TOYOTA TO LEAVE KNBC : NEWSCASTER EXITS TONIGHT

Tritia Toyota, a longtime news anchor at KNBC, will leave the station following the 11 p.m. newscast tonight, a Channel 4 spokeswoman said Thursday.

In separate statements released by the NBC-owned station, both management and Toyota suggested that the parting was amicable.

KNBC said that Toyota’s contract was expiring and that station officials had been “unable to reach a new agreement with her.”

“I feel that it’s time to move on,” Toyota said in her prepared statement. She added that “due to a 90-day clause in my contract, I will not accept any offer or announce future plans until June.”

The station did not immediately announce who will fill in for her as co-anchor of the weeknight newscasts at 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. There have been rumors for the past few months that KNBC was talking with former anchor and network personality Tom Snyder about returning to the station.

Ratings for Toyota’s two editions of “News Center 4 L.A.” have been relatively stable for the past year, with the 5 p.m. broadcast running third behind KABC Channel 7 and KCBS Channel 2, and the 11 p.m. newscast running neck-and-neck with those of the other two network-owned stations.

Toyota has been a fixture at Channel 4 since January, 1972, when she joined the station as a general assignment reporter.

She was not available for further comment but said in her statement that she plans to “remain active in the community, as I always have been.”

Toyota is president and co-founder of the Asian-American Journalists Assn. A native of Oregon, she earned a master’s degree in journalism from UCLA in 1970.