KGTV - News Operation

News Operation

KGTV presently produces a total of 39 hours of local newscasts each week (with six hours on weekdays and 4 1/2 hours on weekends). It is among the few, albeit one of a growing number of television stations in the United States that carry a local news program at 7 p.m. on weeknights.

KGTV first began to challenge KFMB's dominance in the mid-1970s, when anchormen Jack White and Harold Greene, along with popular weatherman "Captain Mike" Ambrose and sportscasters Al Coupee and Hal Clement, led The News to popularity, albeit briefly. Even with the brief return of Greene following his stints in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the station fell back to second place behind KFMB in the early 1980s. However, management succeeded in acquiring the services of popular anchorman Michael Tuck from KFMB in 1984; the move resulted in KGTV reclaiming first place and giving the station credibility by way of Tuck's infamous nightly commentaries titled "Perspectives".

KGTV also made history by being the first station in San Diego with a female anchor team with its 11 p.m. newscast, featuring Carol LeBeau and Bree Walker. After Walker left in 1987, Kimberly Hunt would team with LeBeau and form the city's longest-running anchor duo at 15 years. During that time, LeBeau and Hunt would anchor alongside Tuck (who left for Los Angeles in 1990, only to return to San Diego on KFMB), Stephen Clark (now at sister station WXYZ-TV/Detroit), Steve Wolford, and a returning Hal Clement (who had switched from sports to news in 1983 while at KFMB).

Eventually, KGTV would decline after Hunt left to anchor the news at KUSI-TV alongside Tuck, at one point falling to third as KNSD rose to number one at 11 p.m. The Hunt-Lebeau team reunited in early 2008, before LeBeau retired the following year. On August 30, 2008, KGTV became the third television station (behind CBS affiliate KFMB-TV and Fox affiliate KSWB-TV) to produce their local newscasts in high definition.

Since the Scripps purchase of KGTV was completed at the end of 2011, the station now has a news partnership with its former AM radio sister KOGO (now owned by Clear Channel Communications). In May 2010, KGTV had the top-rated early evening newscast in the San Diego market in the coveted demographic of 25 to 54-year-old adults.