finding out that he was being let go after 22 years at ABC News, Los Angeles correspondent Brian Rooney talked to Michael Schneider at Variety'sOn the Air blog and said he kind of saw the end coming.
Rooney's contract won't be renewed, part of a network staff trimming that includes Laura Marquez in San Francisco and that TV Newser says is expected to reach 300-400 by the end of the year.
Rumors have been flying for the past day or so, and about three hours ago KCAL anchor Pat Harvey tweeted: "Sad day at the duopoly. Some of my co-workers lost their jobs.Want to thank them for their hard work and friendship."
KTLA entertainment reporter Sam Rubin will receive this year's outstanding achievement award from the Los Angeles Press Club during the 2010 National Entertainment Journalism awards on April 22.
An average half-hour of L.A. local news devotes almost three minutes to crime stories, but only 22 seconds to all kinds of local government coverage, according to a big new study by the Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.
He was a Dodger for three injury and cheers-filled seasons, but for this morning's announcement Garciaparra returned to the Red Sox on a one-day contract so he could say he retired with the team where the fans truly loved him.
The L.A. Press Club's top awards are going this year to Cooper, Bryant and NPR reporter Anne Garrels.
Men just don't listen to women, Jay says.
I wonder if there was a DWP power surge from all the TVs switching off as Bob Costas tossed viewers from the Olympics closing ceremonies to the debut of "The Marriage Ref
Spotted today on Alameda near 6th Street Downtown.
Channel 4's suggestions for a weekend getaway are so exclusive, you won't find them on an any map.
KNBC's morning newscast was "taken off the schedule in order to reallocate resources,” with anchor Kim Baldonado returning to reporting.
Fox 11 talent tweets nice farewells to departing hairstylist.
Answers to quiz questions were reportedly given to prospective contestants (who were going to be ages 6 to 12) on the pending show created by reality TV pioneer Mark Burnett.
Hard-working sports talk host Jim Rome is looking for writers or bloggers to "help grind content" for his TV and radio shows.
Ten USC Annenberg graduate students who work on the Annenberg News21 team will produce Web-exclusive multimedia reports for the SoCal Connected website at KCET.
Ethical issues seem to be a recurring theme for Channel 5, and today the Times' James Rainey takes on the paper's sister station over a three-part puff series on the "dramatic turnaround" at Ford Motor Co.
On Feb. 1, 1951, Channel 5 in Los Angeles aired on live TV — for the first time ever — the detonation of an atomic bomb blast.
Howser's 'California Gold' ets exclusive access to the Baldwin Park headquarters of In-N-Out and camera access to one of the chain's stores, both billed as firsts by KCET.
Chic Leak blog came back from last night's launch of a line of acrylic body paints with nice photos of naked bodies and a classic PR quote.
A little TV journalism parody from across the Atlantic. Enjoy.
Here's the newsroom memo that went out at Channel 4 tonight.
The cast of "Inglorious Basterds" won the honor for top film ensemble today at the Screen Actors Guild awards at the Shrine Auditorium.
Jimmy Kimmel envisions how Ken Burns would tell the story of the great late night TV wars.
O'Brien's severance deal with NBC will let him take another TV gig as soon as September.
is the current radar map on Channel 9. That's Los Angeles buried under the orange.
Video from KABC7 of last night's story.
Promoting movies is tough work, Gibson finds
That's the negotiated settlement amount The Wrap hears from sources.
His last 'Tonight Show' may be Jan. 22, but Conan O'Brien had it rocking in last night's monologue.
Scott Diener is the new VP and news director at the KCBS and KCAL duopoly. He follows his former boss, recently named president and GM Steve Mauldin, from the CBS duopoly in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Correspondent Vince Gonzales spent six months unearthing a multitude of problems with the agency that is supposed to ensure worker’s safety in California.
Channel 4 reporter and weekend anchor Alycia Lane's lawsuit over her firing in Philadelphia is working its way through the courts there.
Dave suggests a new program NBC can put on a 10 p.m. Video.
Former KNBC anchor Tritia Toyota, an adjunct assistant professor of anthropology and Asian American studies at UCLA< has a new book on Chinese American political power in the San Gabriel Valley.
In a piece at the Daily Beast, Richard Rushfield reveals what he learned about Simon Cowell and behind-the-scenes dramas at "American Idol."
NBC confirmed Sunday that Jay Leno's last show in primetime will be on Feb. 11, the day before the nwtwork starts airing the Winter Olympics in the 10 p.m. slot.
Conan O'Brien is apparently resisting NBC's plan to move him back to midnight and shoehorn Jay Leno into the late-night lineup. And Josef Adalian at The Wrap says "Fox has...
It certainly appears as if Jay Leno's time at 10 p.m. on NBC is short, though what would happen next is way unclear. NBC has denied FTV's report that Leno...
The Times columnist begins this week as a contributor on "SoCal Connected" on KCET.
Channel 11's news at 10 p.m. opened tonight with five minutes of reporting and personal commentary about Rory Markas, the station's sportscaster who was discovered dead at home in Palmdale...
Steve Greenberg wonders if Fox and Time Warner will ever strike a deal.
A segment of "60 Minutes' on CBS will focus on the California water situation, with reporter Lesley Stahl talking to Governor Schwarzenegger, farmers and others. It's scheduled to air Sunday,...
The Modern Committee of the Los Angeles Conservancy celebrated 25 years, the holidays and four photographers on Monday night in the Mayor Tom Bradley Room atop City Hall. Half the...
One thing we've all learned about KTLA reporter Lu Parker is that she loves animals, and especially her rescue dog Monkey. They'll be featured in an upcoming photo spread in...
Not too many shrinking media outlets have the chutzpah to hire a few days after laying off people, but the new Los Angeles Times isn't shy about announcing its changing...
New boss Steve Mauldin isn't even at the Channels 2 and 9 duopoly yet, but already change is happening in Studio City. The NewsCentral brand announced with great fanfare just...
The Democrats' next Speaker of the Assembly, John Perez, will be Conan Nolan's guest on "KNBC News Conference" Sunday at 9 a.m. State Senator Gloria Romero of East Los Angeles...
Patrick McClenahan is out as the KCBS/KCAL duopoly's president and general manager. In is Steve Mauldin, who has been overseeing the CBS duopoly in Dallas/Fort Worth. Some analysis by Michael...
KNBC's Fred Roggin is testing an online and digital-channel show called The Filter that may go on real TV over Channel 4 next year. Roggin has various observers and commentators...
Channel 5 reporter (and Villaraigosa main squeeze) Lu Parker just tweeted that she has a new blog post up. It's a Christmas gift suggestion, and like much of her online...
The interviewer on Los Angeles Kings telecasts on Fox Sports West was stopped early Monday morning, allegedly for driving too slow on the 105 freeway. She was booked on suspicion...
Oh boy, did Sam Rubin go off on Perez Hilton on the KTLA Morning News this morning — to cheers and atta-boys from his fellow Channel 5sters. It seems...
Her Channel 2 colleague, Kent Shocknek, blogs Sharon Tay's personal dating do's and don't's, starting with the preamble "I have been single for a long time. But HATE dating! In...
Click to view larger, and go here (and here) for Mark Lacter's LA Biz Observed analysis of the Comcast deal. This concludes our NBC programming for this morning. More by...
Nice shoutout from Brian Williams on the evening news for NBC's Los Angeles correspondent George Lewis. The video piece shows George covering the Vietnam War and "countless California earthquakes." Still...
The sports giant said back in July it was coming to Los Angeles with a local news website, and now we know it will launch Dec. 21. "ESPN's launch of...
KNBC reporter Chris Schauble has apparently been chronicling his training for an Ironman competition in Arizona. He accomplished his goal this week: "I didn’t cry. I screamed when I crossed...
This time it's the Wall Street Journal going behind the scenes of the hit show "Dancing With the Stars" on the front page. I'll leave it to you to decide...
The L.A. Times dusts off the first-person thing for today's Column One, promoting Tuesday's season finale of "Dancing With the Stars" by letting entertainment reporter Dawn C. Chmielewski go through...
Tonight's "Frontline" on PBS "examines the life and death of Neda Agha Soltan," the woman whose killing on the streets of Tehran elicited a huge reaction around the world —...
CBS 2's David Goldstein and team got the data from the city and found that instead of fewer accidents, the number of traffic accidents has gone up at most of...
Q: What's more bizarre than the Los Angeles Times having a blog for the paper's most inveterate staff animal lovers to talk about pets, animal causes and, of course, dogs...
As Lifetime's "Project Runway" nears the end of its season in Los Angeles, tonight's final challenge was held at the Getty. The surprise guest greeting the contestants on the terrace...
ABC has begun rolling out Diane Sawyer's interviews with Rihanna about the attack by Chris Brown in Hancock Park last February and her relationship with the violent singer. She talks...
The top story on tonight's SoCal Connected makes the case that homeowners in South Los Angeles are being forced to buy expensive flood insurance based on flawed FEMA maps. Check...
Barbara Walters maybe? Larry King? At least Jon Stewart? No, ex-LAPD chief William Bratton is Thursday's guest with Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report....
Longtime channel 4 reporter Doug Kriegel is hanging up his microphone tomorrow. The note circulated in the Burbank newsroom today calls together his colleagues "to tip a glass in Doug's...
Gawker can't contain its sarcasm about Sam Zell's bankrupt Tribune's latest gift to America's airwaves. Instead of just flying his prop job around the Midwest to have unhealthy lunches on...
The duopoly is celebrating Channel 9 anchor Pat Harvey's 20 years this week. The photo of Pat with the late Jerry Dunphy came with the invitation below to everyone in...
Born Milton Supman, Soupy Sales became one of the enduring comic faces of 1950s and '60s television. His show, first in Detroit then in Los Angeles, was a hit with...
The lobby of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion at the Music Center downtown stood in for the Rome Hilton, circa early 1960s, on a recent episode of "Mad Men." Spotted by...
Venting in depth for the first time about official prying into his personal phone records, TMZ editor Harvey Levin tonight called it an illegal abuse of power — "a brutal...
Reporter Eric Spillman of KTLA finally got the data he has been seeking on the public cost of providing security for Mayor Villaraigosa's trips to Africa (with Spillman's Channel 5...
It's Martin Miller, says Variety's Michael Schneider in a tweet. Miller is listed currently as an assistant entertainment editor in Calendar....
One of our helpful readers emailed the evidence that KNBC is asking its readers to rate the station's staffed-up, big-deal but news-lite website alongside little old us: Thought you might...
I joined some media and blog folks at the KCET studios the other morning for a preview of the second season of "SoCal Connected," the PBS station's weekly news program....
Channel 5 confirmed that weekend anchor Jason Martinez resigned abruptly on Sept. 29 after just nine months at the station. Martinez had been tapped to anchor during the week at...
One feature, so to speak, of the new KNBC website lets readers vote on what emotion they feel about news stories. Just so you know, on the tsunami news out...
Long checked out Friday as news director and VP at KNBC Channel 4. He's headed to Istanbul to teach a class in journalism ethics at Bahcesehir University. Long had previously...
Fox 11 reporter John Schwada used to be a print guy, and recently spent two weeks on a reporting fellowship in Germany. So I guess he feels comfortable exposing the...
The city's grant to keep Channel 36 on local television was negotiated back into the City Hall budget a few months ago, but now apparently the whole operating budget —...
Dodgers' post-game show host Ken Levine lets the city's least favorite cable provider have it with both blog barrels after a late-night phone exchange with the, so to speak, help...
Mayor Villaraigosa's gal pal (at least the last we checked) is now a field reporter for KTLA, moving from the weekend anchor/general assignment slot. KTLA News Director Jason Ball tells...
See more by Steve Greenberg in the LA Sketchbook archive....
Mark Sudock, a senior editor at Fox 11, is chagrined enough at the station's deep layoffs to send me an open letter asking Fox owner Rupert Murdoch to intervene. The...
The new episode of Vista LA that airs Sunday at 11:30 a.m. on Channel 7 focuses on recent improvements to MacArthur Park — led by the Levitt Pavilion — and...
Firefighters from Tuolumne and Calaveras counties knew well the history and scientific treasure that was at stake when the Station Fire threatened the Mount Wilson Observatory. They made it their...
KTLA senior producer Erik Candiani swears that in the following promo, new Channel 5 anchors Micah Ohlman and Victoria Recaño really do meet for the first time. Watch them get...
The newest iteration of "At The Movies" debuts this weekend with A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips installed as hosts — they both filled in a lot for Roger Ebert when...
While other local TV stations have been skimping on fire coverage, PBS station KCET is doing more than it ever has before: as of 1:30 p.m. today, Channel 28 is...
Channel 9's fire coverage in the 9 o'clock hour included several minutes with reporter Dave Lopez on the battle by firefighters to save the La Cañada Flintridge home of the...
The local Emmy awards were handed out tonight at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in North Hollywood, and KNBC came away with more than any other station. Channel...
The former Fox 11 anchor reports on his website that he accepted a job anchoring the 5-7 and 11 am newscasts at WGRZ-TV in Buffalo. He writes: The station has...
More transitions at Channel 4. Longtime TV news figure Bob Long has announced his retirement as VP and News Director at KNBC. There are lighter and more serious versions of...
So yesterday's news about the new anchors at Channel 5 left unresolved what would become of the current 10 p.m. anchors Leila Feinstein (a holdover from the Hal Fishman era)...
Ever since Micah Ohlman left Channel 7 last spring there has been talk of him landing at KTLA. Well, now he has. Ohlman, the nephew of ex-KNBC anchor Paul Moyer,...
© Steve Greenberg. May not be reused without permission of the artistThis is only a guess, but I suspect KNBC's hiring of East Coast tabloid favorite Alycia Lane spurred Steve...
When "Hung" star Thomas Jane showed up at the KTLA studios this morning, he got out of the limo in bare feet, says a Channel 5 insider who adds he...
MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and the L.A. Times' Andrew Malcolm, who increasingly seems like a Fox News embed writing the paper's main politics blog, are going at each other. I have...
After yesterday's initial wave of clucking over Channel 4 hiring Alycia Lane as weekend anchor, KNBC came back with a statement saying "We're aware of her background and have looked...
Channel 4's new website is a real piece of work. The lead story up now is about model Jasmine Fiore being killed and left in a dumpster. Look how they...
The New York Times obituary says Hewitt "changed the course of broadcast news by creating the television magazine '60 Minutes,' fusing journalism and show business as never before, and who...
KTLA reporter Eric Spillman stayed on his minor obsession with Mayor Villaraigosa's trip to Africa with Channel 5 colleague Lu Parker and has some new details. The eight-day trip, which...
Alycia Lane is coming to Channel 4 on August 19 as a weekend anchor and general assignment reporter. She takes over as the weekend evening anchor from Kim Baldonado, who...
KCET's website has discovered the time-tested method for getting more attention from L.A. bloggers: profile them. Up this week is Cindy Mosqueda, writer of the venerable Loteria Chicana, which dates...
Video of the newsroom celebration from reporter Eric Spillman's blog at the KTLA website....
The Asian American blog Epicanthus posts three videos of the Burbank arrival of Laura Ling and Euna Lee that has footage beyond what most of the media showed. Noted: Producer...
GiGi Graciette was just on Fox 11 live from Burbank's Bob Hope Airport, talking to Laura Ling's husband and setting up the arrival of Ling, Euna Lee and former President...
The LAT's Richard Rushfield has posted his final entry on the Idol Tracker blog where he's been spending most of his time the past couple of years. He's headed to...
Former President Clinton is engaged in talks aimed at bringing home Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the Los Angeles journalists for Current TV held in North Korea since March 17,...
Manny Ramirez and his Boston Red Sox teammate David Ortiz were among the 100-plus major league players who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003, the New York Times...
Yesterday on Twitter I re-tweeted this affectionate parody of Huell Howser on a road trip of another sort, but forgot to post it here. The creator calls it California's gold...
The Washington Post has a new TV critic in Stuever, whose job will be "exploring the medium across the many platforms and in the many ways it now traverses our...
Synthesizing the emails I've received and comments I've seen about Time Warner Cable cutting to commercial and missing Manny Ramirez's sensation of a home run last night, it sounds as...
Manny Ramirez just hit his most dramatic home run as a Dodger, a first-pitch grand slam coming off the bench in a tie game on Manny bobble-head night — and...
Channels 2 and 9 will be known, as of the fall, as CBS 2 NewsCentral and KCAL 9 NewsCentral. Behold the joint logo. Release is after the jump....
The cable sports giant will announce plans Monday for a website devoted to covering Los Angeles sports teams. It has worked for ESPN in Chicago, but L.A. Times sports boss...
Remember Sam Zell's chief innovation officer, the irrepressible Lee Abrams? Turns out he has been a pilot since he was 17, and like many hobbyist pilots across the U.S. he...
Cronkite passed away Friday at age 92. Here's our earlier link. More from LA Sketchbook by Steve Greenberg...
Media sites are saying that the longtime CBS News anchor has died, according to his family. Cronkite announcing the assassination of President John Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963:...
Los Angeles and New York both make great settings for police dramas on TV. But why, over the last decade or more, are most of the better ones located in...
Live in Los Angeles on channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 34 and 52 (translated), MSNBC, Fox News Channel, CNN. And on many L.A. radio stations, as well as...
Dodgers manager Joe Torre is on Fox Business Network today talking with David Asman about, of all things, the Yankees he used to manage. Some highlights from FBN: On Roger...
Channel 11 reporter John Schwada blogs that the recent layoff of 99 staffers cost his newsroom "a lot of good young people, with energy and dreams (fortunately, not all of...
Channel 5 reporter Eric Spillman posted the photo on Twitter of his KTLA colleague, the mayor's girlfriend, in the invited crowd at Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's pre-swearing-in church gathering this morning....
"Minutes after our 10pm liveshot, FOX News Channel Correspondent Craig Boswell was the victim of a hit & run," Fox 11's Hal Eisner reported on Twitter about half an hour...
They're still coming down, over 99 by one source's unofficial count — in all newsroom departments. "Editors, writers, shooters, promo people, our chief helicopter guy, the entire chyron department, most...
Fox 11 anchor-reporter Susan Hirasuna is a busy Twitter user. She just posted regarding what you'll see on tonight's news: Just finished editorial meeting for the 10p &11p news. Tribute...
Doug Davis, whose Urban Scrawl cartoons run in the Downtown News, envisions the damage done to the image of Los Angeles television reporters by Lu Parker turning up as...
From here on, I'll probably post tweets o' the day only occasionally. They seem better suited to Twitter itself, where I'll keep retweeting media postings on the LA Observed feed....
Phil Willon, who covers Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for the L.A. Times, posted at L.A. Now that Channel 5 reporter-weekend anchor Lu Parker told KTLA officials that she and the mayor...
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa dropped in Saturday at the opening of actress Melissa Joan Hart's store Sweet Harts in Sherman Oaks. He's getting a hug from Valley restaurant and real...
No, it's not a law firm. It's Huell Howser and Jacob Soboroff meeting for coffee at Intelligenstia 2½ years after they first circled each other on video at the Cornfield...
Channel 4 devoted ten minutes on its 5 p.m. newscast yesterday to saying goodbye to retired anchor Paul Moyer, despite the memo last month saying there would be "no...
Live the glamorous life of a TV news per diem field reporter — meaning you work day to day and do whatever they say, just as if you actually have...
Sean Harrigan, president of the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions board, resigned today a month after receiving a letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission asking him to identify...
Mary Beth McDade is no longer part of the news team on the duopoly's website, and a station source tells me she's gone. No further details. Here's her former bio....
There will be no final swing of the bat on Channel 4 for longtime news anchor Paul Moyer. His retirement was announced earlier this month, and now KNBC news chief...
The former Fox 11 and Channel 13 news and sports anchor starts tonight as co-anchor with Pat Harvey of KCAL's news at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. Release after the...
My post yesterday on NBC closing its bureau in Sacramento should have pointed out that ABC still maintains a fulltime presence in the state capital. Nannette Miranda, of course, has...
The NBC bureau in the state capital is shutting down. It fed stories to KNBC Channel 4 and the other California stations. Here's an email going around from reporter Mike...
The myth of the lizard people who dug tunnels under Downtown gets a new retelling on Fox 11 News' "fringe segment," featuring Los Angeles Public Library maps expert Glen Creason....
Dan Miller anchored at Channel 2 in the 1980s and was the sidekick on Pat Sajak's late-night show, as well as a frequent guest host for Tom Snyder on radio....
NPR's "Morning Edition" carried a piece today that made the point that ethnic media are faring better than more traditional newspapers, radio and TV stations. It cited Univision's KMEX and...
The speculation has been correct — longtime KNBC anchor Paul Moyer told the newsroom today that he's hanging them up after being on L.A. television since 1972. (He jumped to...
Here's what Channel 5 has to say about the new shows and hours. 'News at 1' begins today....
Channel 4's Jennifer Bjorklund went to high school in the Bay Area with one of the four Oakland police officers killed in that shootout with a parolee. I'm told her...
Staffers in the Los Angeles Times newsroom expect the the next wave of forced departures to come down today, along with revelations of colleagues who choose this moment to retire...
While in Pomona today, President Obama met with students from the Village Academy High Schoool who had made a video about the recession. KCET's SoCal Connected has a story on...
The Occidental College alum will be here Wednesday for the first time as president — in Long Beach, Costa Mesa in OC and Pomona. He's also going to tape a...
Channel 4 plans to air a half-hour investigative piece on Sunday night at 11:30 examining LAUSD oversight of an ambitious library renovation program called Wonder of Reading. I'm told the...
It wasn't just Channel 4 -- all L.A. TV stations covered last night's low-speed Bentley chase, probably hoping it was Chris Brown or that the audience would assume it was....
Rich DeMuro was let go as the tech reporter at channels 2 & 9 after CBS acquired CNET. (Somewhat ironically, he left CNET about a year ago to come work...
Telemundo's new lifestyle cable network for Latinos, mun2, has posted a video with the guys behind the Kogi Korean barbecue taco truck. The video was shot during a stop at...
The House voted to delay the implementation of the digital TV changeover until June 12....
Channel 2 & 9's Bryan Frank takes us behind the scenes of another glamorous night in the TV news business. Frank, Sharon Tay and a trainee camera guy make ready...
The Radio and Television News Association of Southern California handed out the year's Golden Mike awards on Saturday night. No time to go through them all, but here's the list...
The difference being, apparently, the huge numbers of people who took in the Obama festivities on line rather than on television. Then last night, "American Idol" beat the top inauguration...
Laurel Erickson has been a familiar face on Los Angeles television for three decades, most recently as a rotating co-host of KNBC's "Newsconference" and holding down an anchor chair on...
Furnell Chatman guests on KPCC's Off-Ramp to talk about leaving KNBC Channel 4 after 35 years and moving back to New Orleans. I'm told he also shares quite a personal...
Variety columnist Brian Lowry is now blogging about television at the trade's new BLTv — "Good TV; reasonable prices." He posts that the current TV critics tour feels more pointless...
A scenario as imagined by Joe Flint, the former WSJ, Entertainment Weekly and Variety reporter who is now director of industry programs at the Paley Center for Media. It helps...
KNBC plans to air Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's State of the State speech live at 10 a.m. The station's Mekahlo Medina says they will post text messages from viewers on the...
Channel 4 plans to air a special about itself this Friday night and again on Super Bowl Sunday. Here's a blog preview from Franklin Avenue: Paul Moyer and Colleen Williams...
KTLA reporter-blogger Eric Spillman calls President George W. Bush's session with the media today "the most interesting of his Presidency. President Bush is not known for public self-examination, but in...
Americans who watch TV don't watch the Golden Globes any more, even if the newspapers, blogs and celebrity cable channels continue to insist they are a big thing. An average...
Confirming speculation that's been around since he left Channels 2 & 9 last summer, Don Corsini has been named president and general manager of KTLA Channel 5. The job has...
For a sizable chunk of the television audience, the proper world order was restored on KTLA's broadcast of the 2009 Rose Parade: Stephanie Edwards back in the booth gabbing with...
The veteran Channel 4 reporter and weekend anchor — usual signoff: "Thanks for having us in" — has left the building in Burbank. He's calling it retirement to the Big Easy after 35 years at KNBC.
Bob Benoit, photographer Mr. Blackwell, fashion figure Manuel Bogran, Breeze carrier Bernie Boston, photographer P.J. Corkery, editor Elmer Dills, TV restaurant critic Bill Drake, radio executive Clay Felker, editor...
Los Angeles author Howard Rosenberg (the former LAT critic) and his co-author Charles Feldman were booked on KRON TV in San Francisco on Jan. 3 to talk about their new...
My post this morning about adulterer matching service AshleyMadison offering $1,000 to a satisfied customer willing to appear in disguise on Channel 5's Morning News brought an email update from...
Word out of KCBS/KCAL is that there have been layoffs today, including assistant news director Jim Hattendorf. Also, the copy desks of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, San Bernardino...
The president of AshleyMadison.com, the love match service that urges clients to have affairs, is offering $1,000 to a satisfied customer to appear with him on KTLA Channel 5. KTLA...
Charley Steiner will only do radio on next season's Dodger games, pushing former pitcher Jerry Reuss out of a job and opening a vacancy for a TV play-by-play announcer for...
Patrick McClenahan has been promoted to President and General Manager of KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV, effective immediately. He has been senior VP and station manager since the stations combined into a...
The life of a local television news cameraman involves a lot of hurry up and wait. Case in point: this afternoon's (yawn) Grammy nominations concert, as Channel 2's Bryan Frank...
"KTLA Morning News" anchor Frank Buckley chose not to sport an AIDS ribbon on today's show, got an email from a viewer about it, and decided to address the issue...
Rick Garcia and Lauren Sanchez will no longer offer a lighter alt version of the news at 11 p.m. on KCOP channel 13. The new plan is for Fox 11's...
The Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists will honor Paul Pringle of the Times, John Schwada of Fox 11, Frank Stoltze of KPCC and Terri Vermeulen Keith...
Alan Colmes, the liberal half of "Hannity & Colmes" on Fox News Channel, will leave the show at the end of the year. Colmes will remain as a commentator on...
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today appointed Stephanie M. Rodriguez to the city Board of Transportation Commissioners. Rodriguez, director of public affairs at KCAL/KCBS, fills the unexpired term of Paul Kim. Also...
First, some good news. Remember Lauren Beale, who edits the Times' real estate section? Though her name made the list of the 75 editorial employees cut from the newsroom last...
Politics reporter John Schwada blogs at Fox 11 about studies showing that many people found the news media too blatantly favoring Barack Obama during the campaign. Actually, I find all...
Franklin Avenue's Michael Schneider was stunned when Channel 2 traffic reporter Vera Jimenez described last week's fire-caused snarl in Sepulveda Pass, then segued to her test drive of a Lincoln...
On tonight's NBC Nightly News, my ears perked up when anchor Brian Williams introduced a story by saying a world-famous museum came "dangerously close" to being burned by fire today....
Former Channel 2 weatherman Maclovio Perez, in Texas the past six years, has left his station in San Antonio to take a job as spokesman for a school district there....
The longtime Channel 5 anchor and reporter emailed colleagues and friends. For nearly 24 years, KTLA has been my second home. I have loved my career here at KTLA and...
This time only Sacramento was worse than Los Angeles, among the 56 Metro areas that Nielsen meters. But then, the Dodgers were on and, as usual, the debate did not...
KDOC, Orange County's only commercial TV station, has dropped its morning news show "Daybreak OC." From the Orange County Business Journal report: The move comes a year after KDOC launched...
A friend of longtime Los Angeles sportscaster Gil Stratton emailed the news that Stratton died this morning at home in Toluca Lake. He was 86 and had suffered heart problems....
PBS Channel 28 has soft-launched KCET Local with original web stories, video, reader comments, calendar items and blogs by author D.J. Waldie, KPCC reporter Adolfo Guzman-Lopez, former LAT columnist Erin...
Another familiar figure from 1950s and '60s TV in Los Angeles has died, the L.A. Times reports. Charles Runyon portrayed Chucko the Birthday Clown on Channel 7 from 1955 to...
Lloyd Thaxton created and hosted a popular dance show for teenagers in the 1960s, later produced segments for NBC's "Today" and directed Fight Back! With David Horowitz, and most recently...
Nielsen says that last night's Biden-Palin debate drew a much larger television audience — 45% of households in the 55 biggest metered metro areas — than the earlier McCain-Obama debate....
Fox 11 crime reporter Chris Blatchford is out with "The Black Hand," which Dominick Dunne calls in a blurb, "A gripping, powerful, chilling inside look at a criminal organization that...
KCET's replacement for the late, lamented "Life and Times" premieres on Channel 28 at 8 pm. Val Zavala is the anchor of SoCal Connected, as she was on L&T. The...
AEG has shopped around a proposal to partner with a Los Angeles TV station on a digital channel to feature events at Staples Center and the Nokia Theater. They would...
When Conan O'Brien began a bit last night (this morning actually) about trains crashing together, KNBC Channel 4 cut in with anchor Colleen Williams introducing footage of Sen. John McCain's...
She's getting $50,000 to make nice and sit in the KTLA Rose Parade booth with Bob Eubanks again, says columnist Frank Mickadeit at the Register. A couple of weeks ago,...
Sam Zell's Channel 5 may be trying to distance its news from the Hal Fishman legacy, but the station announced yesterday that it's going back to the future with Rose...
L.A. Radio.com reports that George Putnam died this morning, citing Putnam's long-time friend and producer Chuck Wilder. Putnam moved to Los Angeles in 1951 and quickly became the city's dominant...
I finally listened to the whole interview that Los Angeles Times Editor Russ Stanton gave the Daily Sundial at Cal State Northridge, linked in Monday's Morning Buzz. He drops a...
KNBC Channel 4 led with eight local Emmys at last night's awards ceremony at the Leonard H. Goldenson Theater in North Hollywood. The trophies included Mary Harris for outstanding news...
Don Corsini has run the two CBS-owned channels since 2002. He will stay until the end of the year, when Patrick McClenahan will be promoted to president and general manager....
Leroy Sievers is the former "Nightline" executive producer who has been commenting on the air and blogging about his cancer for National Public Radio. Sievers had previously been the CBS...
A generation of Los Angeles kids grew up watching cartoons on Channel 9 and drinking their milk when Engineer Bill or his announcer said "green light" — and stopping...
This week's piece by Kelefa Sanneh starts out exploring TV and radio commentator Tavis Smiley's criticism of Barack Obama's candidacy and looks into Smiley's enterprises, which are based in Leimert...
The "NewsHour with Jim Lehrer" drills down on the closure of newspaper book sections, pegged to the L.A. Times situation. Here's the email blast at Romenesko: This past Sunday, the...
O'Brien takes over from Jay Leno next June 1, NBC announces. AP Also: Ebert and Roeper quit "At the Movies."...
Robert Abele at the LA Weekly wonders if the new character introduced in "The Closer" this season would be Sam Zell's idea of a model reporter. Whats with the inane,...
SoupCans is a TV blog that runs a recurring Jackie Johnson Fashion Watch, so the blog was thrilled she talked to them. The Channel 2 and 9 weathercaster talks about...
In today's LAT, reviewer Leslie Brenner absolutely savages Gladstone's Malibu, the Pacific Coast Highway goldmine where former mayor Richard Riordan is the largest shareholder. The food is "abominable" and the...
ERS News says that seven Channel 5 news staffers got the pink slip today, including on-air reporters Walter Richards, Bill Smith, Willa Sandmeyer and Janet Choi. Two long-time executive producers...
KNBC's News Raw channel, which is branded as Digital 4.4, announced today that as of Monday, pre-Olympic programming from Universal Sports would take over many of the channel's hours. News...
Journalists of the year announced at last night's Los Angeles Press Club awards: Big print: Melissa Healy, L.A. Times Small print: Anat Rubin, Los Angeles Daily Journal TV: Antonio Valverde,...
I really like this photo of Venice from 1957, showing the lineage of the ocean-front condos and converted beach shacks that are now so desirable. It's by Charles Brittin, the...
The longtime moderator of "Meet the Press" and chief of NBC's Washington bureau collapsed this afternoon in the bureau and could not be resuscitated. He was 58. Here are links...
Two of the lawyers featured prominently in the HBO documentary on Roman Polanski that debuted this week have issued a statement disputing the Superior Court's allegation that the film was...
Weather reader Jackie Johnson was out last night with Channel 9 colleagues Mary Beth McDade and Melissa McCarty, but it was Johnson who got all the personal attention from Girls...
Telemundo had another bad day on Friday, dropping the network's national morning show "Cada Dia" and making some executive changes. Host Maria Antonieta Collins, who joined Telemundo from Univisin, had...
Veronica Villafae at Media Moves reports that Azteca Amrica Channel 54 is dropping its Los Angeles production and will host the Spanish-language newscasts in Mexico. Layoffs of 29 staffers came...
Lucia Navarro is out as anchor at Telemundo-52 after seven years, according to Media Moves, a blog that charts the movement of Latinos in the media business. Navarro was on...
I'm told that staffers at Channel 5 were gathered together for two all-hands meetings yesterday and told that ND Rich Goldner would exit today for that new job in San...
LiveNewsCameras.com offers a wall of live news video from dozens of U.S. cities, and a "moderator" who monitors the hottest stories of that minute. At least, she's there during the...
California Supreme Court chief justice Ronald George gives a two-hour interview to the LAT's Maura Dolan and talks about the court's milestone same-sex marriage ruling: "I think there are...
With its television revenue down $2.8 million already this year, Playboy Enterprises plans to offer 20 hours of softcore gay male programming to Time Warner Cable subscribers, XBIZ.com reports. The...
Councilwoman Hahn responds on her blog to the Fox 11 report that sided with two cops suing the city and tied Hahn to the mother of a Grape Street gang...
The host of the long-running "Connie Martinson Talks Books" gave nearly 3,000 tapes of her cable show to Claremont Graduate University. "It's a pretty extraordinary gift," said Rick Wartzman, director...
Today's slash of 80-90 employees, or 5% of the staff, is the third round of layoffs in a year at the Register's parent. Declining advertising revenue is to blame, President...
Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon will guest on Sunday's "KNBC News Conference," hosted by Laurel Erickson at 9:30 am on Channel 4. She wants to ask him about the...
Now in the anchor chair at Fox 11, Carlos Amezcua blasts his former station in the May issue of Tu Ciudad. "When Hal Fishman died, so did the KTLA News,"...
KNBC anchor Ana Garcia, producer Rebecca Nieto, VP/News Director Robert Long and (not shown) web managing Bonnie Buck talk about how the station covers news and their relationship with PR...
Pete Noyes, 77, has worked behind the camera in influential roles at, I believe, Channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 13 and most recently 11. A former print reporter, producing investigations...
I scanned past this in my initial quick read of the Mirthala Salinas interview by Shawn Hubler in the new issue of Los Angeles magazine. Salinas talks in some detail...
Fox 11 reporter John Schwada has posted quotes from a video where Sheriff Lee Baca tells a mostly black audience in Compton that some Latino youths are indeed killing African...
Veteran Fox 11 reporter Christina Gonzalez filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city and the police department, saying she suffered "shock and injuries to her nervous system" and "severe...
He still makes appearances and will be talking about "KTLA's News at Ten: Sixty Years with Stan Chambers" tonight at 7:30 pm at the Beverly Hills City Hall. Info...
An LA Observed regular emails: Hey Kevin, Its 8:35. For the past half hour, KCET is having a meltdown with Antiques Roadshow telecast (interspersed with pledge segments.) Screen just went...
Spens reported in the 1990s for KNBC, KCBS and KNX Newsradio and was known for wearing a trench coat and walking while delivering his televised field reports. Pete Noyes, managing...
Sen. Hillary Clinton used her entrance on "The Tonight Show" (Channel 4, 11:35 pm) to defuse the mocking over her tale about dodging gunfire in Bosnia while First Lady. "I...
The Daily News and Variety report that Channel 2 anchors Ann Martin and Harold Greene are among the staffers who will leave the KCBS-KCAL stations as part of a big...
Bunch of people let go today. If I get details I'll pass them on....
CBS executives are moving to the Studio City complex from Television City this weekend. The influx of all those suits figures to disrupt the Radford lot culture, not to mention...
The news got out yesterday that Tribune would switch its San Diego affiliate to Fox from the CW Network. Now here's the memo explaining the move, and naming a new...
CEO Sam Zell enjoyed the little dig his Chicago Tribune got in on the rival Sun-Times, which held a contest to let readers' express their opinion on Zell's possible interest...
Once around: Child advocate and former L.A. first lady Nancy Daly Riordan guests with Laurel Erickson on a special edition of KNBC News Conference, airing Saturday at 4 pm. Councilman...
Note to KTLA: the TV station that Sam Zell's Tribune company owns in South Florida is moving in with the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel newspaper. Zell has said the company would...
KNBC Channel 4 has tapped David Markland, a "city captain" at LA Metblogs, to write a couple of items a day under the California Faultline banner. He will focus on...
It's been a while since LA Observed readers first met math-challenged weather babe Jackie Johnson. If you have always craved just a little bit more, the CBS2/KCAL website has what...
Channel 4's Ana Garcia began an undercover investigation tonight on veterinarians who take advantage of distraught pet owners to order unnecessary procedures and "hundreds of dollars in unnecessary expenses." Kind...
Vinnie Malcolm will be leaving the building at Channel 5. He may already be gone. Staffers aren't clear just how hard he was pushed, but the memo from new Sam...
Every network owned TV station in Los Angeles plus KTLA has switched live to the Simmons funeral. Channel 4 handled the bringing in of the casket nicely: no talking. Just...
Motorcycle officers working the route of the Randy Simmons funeral procession have marked their helmets with the radio designation of his SWAT unit: 41-D. Holy Geography, Batman: Furnell Chatman, holding...
L.A. author, humorist and kitschy snapshot collector Charles Phoenix will share his vintage Valentine's Day slides with Martha Stewart on her syndicated TV show on Thursday. I have no idea...
The talent at Channel 11 has been strongly encouraged to blog for MyFox LA, the branding given the station's website. Reporter John Schwada has taken to it easier than most...
Television reporter James Hibberd is leaving TV Week to take a newly created slot on the broadcasting beat at The Hollywood Reporter, I'm told. The path is getting familiar. Melissa...
While the battered denizens at the L.A. Times wait to hear whether their next editor will be a patsy for the publisher or an actual respected newsroom leader with independence...
As several KTLA staffers have emailed to remind me, the station had been blocking employees' access to LA Observed. Even while cooperating from time to time at the news level....
The post-9/11 sensation and defrocked global terrorism reporter with the square-rimmed Lafont eyeglasses — dumped by NBC after she bombed as an anchor and criticized Fox News in a speech...
The internal watchblog that began after Dan Rather's career meltdown has disappeared from the list of CBS News blogs, and Rachel Sklar at the Huffington Post is disappointed. It's a...
KNBC Channel 4 leads the TV stations with six Golden Mikes from the Radio Television News Association, including best newscast writing, documentary ("On the Verge") and investigative story (for its...
The Kings held a moment of silence before tonight's game to honor Stu Nahan, the former sportscaster at channels 4, 5 and 7 and sports talk host on KABC and...
I'm told by KCET that "Life & Times" will hold down its 7pm time slot until Dec. 28, then give way to Tavis Smiley. Stories this week will include a...
Tonight's show at 7pm on KCET has Tom Brokaw looking back at the 1960s, Vicki Curry checking in on the Orange County Museum of Art's "Birth of the Cool" exhibit,...
Veteran anchor-reporter Linda Alvarez is taking her leave of Channel 2 at the end of the month, concluding 14 years at the station. Here's the so-long email and invitation she...
L.A. County Supervisor Mike D. Antonovich adjourned the Supes meeting with a motion to mourn the reduction of live news coverage at Channel 5. It apparently got his goat that...
Now that Rebecca de Mornay is on HBO all the time, it figures somebody would ask, "what became of the old Wally George 'Hot Seat' shows on Channel 56?" That...
I missed this in the news last week. Or rather, let's say it got way underplayed — just a brief buried in the LAT Calendar section. The news is that...
The big three local network TV stations will still be in the Valley, but NBC made official what's been talked about for awhile: the station is moving most of its...
L.A. broadcasting fixture Gary Franklin died at 79, at home in Chatsworth. He first became known as a street reporter on KFWB, ending his reports with a signature sign-off "Car...
KCAL9 and CBS2 anchor Dave Clark starts November 1 as anchor of the top-rated morning news at Channel 2 in San Francisco. His email to friends says "I have spent...
Blogger and former Daily Journal reporter Daniel Evans and his wife walked down to the corner store in Burbank tonight and spotted two TV news trucks. As they feared, the...
If Mirthala Salinas stays with Telemundo Channel 52 it will be as the station's general assignment news chaser in the Inland Empire, not as the star political reporter and sometime...
At a Radio and Television News Association panel of news directors last night at UCLA, Bob Long of NBC 4 got most of the laughs — and sounded the most...
He claims the network ruined his career. (You want to laugh, right?) Mark Lacter strikes the right tone: As defendants, the suit names CBS and its CEO, Leslie Moonves; Viacom...
Reporter Chip Yost simply asked if the self-professed pedophile Jack McClellan wanted to talk after his release from UCLA custody last night — and he did, says Channel 5 executive...
Channel 5's Prime News plans to run selected old commentaries by the late anchor Hal Fishman all week. Tonight it was Hal weighing in on Snoop Dogg being arrested a...
KTLA reporter Eric Spillman writes on his official blog that "My colleague Hal Fishman died prematurely. If he had gone in for some routine tests, he might still be with...
KTLA's Prime News team remembered and praised their late anchor and managing editor Hal Fishman for the first half of the broadcast tonight. When they finally broke for the news,...
Anyone who has watched the regular KOCE reports from the Register newsroom in Orange County knows it's hard enough to get print schlubs to give good television. It's even more...
The face of KTLA news died this morning at home, the station announced. Fishman was 75 and had suffered from colon and liver cancer and an infection. He last anchored...
Doctors treating Fishman for yesterday's collapse found colon cancer that has spread to his liver, according to KTLA interim news director Rich Goldner on the Times website. "Hal is awake...
Republicans in Los Angeles are being offered $15 to show up at an upcoming taping of the "Half Hour News Hour" on Fox. From the email: The Half Hour News...
KTLA announced at the top of its 10 pm news — and on its website — that anchor Hal Fishman was in the hospital suffering from a serious infection. He...
Mirthala Salinas gets two months without pay for reading the news stories about Mayor Villaraigosa's marital breakup, but will keep her job at Telemundo 52. She apparently informed superiors about...
Earl Ofari Hutchinson blogs at Friendly Fire: Telemundo officials say that they will make a decision within the next few days whether to fire Mirthala Salinas or not. They shouldnt....
KTLA News Director Jeff Wald informed his department this morning that he's leaving the station to spend more time his family. Wald's wife died suddenly last December, and he has...
Telemundo has been covering the mayoral affair and media ethics dust-up involving its own reporter, and seems very interested in hearing what listeners think. At the bottom of the web...
CBS2 anchor Paul Magers' former home in the Minneapolis area — called by one blogger a "grand-to-ostentatious Lake of the Isles mansion" — is in the news back there because...
The Museum of Television and Radio in Beverly Hills (and New York) becomes the Paley Center for Media today. The New York Times reports: By no longer calling itself a...
Look at this Louie — we're on YouTube: Link...
KNBC's undercover camera has caught more car repair scammers. This time, Grover's web snared EZ Lube, "California's fastest growing lube and tune chain." Says the Channel 4 website: Under the...
Fans of "The Sopranos" spent all day Monday comparing notes on what an exultant Tony Soprano screamed at the end of Sunday night's intense episode. The LAT's television writer Paul...
Bret Marcus, displaced by the cancellation of "California Connected," becomes Vice President of Programming, Publicity and Promotion at the local PBS station. Release after the jump....
Since January, KMEX here has been blanketing its Spanish-language audience with encouragement for green card holders who are eligible to apply for U.S. citizenship. Now the project is going nationwide...
Turns out that the Saturday night movie showcase that KCET launched recently — and that has been advertised over there on the right side of this page — was just...
Those are reporter Christina Gonzalez's words on Fox 11 after she was shoved and laughed at by LAPD riot cops while coming to the defense of the station's camera operator,...
PBS has picked up the first season of the series to be produced by KCET in association with Wired magazine. It premieres nationwide on October 3. From the flackage: "The...
Tonight's show is the last, at least for now. "After five seasons and 154 shows from Yreka in the north to Baja in the south to the Eastern Sierras of...
A local television legend of sorts, and LA Observed oldie but goodie, returned tonight to the Los Angeles airwaves — and now to the blogosphere. Sharon Tay co-anchored the "KTLA...
It's Adam Gorfain, a 41 year old senior producer for "Dateline NBC" at the NBC News studios in Burbank, according to sometime NBC ABC independent investigative producer Eric Longabardi on...
Now that channels 2 and 9 reside in their new shared newsroom in Studio City, news director Nancy Bauer-Gonzales has removed the ban on eating and drinking at desks. But—staffers...
Channel 2 staffers are buzzing about their new entertainment reporter, Christina McLarty, being the girlfriend of Girls Gone Wild bad-boy Joe Francis. He's been in the news lately for his...
The Chicago Tribune calls it an "epic corporate drama" that ends with the paper's parent company — owner of the Los Angeles Times and KTLA — being taken private by...
We told you last week that radio personality April Winchell had blown Bill O'Reilly's cover as a man of the people by exposing his rant about croissants that were not...
Bob Woodward is the Washington Post editor who was not on the 4 o'clock news yesterday on ABC 7. Bob Woodruff is the former ABC News co-anchor, severely injured by...
Channel 7 morning news anchor Phillip Palmer goes under the knife tomorrow at St. Vincent's to donate a kidney to a friend, former KCAL news editor Dale Davis. Palmer talks...
Joseph Russin joins KTLA News as executive editor of planning. "Russin's responsibilities will include overseeing news coverage on-air and on the web, planning feature stories and supervising the work of...
Channels 2 and 9 news director Nancy Bauer Gonzales has gone on the warpath before against perfume and cologne in the office (as well as against messy desks.) But with...
An LA Observed reader asks: "Why are there seven jobs for ABC 7 listed on JournalismJobs.com?" Dunno, but it's true and they are all for freelancers or part-time work. The...
Tavis Smiley scores an interview tonight on PBS with Bruce Gordon, who resigned Sunday after just nineteen months as head of the NAACP. "A 64 person board under any scenario...
Excerpt at the Rip Post: Co-Anchor Michaela Free Home Makeover Pereira: This girl clearly needs help. I mean, she is not exactly de-icing the cool bus! Kriski: De-ice the cool...
Time Warner will begin carrying KCAL 9 HD on Friday with the 5:30 pm broadcast in high-definition of the Lakers game at Indiana. It's channel 409 in the new Time...
Bob Carroll Jr. worked with writing partner Madelyn Pugh Davis for more than 60 years, including on all the television series that Lucille Ball starred in. Carroll and and Pugh...
KFWB and KPCC-FM each won six Golden Mikes to lead the pack at Saturday night's banquet of the Radio & Television News Association of Southern California. Channel 4's 5pm newscast...
She actually calls it La-La Land on her Today Show blog. Later, the host fills in fans on a trip to Universal Studios and guest shots on Jay Leno and...
I watched Channel 5's "Prime News" at 10 pm to see how long they would go with real news before veering away to report on this morning's star ceremony on...
LA Observed contributor Jacob Soboroff caught up with local TV news legend Stan Chambers in Hollywood at KTLA's 60th anniversary bash. Click on the pic to watch the short video...
In a recent interview with FilmStew, Aaron Sorkin complained about the less-than-cheerleading coverage of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" by writers at the Times' Calendar section. He named Maria...
California Connected, produced at KCET, received the Alfred I. duPont award from Columbia University for "War Stories from Ward 7-D," called a "sobering report on the range of brain injuries...
The PBS series "Edens Lost and Found" does Los Angeles tonight at 10 pm on KCET. Jimmy Smits hosts the episode, which features TreePeople's Andy Lipkis and his crusade to...
Noted, since it hasn't been included in the mentions here of Jim Lampley's arrest: "I am innocent of the charge of domestic abuse that has been leveled against me and...
Michael Goodwin was convicted of murdering his former business partner, Mickey Thompson, and the racing legend's wife in 1988. Prosecutors will not seek the death penalty. CBS2 Alleged details...
By last night's web stats run, more than 2,200 visitors had found their way to LA Observed by searching on Google for Stephanie Edwards. That's in just the first three...
Ax falls at Channel 2/9: veteran reporter Paul Dandridge has been taken off the bio page, though his blog remains — last updated in August. Newsroom sources say that Inland...
KTLA's own viewer forum filled up today with more comments about the Rose Parade broadcast than on any other topic in months. Most are strongly pro-Stephanie Edwards and vent at...
Ron Fineman lost his battle with colon cancer today. The founder of the television news website Ron Fineman's On the Record was taken off his respirator Dec. 21 and told...
Stephanie Edwards tells the Pasadena Star-News that she took the hint and declined KTLA's offer to reprise her limited role in KTLA's Rose Parade coverage. According to Edwards, it was...
Longtime local news figure Ross Becker is leaving NBC4 and the on-hiatus daytime show he anchored, The Local Story, for an anchor slot at KTVX, the ABC-affiliated Channel 4...
KTLA's press release tries to make the upcoming coverage of the Rose Parade sound special: "Bob Eubanks and Michaela Pereira will be back as co-hosts of the Rose Parade....Grand Marshal...
KCAL-9 will once again air the yule log on Christmas morning, continuing a 40-year tradition (in New York — just three years here.) The log will crackle away in silence...
LARadio.com reports that Ron Fineman, the former TV reporter and producer whose On the Record is one of the original Los Angeles media websites, is near death at Henry Mayo...
This time it wasn't local, but still. While Paul Magers was reading a story last night about the heavy snowfall that blanketed New Mexico, the graphic carried the flag of,...
AmericanLife TV is a "network for baby boomers" showing up on the new channel alignment for Time Warner Cable. Its selling point is old series' like "The Honeymooners, The Man...
No, Michael Richards did not attend a celebrity roast for Whoopi Goldberg in blackface. Nor did he pour a bottle of Aunt Jemima syrup over Whoopi's head. That was satire...
Last night's showing of "Roy Orbison and Friends" on KCET — the concert was recorded live at the Cocoanut Grove in 1988 — prompted this anguished email from an LA...
Bob Baker envisions Michael Richards' next apology, exclusively at Native Intelligence: November 21, 2006 From: Elliot Forget, senior partner, Dodge & Retreat Consulting To: Michael Richards Re: Your follow-up apology...
Brian Stelter is 21, attends Towson University near Baltimore, and through his blog has the ear of just about everyone who matters in television news. Now he also has a...
Longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent Ed Bradley died today of complications from leukemia. The first black White House correspondent for CBS News, he reported on the network's Sunday night news franchise...
Contrary to speculation just about everywhere, The Hollywood Reporter's Ray Richmond blogs that Aaron Sorkin's show will run its full 22-episode season on NBC. The deal isn't official yet, Richmond...
Fox News shouter Bill O'Reilly is back on his Times kick, this time alleging that the real circulation is about half of what the ABC said it was this week....
This was the day that fans of the ABC soap "General Hospital" have looked forward to for a long time: the return of the female half of Luke and Laura....
TMZ says that a camera crew working for E! Entertainment Television entered an open gate at Brad Pitt's Hollywood Hills compound on Oct. 19 and was caught on videotape. The...
Ross Becker's "fluid format" half-hour news show "The Local Story" ran most of the summer on KNBC, then dropped back into a new life as a web-only production. Well, after...
Jacob Soboroff just got a new HD video camera and went over to the Cornfield state park downtown yesterday to try it out. Walking the grounds he saw Huell Howser,...
NBC 4 was first to go with the story last night, but today's Times and Daily News have many more details on the Grand Jury testimony alleging sexual favors paid...
Channel 4 got pretty excited tonight about an Ana Garcia investigative report that Troy Edwards, a deputy mayor under Jim Hahn, ran up $18,000 in bills for massages and sex...
"Being a TV host is the least of what I do," the Crenshaw district-based media force tells Patrick Goldstein in Sunday's LAT Calendar. The smooth-talking 42-year-old journalist and social activist...
FTVLive cites inside sources at KNBC saying layoffs are to follow a merger of assignment desks at the NBC newsroom in Burbank. Sources say that the NBC suits in New...
Ralph Story was a big deal on local television in the 1960s and 70s. He was the features reporter for "The Big News" on Channel 2 when the hour-long news...
Perhaps bracing for a premature end to his team's baseball season, Dodger Thoughts' Jon Weisman has launched Screen Jam. I'll let him explain: As readers of Dodger Thoughts may know,...
NBC 4's Joel Grover looks to have another installment of his Jiffy Lube expose coming tonight at 6 and 11 pm, according to the station's website. After Grover's two-part investigation,...
The guest list for Sunday's NBC4 Newsconference might seem like a non sequitur, but there is a theme to it: "courage, fearlessness and leadership" for the fifth anniversary of the...
Dan Rather's farewell retrospective on CBS couldn't even make the cut on the Friday evening before Labor Day. In Los Angeles and New York, the hour-long show is yielding to...
Looks like there's no room for "The Local Story: Summer Edition," which has been running at 3 pm on Channel 4 since July. It was billed as a temporary fill-in...
TVNewswer caught CBS giving Katie Couric a little help to look thinner. Compare her first official network photo at this year's TV upfronts from May (left) and the slimmer version...
NBC4 yesterday ran a half-hour special report on the political fight over the future of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Didn't see it, but the station's website has a...
Writers in the newsroom at KCBS and KCAL left their desks about 3:30 pm Wednesday and took an unscheduled break together in the courtyard before returning to their desks at...
The LAT announced in yesterday's TV Times that the weekly guide to what's on television will no longer come with Sunday papers. If you are a Times subscriber, and if...
On his blog over at TV Week, Christopher Lisotta is letting readers vote on the dumbest question asked during the the Television Critics Association pressfest going on in Pasadena. My...
The Hollywood Reporter's Ray Richmond generously blogs for newbies his ten unwritten rules for getting along at the Television Critics Association's group grope in Pasadena without offending your competitors, colleagues...
Channel 4 unveils "The Local Story: Summer Edition" at 3 pm., with L.A. news veteran Ross Becker anchoring. Toni Guinyard, formerly of KCET's "Life & Times" and KCAL, is the...
The television academy's new selection system had an effect. TNT's mini-series "Into the West" received sixteen Emmy nominations, followed by Jack Bauer and "24" with twelve and "Grey's Anatomy" with...
After losing out on Jerrold Perenchio's Univision auction last week, disappointed executives at Grupo Televisa said they would step back and reflect on their next move. Today they came up...
Channel 2 photographer Bryan Frank had one of those weeks where you drive and drive and drive, and never get anywhere. As he blogs it, he was sent to cover...
The longtime producer of Lakers broadcasts became a household name in Los Angeles through mentions on the air by Chick Hearn. She has been let go, but the two sports...
MSNBC is getting a divorce from the Connie Chung-Maury Povich team. The Saturday chat experiment "Weekends with Connie and Maury" didn't work out and will come to a merciful end...
Kate Aurthur has been writing for Calendar, Vanity Fair, Slate and the New York Times. Her father Robert Alan Aurthur was a producer and writer of All that Jazz and...
Some of you may remember the New Year's thread when KTLA dumped longtime Rose Parade host Stephanie Edwards out in the rain and gave Michaela Pereira her old seat in...
Seems to me that Michael Walker is doing the whole book-blog synergy the right way, and creating a readable and valuable Los Angeles neighborhood website. (I'd say this even if...
Channel 2 won't be number one at 11 much longer if they keep getting flummoxed by local geography. The picture pretty clearly shows you where Suzie Suh is reporting from:...
The congressman from the Valley who used to Jdate—and maybe he still does—turns up as a "Jeopardy!" question....
Not since the days of Jerry Dunphy has Channel 2's news topped the local ratings, but the station says that the new book out today fixes all that. From the...
Couldn't she be, I don't know, a little less happy? Billboard at Melrose and La Cienega, from Defamer:...
Earlier this month, NBC4's hidden-camera reporter Joel Grover aired "Is Your Mechanic Cheating?," a two-part series that showed Jiffy Lube mechanics charging for services they didn't perform. In response, this...
In addition to host Lisa McRee's web reports from the show's road trips, the "California Connected" crew at KCET is also posting to a newsroom blog that looks like it...
Channel 4 on Monday ran a news story about Diana York Blaine, a USC women's studies professor, posting three topless photos of herself in her Flickr stream. Yes, that appears...
♦ Answer: Mayor Villaraigosa, Sheriff Baca, Lakers owner Jerry Buss, Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, Magic Johnson, Natalie Cole, Johnny Grant and Councilman Tom LaBonge. Question: Who shows up when Channel...
The show backed and aired by California's public television stations returns for its fifth season tonight at 8:30 on KCET. Lisa McRee remains as "California Connected" host, but there's a...
Pay site FTVLive is reporting, based on unnamed sources, that KTLA's longtime Prime News executive producer Gerry Ruben has been replaced by Rick Goldner, currently executive producer of the KTLA...
Updated below The on-air feud that erupted during Monday's march coverage between KFI shout hosts John & Ken and Fox-11's Tony Valdez is heating up behind the scenes (at least—I...
Franklin Avenue points to a feature on the Channel 2 website detailing (in video and photos) the construction of a new broadcast center at the CBS Studio Center in Studio...
David Jackson is leaving the KCAL-9 news after tomorrow, says Ron Fineman's On the Record, citing sources: "One source says they are told that this was Jackson's decision, exercising an...
Dual get-tough memos to the staff from honcho-in-chief Nancy Bauer Gonzales hit desks today at CBS-2 and KCAL-9. The first responds to this week's criticism over the station's use of...
Tribune publishing chief Scott Smith sent out a reminder today that the company ethics code "applies to all Tribune editorial personnelprint, broadcast and interactive." They got it at the Times,...
Light posting this weekend, but first... ♦ Michael Sonnenschein exits as co-editor of FishbowlLA. He bids farewell on the blog, and Claude Brodesser gives marching orders for the new regime....
Three Los Angeles TV stations are fingered in a Center for Media and Democracy report out today critical of news operations that package video releases from sources and PR agencies...
We may never know if it was a missile, a flare or something else that the pilot of American Airlines flight 612 saw come up from the sea after takeoff...
Poking around the KNBC website I came across a story and videos about the coming launch of News Raw, "a new concept in news programming" that will let viewers watch...
Scary talk about bird flu, a third deputy sheriff dies, Cecelia Estolano for CRA chief, Los Angeles lawyers breaking away and a little online dust-up between CBS and the Times'...
NBC4 gave its website a new design, adding more video and simpler navigation. Local news also got a boost in emphasis, which is good for me. When I don't have...
Cary Baker of Sherman Oaks emails that his "KTLA Morning News" on Channel 5 this morning was replaced the first hour by a pitch for a workout video and the...
I just caught up to the official KTLA blogs written by four of the station's top news anchors. In theory they represent an admirable step in connecting the talking heads...
City News Service is reporting that Sam Chu Lin, a former CBS News correspondent who reported most recently for Fox 11, died Sunday in Burbank. Chu Lin began reporting in...
If nothing else, Christopher Arellano has found a way to deflect scrutiny from the $200,000 he has taken from UTLA. But the Times and Daily News miss a big chunk...
Two more developments on the ethics front involving Channel 5: Channel Island, the Los Angeles Times TV blog, reports that Morning News anchor Michaela Pereira "received a customized dining-room makeover...
James Gilden writes The Daily Traveler blog at LATimes.com, but being a Tribune cousin didn't inhibit him from taking a fair shot at the Channel 5 "Morning News" anchors who...
Channel 5 is promoing up close and personal time with Corina Villaraigosa on tonight's Prime News at 10 pm. They call it the first prolonged TV interview she has given...
When last we spoke of Desiree Horton, the former Channel 5 pilot who blogs at The Adventures of Chopper Chick!, she had requested that fans send Hooters t-shirts to her...
An exclusive on the new boss at "California Connected," a $15 million payday for three LAPD cops, Rocky's legal memo to the police commission and more Barry Munitz farewells—plus the...
Claude Brodesser at Fishbowl LA has the stats: Almost twice as many people watched "American Idol" (28.3 million) than saw the Grammy Awards (15.1 million) last night....
Los Angeles billionaire A. Jerrold Perenchio is apparently ready to put Univision Communications up for sale and cash out, the New York Times reports based on unnamed sources. Perenchio is...
⇒ Truthdig.com's Blair Golson contends that Times editor Dean Baquet would not meet with representatives of the United Farm Workers union to hear their challenges to the paper's recent investigative...
Eyewitness News goes hi-def, James Frey has a few words for the LAT, the Downtown News loses patience with Villaraigosa and a former mayor goes in for a tuneup—plus a...
Jack Weiss makes his ambition more or less official, Anthony Pellicano comes back to town, the Ambassador gets a proper send-off, Channel 13 News adds a comic, more bad news...
Ohhh, now I think I know why the county Department of Health Services suddenly switched gears and yesterday released the name of the popular Olvera Street restaurant where fifteen diners...
Franklin Avenue has further details, including that KTLA paid $5,000 for the video of that Chino shooting by a sheriff's deputy and managed to get some of the footage on...
Last night on "Prime News" Jamie Chambers went on and on about how difficult it was for him to watch a videotape showing a San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy shoot...
Ron Fineman.com has always had a bit of a thing about sexually provocative TV news shows and reporters, especially Channel 13 and Lauren Sanchez. The pay site now claims it...
Since the last time I looked, CBS 2/KCAL 9 has added The Reporter's Blog by veteran Paul Dandridge and In the Field by news photographer Bryan Frank. Dandridge is using...
Antonio maps out his war plan for conquering the school board, Rocky takes it on the chin (twice), gang war in Watts and every Oscar-eligible film of 2005—plus Byron Miranda,...
This morning's news that The WB and UPN will come together and spin off the new CW network (to air on KTLA here, apparently) caught the television industry and journalists...
The Radio & Television News Association of Southern California (RTNA) handed out the year's Golden Mike awards on Saturday night. Here's the full list. A small sampling of highlights: News...
Eric Lynxwiler and I are supposed to be in a segment of Channel 7's Eye on L.A. today at 6:30 pm. Hard to tell what they will use. They shot...
You can end the week with a Wall Street Journal look at Dave Dreier, a thousand Valleyites out of work, possible trouble for Ron Deaton at DWP, a new Times...
Steve Grace is retiring as president of Channel 36, the citywide educational access channel, and is being succeeded by new general manager Carla Carlini. She is the the News Manager...
In the morning news rodeo, op-ed newcomer Erin Aubry Kaplan dumps on Herb Wesson, what the Golden Globes could do to slow immigration, why you won't see many A380's at...
The Colin Campbell Network blog has some details: According to sources close to the production, a team of ESPN executives from the East Coast informed the staff of ESPN Hollywood...
My choice is Defamer. The scene, the parties and the gossip viewed from slightly askew. They also anoint Isaac Mizrahi as the new king of red carpet dish. I didn't...
Interesting piece on local alt-weekly lore in today's Pasadena Weekly. Nigey Lennon, who spent a decade writing for the old L.A. Reader along with her ex-husband Lionel Rolfe, writes that...
CBS2 anchor Kent Shocknek blogs a little something on the station website almost every day. Earlier this week he had some fun with the governor's motorcycle accident. It's usually light...
Former Channel 5 pilot/traffic reporter Desiree Horton lives in Chatsworth and has a blog: The Adventures of Chopper Chick! She posts about flying on traffic reports and car chases for...
Patt Morrison takes sides with Stephanie Edwards on the LAT op-ed page and proposes an equitable solution at next year's Rose Parade: Stephanie in the warm booth with Heath Ledger,...
Stephanie Edwards emailed the Times' Scott Collins [Scott Collins wrote the story but I'm told that Edwards emailed Susan King] to scoff at the suggestion of bad blood between her...
Yes it rained—and hard—on the Rose Parade, but KTLA figured out a way around the tension in the booth between longtime hosts Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards. They demoted Edwards...
Newest adds at the bottom... ⇒ KNX 1070 reporter Michael Linder's website details his background as a KTLA reporter, creator of "America's Most Wanted" and "The Jesse Jackson Show" and...
In case the whole wintry Christmas thing in Los Angeles isn't faux enough for you, KCAL-9 added an hour to its new tradition of airing the WPIX-TV Yule log. New...
Few culture war causes strike me as more dishonest and less trivial than the Fox News-promoted meme that liberals are anti-Christmas. (Excuse me while I stop laughing.) Part of the...
Lisa Guerrero used to be a sports reporter for KCBS and KTTV here, then for the "Regional Sports Report" on Fox Sports West. She was also a regular on Fox's...
Starting January 3, the West Coast will get a live version of World News Tonight with newly named co-anchors Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff. The news on CBS and NBC...
♦ Alex Padilla on Monday endorsed Eric Garcetti as his successor in the City Council president's chair. Let the record show that on May 27, LAObserved posted: "Alex Padilla will remain...
Readers of the TV news website RonFineman.com voted Channel 7's Marc Brown and Michelle Tuzee the best anchors in town. Wasn't close. They beat the KCAL duo of Pat Harvey...
It was only last January that ex-Channel 5 anchor Sharon Tay landed a hosting gig at MSNBC. Well, TVNewswer reports today that MSNBC At the Movies and the "MSNBC Hot...
Just days after Michael Jackson referred to wine as "Jesus Juice," Los Angeles-based CBS News producer Bruce Rheins and his wife, actress-writer-producer (and fine art model) Dawn Westlake, apparently filed...
Connie Chung and Maury Povich were local TV news fixtures in Los Angeles before going on to better—or at least other—things. Chung came to Channel 2 as a reporter and...
♦ A senior Times editor says the paper checked out Mickey Kaus' second-hand report of a big Halloween gang rumble in Brentwood—just a few blocks from Editor Dean Baquet's residence—and was...
Tuesday's Correction of the Day out of the New York Times (about the non-word trustiness) is riffed on during tonight's 8:30 pm re-airing of the "Colbert Report" on Comedy Central....
Jennifer York, KTLA's airborne reporter for thirteen years until 2004, has an honored place in the lore passed down to the new recruits around the spacious LAObserved suites. She...
Kennedy was a producer and writer for KCBS and KCET and started the program "Life & Times" at the latter station. He died Oct. 5 in Palo Alto of liver...
On the first night of the recent Topanga Fire, when Eyewitness News went off the air to make room for the network, ABC7 viewers were directed to the station's parallel...
Follow-ups, catch-ups and clearing off the desk for Columbus Day... ♦ Sunday's L.A. Times fronts a Steve Lopez column about his violin-playing street person, Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, taking in the stage...
♦ Adelphia blames equipment failure related to the Topanga fire for depriving thousands of their "Desperate Housewives" fix. ♦ Mayor Villaraigosa's plan for improving schools falls into the hands of the Times'...
Sounds like a lot of viewers in Adelphia territory got the espaol version of ABC last night. A reader emails: My boss came into work last week asking if anyone...
Kim Day got the offer she couldn't refuse to leave as head of LAX personally from Mayor Villaraigosa's in-house counsel Thomas Saenz and deputy chief of staff Marcus Allen, according...
Don Adams, Agent 86 on the "Get Smart" TV show created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry in 1965, died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai. He was 82 and had been ill...
What a landing! Flight 292 is safely down. The pilot kept the plane in perfect control — so perfect that the nose stem left where the tires burned off came...
Happy Wednesday... ♦ DWP workers got the big raises they were demanding: up to 28% over five years. The Council voted 10-3 to go along. DN, LAT ♦ Bill Burke withdraws from...
Mixed-media artist Lisa Salem, who began walking Los Angeles streets in May with a digital video camera attached to a baby stroller, has found a good home for her art....
A sampling of starters for the day... ♦ Simon Wiesenthal died in Vienna at age 96, the center on Pico Boulevard announced. Standing ovations in every temple in L.A. on Friday...
Mark Treitel, one of the writers chosen to shoot an NBC pilot for the Bravo reality show Situation: Comedy, guest-blogs about it all today at Breakfast at Tiffany's. Right now...
Channel 2 morning news anchor Kent Shocknek pokes a sharp blog stick at rival NBC for excising rapper Kanye West's remark that "George Bush doesn't care about black people." West...
• Screenwriter Tom Benedek shoots his own unproduced scripts—literally, with a .45-caliber pistol—and mounts them as art. His exhibition "Shot by the Writer - Works on Paper: 1982-2004" opens this month...
• More former press deputies in the Hahn administration have landed jobs. Elizabeth Kaltman is now the communications director for City Council member Wendy Greuel, and Sahar Moridani is director...
Good lede by Matt Meyerhoff on this week's L.A. Business Journal front-pager about TV huckster Ron Popeil, who is now 70 years old, cashing out of his famous Ronco Corp,...
The reporter noted for her Michael Jackson coverage emailed a fan club that she was dropped by Court TV last week. Here's an excerpt of the message, which is posted...
• KCAL and KTTV each won nine local Emmy Awards on Saturday night. Among the top honors, KCBS won for best daytime newscast ("CBS2 News" at 6 a.m.) and best daily...
The New York Times' most gonzo Los Angeles correspondent hasn't had a byline in the paper since April 14, prompting colleagues, rivals and competitors to wonder: where he at? Turns...
• Channel 2 won't renew the contract of political editor Linda Breakstone after eleven years, RonFineman.com reports. No additional details, except that political reporter Dave Bryan remains with the station. Before...
I can sorta see why they break in for Amber Alerts, but in these days of narrowcasting and hyper-targeted cable niches why would Comcast interrupt all programming in West L.A....
Whatever may or may not be going on between Dodgers pitcher Derek Lowe and Fox Sports West Dodgers reporter-anchor Carolyn Hughes is breaking out as a media story. It began...
Anchor-reporter Carolyn Hughes has been taken off Dodger coverage at Fox Sports West during an investigation of her relationship with pitcher Derek Lowe, the pay site Ron Fineman's On the...
In response to mounting losses, TV Guide is going to get harder to hold—and run fewer TV listings. Variety reports that Gemstar-TV Guide will spend $110 million to convert the...
According to to the pay site RonFineman.com, Channel 2 was thinking seriously of taking Jim Hill out of the sports anchor slot. Hill didn't want to go, and he got...
Mondays are always so busy... • This news won't help the layoff jitters sweeping the LAT's newsrooms this week. Tribune Company stock was downgraded Monday to "neutral" from "buy" by brokerage...
• Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa took the official oath privately in his office, with Corina and children Antonio Jr. and Natalia Fe attending. It doesn't take effect until July 1, of course....
Longtime award-winning L.A. reporter Warren Wilson announced his retirement from KTLA yesterday. When we last heard from him, Wilson had hired Melanie Lomax to press discrimination claims against the station,...
Maria Shriver tells the New York Daily News' Lloyd Grove that she had no contact with anyone at NBC about the Schwarzenegger biography by Laurence Leamer. "It never came up,...
Laurence Leamer, author of Fantastic: The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger, lost a shot at promoting the book on "Today" because of Maria Shriver, according to David Carr's media column in...
Here are some items from the week. Posting over the weekend will be sporadic at best. • Los Angeles magazine celebrated this month's comedy issue last night with drinks, schmoozing and...
In addition to editor Katrina Dewey, whose resignation letter was posted on L.A. Observed last Friday, four other veteran staffers are about to leave the Los Angeles Daily Journal. Melissa...
Michele Ruiz, anchor of the "Channel 4 News" at 6 p.m., announced today she is leaving the station, according to TV Week. She came to KNBC in 1998 from KTLA....
The television program produced by KCET and three other public TV stations in the state begins its fourth season on a new night — Fridays. Tomorrow's opener airs at 8:30...
• Longtime Channel 7 weatherman Johnny Mountain joins the rival Channel 2 news on May 8. He will work the news at 5, 6 and 11 p.m. He left KABC in...
Gourmet editor and former L.A. Times food editor and critic Ruth Reichl doesn't really look like this. It's one of the disguises she used as a restaurant critic for the...
Curtis Vogel, whose complaint about an affair apparently led to the firing of three KNBC staffers, including his wife Kyung Lah, emails RonFineman.com: I won't comment on any of the...
Friday's New York Post Page Six picks up the story we had Tuesday on the three KNBC news staffers fired over an affair that somehow broke station rules. No mention...
Weekend reporter Sam Hall Kaplan has left Fox 11 News after ten years. In an emailed column scheduled to run in the April 4 Downtown News, he says the routine...
Ron Fineman follows up today with reporting on his scoop last week that KNBC reporter Kyung Lah and "Today in L.A." producer Jeff Soto got fired for having an affair—and...
Industrious readers have been emailing that KTLA morning anchor Cher Calvin's banned-by-management website lives on in the cache of various Internet search engines. But now someone points out that Calvin's...
I caught up last night with E! News for the first time in months. To my surprise, Giuliana DePandi is back in the host's chair (actually, she stands to read...
Cher Calvin's short stint so far as Sharon Tay's replacement co-anchoring KTLA's morning show has not met with much approval at RonFineman.com. The TV site has pointed out some of...
LAT investigative reporter Gary Cohn emerges from the Schwarzenegger-groping beat to chip in a piece in today's paper about KTLA entertainment reporter Zorianna Kit grazing up against an ethical line....
RonFineman.com is asking his readers to vote over the next week on the best storm gear on local TV news. Leslie Miller—from Channel 7, top left in the fuzzy hat—has...
Tonight on Channel 5's News at Ten, co-anchor Leila Feinstein narrated a story about her mother, a child psychologist, going to Thailand to work with tsunami victims. Feinstein opened the...
E! Entertainment Television is planning a daily reenactment of the Michael Jackson trial when testimony begins up in Santa Maria. Today E! announced that the part of Jackson will be...
John Beard: The Wall Street Journal devotes most of a TV column to the Fox 11 anchor's cameo appearances on series such as "24" and "Arrested Development." Tim Iacofano, a...
Members of the Radio & Television News Association of Southern California dined last night in Universal City and handed out this year's Golden Mike awards. Best news broadcast honors went...
Johnny Carson: No shortage of appreciations and retrospectives online and on the air for the late-night pioneer who died Sunday at home in Malibu (of emphysema at age 79). David...
The former top news executive at CBS (1982-1986), Fox and Channel 2 here has been on something of a kick about liberal media bias lately (he is more conservative). On...
Three network execs and producer Mary Mapes lost their jobs after an independent report concluded that a bogus "60 Minutes Wednesday" story on President Bush's National Guard failed to apply...
Yes, the USC Trojans won the Orange Bowl in a rout, 55-19, and locked up a national title. Hard to miss among the illustrious alumni on hand was Orenthal James...
Friday is Sharon Tay's last day at Channel 5, says Ron Fineman. The longtime KTLA Morning News co-anchor is headed to MSNBC to co-host an entertainment show. She won Emmy...
A roundup of items in the news: Prostate cancer: Channel 7 weatherman Dallas Raines disclosed his disease on the air and underwent surgery today. The station website has video of...
Franklin Avenue puts out the word that KCAL Channel 9 will adopt a New York television tradition by airing a crackling fireplace on Christmas morning. From 6 to 9 a.m.,...
On her blog, radio personality and voice actor April Winchell has posted an MP3 file of an on-air tiff (audio she wants you to listen to it from her blog,...
I've mentioned before the strange fascination that some L.A. Observed visitors have with TV news women, in general, and especially with Gretchen Carr, the former CBS 2 News anchor. The...
David Goldstein at CBS 2 apparently had the story last night (it's in the Daily Breeze today). A 78-year-old Lancaster man walked into the LAX police station last Saturday to...
Beth Sweeney won the popular vote (10,399 to 8568), but at the conclusion of The Audition channel 5's Supreme Court of judges tapped Ross King as the new weatherman on...
Channel 5's news operation has had better months. Already in November, there have been reports that Lynette Romero and Marta Waller are out as co-anchors and KTLA got flack over...
Documentary filmmaker and L.A. native Philip Rodriguez's on-screen interviews in Los Angeles Now include Eli Broad, Phil Jackson, Salma Hayek, Yxta Maya Murray, Michael Ventura, D.J. Waldie, Cardinal Roger Mahony,...
Today's L.A. Times Calendar runs a brief confirming Ron Fineman's report that KTLA suspended Sam Rubin for criticizing the "Morning News" set on the air. At least I hope they...
RonFineman.com says that KTLA suspended entertainment reporter Sam Rubin yesterday for making derogatory comments about the new set on "The Morning Show." It would be at least the third suspension...
The former anchor on channel 5's "News at Ten"—now Mindy Stearns—plays one of the "millionaire's wife" roles on the upcoming TBS reality show, "The Real Gilligan's Island." She qualifies: Franklin...
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kevin Ross is in hot water for making comments about pending cases on KCET's "Life and Times" program and for appearing in a proposed TV...
Brandwynne, the assistant news director at Channel 5, gave $2,000 to Sen. Barbara Boxer's reelection fund, RonFineman.com says. The pay site also cites a newsroom source saying that she solicited...
RonFineman.com reports that Lynette Romero will not return from maternity leave as Hal Fishman's co-anchor on channel 5's "News at 10." He doesn't know of a replacement, and there apparently...
This is so lame it hurts to even hear about it. Ron Fineman.com reports that Jackie Johnson, the new weather reader (bio) on KCAL-9, gave the rain totals tonight as...
In most news organizations, Tim Rutten writes in his Times media column, the allegations about a network star like Bill O'Reilly—accused of sexually harassing a younger, junior network producer—would prompt...
This was the longtime channel 5 traffic reporter's last day up in the helicopter. She is leaving the station. Fans of her spots on the KTLA Morning Show are flooding...
That's the title of Court TV's new show based on access to the files of the Los Angeles County Coroner's morgue, located at 1104 N. Mission Road. I haven't watched...
The Radio and TV News Association and councilman Dennis Zine have negotiated 20 parking spaces for media vehicles around City Hall and Parker Center. RTNA president Steve Kindred tells LARadio.com:...
"Life and Times" has a segment slotted in tonight on Penny Grenoble OMalley, author of Malibu Diary: Notes from an Urban Refugee. She is the ex-upstate New Yorker who escaped...
Analyzed at Cinemocracy: Youve got a three-act structure (four if you include the vice presidential encounter), recurring characters, and a narrative line driven by the ups and downs of the...
Former channel 4 weathercaster Christopher Nance alleges that the station, which fired him in 2002, discriminated on the basis of race (he's African American) and subjected him to ridicule for...
Jay Leno phoned up the LA Weekly's Nikki Finke to talk about media and politics after she wrote about him and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Weekly put the resulting sit-down interview...
Giselle Fernandez left the anchor chair on the KTLA Morning News in August 2003. Her web site Casa Giselle updates her whereabouts, including a name change to Fernandez-Farrand....
KCAL-9 news photographer Bryan Frank blogs about his work and life (with his wife) at beFrank. He gives an interesting glimpse at the unpredictable day of a TV news shooter....
The blog kottke.org reports a tip it got on the eventual fate of reigning Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings, whose multi-month run resumed on the air this week....
Sure the media (and of course, we bloggers) wrote about them a lot, but Paul Colford writes in the New York Daily News that the anointed convention blogs didn't attract...
KMEX channel 34 won the most (seven) local Emmy awards over the weekend, followed by Fox 11 (six). Individual winners include Diego Carro of KVEA/KWHY as best news writer, Cris...
Some things to note from while I was gone: • Larry McCormick: The co-anchor of the KTLA "News at Ten Weekend Edition" began at channel 5 as a weatherman in 1971....
Television Week editor Alex Ben Block accepted an invitation into the Fox News lair of Bill O'Reilly and lived to tell about it. It was an irresistible invitation to go...
The same night that Bill Clinton guests on "The Daily Show," his favorite fiction author is being featured on "Life and Times" on KCET. Walter Mosley's latest Easy Rawlins mystery...
New York real estate lawyer John Odoner hopes to launch Jewish Television as a 24-hour digital cable channel early next year, the New York Times says. His planned programming includes...
That Valley man who was freed from jail on a murder rap after his alibi checked out — thanks to footage from HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" — is suing the...
The headline is from Franklin Avenue, the blog by Michael Schneider and Maria Villar that is having a good week. Their top item today is about this morning's L.A. Times...
Dave Lopez of Channel 2 was voted the best local TV field reporter by readers of Ron Fineman's On the Record. Lopez finished ahead of Patrick Healy, who had won...
MSNBC's gang of convention bloggers is a strange group. It crosses the spectrum from Pat Buchanan to Willie Brown and includes Ron Reagan and a couple of Democrats steeped in...
Channel 2 is adding a new weatherman to its morning news, Ron Fineman reports at his site. It's John Elliott, formerly of MSNBC, and his arrival will mean some kind...
Tonight's Nightline will take a vacation from war and politics to ride some 25-foot waves at Maverick's Beach up near San Francisco. The show's note says: "So this is one...
Mediabistro has put up pictures from the site's July 7 TV party in Hollywood. There are revelers from KTLA, KTTV, NBC, Bravo, E! and others. A Mediabistro photographer also worked...
Philip Bruce, news director at Channel 28's "Life and Times" program, takes over as supervising editor for California at NPR West, the Culver City operation of National Public Radio. He...
The top editorial in today's L.A. Times, headline Show Riordan the Door, urges Gov. Schwarzenegger to use the latest blooper by Richard Riordan to do away with the "redundant office"...
OK, I'm hooked. More than a month ago, flipping through the TV channels I saw a nerdy-looking guy win that night's "Jeopardy" game. Couple of weeks later, I noticed Ken...
Fashion dishers Joan Rivers and her daughter Melissa are poised to defect from E! for an $8 million deal at the TV Guide Channel, the New York Post says. A&E...
As TV news insider Ron Fineman predicted, the local CBS operation is announcing that Miami weathercaster Jackie Johnson will be coming to town. The memo says she will take over...
For more than a week, "California Connected" on KCET has been promoting this Thursday's show featuring segments on Suspect Entertainment (the gang talent agency we mentioned last month), what happens...
Los Angeles TV's two local morning news and gab shows plummeted in the May sweeps ratings book, Variety reports. KTTV's "Good Day L.A." was down 32% from last May and...
Kausfiles found a link at ABCNews.com where they summarize each day the lead items and main political stories on the three big TV networks' evening news programs. Could be more...
Before coming to L.A. to anchor the Channel 2 News, Paul Magers was the top-rated TV newsman in Minneapolis-St. Paul. He confesses his bias to the St. Paul Pioneer Press...
Veteran Channel 5 reporter Warren Wilson has hired civil rights attorney Melanie Lomax to press claims that the station is discriminating against him in salary and assignments, the Wave newspapers...
Esquire editor in chief David Granger, whose magazine just won four National Magazine Awards, will be on "The Treatment" with Elvis Mitchell on KCRW, Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. Speaking of...
Now that NBC and Universal have joined, keeping the players straight can be a bit of a challenge for employees. The following policy memo sent to staffers at NBC News...
Channel 2 morning anchor Kent Shocknek asked his blog readers on Monday if Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld should resign over the Iraqi prison abuses or stay on the job....
There are 2,255 stars for tourists to scuff their shoes on along the Hollywood Walk of Fame, including as of today one for longtime TV host Steve Edwards. Richard Horgan...
Kent Shocknek of Channel 2 News sent an email memo recently suggesting that the early morning show he anchors choose stories, then write and edit them, not to inform but...
Ron Fineman's screen grab caught Hal Fishman opening a recent KTLA "News at 10" show with his coat on (left), then coming back from a break coatless (right). The odd...
In honor of the heat wave and the year's first brush fires, Franklin Avenue links to the classic video of Channel 4's Chuck Henry watching the station's expensive truck --...
A couple of key positions have been filled in local TV news, according to RonFineman.com. Channel 4 has brought in Keith Esparros, a former executive producer at KCAL and KTTV,...
A reader emails that Hal Fishman's commentary on tonight's KTLA "News at Ten" defended Sharon Tay, who was the subject of that "Are Anchors Too Hot?" story in today's Times....
Ron Fineman's complaint on his website a few weeks back about the way Channel 5 anchor Sharon Tay dresses turned into a full-blown story in today's L.A. Times Calendar section...
L.A. Times Calendar writer Scott Collins chats up his new book, Crazy Like a Fox: The Inside Story of How Fox News Beat CNN, in today's "Media People" interview with...
Subscribers to Ron Fineman's On the Record are voting on the best TV news anchor team in Los Angeles. The field has narrowed to two finalists: Channel 7's Marc Brown...
Channel 2 reporter Rick Chambers was taken off the air for two days last week after airing racial slurs in a taped story about that protest over hate crimes at...
Somebody asked in email recently what's with all the Paul Magers mentions here. All I can say is check out the big Times Calendar story Sunday on the $2.2 million-a-year...
Channel 4's legal reporter Manny Medrano is the former federal prosecutor who got into TV news as an analyst on the O.J. Simpson case and other big trials in the...
But not much else? I've said before that the name of the big-bucks KCBS anchor imported from Minneapolis is the number one search engine term that brings casual visitors to...
When Stan Chambers began covering news for KTLA, there were only 100 televisions in Southern California. Since then, Chambers estimates he has reported about 20,000 stories for Channel 5. At...
Ron Fineman's On The Record says that Channel 2 aired tape of nude women celebrating Brazil's Carnival on the 6 a.m. news this past Wednesday. A per-diem writer and editor...
Nick Clooney, the father of actor George Clooney, was a TV news anchor here on Channel 4 for a couple of years in the 1980s. He was also a host...
Three hours before the new season of "California Connected" debuts on KCET-TV tomorrow night, KCRW will air the program -- in which Gov. Schwarzenegger and four living ex-governors discuss the...
The third season of "California Connected" begins on KCET this Thursday at 10 p.m. with a new host. Lisa McRee, the former ABC News reporter and co-host of "Good Morning...
Channel 2 (KCBS) has put its top-line anchors Paul Magers and Laura Diaz on the Sunday 11 p.m. news for the crucial February ratings period, says Ron Fineman.com. It hasn't...
TV Week reports that with "Seinfeld" heading into a new cycle of syndicated reruns, the series looks certain to reach $3 billion in license fees and advertising revenue collected over...
Three on-air staffers at the channel 2 & 9 combine now write blogs on the station websites: morning anchor Kent Shocknek, weatherman Josh Rubenstein and "money man" Alan Mendelson. Jonah...
Pulitzer winner Suzan Lori-Parks is featured tonight. On Monday, Miles Corwin talks about how he got homicide cops to feel comfortable letting a reporter hang around. Tuesday it's Sandra Tsing...
That traffic snarl on the southbound I-5 near Santa Clarita yesterday was caused by CHP officers and L.A. County Sheriff's deputies arguing on the freeway over which agency got custody...
NBC has ordered "ER" to delete a two-second scene of an 80-year-old woman's breast from tonight's show, citing the national furor over Janet Jackson's Super Bowl exposure. The Hollywood Reporter...
Maria Shriver resigned today from NBC News, ending an awkward moment for the network and the governor. [Actually, they're calling it an "extended leave of absence." Shriver also is free...
The former CNN anchor based in Los Angeles will do freelance reporting for the NBC bureau in Burbank, Television Week's Insider column says. Bay is the wife of Disney top...
Steve Lowery at OC Weekly remembers in a column this week the brief era when Jerry Nachman, the ex-New York Post editor who recently died, sat in as the host...
When I noticed last night that the #3 Internet search term (after "Paul Magers" and "Gretchen Carr") that lands the unsuspecting here is "Giuliana Depandi," it seemed time to check...
The Radio & Television News Association of Southern California handed out its annual Golden Mikes on Saturday night. Here are some of the dozens of winners: Television: Best TV Newscast...
For some reason, the name Paul Magers - the new anchor on the Channel 2 news - is one of the most common search terms that brings new visitors to...
KCBS Channel 2 is misleading the L.A. Times about the status of former anchor Gretchen Carr, says Ron Fineman. The paper reported the station claims Carr has been off the...
Today is the big sit-down between Maria Shriver and the head of NBC News over her future on the air, the LAT says. Tim Russert has spoken to both parties....
Schwarzenegger adviser Mike Murphy, described by Television Week as a "hot-hot-hot Republican campaign strategist," has been hired as consulting producer for Dennis Miller's new show on CNBC. He says it...
The site Sports by Brooks says today, based on undescribed and unnamed sources, that it is "unlikely" NBC will pick up the talked-about series based on the life of Jeanie...
Remember those stories in December saying that Maria Shriver was cozily back at work at "Dateline NBC," and the LAT story (and L.A. Observed post) about her taking an active...
KTLA Channel 5's coverage of the Rose Parade got higher ratings in Los Angeles (again) than the three big networks combined, says Michael Schneider in Variety. I didn't watch the...
Associated Press does a little feature on Court TV's Diane Dimond and her scoops on the Michael Jackson sexual abuse case. A few months ago, reporter Diane Dimond told Court...
Alex Ben Block at Television Week checks in with longtime entertainment reporter David Sheehan, who left Channel 2 two weeks ago to work on syndicated specials, help out at the...
Fans of Sandra Tsing Loh know that she sometimes writes about the eccentricities of her Chinese-American scientist father. He used to hitchhike around L.A. -- maybe still does -- and...
Paris Hilton and "The Simple Life" on Fox outdrew Diane Sawyer's primetime sitdown with President Bush Tuesday night. Paris stomped the Prez among 18- to 34-year-olds (22% to 7%), and...
News items: Reuters, Dec. 9 -- "Maria Shriver said on Tuesday that she had returned to her job as a NBC News television reporter after taking leave while her husband...
On the 5 o'clock news tonight, Channel 2 entertainment reporter David Sheehan read a report about Mick Jagger being knighted then told the audience that he was leaving the news...
A segment tonight on "Life and Times" (KCET, 7 p.m.) revisits the issue of splitting Los Angeles into boroughs. Also, L.A Business Journal reporter David Greenberg talks about the grocery...
The president of the Society of Professional Journalists chapter in L.A. responds to criticism of KTLA news director Jeff Wald, at Wednesday's post here....
Diane Dimond, the Court TV reporter who has had scoops on the Michael Jackson story, is close to signing up as a contributor to ABC's "Good Morning America," says TV...
Ron Fineman, who runs the subscription site On the Record, objects to KTLA news director Jeff Wald being given an award by the L.A. chapter of the Society of Professional...
Alex Ben Block at Television Week profiles Bill Rosendahl, the longtime host of local public affairs cable shows who is running for the L.A. City Council. He hopes to replace...
All three major networks led the evening news last night with the Michael Jackson story, says Variety, which surveys the newsmagazine shows being ripped up to get on the air...
Blogger Lonewacko's tour across the country stops in Gallatin, TN, hometown of his idol Huell Howser. Some knew The Enthusiastic One, most didn't. Lonewacko says that the L.A. Cacophony Society...
I hate to see anyone lose their jobs, but the decision by E! News Live to cut back to half an hour was overdue. Living in a household where the...
Tim Rutten interviews disenchanted former Fox News producer Charlie Reina for today's Media Matters column in the L.A. Times. "Roger is such a high-profile and partisan political operative that everyone...
Sharri Berg, VP-News Operations at Fox News Channel, responds at Romenesko to the criticisms leveled yesterday by former producer Charlie Reina: "Like any former, disgruntled employee, Charlie Reina has an...
If what former Fox News producer Charlie Reina says is true, Roger Ailes and his pals not only aggressively juice the political slant, they've created a pretty awful place to...
It's not just the Los Angeles TV stations that are planning to cover the Capitol when Arnold gets there. No fewer than eight stations from around California are setting up...
Los Angeles TV news departments, which long ago closed down their Sacramento bureaus, will increase their Capitol coverage when the ratings-booster takes over, says Ron Fineman on his TV site....
Welcome to NBC Universal: LAT, NYT, Hwd Reporter Leno: Nikki Finke in LA Weekly, LAT, Wash Post Shriver: NYT, USA Today, Wash Post...
Life and Times on KCET (Channel 28, 7 p.m. and midnight) will look at the future of the old Raymond Theater in Pasadena on tonight's show. IMAX filmmaker Greg MacGillivray...
Not much is as embarrassing as running the obituary of someone who still breathes. But running the wrong picture comes close. The unfortunate culprit this time is KTLA, which apparently...
Ron Fineman is back online with On the Record, his pay site with insider reports on Los Angeles TV news. He reports on the move of political commentator Sherry Bebitch...
Readers have asked in email why the Los Angeles TV website run by Ron Fineman is off-line today. Ron explains that it's a little Network Solutions snafu, and he'll be...
Ron Fineman chastises Channel 5's "News at Ten" for making a story of co-anchor Mindy Burbano's wedding shower. But wait, it gets worse. In the lead to this "story," [co-anchor]...
A sample of the winners announced on Saturday night: Regularly Scheduled Daily News: Daytime "Good Day LA" (Fox11) Regularly Scheduled Daily News: 0-35 Minutes "Channel 4 News at 11pm" (NBC4)...
Filmmaker Lionel Chetwynd is the usual go-to guy for journalists who dust off the "lonely Republicans of Hollywood" story. He also wrote and produced the Showtime docudrama "DC 9/11: Time...
The newest TV anchor in Los Angeles -- thought to be in the line of CBS succession to Dan Rather -- is the subject of an unfriendly farewell in the...
Channel 2 is bringing in a 20-year veteran of the NBC station in Minneapolis, Paul Magers, to take over some anchor duties from Harold Greene. Magers is the long-reigning ratings...
ABC News correspondent Judy Muller begins in August as an assistant professor of journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication. She will remain a contributing correspondent to "Nightline" and...
According to the subscribers to RonFineman's On The Record, it is Channel 4's Patrick Healy. He won best field reporter for the third year in a row, edging past Channel...
Some solid examples of investigative journalism run on L.A. television -- we'd highlight them if the stations will email us about them -- but now good local pieces will get...
Kim Godwin, the news director at channel 4, has been abruptly replaced by a former managing editor at the station, Robert Long. Ron Fineman reported the news Friday on his...
Which to lead with: Howard Rosenberg's television column -- since most people watch TV, and it has Kobe Bryant and Jessica Lynch in it -- or Steve Carney's radio column,...
KCAL-9 did the best job of covering the Kobe Bryant story on the day charges were filed, says Ron Fineman. The worst single effort he spotted was a people-in-the-street piece...
TV stations in Los Angeles are planning to go live at 2 o'clock this afternoon when the Eagle County (Colorado) prosecutor announces whether charges will be filed against Kobe Bryant....
A Howard Rosenberg column in the L.A. Times last month about the way network news programs produce their stories irked ABC News president David Westin, he tells Howard Kurtz in...
New at LA Observed
Clinton fundraises in LA
Jim Henson Studios on La Brea became a presidential campaign stop on Thursday.
Brown declares disaster area
The natural gas leak above Porter Ranch now qualifies for various government actions. Story
Performing arts with cheer
Donna Perlmutter closes out 2015 with productions downtown and on the Westside.
