Los Angeles

Local newscasters have become the regular butt of jokes on Conan O’Brien‘s show and on Thursday night he took aim at the KTLA morning team.

In a segment titled “Why China Is Kicking Out Ass,” O’Brien played a clip of a recent “dance party Friday” at KTLA (video above).

“Those are news broadcasters,” O’Brien said following the clip. “They’re there to tell us what’s happening in the world.”  (Somewhere WKRC’s Bob Herzog is smiling, or cringing).

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

KTTV is shaking up its morning team, and today Jillian Reynolds offered a teary on-air apology to her longtime co-anchor Dorothy Lucey, who is departing the Los Angeles Fox O&O after 17 years.

“I’ve said some dumb, dumb things and I just want to say, I think that’s what’s made this show what it is–that you and I have not always agreed,” Reynolds, who is becoming a freelance employee with KTTV, told Lucey as they both cried (video above).  The LA Times piece Reynolds refers to is here.

Changes are coming to the morning newscast at KTTV. Longtime entertainment reporter Dorothy Lucey is leaving the Los Angeles Fox O&O, and co-anchor Jillian Reynolds will become a freelance employee of the station.

A spokesperson for KTTV confirmed the changes, which were first reported by Deadline Hollywood, to TVSpy. Reynolds and Lucey, along with co-anchor Steve Edwards, have helmed the show since 1995.

Station sources tell TVSpy that KTTV will hold on-air auditions for Lucey’s replacement this Summer.

Lucey, who has worked at the station since 1995, will sign off from “Good Day LA” on Friday. Her contract was not renewed. Read more

Even though the Los Angeles Kings are in the NHL western conference finals, the team has apparently failed to win the full attention of the city’s news stations. After KNBC mistook the Sacramento Kings of the NBA for the LA Kings last week, Fox O&O KTTV is stuck doing damage control over a segment that Yahoo! Sports described as “the worst highlight package of [the] NHL playoffs.”

KTTV sports anchor Liz Habib tried to will her way through an update on the Kings’ Game 3 victory last week that seemed doomed from the beginning (video above).

In addition to referring to the puck as “the ball,” Habib flubbed the names of two key Kings players–Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty. And then, as observant internet commenters have pointed out, KTTV’s graphics department used the old NHL logo. Read more

Los Angeles currently has three professional sports teams playing in the postseason but, according to a recent KNBC graphic (above), the city only has two.

During KNBC’s 6 p.m. newscast on Monday, as anchor Chuck Henry introduced a story about the Lakers and Clippers competing in the NBA playoffs and the Los Angeles Kings playing in the NHL postseason, the station ran a graphic that included the logo of the Sacramento Kings, instead of the LA Kings. Read more

By now, Los Angeles viewers must be used to seeing the KTLA morning team doing crazy things on-air: throwing a fit, making fun of an intern, hanging out with Hooters Girls, dressing up as Cupid.  And now “getting an impromptu haircut” can be added to the list.

On Monday morning, anchor Megan Henderson had plastic stuck in her hair following a curling iron mishap so meteorologist Henry DiCarlo grabbed a scissors and offered to help out (video above).

As part of a multimillion dollar investment in its O&Os, the Telemundo station group has announced the appointment of new general managers in three markets: Los Angeles, Puerto Rico and Miami.

Celia Chavez will take the helm at KVEA in Los Angeles. Chavez comes from WSNS, the Telemundo station in Chicago, where she has been president and general manager since 2009.

At WKAQ in Puerto Rico, Jose Cancela will take over as president and general manager. Cancela comes from KVEA in Los Angeles, where he has been president for less than a year. Read more

KTLA invited a couple of Hooters girls to be a part of the station’s morning newscast on Wednesday.

Meteorologist Henry DiCarlo introduced the girls, who are set to compete in a local swimsuit competition, during the 6 o’clock hour, as anchors Megan Henderson and Chris Schauble snacked on wings from the restaurant. Later in the show, the girls stripped down to their swimsuits and joined weathercaster Mark Kriski as he promoted their competition.

This isn’t the first time KTLA has invited scantily clad women onto its morning show. During February sweeps, the station had lingerie models on to accompany DiCarlo for a weather update.

KTLA began its morning show on Thursday without one of its anchors.

Megan Henderson was conspicuously absent from the opening seconds of KTLA’s 4:00 a.m. newscast, leading co-anchor Chris Schauble to impersonate her until she arrived in the studio.

Henderson explained that someone had screwed up and told her “two minutes, ten seconds ago.”  It was an excuse that Schauble and meteorologist Henry DiCarlo weren’t totally buying (video above).

Anchor Jorge Miramontes has been cut loose from KRCA, a Spanish-language station in Los Angeles. He was informed last week his contract would not be renewed.

“I was very surprised at the company’s decision, because my newscasts had great ratings,” Miramontes told MediaMoves.com. “I’m grateful for the time I was at the station. I made great friends there. This is the end of one cycle and the beginning of a new one.”

Miramontes, the anchor of the noon and 5 p.m. newcasts, has been at KRCA since 2006. He said he will be seeking “new challenges and opportunities” going forward.