Manager of KCAL Says He’s Quitting

Jim Saunders, executive vice president and manager of KCAL Channel 9 the past year and a half, announced his resignation. The date of his departure was not set, and a replacement was not immediately named.

Saunders offered no explanation for the move.

Saunders was hired in June, 1989, as part of a two-man executive team brought in by owner Walt Disney Co. to oversee the independent station. He took sole charge when Blake Byrne resigned as general manager last August.

Disney purchased Channel 9, formerly KHJ-TV, for $320 million in December, 1988, changed the call letters and overhauled the management. Among KCAL’s most notable accomplishments has been launching a three-hour, prime-time newscast. Although the newscast has drawn modest ratings since its debut last March, it has been named best hourlong newscast in Southern California by the Radio and Television News Assn.