Harold Greene, award-winning journalist, read news at KCAL 9 News and CBS 2 News in Los Angeles. Before joining the CBS duopoly, Greene enjoyed a long television news career, mostly in Southern California. Greene began his career in 1970 as a reporter and producer for KABC-TV in Los Angeles. Later in 1973, Greene was hired to help launch the news operations for KCST-TV which at the time became the new ABC affiliate for San Diego. After serving one year as anchor/news director at Channel 39, he moved over to rival station, then-NBC affiliate KGTV, where his co-anchoring The News with Jack White and his acclaim for his coverage of the Chicano rights movement helped the station briefly overtake rival KFMB in the ratings. Years later, Jack White became a consultant for the film resulting in the filmmakers finding some old pictures of Greene in White's scrapbooks and the look of Ron Burgundy was born. In 1977, Greene left San Diego for a brief stint at CBS affiliateKPIX-TV in San Francisco, paired with co-anchor Dave McElhatton, a popular local radio personality who himself was in his first year with the station. After a year in the Bay Area, Greene returned to Los Angeles and rejoined KABC-TV as co-anchor of the 5:00 p.m. Eyewiness News with the legendary Jerry Dunphy. However, after two years of co-anchoring the 5:00pm newscast with Dunphy, he was fired; KABC management subsequently brought in Ann Martin and special correspondentPaul Moyer to anchor the newscast. Greene returned to San Diego and his old evening anchor slot at KGTV, but in 1982 KABC rehired him as a reporter and weekend anchor alongside Joanne Ishimine. His third tenure at KABC became more successful, which included serving as host/celebrity interviewer of locally produced programs such as Hollywood Close-Up and A.M. Los Angeles for the station. He would earn one of ten Golden Mike Awards for his coverage of the Cerritos air disaster in 1986. Greene would weeknight anchor on Eyewitness News - he replaced Dunphy on the 4 and 6 p.m. newscasts when the latter moved to KHJ-TV in 1989 and moved to the 5 and 11 p.m. newscasts replacing Moyer in 1992. His weeknight co-anchors included Martin, Lisa McRee and Laura Diaz. Greene exited KABC in August 2000 and later signed with KCBS in January 2001, reuniting him with former Eyewitness News colleagues Ann Martin and veteran sportscaster Jim Hill. Two other KABC colleagues, Diaz in 2002 and weatherman Johnny Mountain in 2005, would join Greene and Martin at KCBS, reuniting many of members of KABC's Eyewitness News team during the 1980s and early 1990s. By the time KCBS/KCAL dropped him and several other staffers on April 1, 2008 amid budget cuts, Greene had been co-anchoring KCAL's 4pm and KCBS's 6pm newscasts with Martin. A station source indicated he would retire, but neither Greene, nor Martin made any official comment. The budget cuts caused a trade with KTTV, as Diaz would be sent to that station in exchange for Greene's eventual replacement, Rick Garcia. In addition to his aforementioned Golden Mike awards, Greene's honors also include the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism Award, nine Emmy nominations and two wins, three Edward R. Murrow Awards, and twelve L.A. Press Club Awards. Greene has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6906 Hollywood Blvd.
