KCBS and KCAL Rebrand to "NewsCentral"

The station that once offered up "The Big News," and later "Action News," is now about to unveil "NewsCentral."

KCBS (Channel 2), along with sister indie KCAL (Channel 9), plans to start branding its newscasts under the "NewsCentral" umbrella.

Starting this fall, "CBS2 NewsCentral" and "KCAL 9 NewsCentral" will become the official names for those two stations' newscasts. The CBS-owned duopoly merged news operations several years ago under one roof.

The "NewsCentral" name also falls into line with the branding that KCBS and KCAL have used for several years on the sports side, "Sports Central."

Announcement was made Wednesday by KCBS/KCAL president and general manager Patrick McClenahan.

"While our anchor teams will remain attached to their current newscasts, viewers will be able to count on the combined forces of both stations for an improved and more consistent focus on local news coverage – 11 hours each weekday, beginning at 5 a.m. and continuing to 11:35 p.m.," McClenahan said.

McClenahan also pointed out that other stations in the market -- Fox's KTTV, NBC's KNBC, and Tribune's KTLA -- have opted to pool newsgathering operations.

From Wikipedia, here's a list of KCBS newscast names through the years:
World News (1938-1948)
Telenews (1948-1949)
Fleetwood Lawton & The News (1950-1951)
World News and KNXT News (1951-1960)
The Big News (1960-1976, 6:15 P.M. newscast until September 1, 1963; 6 P.M. newscast since September 2, 1963)
24 Hours (1960-1976, 11 P.M. newscast)
2LA Newsroom (1976-1979)
Channel 2 News (1979-1988)
Channel 2 Action News (1988-1997)
CBS 2 News (1997-present)

And here's the past KCAL newscast titles:
Don Lee News (1950s)
The Channel 9 News (1960s-1980s)
The Ten O'Clock News (1970s-early 1980s)
The Nine O'Clock News (1983-1989)
Prime 9 News (1990-1995)
KCAL 9 News (1995-present)