KOCE's "Real Orange": The Incredible Shrinking News Show

We've frequently bemoaned the lack of a quality television news programs excluisvely covering Orange County, which has a population of 3.1 million people after all. Now comes word the show the covers the county most consistently will be drastically scaled back.

Real Orange on KOCE/Channel 50 is being cut from five new shows every week to two or three, Michael Volpe reports in the Orange County Business Journal's Media and Marketing column.

Ed Arnold and Ann Pulice will continue to host the half-hour, program, but they will have an easier time finding parking in the Huntington Beach-based public television station's parking lot. Two full-time employees were laid off, other full-timers had their hours cut and all part-timers and freelancers were cut loose, Volpe reports.

The changes are part of a $550,000 budget cut.