L-A TV: Five Newscasters Making Mass Exit From KNBC Channel 4

KNBC-TV Channel 4 is losing five popular newscasters, including Chuck Henry, the evening news co-anchor.

Henry, along with veteran reporters Beverly White, Vikki Vargas, Kim Baldonado and Angie Crouch, have accepted “voluntary early retirement” buyouts and will be leaving the station at the end of this month, according to two station insiders who were not authorized to comment. Vargas announced her retirement on social media Wednesday night, reports The L-A Times.

Company-wide, NBCUniversal has been offering incentives to encourage some longtime staff members to exit amid a dramatic round of cost-cutting. Television companies industrywide have been bracing for a lean 2023 because of an advertising downturn, fears of a possible recession and rising programming costs, including increases in sports rights fees.

Chuck Henry

Earlier this fall, KNBC-TV management told staff members that it hoped enough volunteers would accept the buyouts to reduce the number of layoffs at KNBC-TV and its sister Telemundo station, KVEA-TV Channel 52, according to three people familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak publicly. Despite the five prominent broadcasters volunteering for early retirement last month, it wasn’t enough to spare the station from the layoffs, the sources said.

On Wednesday, several executives and staff members learned they were part of the layoffs, according to the sources.

It was not immediately clear who will replace Henry, the affable, Emmy-winning anchor who has worked alongside co-anchor Colleen Williams for more than a decade. Williams is expected to stay on.

For KNBC viewers, the departures of so many familiar faces at the same time could be jarring and upsetting. The exits come two years after one of KNBC’s most distinctive and beloved personalities, meteorologist Fritz Coleman, retired after providing weather reports for the station for 39 years, and a year after longtime reporter Patrick Healy signed off after 37 years.