David Ono

David Ono, courtesy of Rafu Shimpo newspaper

"I get up at 2:30 a.m. so that I can get to work by 3:30 a.m.," he said. While his day starts early, it doesn't end that way. Being promoted to anchor the 5 p.m. slot this past August and continuing his duties for 5 a.m. for KABC-TV (Channel 7), David Ono doesn't leave for home until around 7 p.m. "It's a long day for one thing."

Though it might seem like a crazy lifestyle, for the recipient of eight Emmys and two A.P. awards, his job is "...fun, it's exciting, you meet a lot of people. Especially in L.A. It's probably the best city you can be an anchor in."

He wasn't always in L.A., however. After graduating from the University of North Texas, he "sort of fell into broadcast journalism by accident." His career started at KXAS-TV in Dallas and made his way to Sacramento in 1993 with a few stops along the way. It wasn't until 1996 that he came to KABC-TV in Los Angeles.

Ono, with a hint of his lingering Texas drawl, says that living in L.A. "changes you because it makes you so much more savvy about what's going on...The eyes of the world are on Los Angeles and you're kind of right in the middle of it as it spins around you."

He finds it "mind blowing" when he runs into major stars who tell Ono they get their news from him. "Growing up in Texas...you watched them and now they watch you."

When it comes to keeping L.A. up to date, there are different techniques. Ono said that the key in the morning is to deliver the heavy news when they have to, but to keep the mornings as light as possible. But regarding to the evening news, he said, "The 5 p.m. is an important show ...for a lot of people it's their main news source," so they can't pull any punches when it comes to the hard stories.

Ono, born in Japan, moved to Texas when he was one with his Japanese speaking Caucasian father and his late Japanese mother. "Growing up in a diversified household makes you a whole lot more open minded. People are people," he said.

Being a Japanese American himself, Ono finds that coming out to host community events like the Asian American Journalist Association Trivia Night is a lot of fun. He finds that he has "a good support group." But one of his favorite aspects of getting out in public is that he sheds his "stuffy news anchor without a personality or a sense of humor" persona.