TVSpy
After less than five months, the “Newscentral” branding initiative at CBS’s Los Angeles duopoly has been scrapped. This is just the latest major change to happen to KCBS-KCAL since Peter Dunn was named the new president of CBS Television Stations in November. Last week, CBS announced that Steve Mauldin would be replacing Patrick McClenahan as the duopoly’s president and general manager.
In July, McClenahan announced that KCBS-KCAL would coexist under the “Newscentral” banner, complete with a logo combining the stations’ individual logos. “No local broadcast operation in Southern California can offer the combined newsgathering resources that we have at CBS 2 and KCAL 9,” said in making the announcement. “We are excited to be combining our own assets to cover Southern California like no one else can.”
According to LAObserved, who first broke this story, KCBS-KCAL newscasters have stopped referring to “Newscentral” and the brand has been wiped from the website. Mauldin, who previously served as president and GM of CBS’ KTVT-KTXA duopoly in Dallas/Fort Worth, referenced the importance of branding when he was introduced as the new KCBS-KCAL boss. “Both television stations have a lot of talent and KCAL has a great brand,” he said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times.