returned to KCBS-TV in 1992 and has remained sports director at the station since. Other ex-athletes who are also sportscasters for KCBS and KCAL-TV are Eric Dickerson, Jim Everett, James Worthy and Eric Karros. From 1973 to 1990, the station aired Los Angeles Lakers games via the NBA on CBS; this included eight NBA Finals appearances by the Lakers during their Showtime era, where they came out victorious five times. Through CBS' contract with Major League Baseball, select Dodgers and Angels games aired on Channel 2 from 1990 to 1993. News operation KCBS-TV presently broadcasts 23 hours, 10 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 3 hours, 35 minutes each weekday and Saturdays and 3 hours on Sundays). News department history In 1961, KNXT created one of the nation's first "newshours." It began with 45 minutes of local news, The Big News, which featured Jerry Dunphy, along with legendary weatherman Bill Keene and sportscaster Gil Stratton. It aired from 6:30 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. weeknights, leading into the then-15-minute-long CBS Evening News, which completed the news hour. Also featured were special assignment reporter Maury Green and "Human Predicament" essayist Ralph Story. The team and format helped make KNXT the top-rated news station in Los Angeles. At times, a quarter of Los Angeles television sets were tuned to The Big News and its late-evening companion, Eleven O'Clock Report, the highest ratings ever for a television newscast in the area. The station eventually added reporters such as Howard Gingold and Saul Helpert, among others, and added news bureaus in Sacramento, San Francisco and Orange County, each with full-time correspondents and camera crews. The Big News expanded to a full hour in September 1963, leading into the new half-hour-long CBS Evening News. Color broadcasts of The Big News and Eleven O'Clock Report began in August 1966. Eventually, KNXT expanded to 2½ hours of local news programming, as well as a late night newscast. KNBC went head-to-head with KNXT with viewers during the 1960s. However, in the mid-1970s, rival KABC-TV began gaining ground in the local news ratings at KNXT's expense. In 1975, KNXT fired Dunphy (who was quickly hired by KABC) and was replaced by Patrick Emory, who had anchored at then-CBS owned-and-operated station KMOX-TV (now KMOV) in St. Louis. KNXT then adopted a format similar to KABC-TV's Eyewitness News with its "happy talk" between anchors. However, the change went nowhere. Just