The program became the first local morning newscast in Southern California when it debuted on KNBC in 1986, as a half-hour lead-in to NBC's long-running morning news programToday. Kent Shocknek and Pat DaSilva were the original anchors of the program, with Christopher Nance handling weather duties, and Fred Roggin appearing in a sports segment that was pre-taped the night before. DaSilva, who is Mexican-American also became the first Latina female to anchor a weekday morning newscast. The program later expanded to an hour, then to 90 minutes in the late 1990s and to two hours in 2000; the program previously airs from 4:30-7 a.m. from 2010 to 2017. On July 31, 2017, the program was expand to 3 hours with an addition of its half-hour at 4:00 a.m. With the expansion of the weekend editions of the Today Show, Today in L.A. expanded to weekends in 1992. Eventual successors at the Today in L.A. anchor desk included Kathy Vara, David Cruz, Kelly Mack, Chris Schauble and Jennifer Bjorklund. Rachel Boesing served as weather anchor, while Paul Johnson provided traffic reports and also serving as a fill-in weather anchor. Vara, Mack, Cruz and Schauble eventually left the station; Vara later returned to KNBC in March 2010 after nine years at crosstown ABC O&O KABC-TV, and Schauble later became anchor of the 4-7 a.m. block of KTLA 's weekday morning newscast in early 2011. Bjorklund remained at KNBC, transitioning into a general assignment reporter role, before leaving in 2012. Boesing currently works as a host of My County, a community access program on the Los Angeles County Channel. Johnson died in June 2010 at the age of 75, after battling brain tumors. Since its inception, Today In L.A. has been among the highest-rated in the market, and has served as the inspiration for the local morning news concept. KABC-TV and KCBS-TV began airing their own morning newscasts in 1989. KCAL-TV briefly ran an hour-long morning newscast during its early years under the ownership of The Walt Disney Company, before cancelling it and replacing the program with children's programming. KTLA introduced a morning newscast starting in 1991, while KTTV began its morning news block in the fall of 1993; both stations' newscasts are highly rated and usually rate #1 or 2 in their timeslots. In 2016, the morning program began a partnership with KABC as the radio station airs the first half-hour of the program as part of a joint agreement with KNBC and KABC's parent company Cumulus Media.
