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| Channels | |
| Branding | NBC 4 Los Angeles;NBC 4 News |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
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| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| KVEA | |
| History | |
| Founded | 1947[1] |
First air date | January 16, 1949 (76 years ago) (1949-01-16) |
Former call signs |
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Former channel number(s) |
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Call sign meaning | National Broadcasting Company |
| Technical information[2] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 47906 |
| ERP | 665kW |
| HAAT | 991 m (3,251 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 34°13′32″N118°3′55″W / 34.22556°N 118.06528°W /34.22556; -118.06528 |
| Translator(s) | see§ Translators |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | nbclosangeles |
KNBC (channel 4) is atelevision station inLos Angeles, California, United States, serving as theWest Coastflagship station of theNBC network. It isowned and operated by the network'sNBC Owned Television Stations division alongsideCorona-licensedTelemundo outletKVEA (channel 52). The two stations share studios at the Brokaw News Center in the northwest corner of theUniversal Studios Hollywood lot offLankershim Boulevard inUniversal City; KNBC's transmitter is located onMount Wilson.
Channel 4 first went on the air as KNBH (standing for "NBCHollywood") on January 16, 1949.[3][4] It was the second-to-lastVHF station in Los Angeles to debut, and the last of NBC's five originalowned-and-operated stations to sign on. Unlike the other four, KNBH was the only NBC-owned television station that did not benefit from having a sister radio station. Though theNBC Radio Network had long been affiliated withKFI in Los Angeles, that relationship did not extend into television whenKFI-TV (channel 9, nowKCAL-TV) signed on in August 1948.[5] When KNBH signed on, it marked the debut of NBC programs on the West Coast. Channel 4 originally broadcast from the NBC Radio City Studios onSunset Boulevard andVine Street in Hollywood.
The station changed its callsign to KRCA (for NBC's then-parent company, theRadio Corporation of America) on October 18, 1954.[6] The call letters were changed again on November 11, 1962, when NBC moved the KNBC identity from its San Francisco radio station (which becameKNBR) and applied it to channel 4 in Los Angeles.[7][8][9] That call letter change coincided with the station's physical relocation from NBC Radio City to the network's color broadcast studio facility in suburbanBurbank.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.
The station officially modified its callsign to KNBC-TV in August 1986,[10] shortly after NBC and RCA were purchased byGeneral Electric; the -TV suffix was dropped effective September 6, 1995.[11]
On October 11, 2007, NBCUniversal announced that it would put its Burbank studios up for sale and construct a new, all-digital facility near theUniversal Studios Hollywood backlot inUniversal City, to merge all of NBCUniversal's West Coast operations (including KNBC, KVEA andNBC News' Los Angeles bureau) into one area. The studio opened on February 1, 2014.[12] Shortly thereafter, NBCUniversal named the new broadcast center in honor of former KNBC and NBC News anchor/reporterTom Brokaw, christened the Brokaw News Center.[13]
In fall 2007 with the rollout of digital broadcasting, the station began airing a 24/7 newschannel News Raw on the .2 subchannel.[14][15]
KNBC ended regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 4, on June 12, 2009, as part of thefederally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[16] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transitionUHF channel 36,[17] usingvirtual channel 4. Since the station qualified for thenightlight clause in theDTV Delay Act,[18] it was required to keep its analog signal on for two weeks from June 12 to 26, 2009 to inform viewers of the digital television transition, consisting of a loop of digital transitionpublic service announcements, while the digital channel was used for normal programming.
On January 1, 2014,Universal Sports transitioned into a cable- and satellite-exclusive service, causing its affiliates (such as KNBC) to replace the network and remove the channel from their digital signals entirely.[19]
KNBC operated NBC California Nonstop, a collaboration between KNBC and two other NBC-owned stations in California (KNSD inSan Diego andKNTV inSan Jose) which launched on May 3, 2011, and replaced programming fromNBC Plus on the seconddigital subchannels of all three stations. In the case of KNBC, it was the second news-oriented digital channel operated by the station, as digital channel 4.2 featured a rolling news format under the name NewsRaw (which moved from digital channel 4.4 upon Weather Plus' shutdown on December 1, 2008), before the launch of California Nonstop.[20] Each station produced a local newscast at 7 p.m. that was tailored to their respective market. For the Los Angeles feed of the channel, Colleen Williams anchored the hour-longNonstop News LA.[21] NBC California Nonstop ended on December 20, 2012, when Cozi TV was launched.
The station has had a long history of carrying Los Angeles sports teams viaNBC Sports. The station aired selectDodgers games from their arrival in Los Angeles in1958 until1989 (and games featuring theCalifornia Angels from their establishment in1961 to1989) viaNBC's Major League Baseball broadcast contract; this included the Dodgers'World Series victories in1959,1963,1965 and1988. Channel 4 was the station of record for theNFL'sRaiders duringtheir tenure in Los Angeles from1982 to1994, and also aired anyLakers andClippers games that were part of theNBA on NBC. This included the Lakers championships in2000,2001 and2002 (game 4 of the 2002 series was the last NBA game aired on NBC) and the team's appearance in1991. Additionally, it served as the home station for theRose Bowl Game inPasadena from its first telecast in1952 until1988.
KNBC also provided local coverage ofSuper Bowl VII, which was hosted atLos Angeles Memorial Coliseum (and was the first Super Bowl televised in the host city), as well as Super BowlsXI,XVII, andXXVII, which were hosted at theRose Bowl. Furthermore, the station provided local coverage ofSuper Bowl LVI, which was held atSoFi Stadium inInglewood and won by theRams. Thefirst Super Bowl, which was also held at the Coliseum and broadcast on both NBC andCBS, did not air on KNBC or KNXT (channel 2, nowKCBS-TV), due to theNFL's blackout policy of the time, which did not allow home telecasts of games regardless of whether they were sold out, including playoffs and the league championship game, and that policy extended to the host cities for the first six Super Bowls—Los Angeles, Miami (II,III,V), andNew Orleans (IV andVI). TheAmerican Football League, before its merger with the NFL starting with the1970 season, also had a similar home blackout policy to the NFL's, and starting with the1973 season, home games were allowed to be televised in the local market, so long as the game sold out 72 hours in advance (the blackout rules were lifted completely in 2015). This allowed KNBC to televise anyLos Angeles Rams inter-conference home games viaNBC's AFC Sunday afternoon package if the game was sold out in advance; the first such game was the final home game of the1973 season, as the Rams hosted theCleveland Browns at the Coliseum on December 16.
Until 2021, the station aired select games involving theLos Angeles Kings andAnaheim Ducks viaNBC's broadcast contract with theNHL, includingStanley Cup Finals victories in2007 for the Ducks, and2012 and2014 for the Kings. Today, KNBC carries any Rams and/orChargers games that are chosen forNBC Sunday Night Football (the station previously aired any Rams home inter-conference games from 1973 to1994 when NBC had theAFC broadcast package), including the Rams' victory in Super Bowl LVI (notably as the second NFL team to play in and win a Super Bowl at its home stadium, although the Rams were designated as the visiting team). It will also be the home station when Los Angeles hosts the2028 Summer Olympics and will share the Universal Studios lot with international broadcasters covering the Games.
Since2024, the station aired select college football games involving theUCLA Bruins andUSC Trojans as part ofBig Ten Saturday Night.
As of 2022, KNBC broadcasts 44 hours, 25 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 7 hours, 35 minutes each weekday, three hours on Saturdays, and3+1⁄2 hours on Sundays). The station's newscasts have historically more of a "serious" tone covering issues (such as politics, government, education, and the economy) than other Los Angeles area newscasts.[22] In 2010, theNorman Lear Center at theUniversity of Southern California found KNBC to have the least coverage of crime and the second-highest coverage of local government and sports and weather, compared to other Los Angeles stations. As part of a 2012 investment by parent company Comcast, KNBC's newscasts added 18 employees and produced more enterprise reporting.[23] The station runs a special hour-long newscast on Sunday nights during the NFL season whereNBC Sunday Night Football telecasts preempt the 6 p.m. newscast. On election nights, KNBC runs a special extended edition of its 11 p.m. newscast to show early election results.
In April 1968. channel 4 revamped its news programs into theKNBC News Service (stylized on the air asKNBC Newservice) which, when combined with theHuntley-Brinkley Report, comprised the first 2½ hour-long block of early-evening local and national news on a major-market television station in the United States.[24] TheKNBC Newservice lasted until March 1976, when the newscasts adopted theNewsCenter 4 title. NBC made similar changes to newscasts in other markets around the same time, and channel 4 shared theNewsCenter branding with sister stationsWNBC-TV in New York City,WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., andWMAQ-TV in Chicago. KNBC's newscasts were the last to drop theNewsCenter moniker, rebranding toNews 4 LA in July 1982 as the station also launched a new hour-long newscast at 4 pm. The branding changed once more toChannel 4 News in August 1985. While KNBC became known on-air asNBC 4 in 1995, theChannel 4 News branding was so well established in Southern California that the title was retained for 26 years until 2011, when it becameNBC 4 News.
For most of the last 30 years, KNBC has waged a spirited battle withKABC-TV for the top-rated local newscast in Southern California, becoming a three-way race with KCBS-TV's ratings resurgence in 2006. Throughout the late 1980s and into the early 2000s, KNBC's newscasts were the most-watched in the region, beating out every other station viewership-wise, which coincided with NBC's overall ratings at the time. Channel 4's 11 p.m. newscast currently sits in the first place (adults 25–54) and has been for nine months straight; most of the station's other newscasts, including its once-popular morning news program,Today in L.A., the area's first local morning newscast (which debuted in 1986), now is battling for second place.[25]
For many years, KNBC produced a late afternoon newscast at 4 pm, which was dropped in 2002, in favor ofDr. Phil (that program moved to KCBS-TV in 2004, and was replaced byThe Ellen DeGeneres Show through the end of the show's run in 2022). The station also had an hour-long 11 a.m. newscast, which later was trimmed to a half-hour before ultimately being canceled at the start of the2010 Winter Olympics. The station revived its midday newscast as a half-hour program at noon in early 2012, which expanded to one hour that September. KNBC became the fifth station in the Los Angeles market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts inhigh definition on July 14, 2008 (Spanish-language sister station KVEA and former sisterKWHY-TV also converted their newscasts to HD at the same time). On December 6, 2011, KNBC entered into a partnership withpublic radio stationKPCC as part of a larger effort by NBCUniversal to partner with non-profit news organizations following its acquisition byComcast.[26]
In 2006, KNBC launched a local news channel on digital channel 4.4 calledNews Raw, that provided hourly news updates, additional information on breaking news stories, and previewed news stories scheduled to air on the main channel's newscasts.[27] After Universal Sports was launched in 2008,News Raw became a part-time channel, and was later dropped when KNBC expanded Universal Sports programming on the former subchannel to 24 hours a day. Mekahlo Medina, the host ofNews Raw, has received national attention for his integration of social media into local newscasts.[28]
In summer 2016, changes were brought to KNBC's daytime lineup which led to the restoration of the 4 p.m. newscast, allowing the station to complete with KCBS-TV and its sister independent station KCAL-TV (which moved its 4 p.m. newscast from KCBS-TV in 2002) and KABC-TV (which began airing its 4 p.m. newscast into the period in September 1980).[29] On July 24, 2016, KNBC became the tenth (and final) NBC-owned station and the third (and final) owned station in the West Coast to use its "Look N" graphics that is first implemented by the NBC O&Os in the East Coast in summer of that year; also its mic flags were updated, the color scheme was now blue with a white 4 instead of its white with a blue 4 color scheme; before this, KNBC along with sister stations KNTV and KNSD revamped their websites on July 1, 2016. In July 2016, KNBC entered into a partnership agreement withCumulus Media—ownedKABC radio to carry the simulcasts of the first half-hour ofToday in L.A. morning newscasts and the station's 6 p.m. weeknight newscasts; additionally, some of the station's on-air talent occasionally appeared as guests on KABC's programs.
On July 31, 2017, KNBC began its expansion ofToday in L.A. morning newscast, an extra half-hour was added to begin its start time to 4 am; additionally, became the second station in Los Angeles and Southern California to expand it to the time period, followingKTLA who began expandingits morning newscast to their time period in 2012.
On January 2, 2019, it was announced that the station's hour-long midday newscast will be cutting to a half-hour along with its in-state sister stations KNTV and KNSD in favor of the brand new lifestyle showCalifornia Live beginning January 7.
On June 7, 2021, KNBC premiered a new 30-minute 7 p.m. newscast.[30]
In January 2022, KNBC announced that they will plan to launch a new streaming channel for NBCUniversal's streaming servicePeacock, under the name of "NBC LA News"; this comes following the announcement they would have a simultaneous rollout of streaming news channels starting with its sister stations in Chicago, Miami, Philadelphia and Boston launching on January 20; the said channel was launched on March 17, 2022.[31][32]
On September 12, 2022, KNBC premiered a new 30-minute 3 p.m. newscast, followed byNBC Nightly News.[33]
KNBC has had a very stable news team over the years: weeknight anchorColleen Williams (who also occasionally reports forMSNBC and NBC News) and sports anchorFred Roggin (also has the nickname "The Dean of L.A. Sports" and serves as a commentator forNBC's Olympics coverage) have each been at the station at least thirty years or more. Former chief weathercasterFritz Coleman (who like Roggin, has also occasionally appeared onThe Tonight Show, and once hosted a late-night variety show for KNBC calledIt's Fritz from 1989 to the early 1990s) worked at the station from 1982 until his June 2020 retirement. Former anchorPaul Moyer worked two stints at channel 4; first from 1972 to 1979 (when he began a 13-year run at rival KABC-TV) and from July 1992 until his April 2009 retirement. Like Moyer, anchorChuck Henry was also a mainstay at KABC-TV, before making the move to channel 4 in January 1994.Kelly Lange,Stu Nahan,John Schubeck,Tritia Toyota,Jess Marlow,David Sheehan,John Beard andNick Clooney are other notables who have worked on KNBC's newscasts in the past. Another KNBC alum of note is consumer reporterDavid Horowitz, whose long-running syndicated series,Fight Back!, began on channel 4 and was produced and distributed by NBC andGroup W. In 1987 during an afternoon newscast, a gun-wielding mental patient gained access to NBC Studios and took Horowitz hostage live on-air. With the gun pressed to his side, Horowitz calmly read the gunman's statements on camera. The man, identified as Gary Stollman, 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.[34]
Tom Brokaw began his NBC career as an anchor and reporter at KNBC in 1966, staying until he went over to national work for NBC News in 1973. Other notables who have worked at KNBC early in their careers prior to joining the network includeBryant Gumbel,Ross Porter,Pat Sajak,Kent Shocknek,Bob Abernethy,Keith Morrison andTom Snyder.
Anchors
Reporters
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The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | NBC4-LA | NBC |
| 4.2 | 480i | COZI-TV | Cozi TV | |
| 4.3 | CRIMES | NBC American Crimes | ||
| 4.4 | Oxygen | Oxygen | ||
| 13.3 | 480i | 16:9 | MOVIES! | Movies! (KCOP-TV)[41][42][43] |
News channels from NBC 4 New York (WNBC) and NBC 4 Los Angeles (KNBC) will be available to stream for free in the months ahead.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
