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The Story of Good Day Sacramento

They said it couldn't be done. Well, we did it, and they do.

Not much about this show is the same as it was when the original version premiered (with the exception of two of the on-air personalities. Can you guess who? The answer's at the bottom!), and it's been a long and interesting road. In the summer of 1995, the folks running the TV station (KPWB, at the time) were hustling to put together a live, local, three-hour morning news and information program. They had only two things to worry about: hiring an entire staff to do the show, and beating the competition to the punch. Another Sacramento TV station had announced it would launch a more casual version of its morning news on a sister station. KPWB wanted to be first.

Walls were torn down and floors were added to the original broadcast facility on Media Place in Sacramento, near the Radisson Hotel. Secret meetings took place. Word leaked out that we were putting on a nighttime call-in show. With that rumor circulating, and using the hugely successful "The KTLA Morning News" in Los Angeles as a model, a staff was secretly assembled from all over the country, and on August 14, 1995, "The Morning Show" hit the air.

To say it was a small operation is an understatement. With an on-air crew of less than ten, "The Morning Show" was broadcast three hours a day, five days a week. Booking guests for a show no one had ever heard of, was no easy task. Personal computers were just starting to gain popularity. There was a fax machine on the set, right next to the "Mister Coffee" coffee maker.

When we convinced Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna to come into the studio, we were validated! Slowly, the show began to grow. But potential viewers couldn't tell by looking at the television listings, exactly who we were. The name was changed to "Good Day Sacramento" in early 1996. The show expanded from three hours, to three and a half, to four and a half, to its current five-and-a-half-hour state. Somewhere in there we became KMAX-TV/CW31, and added Good Day to our weekend lineup.

Since then, we've been unstoppable. Good Day has allowed us to provide wall-to-wall coverage on major stories over the years, up and down California, coast to coast and around the world. We can do what no other local news program does — give you a morning full of live (and yes, all five hours are live), local programming with news, weather, traffic, and the always-entertaining extra dose of stuff that makes you chuckle.

All that said, sit back and enjoy the ride! Thanks for tuning in!

(By the way, the only two original on-air personalities from 1995, are Marianne McClary and Tina Macuha!)

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