Frank Buckley anchors KTLA’s signature broadcast, L.A.’s No.1-rated KTLA 5 Morning News every Monday through Friday from 7-11 a.m. He is also the host/executive producer of the weekly TV show and podcast, Frank Buckley Interviews, airing on weekends on KTLA and also available on YouTube and all podcast platforms. Frank also co-anchors Inside California Politics, airing weekends on KTLA and on other Nexstar TV stations.
Frank joined KTLA in 2005 from CNN, where he had been a national correspondent. Frank is the recipient of numerous awards, including Emmys for hard news reporting, for news special for his coverage of the Hong Kong handover, and for entertainment programming for co-hosting KTLA’s Rose Parade pre-show.
He has also won awards from the Los Angeles Press Club, including best documentary for KTLA’s “When Disaster Strikes: A Survival Guide” and for talk/public affairs for “Access L.A.” His other honors include APTRA Awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association, including reporter of the year; Golden Mike Awards from the Radio and Television News Association for writing and feature reporting; and the national Americanism in News Media Award. In 2019, Frank Buckley Interviews was nominated for a Los Angeles Press Club National Arts & Entertainment Award. In 2020, the program was nominated for an Emmy Award.
Frank’s reporting has taken him to nearly every community in Southern California and to many locations across the United States and the globe. In March 2011, Frank traveled to Japan for KTLA and reported from Sendai immediately after it was devastated by a tsunami and earthquake. Frank has also reported for KTLA from London on a terror plot and from Tehran, Iran, on the presidential election.
While at CNN, Frank’s varied assignments ranged from breaking news to politics to long-form enterprise reporting, including several CNN Presents documentaries including “Carrier at War.” During Operation Iraqi Freedom, Frank was embedded with the U.S. Navy aboard the aircraft carrier USS Constellation in the Persian Gulf. In the weeks following 9/11, he reported from the Pentagon and from warships in the Arabian Sea.
In 2004, Frank participated in CNN’s political coverage, traveling with the John Kerry and John Edwards campaigns. In 2003-2004, he also traveled with President George W. Bush and frequently reported from the White House. Other political reporting assignments have included Hillary Clinton’s New York Senate run and the 2000 presidential election and its aftermath.
His spot news reporting for KTLA, CNN, and in the 1990s for KCAL-TV has included hurricanes in the Caribbean and the Carolinas; the Landers and Northridge earthquakes in California and the devastating earthquake in Kobe, Japan; wildfires in Southern California; the Los Angeles riots, the OJ Simpson case and trial; and the death of John F. Kennedy, Jr. off Martha’s Vineyard.
Prior to KTLA and CNN, Frank reported for Los Angeles station KCAL-TV (1992-1999), WXII-TV in Winston-Salem, N.C., and at KESQ-TV in Palm Springs. He has also written for the Los Angeles Times and the Detroit News. He graduated from USC with a double major in broadcast journalism and history in 1987.
Frank frequently donates his time to community organizations and has served on the boards of JDRF (formerly known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation), and the Los Angeles chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association. He was one of the original members of the people-to-people diplomacy organization, U.S.-Japan Council, and he served on the Japanese American Leadership Delegation to Japan in 2006. Frank is also a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
In 2022, Frank Buckley Interviews won a National Entertainment and Journalism Award from the L.A. Press Club.
Frank is married and the father of two sons. He is a bogey golfer, a weekly basketball player, and a cyclist who gives it everything he’s got to complete a 100-mile ride every year to raise funds for JDRF to defeat type 1 diabetes.
