Doug Kriegel returning to air as a drive-by economist

Doug Kriegel left KNBC Channel 4 in 2009 — after 31 years as a reporter — and has been seen since on TV a bit in Santa Barbara and writing for Patch sites in the Valley. Now he's created and produced a show for PBS So Cal on the Southern California economy.The first one is scheduled to air Thursday evening at 5:30 p.m. "It has always bothered me that the regional economy gets very little coverage on local television, even though it involves more than six million jobs where people are producing a total product that exceeds $900 billion," he tells me. "That's larger than the economies of some countries."

"I’m not planning a business program or a money show. The broadcast I’m producing on PBS SoCal KOCE will attempt to explore the economic life of southern California from the inside. It will be people-oriented stories in the context of the local economy. I’m talking here about the job market, big and small business, entrepreneurs, the economic history of Los Angeles, family firms, ethnic specialties, supermarket wars, the restaurant biz, and more."

Kreigel says he was an economist and financial analyst before going into journalism. "For years, I entertained my friends and colleagues at KNBC by telling them that someday I was going to create a show called 'The Drive-By Economist.' Now I've done it."

Hey, is this the mythical first new local news programming from PBS SoCal? Here's a story from an upcoming show.