Image Credit: KTLA 5
According to a breaking news report from Variety, another familiar face of Los Angeles television is gone.
Veteran KTLA Morning News weatherman Mark Kriski has reportedly been laid off as Nexstar Media Group continues reshaping local stations across the country.
And he wasn’t alone.
Fresh music, bold entertainment, and men’s fashion—one tight email a week.
Midday anchors Lou Parker and Glen Walker were also reportedly let go — three veteran voices removed from KTLA’s lineup in what feels like more than routine restructuring.
For longtime viewers, this isn’t just industry churn.
It feels like the closing of a chapter.
The Morning Show That Raised Los Angeles
Image: KTLA 5 Video Vault
For many of us who grew up in Los Angeles — watching before elementary school, during sick days, or while our parents got ready for work — KTLA wasn’t background noise.
It was part of our daily rhythm.
From Miracle Mile kitchens to Valley living rooms, Mark Kriski’s weather reports became as familiar as the sunrise. Lou Parker and Glen Walker brought steady presence and authority to the midday broadcast.
They weren’t interchangeable hires.
They were fixtures.
And that kind of longevity in local television is becoming rare.
After Sam Rubin, The Shift Feels Deeper
The sudden passing of beloved entertainment reporter Sam Rubin in 2024 was already a seismic moment for KTLA viewers.
Rubin represented something uniquely Los Angeles — access to Hollywood delivered with warmth and authenticity. He wasn’t just reporting entertainment; he was part of the city’s cultural fabric.
Now, with Kriski, Parker and Walker gone, the transformation feels broader.
The faces that defined decades of L.A. mornings and afternoons are disappearing — not through retirement tours or farewell celebrations, but through corporate restructuring.
Nexstar’s Expanding Footprint
Nexstar Media Group is now the largest owner of local television stations in the United States. Over the past decade, the company has steadily acquired stations across the country, consolidating markets under one corporate umbrella.
KTLA became part of that expansion in 2019.
Supporters argue consolidation is necessary to keep stations financially viable in a rapidly changing media economy. Critics argue it risks flattening local identity and reducing newsroom autonomy.
Regardless of perspective, the impact is visible.
Veteran anchors with decades of viewer loyalty are being cut amid broader cost-saving measures and structural shifts.
A Changing Media Climate
This moment also lands in a wider media climate where consolidation continues to accelerate nationwide.
As ownership becomes more concentrated and newsroom structures become increasingly centralized, viewers are asking harder questions about what happens to local voices.
Some see these moves as economics.
Others see something deeper — a slow narrowing of independent personalities and long-standing local presence.
In a media environment where control is increasingly concentrated, changes like this feel less isolated — and more like the beginning of a larger transformation.
Whether that transformation strengthens local journalism or weakens it remains to be seen.
But the era of 30-year careers rooted in one city is clearly shifting.
An Era That Can’t Be Recreated
There was a time when local news personalities built relationships over decades.
You knew their humor.
You knew their cadence.
You trusted them.
That trust wasn’t built overnight.
And it can’t be manufactured through corporate strategy alone.
When local television loses its local voices, it loses part of its identity.
For many Angelenos, this feels personal — because it is.
A Viewer’s Words
“I am heartbroken to see that Mark Kriski is being let go from KTLA 5. As a lifelong Angelino, I personally grew up watching him on TV almost everyday before and after school and work. For decades, he has been such an essential part of the KTLA 5 news team as a beloved weatherman whose presence has always been a positive light for the viewers. It is heartbreaking to see him leave under these circumstances given his massive impact on local news and the LA community.”
— Melody, Los Angeles
The television landscape that raised a generation of viewers is changing in real time.
And the question now isn’t just who leaves next.
It’s what local news becomes from here.
Story Developing
What Do You Think?
Have you watched KTLA since the early days?
Do these changes feel like necessary evolution — or something irreplaceable slipping away?
Let us know in the comments.
