KNBC to Air News Magazine in September

“The West,” a syndicated half-hour news magazine similar to “60 Minutes” but devoted exclusively to coverage of the Western United States, Canada and Mexico, will air on KNBC Channel 4 beginning in September.

“We are not a ‘P.M. Magazine’ or a tabloid program,” senior producer Val Nicholas said. “We are an investigative show.”

“The West” is produced in Sacramento by Kelly News and Entertainment, a subsidiary of Kelly Broadcasting, owner of KCRA-TV in Sacramento. The show employs a 35-member staff in Sacramento and a field producer and camera person in Seattle. Nicholas said that it intends to add bureaus in Los Angeles, Dallas, Phoenix, Denver and Salt Lake City.

Nicholas said that “The West,” which debuted last April, was created because of a perception that the region was being neglected by network news organizations.

“We found in the initial research that news had an East Coast bias,” Nicholas said. “If it happened out here, unless it was an earthquake or terrible destruction, it wasn’t news. We felt there was an appetite for solid information and set out to put together a show for that.”

The lineup on “The West” last Sunday included stories on the decimation of Alaska’s walrus population by ivory hunters, the plight of people living under the flight training paths of the Air Force’s “Top Guns” and the inability of researchers to obtain bark from the Yew tree for study of its possible cancer-curing properties.

“We think “The West” is fresh and unique,” said Pat Wallace, KNBC director of broadcasting and promotion. “We think they’re doing a terrific job and thought it would be an excellent fit with our news and information programming.”

KNBC plans to air “The West” as a lead-in to its Sunday newscast at 3:30 p.m, Wallace said. In that slot, however, it will be subject to preemption by network coverage of the National Football League. In the event of preemption, Wallace said, the show will be moved to either Sunday morning or Saturday.