Royal Courtain

Royal Courtain is one of the most recognizable personalities in northern California television history. He is best remembered as the longtime sports director and anchor at Chico, California television station KHSL-TV Channel 12 (a CBS affiliate). He worked alongside other station notables as Moriss Taylor, Ron Palmer, Rick Rigsby, Debbie Cobb and his mentor Ray Narbietz, just to name a few.

For 22 years, Royal (known as "The Dean of Chico Sports") reported on everything from high school sports to national sports to athletic events from his alma mater Chico State University, where he was a wide receiver on the football team (when they had football). He served the North Valley well at the station working for Hugh and Mickey McClung early in his career.

He stayed loyal to KHSL-TV all the way up until he was unceremoniously fired by current owners Catamount Broadcasting on July 11, 2001, a highly-publicized move that angered many Chico area residents. The reason for the firing was not given by management, even to this day.

But it wasn't long before Royal would return to Northstate television as Chico sports reporter for Redding, California, station KRCR-TV working alongside longtime rival Mike Mangas for three years. Mangas stated that Royal's addition to the KRCR team was "a night I thought I would never experience."

He also worked as the station's Chico account executive until he left in 2003. He currently works at Charter Media and hopes to one day return to the sports anchor desk.

Known for his charity work, Royal has been co-host of the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Telethon on several occasions at Channel 12 and most recently co-hosted the Northern California Burn Foundation's Hearts For Burned Kids Telethon at Win-River Casino in Redding, which aired on KRVU-TV UPN 21 (now My 21) and KGEC-TV Family TV 26. He has also been public address announcer for the annual Chico Breakfast Lions Club's Bob Busch All-Star Baseball Game since its inception in 2003.

Controversy over firing

Royal's firing by KHSL-TV owners Catamount Broadcasting made local headlines at such newspapers as the Chico Enterprise-Record, the Chico News and Review and even the Redding Record Searchlight. Scores of people came to his defense with letters to the editor to the E-R demanding an explanation and encouraging a boycott by local businesses who advertised on the station. Raymond Johns, owner of Catamount, defended the decision in a letter to the editor "wishing Royal the best" and chastizing the Enterprise-Record calling publishing the story "irresponsible journalism". Courtain fired back with a class-action lawsuit that was believed to have been settled. Still today, viewers believe that the station's longtime loyalty and credibility were forever tarnished the day Royal was fired.

An almost-similar move occurred when longtime news anchor Debbie Cobb was "reassigned" by management, yet returned to the anchor desk on the weekends.

External links

* [http://www.newsreview.com/chico/Content?oid=oid%3A4991 Chico News and Review archive]