January 20th, 2003

WASHED AWAY FROM KNBC: Christopher Nance is gone from KNBC/Los Angeles, after 17 years on the air there. Among those bridging the gap: Danny Romero, the long time main weathercaster at KCOP/UPN 13 in Los Angeles.

NEWS DIRECTOR NEWS IN THE CAPITOL: Ingrid Luquetta is the new n.d. of Spanish-language KUVS/Sacramento.

CONSULT THIS: Joe Barnes is the new Marketing Director for KOIN/Portland. Barnes has done it all in the business, working as a news manager in Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as a n.d. in Seattle. Barnes also operated a consultancy bearing his name for many years.

EASY BET: Lorraine Blanco is now at KVVU/Las Vegas as a reporter, moving from WHBF/Moline, Illinois.

KCOP CHANGES: Rick Chambers and KCOP-UPN 13/Los Angeles have parted ways. Rick was the station's main anchor. Moving into the slot is Rick Garcia from co-owned KTTV/Los Angeles. Garcia is doing an unusual split: Anchoring the sports on the Fox 10 p.m. news hour, and then changing news sets to do the news on the 11 p.m. UPN newscast.

RADIO MOVES IN L.A.: Clear Channel L.A. Director of AM Marketing Bill Lewis departs. Assuming Lewis' duties for KFI/KLAC will be Laura Behrman. Dave Weiss will handle KXTA and XTRA.

SPEAKING OF KXTA/XTRA: The Los Angeles-based Clear Channel sports station (KXTA) and the San Diego station (XTRA) have merged programming into one simulcast. While XTRA gets solid ratings numbers in Southern California, KXTA has struggled. It also lost the Dodgers this year to KFWB/Los Angeles.

FLIP FLOP: Sports fans tuning into KSPN/1110 Los Angeles got a shockeroo...the station was playing Disney's kids tunes. Disney flip-flopped the programming between its Radio Disney and ESPN Radio stations in Southern California. The kids programming moved from 710 to 1110 on the AM dial, while the sports went from 1110 to 710. The Angels will also join 710 this season. There's something special about the changes, because it returns the World Champions to the place on the radio dial where they were heard for decades, when the team and the radio station were owned by Gene Autry. 710 has a much better daytime signal (50,000 watts) which will benefit spots fans and the Angels.

AND FINALLY: There have got to be a lot of sore backs and tired folks around Columbia Square in Hollywood this week. It's the week when KCAL is set to officially move its news operations from the Paramount lot to CBS' longtime local home. With sweeps just around the corner, some folks are going to very busy trying to get everything up and running. The Columbia Square parking lot, which was easy to find a spot in during the last few years, is going to be chock full. Good luck...and keep some Advil handy!