Los Angeles is home to one of the most competitive time periods in regional news broadcasts: the pre-dawn timeslot, the Los Angeles Times reports.

A jump in early rising commuters and the heated competition of the 24-hour news cycle has led L.A. news stations to devote increasing resources to providing news as early as 4:30 a.m. KTTV this month added a newscast at that time, joining competitors KABC, KNBC and KTLA.

The article points out that "the early morning hours were considered a broadcast "ghetto" for local stations," but "are now heavily promoting their early morning programs and tapping popular anchors to showcase them." The result? The 5 a.m. timeslot in Los Angeles is the only time of the day when five local TV stations directly compete with their newscasts.