CBS duo drops ‘KCAL News’ branding in Los Angeles

CBS has rebranded the local newscasts on its owned stations in Los Angeles.

Local news on KCBS, the CBS affiliate, and KCAL, an independent, will now be known as “CBS News Los Angeles,” a move that aligns the stations’ branding with a broader initiative within the group.

KCAL News switches to virtual set for 10 a.m. newscast

The move means that it is dropping the “KCAL News” branding it introduced back in 2023.

At the time, both KCBS and KCAL, rebranded their newscasts under the name “KCAL News” — taking on the call letters of the independent station the network owns in the market. At the time, executives said the idea was to capitalize on the “KCAL” name — which is pronounced as if it were the word “kay-cal” — which had gained familiarity among L.A. viewers. 

The station did still use the name “CBS Los Angeles” (but not “CBS News Los Angeles”) alongside the KCAL banner to refer to its newscasts, which continue to be produced by the same team. 

It also used the L.A. name to refer to the station as a whole. Meanwhile, the logo featured the “KCAL” letters in a box next to the L.A.-centric branding set in the network’s signature font, TT Norms.

In at least some instances, including TV listings, newscasts don’t include the word “News,” instead using names such as “CBS LA at 10 a.m.” 

Exclusive: Inside the rebranding of CBS-owned local stations

The shift to the “CBS News (City or Region Name)” format began earlier in 2023 and followed a years long effort to rebrand the entire network as well as its news and local stations divisions.

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KCBS and KCAL were one of the notable exceptions to this branding format, though its local streaming channel did use the “CBS News Los Angeles” name.

In other markets, both the legacy newscasts and streamer shared the same name, similar to how “CBS News” was used at the network level to refer to both the division as a whole and its streaming service, which has since been rebranded as “CBS News 24/7.”

In addition to the name change, the station also updated its graphics to feature the “CBS News Los Angeles” logo, this time with the CBS eye instead of the boxed letters, on its on-screen bug.

A ‘CBS LA’ branding image with the ‘We are yours’ tagline set on top of a quintessential Cali coastline image.

The rectangular enclosing the bug also received light yellow and blue coastline-inspired accents, which have also been added to other areas of the on-air look.

Newscasts and KCBS itself are often referred to on-air as “CBS LA” as well, including in TV listings and in cases where space is limited, such as inside the ticker it overlays on the “CBS Mornings” feed, social media and digital.

Aside from the name change and switch to blue and yellow accents, most of the newscasts’ look remains the same.

The unique tweak to the on-air graphics package is not unprecedented within the group. 

Both KYW in Philadelphia and KDKA in Pittsburgh, use color palettes that eschew the traditional blue and gold looks the package was originally designed with, while WBBM in Chicago added the four six-pointed red stars inspired by the city flag.

Sources have told NCS in previous interviews that CBS News and Stations has been open to the flexibility of allowing local stations to adding their own local spin to the network package. 

The move away from “KCAL” makes a good deal of sense. Although the calls were treated more as a word than actual call letters (and general viewers on a whole are largely become less familiar with call signs), the update removes a slightly clunky branding element.

That’s not to say CBS’s decision to use the “KCAL” name, at least for a time, on both stations wasn’t a creative way to get the best of both brands. 

It could also be argued that, after over three years, it made sense to transition away from “KCAL” completely since viewers had already become familiar with seeing both those letters and “CBS Los Angeles” side-by-side.

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Although KCBS-KCAL were one of the most prominent deviations from the network branding schema, CBS did appear to start taking the notion of branding under variations of “CBS News” a bit too far. Before the transition to “CBS News 24/7,” there wasn’t a clear way to differentiate between the network news division and its streamer (the same issue existed between local news branding and their streamers).

In fairness, execs did say at the time that unification was one of the goals of the brand updates. They were likely hoping that the name “CBS News” would simply become a broad way to refer to anything coming from the network newsroom. 

However, it appears that goal may have been an overshoot, as consumers appear to still value differentiated branding for different platforms. 

From a production standpoint, it makes sense for both stations to share news branding, since some of the broadcasts appear on both channels. 

Despite the change, the indy station that’s part of the duopoly still continues to use the name “KCAL 9.”