KFMB-TV - News Operation

News Operation

KFMB currently offers a total of 29 hours of local news programming each week (with five hours on weekdays and two hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); unlike most CBS affiliates, KFMB does not run a local newscast at 6 p.m. (ceding the timeslot to the CBS Evening News, which in turn, airs a half-hour earlier than on most CBS stations in the Pacific Time Zone), though the station does have an early evening news broadcast at 6:30 p.m. Some famous KFMB alumni include former weather girl Raquel Tejada (later known as Raquel Welch), talk-show host Regis Philbin, TV host Sarah Purcell, CNN and former CBS anchor Paula Zahn, original Access Hollywood host Larry Mendte, and NBC correspondents Don Teague and Dawn Fratangelo.

KFMB has been the news leader in San Diego for most of its history, dating back to the 1950s when Ray Wilson was the popular anchorman of the city's first half-hour newscast. When Wilson stepped down in 1973, KFMB slipped to a distant second behind KGTV, rebounding only in the late 1970s and early 1980s when former KGTV producer Jim Holtzman was hired by the station as news director. Holtzman formed a popular and acclaimed news team consisting of anchors Michael Tuck and Allison Ross, weatherman Clark Anthony and sportscaster Ted Leitner. By the end of 1979, KFMB had risen back to the #1 position, remaining there until 1984 when Tuck suddenly moved to KGTV and helped that station overtake KFMB for the remainder of the decade.

Holtzman tried in vain to compete by experimenting with a different format for the 11 p.m. news called This Day which emphasized a softer, humanized format and attempted to find a common thread within the newscast. There was no regular anchor; instead Hal Clement, Loren Nancarrow, Dawn Fratangelo (now with NBC) and Susan Lichtman (now known as Susan Taylor at KNSD) formed an ensemble of anchor/reporters who alternated between anchoring, filing detailed reports and giving live interviews. Computer graphics were used heavily, and Dave Grusin's "Night Lines" served as the newscast's theme music.

Although it was innovative for its time, This Day proved to be a dismal failure as viewers responded negatively to the awkward format, and within nine months KFMB reverted back to a regular newscast. However, the news ratings for KFMB went into a deep decline which would not end for more than a decade as popular mainstays like Marty Levin and Allison Ross (both of whom reappeared on KNSD) either left voluntarily or were fired and were replaced by younger faces like Stan Miller and Susan Roesgen.

Eventually by the 1990s, Hal Clement would assume the early-evening anchor duties alongside Susan Peters and later Denise Yamada to mixed results as the station continued to battle KGTV and KNSD, primarily in the 11 p.m. period where the CBS lead-in at the time was particularly weaker. Then, Michael Tuck's brief return following Clement's departure for KGTV and CBS's resurgence at the start of the Millennium helped bring KFMB back to first place in the early evenings. KFMB provides video feed from Chopper 8 to KUSI and XETV. As of August 2006, News 8 is the only television station in San Diego to have its chopper covering breaking news at 11 p.m.

During coverage of the California wildfires of October 2007, reporter Larry Himmel took viewers on a walkthrough of his own destroyed home in the fires. Audio of the station's news programming was also simulcast on KFMB-AM and KFMB-FM for an extended period of time.

On January 28, 2007, KFMB became the first station in San Diego to broadcast its news in HD, and unveiled a new set to go with the switch.