Longtime Los Angeles news anchor Kent Shocknek is retiring at the end of next month, according to CBS.
Shocknek has been anchoring in the market for over three decades, the last 13 of those with KCBS-TV and co-owned KCAL.
Shocknek anchored KCBS-TV's morning and evening newscasts until November 2013, and for the past eight months co-anchored KCAL's 8 and 10 p.m. newscasts.
The L.A. City Council declared Jan. 10 Kent Shocknek day in honor of his service to the market, which CBS says included being the longest-serving morning news anchor in L.A.
Before joining the CBS stations, Shocknek had been a long-time anchor at KNBC-TV Los Angeles, but exited in April 2001 after then new GM Paula Madison made a number of on-air changes, including moving him from his Today in L.A. post.
“Kent Shocknek is a Los Angeles TV news institution,” said Steve Mauldin, president and general manager, CBS 2 and KCAL 9. “He’s a consummate professional who has distinguished himself as an outstanding breaking news anchor with an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of Southern California....We wish he was staying with us, but respect his decision to make a lifestyle change.”
