KCRA-TV - News Operation

News Operation

Like many stations that have long dominated their markets, KCRA tends to take an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach to its news product. Its original logo—a roman "3" inside a green square with rounded corners and convex sides (to represent the shape of a TV tube)—was used from about 1960 until the late 1980s, when the current logo was adopted. Also, it refers to its newscasts as "Reports" rather than "News," despite that its newscasts on KQCA are titled as "KCRA 3 News". However in August, 2009, KCRA re-titled its 11 p.m. newscast as "the KCRA 3 Night Team." It removed "11 p.m." from the newscast name, but the mandated Hearst news theme is not used in the opening. In July 2011, the "Reports" branding was phased out and all the newscasts are referred to as "KCRA 3 News".

In late December 2005, KCRA began using a new "Triple Doppler" system for weather reports. In addition to KCRA's own doppler weather radar system at Walnut Grove, range and accuracy were increased by adding data from NEXRAD sites. KRGX north of Reno on Virginia Peak improves the accuracy of Sierra images, KMUX south of San Jose on Mt. Umunuhm has a great view of storms approaching from the Pacific Ocean, and KBBX at Beale Air Force Base gives improved detail in the valley.

On February 12, 2007 KCRA started broadcasting all of its news broadcasts in high definition television (HD) and also debuted its news set designed by FX Group and also LiveCopter 3 HD, becoming the first station in the Sacramento viewing area and first in the Hearst-Argyle family to broadcast the majority of its programming and the first to deliver local newscasts in HD. Upon the launch of its HD newscasts, the KCRA logo made a slight change, adding the NBC "peacock" and "HD" to the current logo. Only in-studio cameras shoot in HD, while the helicopter's camera, field cameras and other station camera feeds are in SDTV and are up-converted to a 16:9 aspect ratio in the control room. In September 2008, KCRA began using a new "Triple Doppler" system with high-definition graphics. As of August 25, 2010, with KSBW upgrading it's newscasts to HD, both KCRA and KSBW now share resources in this format when covering each other's news. The current weekend news anchor also acts as the sports anchor.

Under Hearst ownership, KCRA has either hosted or co-hosted many gubernatorial debates within California, often with moderator and political reporter Kevin Riggs and one other personality hosting the debate. Many of those debates are simulcasted on KSBW. A notable example of such is the debate between Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown.