#10: The Bay Area over the past year.
There were so many changes happening here over the past year, including one major one.
We have so many changes to report on here from the San Francisco Bay Area. Let’s just get to it.
First off, some have said that this happened as a result of the Independent switch, but this actually happened when it was still with The CW. KPYX (the new callsign for what used to be KBCW) has added a two-hour weekday morning newscast from 7:00-9:00 a.m. back on September 12th… of last year. CBS News Bay Area - The Morning Edition on KBCW, now known as KPIX+ 44/Cable 12 since they lost The CW back on September 1st of this year, provides the third such option for local morning news during those times in the market after the long-running Mornings on 2 from KTVU and the KRON 4 Morning News from KRON.
Then, the whole switcharoo happened, where KBCW became an Independent and is now KPYX. With the station giving up The CW, it now leaves KPYX with free time to air news in primetime, at which point they’ve done so as it sounds like KRON’s primetime news effort was hugely successful in the market. But with KRON now getting The CW (more details on that later), KPYX now airs weeknight primetime news at both 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. (both an hour-long), known as CBS News Bay Area - The Primetime Edition on KPIX+ 44/Cable 12, which began on Friday, September 1st, their first day as an Independent station. However, there’s no weekend edition so the market loses out on that. The prior evening newscast was on at 10:00 p.m. as part of the News NOW format but that ended on August 31st.
Now I’ll focus on KRON. First off, back on May 22nd, it moved its weekday morning news by an hour. Instead of now going from 4:00-10:00 a.m., it retains its six-hour format but now airs from 5:00-11:00 a.m. instead. It gives KRON the only local morning news at 10:00 a.m. but it also leaves KTVU as the only station left to start their morning news at 4:00 a.m.
(Quick side note here: all local stations in the market, except for KTVU, have dropped their pre-5:00 a.m. start times for their weekday morning news. KTVU is the only one to start at 4:00 a.m. while KRON, KPIX, KGO, and KNTV now all start at 5:00 a.m.)
Now, as part of that major affiliation change in which KRON is now a CW-owned-and-operated station, it had to drop its nightly 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. newscasts. Instead, starting Friday, September 1st, KRON started to air an hour-long weekday newscast at 2:00 p.m., the ONLY local news on at that time in the market, and a nightly half-hour newscast at 11:00 p.m., the first time KRON is on at that timeslot since 2017. For the record, KRON has a 24-hour local streaming news service called KRONon which continues to air live, local news every night there at both 8:00 and 9:00 p.m., though its not seen on TV because of The CW Primetime programming.
Finally, I’m off to KTVU where the last exclusive newscast on KICU on weeknights at 7:00 p.m. is no more. Instead, it moved to KTVU itself where it has turned that hour into an interesting twist: a regional half-hour newscast focused on the West Coast at 7:00 p.m. (called the West Coast News Wrap) and a regular local newscast at 7:30 p.m. For the week of September 4th, it was simulcast on both KTVU and KICU, but since last week, it has aired exclusively on KTVU. Now the only news that’s left on KICU are repeats of KTVU’s weekday 9:00 a.m. (at 10:00 a.m.), 12 Noon (at 1:00 p.m.), and nightly 10:00 p.m. (at 11:30 p.m.) newscasts.
We’re getting very close to the end, but we’re not there just yet. Stay tuned for more.