KTLA’s Wald Quits to Take Over Low-Rated KCOP News

The fierce local TV wars took a dramatic turn Monday when Jeff Wald, news director of powerful KTLA Channel 5, said he was quitting to take over the news operation of low-rated KCOP Channel 13.

Wald, who joined KTLA in 1981, helped build it into an almost unbeatable force among L.A. independent stations with a veteran news team that includes Hal Fishman, Stan Chambers, Larry McCormick and executive producer Gerald Ruben.

Fishman co-anchors KTLA’s winning nightly newscast with Jann Carl.

Ever since KCAL Channel 9 announced its nightly, three-hour, prime-time newscast, which debuted March 5 with Jerry Dunphy as chief anchor, news director changes have taken place at all of L.A.’s four independent VHF stations. KCAL heightened the news war by swiping Dunphy from network station KABC-TV Channel 7.

Sources said that Wald, 38, born in Santa Monica and a USC graduate--and thus plugged into local news, KTLA’s strength--was given a hefty pay raise by KCOP. But the news director said, “It’s beyond that,” emphasizing that the challenge of struggling KCOP tempted him:

“They said to me that they wanted to give me a blank canvas with all the paints I would need to make them the No. 1 newscast in the market.”

Steve Bell, general manager of KTLA and Wald’s boss, called his departing news director “the best in the business. I’m sorry he’s leaving.” Wald’s contract with KTLA ends May 31, and KCOP station manager Rick Feldman said that he’s expected to join the station “on or before June 1.”

In a series of changes in the last few years, KCOP fired news director Ed Coghlan, co-anchor Tim Malloy and weather broadcaster Judy Jernudd. The station, which now has Warren Olney and Wendy Rutledge as its nightly anchors, has been without a news director since Coghlan was let go in December.