KCBS-TV

The 2017 sale to Entercom (now Audacy) of KCBS radio and KCBS-FM (93.1) in Los Angeles ended almost seven decades of co-ownership among the three stations under CBS.

[citation needed] It was signed on by Don Lee Broadcasting, which owned a chain of radio stations on the Pacific coast, and was first licensed by the Federal Radio Commission (FRC), forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as experimental television station W6XAO in June 1931.

By 1942, there were an estimated 400–500 television sets in the Los Angeles area, with Don Lee Broadcasting placing television receivers at the following public places: Wilshire Brown Derby, Kiefer's Pine Knot Drive-In, Vine Street Brown Derby, Griffith Planetarium, Miramar Hotel (Santa Monica), Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and The Town House on Wilshire Boulevard.

[4] KTSL also launched Peter Potter's Jukebox Jury that year, a musical/quiz series that began to be broadcast nationally during the 1953–1954 season on ABC.

General Tire and Rubber agreed to purchase all of Don Lee's stations, the centerpiece being KHJ radio, but chose to spin off KTSL to CBS.

[9] In 1997, it adopted the "CBS2" moniker for its on-air image, following the lead of sister stations WBBM-TV in Chicago and WCBS-TV in New York City.

[18] From 1982 to 1993, Channel 2 also aired all home inter-conference games of the Raiders during their time in Los Angeles including their win in Super Bowl XVIII.

Because Los Angeles was previously a secondary market of the Chargers during their time in San Diego, the station was already under requirement to carry the team's road games.

Through CBS' contract with Major League Baseball, select Dodgers and Angels games aired on Channel 2 from 1990 to 1993.

Beginning in 2024, KCBS-TV will air select USC Trojans and UCLA Bruins football games as part of the Big Ten on CBS.

Also featured were special assignment reporter Maury Green and "Human Predicament" essayist Ralph Story.

The team and format helped make KNXT the top-rated news station in Los Angeles.

In 1975, KNXT fired Dunphy (who was quickly hired by KABC) and was replaced by Patrick Emory, who had anchored at then-CBS owned-and-operated station KMOX-TV (now KMOV) in St.

[24][25][26] As part of the aforementioned changes, from 1986 to 1987, KCBS produced a 7 p.m. newscast, airing CBS Evening News immediately beforehand at 6:30 pm.

[31] Also joining Dunphy were colleagues Ann Martin,[32] Dr. George Fischbeck,[31] Paul Dandridge and Mark Coogan from KABC-TV, and Larry Carroll (who worked with Dunphy at KABC and KCAL); two KNBC personalities, Linda Alvarez and consumer reporter David Horowitz also joined the team.

Dunphy, who was dismissed from KCBS in March 1996 because of the aforementioned CBS merger with Westinghouse, returned to KCAL in November 1997.

[33] KCBS dropped its 4 p.m. newscast in 1998 in favor of the short-lived syndicated talk program The Howie Mandel Show, which was canceled after its first season, then, in 1999, the Women 2 Women public affairs show featuring Martin, Catherine Anaya, Pamela Wright and former KNBC newscaster Kelly Lange.

The 2007 move to Studio City marked many changes at KCBS and KCAL-TV, with several news personalities having departed, including David Jackson (who returned to the duopoly after anchoring at KCAL in the early 1990s), Kerry Kilbride, reporter Jay Jackson, Paul Dandridge, Dilva Henry, Linda Alvarez, sports anchor Alan Massengale and Dave Clark (who left for KTVU in Oakland).

On September 19, 2009, KCBS and KCAL adopted the uniform NewsCentral brand (unrelated to the news organization of the same name formerly operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group).

Local news headlines from the Los Angeles Newspaper Group and other MediaNews Group newspapers were shown on a news ticker, "street team" submissions of video and photos from viewers were featured, reporters ended stories with NewsCentral rather than the individual station brands, and microphone flags and news vehicles were branded to show both stations' logos at once (the KCBS and KCAL logos were previously displayed on alternating sides).

The newscasts claimed that it produced more local news than any other television station in the United States, with reporters in Ventura County, the Inland Empire and Orange County, and the only Los Angeles television station with two helicopters (subcontracted to Angel City Air, owned by reporter Larry Welk).

[38] Ratings under the new format during the November 2009 sweeps showed KCBS lagging behind KABC-TV and KNBC in crucial timeslots.

On December 10, 2009, Patrick McClenehan resigned after one year as president of KCBS/KCAL and was replaced by Steve Mauldin, who had overseen the CBS-owned duopoly in Dallas–Fort Worth.

The morning broadcast was also revamped, and the newly renamed CBS 2 News was given new graphic design and theme music by Frank Gari based on the longstanding ten-note logo originally written by Dick Marx and previously used by KCBS on-and-off since the 1970s.

On January 14, 2012, KCBS (and sister KCAL) began broadcasting morning newscasts on weekends, that compete with those offered by KABC-TV, KNBC and KTLA.

The station was one of the last major-market CBS-owned affiliates to schedule local news broadcasts on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

The Los Angeles television market's first cable news network was the Orange County Newschannel, which was in operation from 1990 to 2001, although it was only available and specifically targeted to cable viewers within that county; in OCN's final years, KCBS was a news partner with the channel,[42] with OCN reporters and stories featured on various KCBS newscasts, including a headlines segment on Channel 2's morning newscasts.

[43] CBS News and Stations president Wendy McMahon referred to the changes as "an audience growth opportunity", citing that KCAL's early morning lineup had largely consisted of paid programming, and that the changes would provide additional options for both local and national news to viewers.

CBS2 NewsCentral logo.