KTLA 5 in Los Angeles will broadcast “A Celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage,” hosted by Frank Buckley and Cher Calvin, on Thursday, May 23, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, May 25, at 7:30 p.m.
Interviewees featured on the broadcast include Gwen Muranaka, senior editor of The Rafu Shimpo, which was established in 1903 and has published continuously since then except during the wartime incarceration; and Rep. Judy Chu of California’s 28th Congressional District, a former mayor of Monterey Park, the first Chinese American woman elected to Congress, and chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.
Frank Buckley anchors 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. He also co-anchors “Inside California Politics,” airing weekends on KTLA and on other Nexstar TV stations.
Buckley joined KTLA in 2005 from CNN, where he had been a national correspondent. He 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.
Buckley’s reporting has taken him to nearly every community in Southern California and to many locations across the U.S. and the globe. In March 2011, he traveled to Japan for KTLA and reported from Sendai immediately after it was devastated by a tsunami and earthquake. He has also reported for KTLA from London on a terror plot and from Tehran, Iran, on the presidential election.
While at CNN, Buckley’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, he 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, Buckley 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 O.J. 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 received a scholarship from the Asian American Journalists Association and graduated from USC with a double major in broadcast journalism and history in 1987.
Buckley 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 AAJA. 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. He 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.
Buckley 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.
Cher Calvin joined KTLA in 2005 and anchors KTLA’s 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and the Emmy Award-winning 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. nightly newscasts.
Calvin is a social justice advocate, and a long-standing supporter and friend to the YWCA, emceeing the annual fundraising event for girls “Racial Justice Breakfast” for more than a decade.
She also conceptualized the 2021 Emmy Award-winning crime and social issue special “Breaking Bias: Anti-Asian Hate.” She served as co-producer, anchor and reporter.
Calvin is also on the Board of Directors and the vice president of the historic Los Angeles Press Club, whose mission is that a free press is crucial to a free society to support, promote, and defend quality journalism in Southern California.
She is proud to have hosted two annual LGBT Center Telethons raising over $1 million and the WeHo Pride Parade televised on KTLA.
Most of all, she is proud that in 2012 she created and co-produced the Emmy Award-winning three-hour special “Help for The Philippines Telethon,” raising more than $300,000 for typhoon victims in the Philippines in KTLA’s very first telethon in its long history.
Born and raised in New York City, Calvin graduated from New York University with a major in broadcast journalism and minor in political science with a focus on international relations. She went to the all-girls high school Marymount New York.
As a Filipino American, Calvin has been an active advocate for the AAPI community. Through her work and public presence at the Fil-Am Art and Culture festival, she has strived to shed light on the experiences, achievements, and challenges faced by Asian Americans. By utilizing her platform, she has worked to promote inclusivity especially during AAPI Heritage month, diversity, and representation within the media industry and beyond.
She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two rescue dogs.