All News, All the Time

Nancy Bauer Gonzales is news director of two CBS-owned L.A. television stations—KCBS (Channel 2) and KCAL (Channel 9)—and her mandate is to air as much local news as possible, as often as possible. That means a combined 11 hours each weekday, more news than anywhere else in the Southern California market. "They're at 5, 6, 11, 12, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 11," says Bauer Gonzales, who sounds as if she's not done expanding the schedule. "I used to come into work thinking, 'OK, how can I push the business this week?'?" she tells me at the stations' headquarters in Studio City. Now it's 'How can I push it before lunch?'?" The answer always is more news. L.A. is being bombarded with news—it's on virtually nonstop, starting each morning at 4 a.m. (KNBC, Channel 4) and running throughout the day and late into the night. The stretch from 5 to 7 a.m. is especially intense: Besides KCBS and KNBC, there is news on KTLA (Channel 5), KABC (Channel 7), and KTTV (Channel 11). All told, 32 hours of local news every day, and that doesn't count non-English stations or the morning gabfests on channels 5 and 11. Expect additional slots to be filled in the coming months. TV stations are doing this not out of some newfound commitment to journalism but because the economics make sense.