Los Angeles’ David Ono named News Anchor of the Year

Work highlights: The magazine recognized Ono’s work on “Defining Courage: Celebrate the Legacy of True American Heroes,” a multimedia production about the Japanese American Nisei soldiers of World War II, and his coverage of the devastating Lahaina fire while on vacation with his family in Hawaii in August.

Ono told the magazine that he spent seven hours hiking for about 14 miles while recording the fire, after which he “smelled of soot and was black from smoke.”

A breadth of experience: Ono has been a Los Angeles mainstay for 27 years. A co-anchor for Eyewitness News at 4 and 6 p.m., he has covered many important world events and disasters, including Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the tsunami in Japan in 2011 and the terrorist attack in Paris in 2015.

In 2017, he revealed that the most difficult story he had covered was the 2010 Haiti Earthquake, noting how it was “exceptionally tragic” as there were “many fatalities so there [were] lots of bodies on the streets.”

Achievements: Ono has won multiple accolades throughout his three-decade journalism career, including 31 Emmys, 10 Edward R. Murrow Awards and six AAJA National Journalism Awards, among others.

What KABC is saying: Speaking to the magazine, KABC Los Angeles president and general manager Cheryl Fair recognized Ono for carrying them “through untested waters” with his reporting. “David puts things in context, explaining them in a way that we can feel like we’re part of what’s happening and that we understand what’s going on,” Fair said.