KNBC, channel 4, is an owned-and-operated television station of the NBC Television Network, licensed to Los Angeles, California, USA. KNBC's studios and offices are located within the NBC Studios complex in Burbank, California, and its transmitter is located on Mount Wilson. In the few areas of the western United States where viewers cannot receive NBC programs over-the-air, KNBC is available on satellite to subscribers of DirecTV.

KNBC is one of two NBCUniversal-owned television stations in Los Angeles; the other is Telemundo outlet KVEA (channel 52).

History[link]

NBC Studios in Burbank, California, 1978.

Channel 4 first went on the air on January 16, 1949, as KNBH (for NBC Hollywood). It was the penultimate VHF station of Los Angeles to debut, and the last of the five original NBC-owned stations to sign on. Unlike the other four, KNBH was the only NBC-owned television station which did not benefit from having a sister station on radio. NBC Radio had long been affiliated with KFI in Los Angeles, and that relationship extended into television in August 1948 when KFI-TV (channel 9, now KCAL-TV) was launched as an NBC television affiliate. When KNBH signed on, KFI-TV was forced to relinquish its rights to NBC programming, though KFI radio retained its relationship with the network.

The station changed its call letters to KRCA (for NBC's then-parent company, the Radio Corporation of America) in 1954. The call sign was changed again on November 11, 1962, when NBC moved the KNBC identity from its San Francisco radio station (which became KNBR) and applied it to channel 4 in Los Angeles.^[1][2]

Channel 4 originally broadcast from the NBC Radio City Studios on Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood. In November 1962, after over 13 years broadcasting from Hollywood, the station relocated to the network's color broadcast studio facility in suburban Burbank. NBC Color City, as it was then known, had been in operation since March 1955, and was at least four to five times larger than Radio City, and could easily accommodate KNBC's locally-produced studio programming. NBC Radio's West Coast operations eventually followed channel 4 to Burbank not too long after.

On January 16, 2009, KNBC celebrated its 60th anniversary with an hour-long tribute to the station, featuring past and present anchors, hosts, other popular on-air staff, and major news stories. KNBC and its other NBC O&O's introduced a new look to their websites near the end of July 2009.

Leaving "Beautiful Downtown Burbank"[link]

On October 11, 2007, NBC Universal announced that it will sell its Burbank studios and construct a new, all-digital facility near the Universal Studios backlot, in an effort to merge all of NBC Universal's West Coast operations into one area. As a result, KNBC, KVEA, and NBC News' Los Angeles bureau will move to a new digital facility on the Universal lot formerly occupied by Technicolor SA. The studio is expected to open by 2014.^[3].

Digital television[link]

NBC Weather Plus had been carried on digital subchannel 4.2; the national feed for this channel is no longer active as of December 1, 2008. On May 3, 2011, NBC California Nonstop replaced NBC Plus on channel 4.2.

On January 1, 2012, Universal Sports was removed from KNBC's subchannel lineup, as well as of those other stations nationally that carried the network as part of their subchannel lineups. Universal Sports has transitioned to an exclusive cable/satellite programming service. Channel 4.4 was deleted as result of the loss of Universal Sports.

KNBC also has a Mobile DTV feed of subchannel 4.1, labelled "KNBC-4.1", broadcasting at 1.83 Mbit/s^[4][5].

Analog-to-digital conversion[link]

KNBC ended programming on its analog signal, on VHF channel 4, on June 12, 2009, as part of the DTV transition in the United States,^[6] the vice president of engineering Richard Westcott used his computer to switch from analog to digital in the KNBC control room and told someone to "roll the [nightlight] message" until June 26, and remained on its pre-transition channel 36 ^[7] using PSIP to display the station's virtual channel as 4. KNBC broadcasts in 1080i high definition on virtual channel 4.1, since NBC Network programming uses that particular HD format.

[edit] California Nonstop

NBC Local Media, the owned-and-operated stations division of NBC Universal, had began launching "Nonstop" channels on the digital subchannels of its stations. The Nonstop service originally began on WNBC's channel 4.2 in March 2009, replacing the NBC Plus weather channel, and provides additional newscasts (to complement those on WNBC's main channel 4.1), public affairs programming, rebroadcasts of NBC News-produced shows, other programs such as the LXTV and Open House series. Local versions of NBC Nonstop has already launched in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and Chicago during the fall of 2010, and after months of delays, California Nonstop launched on May 3, 2011 on the DT2 subchannels of KNBC, KNSD, and KNTV, all replacing NBC Plus; the three California NBC-owned stations collaborated with providing content to the channel. Each station produces a local 7 p.m. local newscast tailored to their respective market. For the Los Angeles audience, Colleen Williams anchors the hour-long Nonstop News LA.

Programming[link]

KNBC has been long active in community events, including airing the annual Kingdom Day Parade (honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday) in South Los Angeles until 2009, when coverage moved to KABC-TV, sponsoring an annual two-day Health & Fitness Expo Fair at the Los Angeles Convention Center every summer, and since 2001 has been the exclusive local English-language carrier of the annual Los Angeles Marathon (sister station KVEA carries a Spanish-language version of the event). Sports director and lead sports anchor Fred Roggin's production company, in conjunction with KNBC/KVEA, produces coverage of the Marathon. The station also produces Whipnotic, a half-hour show about Southern California's car culture sponsored by Al & Ed's Autosound, which also airs in Spanish on sister station KVEA.

Syndicated programming[link]

Syndicated programming on KNBC currently includes The Nate Berkus Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and Extra. KNBC co-produces Access Hollywood and its daytime spinoff Access Hollywood Live, both of which also air on KNBC and other NBC owned and operated stations.^[8]

As of August 2010, KNBC is one of three NBC O&O stations to distribute programming either nationally and/or regionally (along with KNTV and WNBC).

News operation[link]

For most of the last 30 years, KNBC has waged a spirited battle with KABC-TV (channel 7), for the top position in the Southern California news ratings. It became a three-way race with the resurgence of KCBS-TV (channel 2) in 2006. Throughout the late 1980s and into the early 2000s, KNBC's newscasts were top-ranked in the region, beating out every other station for news ratings and coinciding with the network's ratings. Currently, channel 4's 11:00 p.m. newscast sits in third place. However, most of the station's other newscasts, including its popular morning news program, Today in L.A., the area's first local morning newscast (starting in 1986), rate at or near the top of the local news ratings.

Channel 4's news programs were known as KNBC News Service during the late 1960s and early 1970s, before being revamped and retitled as NewsCenter 4 in the middle of the decade. NBC had made similar changes to newsrooms in its other markets at the same time, and channel 4 shared the NewsCenter title with its sister stations in New York, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. The KNBC newscasts were the last to switch from the NewsCenter moniker, changing in 1982 to News 4 LA before becoming Channel 4 News in 1985. While KNBC became known on-air as NBC 4 in 1995, the Channel 4 News branding was so well established in Southern California that the nickname was retained until 2011, when it became NBC 4 News after 26 years.

The newscasts generally take a more "serious" tone covering the issues, including politics, government, education, and the economy, than other Los Angeles newscasts. On election nights, KNBC runs a special extended edition of its 11 p.m. newscast to show early election results. KNBC is notable in the Los Angeles area for not showing live car chases. Thus, when direct competitors KCBS-TV and KABC-TV switch to police chase coverage, channel 4 continues on its regularly scheduled newscast, while staffers prepare a regular news story on the pursuit for airing on a later newscast.

In 2006 KNBC embarked on an all-news channel called News Raw, hosted by Mekahlo Medina. The news channel, on digital channel 4.4 and also on many local digital cable systems, provides news updates every hour, teases news stories scheduled to air on standard channel 4, and provides additional information about breaking news stories. In 2008, when Universal Sports was launched, News Raw became a part-time channel, first on 4.4, and later on 4.2 when US expanded to 24 hours a day. The current hours are noon to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Another program, The Local Story, began in July 2006, taking an in-depth look at one major local story in the news. It was hosted by veteran television journalist Ross Becker, and was canceled to make way for The Ellen DeGeneres Show but continued to be shown online. In October 2006, the program returned to the airwaves, airing at 4:30 p.m, but was removed again in mid-November for good.

In September 2006, a new program called YourLA TV began. The program featured videos about interesting things happening in the Southern California area. User-submitted videos and comments via MySpace are mixed with profiles of ordinary people similar to PM Magazine.

For many years, KNBC had a 4 p.m. newscast. It was dropped in 2002, in favor of Dr. Phil which moved to KCBS-TV in 2005, and was replaced by The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The station also had an hour-long 11 a.m. newscast, titled Midday Report, which has since been trimmed to a half-hour before being ultimately canceled at the start of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

KNBC began producing its newscasts in High Definition on July 14, 2008, becoming the fifth station in the Los Angeles market to do so. Spanish-speaking sister stations KWHY-TV and KVEA also made the switch to HD newscasts at the same time. The KNBC newscasts were also revamped with a new set and a new graphics package produced by NBC ArtWorks, based in Fort Worth, Texas.

On December 6, 2011, KNBC announced a partnership with public radio station KPCC as part of a larger effort by NBCUniversal to partner with nonprofit news organizations following its acquisition by Comcast.^[9]

News Team history[link]

Current KNBC on-air staff include news anchors Chuck Henry and Colleen Williams, and chief weathercaster Fritz Coleman, and sports director Fred Roggin. Henry, Williams, Coleman, and Roggin make up the station's 5 and 11 p.m. Monday–Friday news team, while Henry co-anchors the 6 p.m. weeknight newscasts with Lucy Noland. Roggin and Coleman are KNBC's most notable current staff. Roggin is nationally known because of his work with NBC Sports and for his appearances on the Tonight Show. Roggin also hosted a syndicated program, Roggin's Heroes and can also be seen on Early Today. Roggin also is a sports announcer for NBC's Olympic Games coverage. Coleman also makes occasional appearances on the Tonight Show, and once hosted a locally produced late-night variety It's Fritz, which aired on KNBC from 1989 and into the early 1990s. Colleen Williams also sometimes appears nationally as she does occasional reports for MSNBC and NBC News.

KNBC has had a very stable news team over the years. Williams, Roggin, and Coleman have each been at the station more than 25 years. Former KNBC anchor Paul Moyer worked two stints at channel 4; first from 1972 through 1979 (when he left for rival KABC-TV, where he spent 13 years) and from July 1992 until his retirement in May 2009. Much like Moyer, Chuck Henry was also a mainstay at KABC-TV, before making the move to Burbank in January 1994. He currently produces (through his self-titled production company) the travelogue series Travel Cafe, which airs weekends on KNBC. Kelly Lange, Stu Nahan, John Schubeck, Tritia Toyota, Jess Marlow, David Sheehan, John Beard and Nick Clooney are other notables who have worked on KNBC's newscasts in the past.

Former Today Show co-host and NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw began his NBC career as an anchor and reporter for KNBC, starting in 1966. He left the station to work exclusively for the network in 1973. Others of note that have worked at KNBC early in their careers (prior to going to the network) include Bryant Gumbel, Pat Sajak, Kent Shocknek, Bob Abernethy, Keith Morrison, Tom Snyder, and consumer reporter David Horowitz, whose long-running syndicated series, Fight Back!, originated from channel 4 and was produced and distributed by NBC and Westinghouse Broadcasting. In 1987 during an afternoon newscast, a gun-wielding mental patient gained access to NBC Studios, and took Horowitz hostage live on the air. With the gun pressed on his side, Horowitz calmly read the gunman's statements on camera. The unidentified man was caught with a toy gun, and was arrested by local police. It led Horowitz to start a successful campaign to ban "look-alike" toy guns in several states, including California and New York.^[10]

The most controversial departure^{[citation needed]} was that of longtime weather reporter Christopher Nance. In 2002 Nance was fired from KNBC after years of what some^[who?] say was "menacing and profane off-air behavior" contrary to Nance's on-air flamboyant and cheerful nature. Shortly after he was fired, Los Angeles magazine published an article on Nance and KNBC, further detailing his behavioral problems, including allegations that he had been involved with an intern at the station, and had been in altercations with many staff members. He alleges that the station fired him because of his Christian beliefs, according to his website and the article on Los Angeles magazine. In 2004 Nance sued his former employer, citing he was dismissed due to racial and religious discrimination (Nance is African-American).^[11][12]

Newscasts[link]

Today, with the addition of California Nonstop, KNBC airs 35 hours of local news per week, with 6 hours on weekdays and 2½ hours on weekends. On weekdays, a 2½-hour morning newscast airs at 4:30am, followed by a half-hour report at 12 noon, an one-hour block at 5pm, a half-hour block at 6pm, and a 35-minute wrap at 11pm. On weekends, one-hour news blocks air at 7am and 6pm. A half-hour block is aired at 11pm on Saturdays, and a 35-minute wrap is aired at 11pm on Sundays. However, if the 6pm newscast is pre-empted for NBC Sunday Night Football, a special one-hour newscast airs following the Fred Roggin-hosted sports-themed game show, The Challenge.

News/station presentation[link]

Newscast titles[link]

• Coca-Cola News (1949–1950)
• Ford News (1950–1954)
• Jack Latham and The News (1954–1960)
• The Fifth Hour/Sixth Hour/Eleventh Hour Report (1960–1971)
• News 4 (1966–1971)
• KNBC News Service (1971–1975)
• NewsCenter 4 (1976–1982)^[13]
• News 4-L.A. (1982–1985)^[14]
• (The) Channel 4 News (1985–2011)^[15]
• (The) NBC 4 News (2011–present)

Station slogans[link]

• It All Adds Up on Channel 4 (1968–1969)
• Coverage You Can Count On (1993–1995 and 2000–2002)
• Number One Station For News (1996–1998)
• Working 4 You (1998–2000)
• Trust Experience (2003–2008)
• We're 4 L.A. (2008–present; primary slogan)
• Locals Only (2008–present; secondary slogan)

This film, television or video-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it with reliably sourced additions.

[edit] Current on-air staff (as of October 2011)^[16]

Anchors

• Michael Brownlee - weekdays at noon; also weekday morning reporter,
• Ted Chen - weekend mornings Today in L.A. (7-8 a.m.); also weeknight reporter
• Stephanie Elam - weekend evenings; also weeknight reporter
• Chuck Henry - weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m.
• Robert Kovacik - weekend evenings; also weeknight reporter
• Alycia Lane - weekday mornings Today in L.A. (4:30-7 a.m.)
• Lucy Noland - weekdays at noon, weeknights at 6 p.m.
• Colleen Williams - weeknights at 5, 7 (on California Nonstop) and 11 p.m.
• Michelle Valles - weekend mornings Today in L.A. (7-8 a.m.); also weekday morning reporter
• Kathy Vara - weekday mornings Today in L.A. (4:30-7 a.m.)

Weather team

• Fritz Coleman - lead weather anchor; weeknights at 5, 6 and 11 p.m.
• Carl Bell - weather anchor; weekend mornings, Today In LA
• Elita Loresca (AMS Seal of Approval, NWA member) - weather anchor; weekday mornings Today in L.A. and noon.
• Byron Miranda (member, NWA) - meteorologist; weekend evenings

Sports team

• Fred Roggin - sports director; weeknights at 6 and 11 p.m.; also Early Today sports anchor, host of GSN Live, The Challenge, and KNBC's coverage of the Los Angeles Marathon)
• Mario Solis - sports anchor; weekends evenings, also Early Today sports anchor and host of Whipnotic
• Bill Seward - sports anchor; also hosting rugby and cliff diving on Universal Sports

Reporters

• Kim Baldonado - general assignment reporter
• Cary Berglund - human interest features reporter
• Antonio Castelan -general assignment reporter
• Angie Crouch - freelance general assignment reporter
• Craig Fiegener -inland empire reporter
• Ana Garcia - investigative and consumer reporter
• Joel Grover - investigative reporter
• Toni Guinyard - general assignment reporter
• Patrick Healy - general assignment reporter
• Dr. Bruce Hensel - health and science reporter
• John Cadiz Klemack - general assignment reporter
• Lolita Lopez - general assignment reporter
• Mekahlo Medina - social media and technology reporter
• Sean Murphy - weekday morning traffic reporter
• Conan Nolan - senior correspondent; also News Conference anchor
• Jacob Rascon - Inland Empire bureau reporter
• Gordon Tokumatsu - general assignment reporter
• Vikki Vargas - Orange County bureau reporter
• Beverly White - general assignment reporter

Notable former on-air staff[link]

Rebroadcasters[link]

KNBC is rebroadcast on the following translator stations:

• K04HX 4 Ridgecrest
• K12JI 12 Newberry Springs
• K15FC 15 Joshua Tree
• K19BS 19 Daggett
• K30GU 30 Morongo Valley
• K35HO-D 35 Ridgecrest
• K41CB 41 Lucerne Valley
• K47IB 47 Twentynine Palms

See also[link]

• List of DirecTV channels
• List of Dish Network channels

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
  • KNBC mobile
• NBC Design Group website
• Query the FCC's TV station database for KNBC
• Program Information for KNBC at TitanTV.com
• KNBC-TV logos and screenshots from 1950s to the present day

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