Today in L.A.

Background

The program became the first local morning newscast in Southern California when it debuted on KNBC in 1986, as a half-hour lead-in to NBC's long-running morning news program Today. Kent Shocknek and Pat DaSilva were the original anchors of the program, with Christopher Nance handling weather duties, and Fred Roggin appearing in a sports segment that was pre-taped the night before. DaSilva, who is Mexican-American also became the first Latina female to anchor a weekday morning newscast. DaSilva anchored Today in L.A. for more than a year, before being replaced by Carla Aragon. Shocknek and Aragon each departed in later years; Shocknek joining rival CBS-owned station KCBS-TV (channel 2) in 2001 as anchor of that station's morning and midday newscasts, and Aragon returning to her native New Mexico to anchor the evening newscasts on NBC affiliate KOB-TV in Albuquerque, from 1994 to her retirement from the television news business in 2007. Nance left KNBC under controversial circumstances in December 2002, after 18 years with the station; he later sued channel 4, the station's upper management, and KNBC's parent company NBC due to what he believed was racial and religious discrimination.

The program later expanded to an (from 6 to 7 a.m.) hour, then to 90 minutes (from 5:30 to 7 a.m.) in the late 1990s and to two hours (from 5 to 7 a.m.) in 2000; the program currently airs from 4:30-7 a.m. since 2010. With the expansion of the weekend editions of the Today Show, Today in L.A. expanded to weekends in 1992

Eventual successors at the Today in L.A. anchor desk included Kathy Vara, David Cruz, Kelly Mack, Chris Schauble and Jennifer Bjorklund. Rachel Boesing served as weather anchor, while Paul Johnson provided traffic reports and also serving as a fill-in weather anchor. Vara, Mack, Cruz and Schauble eventually left the station; Vara later returned to KNBC in March 2010 after nine years at crosstown ABC O&O KABC-TV (channel 7), and Schauble later became anchor of the 4-7 a.m. block of KTLA (channel 5)'s weekday morning newscast in early 2011. Bjorklund remained at KNBC, transitioning into a general assignment reporter role, before leaving in 2012. Boesing currently works as a host of My County, a community access program on the Los Angeles County Channel. Johnson died in June 2010 at the age of 75, after battling brain tumors.

Anchor Alycia Lane and traffic reporter Sean Murphy were dropped from the program after the October 16, 2013 broadcast; with weekend anchor Michelle Valles replacing Lane as weekday co-anchor.

On June 23, 2014, former WMAQ-TV anchor Daniella Guzman joins Today In L.A. as co-anchor replacing Valles and former The Daily Buzz host Holly Hannula takes over as traffic anchor; in addition, co-anchor Michael Brownlee and noon co-anchor Whit Johnson swaps their duties, Johnson becomes Daniella's co-anchor while Brownlee later became the midday anchor at the station.

Since its inception, Today In L.A. has been among the highest-rated in the market, and has served as the inspiration for the local morning news concept. KABC-TV and KCBS-TV began airing their own morning newscasts in 1989. KCAL-TV (channel 9) briefly ran an hour-long morning newscast during its early years under the ownership of The Walt Disney Company (prior to the company's purchase of KABC and the subsequent sale of KCAL to Young Broadcasting in 1996), before cancelling it and replacing the program with children's programming. KTLA introduced a morning newscast starting in 1991, while KTTV (channel 11) began its morning news block in the fall of 1993; both stations' newscasts are highly rated and usually rate #1 or 2 in their timeslots.

In 2016, the morning program began expand it to radio, KABC-AM airs the first half-hour of the program as part of a joint agreement with KNBC and KABC's parent company Cumulus Media.

Notable current on–air staff

Notable former on–air staff