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Central Coast’s KION News abruptly shut down in merger with KPIX

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SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Salinas-based KION News Channel, a station that served California’s Central Coast for over 50 years, was abruptly shut down Tuesday after merging with KPIX CBS in San Francisco. The rebranded station, KPIX News on KION, “will deliver the most significant stories from across Northern and Central California, while continuing to highlight local reporting, weather forecasts and community updates that matter most to residents of Monterey, Salinas, Santa Cruz, and beyond,” according to a news release on KION’s website.

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“This collaboration builds on a long history: KPIX originally supplied CBS programming to KION (then KMST) when the station signed on in 1969,” the news release continued. “The renewed partnership reflects CBS’s commitment to serving communities across Northern California — from Lake Tahoe to the Santa Cruz Coast with trusted journalism and innovative storytelling.”

However, as a result of the merger, the entire 13-person newsroom at KION was dissolved, according to a report in Monterey County Now. The station’s editorial team was reportedly informed they were being laid off immediately following their 10 a.m. editorial meeting Tuesday.

The news release on KION’s website announcing the KPIX merger made no mention of the reported layoffs. It did specify that the station would “no longer produce its own full local newscasts.”

KION is owned by News-Press & Gazette, which owns 13 small-market news stations across the western region of the U.S.

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Alex Baker

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