News operation
As of 2024, KRON broadcasts 80 1/2 hours of local newscasts each week (with 14 1/2 hours each weekday, 3 1/2 hours on Saturdays, and 4 1/2 hours on Sundays); it has the highest newscast output of any television station in the San Francisco Bay Area. KRON was one of only three MyNetworkTV affiliates that aired and produced their own newscasts, alongside WPHL-TV in Philadelphia (though only a morning newscast, while its 10p.m. newscast is produced by WPVI-TV) and WJMN-TV in Marquette, Michigan (which maintained a news department when it was a CBS affiliate), after the service's owned-and-operated station WWOR-TV in Secaucus, New Jersey (whose news department operated separately from Fox-owned sister station WNYW stemming from license requirements imposed by WWOR's 1983 license transfer from New York City to New Jersey), closed theirs in July 2013.
KRON's news operations were handled by the Chronicle until it launched its own news department in September 1957. It operated from a studio inside the Chronicle building at Fifth & Mission streets (the station's news department was located 30 feet from the Chronicle city desk). Appropriately for a station once owned by the Chronicle, KRON-TV has long been a very news-intensive station. it produced six daily newscasts at the time, including the Shell-sponsored 6p.m. newscast Shell News,[56] with Tom Franklin reporting from the studio at the Chronicle and in filmed field reports. Franklin began the broadcast standing next to a map of the San Francisco Bay Area, with lights illuminated on the map next to the various cities that the newscast was to feature stories from. Franklin anchored most of the program from behind a desk that had a large Shell logo next to a "Tom Franklin" nameplate, with a Shell "X-100" oil can that sat atop the desk. Live segments were used for late bulletins from the Chronicle city desk or for local and regional stories not suitable for film treatment. Some of the stories covered by Shell News in 1957 included the end of the "pedestrian scramble" system at downtown San Francisco street intersections, the end of the San Francisco-Oakland Southern Pacific railroad passenger ferry and the final game of the San Francisco Seals baseball team (to be replaced by the San Francisco Giants in 1958). In the 1960s, KRON-TV had anchors Art Brown and Jerry Jensen (who later moved to KGO-TV), and Linda Richards, who wrote predicted temperatures backwards on sliding glass panels with maps drawn on them, for viewers to see the weather forecast. Ed Hart, and later Frank Dill, reported sports with a focus on only the area's professional teams. KRON's early morning news digests in the 1960s utilized sign language by Peter Wechsberg and Jane Norman.
KRON-TV eventually branded its newscasts as Newswatch 4 in the early 1970s. By early 1972, the station ran newscasts at noon, 5:30, 6:30 and 11p.m. on weekdays and 6 and 11p.m. on weekends; it also ran a late newscast that aired (then) immediately after The Tonight Show called the Newswatch Sign-Off Edition. Presenters then included Terry Lowry, Phil Wilson, Karna Small, Bob Marsden, Paul Ryan, Art Brown and Dave Valentine.[57] The station's newscasts were branded as NewsCenter 4 from 1977 until 2001, when it was changed to the current KRON 4 News. A major change in KRON-TV's evening news broadcasts occurred on April 6, 1981,[58] when the station launched the 90-minute newscast "Live on 4" (from 4 to 5:30 p.m.). NBC Nightly News also moved from 7 to 5:30 p.m. (KPIX and KGO would follow this move with their national newscasts during the following decade). From late 1981 to late 1988, the 5p.m. weekday newscast was Live at Five; Bob Jimenez anchored in the studio with Evan White in the newsroom. Live on 4 was replaced in 1983 with T.G.I.4, an hour-long light local news and interview program co-hosted by Jan Rasmussen and Patrick Van Horn. In the mid-1980s, KRON-TV produced and aired an afternoon talk program called Bay City Limits.
In 1981, KRON launched its first morning newscast with a seven-minute program (at 6:53 a.m.); the program was canceled by late 1982. All the evening newscasts featured a variety of anchors, until settling down with the successful duo of Roz Abrams and Jim Paymar. After Abrams left for New York City's WABC-TV in 1986, Paymar co-anchored alongside Sylvia Chase (who had been a correspondent for CBS News and later for the ABC newsmagazine 20/20). The station debuted what was then the only local early morning newscast in the San Francisco television market on September 1, 1986, with the launch of Daybreak (which ran from 6:30 to 7a.m., leading into Today). The first anchors were Lloyd Patterson and Lila Petersen.
KRON's newscasts during the 1980s regularly featured commentaries by Wayne Shannon in a segment called "Just 4 You", many of which had a humorous tone. Shannon received billing in newscast introductions along with the anchors, and weather and sports presenters. Another staple of KRON-TV newscasts in the 1980s was live traffic reports and news coverage from the station's helicopter "Telecopter 4". Bob McCarthy, Rita Cohen and Janice Huff were among the personalities who reported from Telecopter 4. Their traffic reports appeared regularly on Daybreak, during Today and Live at Five. Evocative of his folksy, down-to-earth style, McCarthy had a catchphrase, "hunky snarky", that he often used to characterize roads on which traffic was flowing smoothly. Will Prater was the main pilot of Telecopter 4 in its early years and Lou Calderon was the main photographer. KRON also broadcast from remote locations during this era (e.g., Super Bowl venues) via a satellite uplink unit dubbed "Newstar 4". These segments often began with an animation depicting a signal originating from the uplink location, bouncing off a satellite and ending at a satellite dish next to the words "San Francisco." KRON-TV regarded the satellite truck as a major competitive advantage over rival television stations, featuring it in a mid-1980s promotional spot which declared, "We got a mobile satellite up-link. They don't."
In the 1980s, KRON-TV produced lengthy analysis pieces for the "Cover Story" segment on its 6p.m. newscast, many with an investigative journalism focus and sometimes produced by the 10-person "Target 4" investigative unit. The station reran some of these segments in an occasional program called Cover Story Magazine. The station also produced a half-hour public affairs program on Sunday mornings called Weekend Extra, which was hosted by Belva Davis and Rollin Post. This program frequently presented features from KRON's news bureaus in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento, the only Bay Area station to maintain bureaus (which were later deemed to be too expensive and were shut down by the end of the decade). During this time, KRON news grew rapidly in viewership and collected a large number of awards, including two DuPont Columbia awards, a Peabody,[59] and more than 100 local Emmys. The station also produced a series of one-minute documentaries during the mid-1980s, San Francisco Minutes and Bay Area Minutes, which featured people, places and events in San Francisco and Bay Area history and usually featured narrations by KRON-TV personalities set to soaring music (e.g., Mark Thompson on San Francisco's cable cars, Lloyd Patterson on the San Mateo County coastline).
In the 1990s, the station utilized a "24 Hour News" format, with 30- to 60-second news updates each hour outside of regular newscasts. During the May 2001 sweeps period – its last as an NBC affiliate – KRON's newscasts beat KGO-TV's in the 5 and 6p.m. timeslots by a very close margin, ending KGO's domination in those timeslots.[60] When KRON lost NBC to KNTV and became an independent station in January 2002, the station expanded its news programming by adding two hours to its weekday morning newscast (from 7 to 9a.m.), and extending its 5p.m. newscast to one hour to fill timeslots vacated by the departures of Today and Nightly News.
Unlike most news-producing stations that have become independent after losing a network affiliation or that have switched to one of the post-1986 broadcast networks, KRON originally kept its late newscast in the 11p.m. timeslot instead of moving it to or adding one at 10p.m. (avoiding direct competition with KTVU's long-dominant prime time newscast, though KRON's late news remained in competition against KGO, KNTV and KPIX's late evening newscasts); the station also added a prime time newscast at 9p.m. To this day, KRON maintains a newscast schedule similar to the one it had as an NBC affiliate. It is the only MyNetworkTV affiliate that has ever maintained a news schedule mirroring that of a Big Three affiliate (as it carries morning, 5p.m., and 6p.m. newscasts, and previously an 11p.m. newscast). Several of KRON's veteran anchors and reporters left the station after the loss of the NBC affiliation; KRON also began incorporating video journalists (many of which were newer hires) to report, tape and edit news stories.
Despite the overall decline of KRON as an independent, its newscasts initially pulled in respectable ratings though viewership was lower than it was before the station lost its NBC affiliation. During the February 2004 sweeps period, the station placed second in the ratings behind KTVU. However, KRON's news viewership has gradually fallen since that point; also in 2004, the station posted an 8.7% market share, down from the 21% share it had as an NBC affiliate.[61] The 9p.m. newscast created after becoming independent eventually fell to fourth place by 2005. In March 2006, KRON's morning newscast posted an average viewership of approximately 28,000 viewers.[62] By 2009, overall viewership for the station's newscasts had fallen to fifth place among the Bay Area's news-producing English-language television stations.
On September 17, 2007, KRON-TV became the third station in the Bay Area (behind KGO and KTVU) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in 16:9 widescreen—albeit in standard definition. In September 2008, KRON dropped its 5p.m. newscast after the syndicated daytime talk show Dr. Phil was moved to the slot, the program's former 8p.m. timeslot (which Dr. Phil held locally since the show's 2002 premiere) was replaced by an hour-long prime time newscast; this would be undone in September 2009, with the cancellation of the 8p.m. newscast and Dr. Phil's return to the 8p.m. slot, along with the reinstatement of a 5:30 p.m. newscast (which expanded back to 5p.m. by 2010). The 8p.m. newscast returned on May 30, 2011, concurrent with the replacement of the 4p.m. news with Dr. Phil. KRON quietly upgraded its newscasts to high definition in April 2012, with the debut of new graphics. As of September 2013, only studio segments and on-air graphics are presented in HD, footage from field cameras and other news sources continue to be broadcast in widescreen SD until July 2016.
KRON launched a new 10p.m. newscast on May 16, 2016, that competes with newscasts on KTVU and, at that time, KBCW. However, also at that time, KRON's 11p.m. news was shortened to 15 minutes until it was dropped when KRON launched a new 9p.m. newscast on August 21, 2017, which competed with KGO's 9p.m. newscast for KOFY-TV until KGO canceled it.[63][64][65] On September 14, 2020, KRON launched an afternoon newscast at 3p.m.[66] In February 2019, KRON launched a 24-hour online news stream and app called KRONOn.[67] On January 10, 2022, KRON launched a noon newscast that competes with KTVU and KPIX. On May 9, 2023, KRON-TV announced that the 4 a.m. hour of KRON 4 Morning News would be dropped, making 5 a.m. the start of the program, and the launch of the 10 a.m. hour on May 22, 2023.[68][69]
On October 21, 2020, KRON unveiled a newly renovated studio during its 5 p.m. newscast.[72] On October 1, 2024, KRON debuted new graphics to commemorate the station's 75th anniversary.[73]
From July to December 2024, KRON simulcast two hours of news programming from its KRONOn streaming service weeknights from 11:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.[74]
Notable current on-air staff
- Catherine Heenan – anchor / reporter
- Roz Abrams – anchor (1982–1985)
- Cheryl Casone – reporter (2002–2004)
- Steve Centanni – reporter (1989–1996)
- Sylvia Chase – anchor (1986–1990)
- Claudia Cowan – reporter (1995–1998)
- Art Finley – children's show host (as "Mayor Art"); host of Pick A Show (c. 1966); reporter (1959–1968)
- Pat Finn – weatherman
- Michelle Franzen – reporter and fill-in anchor (1998–2001)
- Emil Guillermo – reporter (1982–1989)
