Scott Diener, a 1980 graduate of Arcadia High School and a George Foster Peabody award winner, has been named Vice President and News Director for KCBS-TV (channel 2) and KCAL-TV (channel 9), the nation’s largest local television duopoly.
1980 AHS grad Scott Diener returns to SoCal as KCBS/KCAL VP & News Director.
Diener had been News Director at Dallas-Fort Worth CBS-owned duopoly KTVT-TV and KTXA-TV since August 2007, which he helped guide to first place in late news for the first time ever during the November 2009 sweep.
“I am honored to be given the opportunity to lead the largest and one of the most distinguished local television news teams in the country and look forward to coming home to the Los Angeles area with my family,” Diener said in a statement. “I have great respect for what CBS 2 and KCAL 9 has meant to the people of Southern California and look forward to helping to build on the stations’ success.”
Prior to Dallas-Fort Worth, Diener was News Director at KTVK-TV in Phoenix, WHAS-TV in Louisville, KNTV-TV in San Francisco and WCPO-TV in Cincinnati.
Over the course of his career, in addition to the Peabody award, Diener has been honored with the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University award. While at KTVK in Phoenix, he served as the Arizona state coordinator for the Radio and Television News Directors Association and was a member of the First Amendment Coalition board of directors.
Diener, whose mother and siblings all live in California, graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He and his wife, Jean, have three sons.