KTLA A.M. News Off to Slick Start

It rained on the debut of the “KTLA Morning News” Monday--much to the delight of Channel 5 executives.

“The rain actually gave us some interesting things to shoot on the freeways,” Nicholas van Hoogstraten, executive producer of the 7 to 9 a.m. newscast, said in an interview following the broadcast.

Van Hoogstraten explained that during rain-free rehearsals for the program, the KTLA helicopter often found nothing but smooth sailing on the freeways. But the rain-slicked roads offered several jack-knifed trucks and clogged interchanges for the station to shoot and broadcast Monday.

The weekday morning newscast, designed to compete directly with “Good Morning America,” “Today” and “This Morning” on the networks, went off without any major glitches, said Warren Cereghino, KTLA’s news director. “We seemed to have gotten most of the bugs ironed out before we went on. I was very pleased with what I saw,” he said.

The premiere included live interviews with Mayor Tom Bradley and Gov. Pete Wilson and was heavy on reports about the crimes that occurred over the holiday weekend.

Whether the wet weather prompted viewers to seek out a local morning newscast instead of one of the network programs won’t be known until ratings arrive today.