Alycia Lane on the air in L.A.

L.A. is apparently Alycia Lane's kind of town.

The former CBS 3 newscaster begins a new chapter in her professional career today as a weekend anchor/general-assignment reporter for

KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, the NBC-owned station said yesterday.

"I am thrilled to once again be a part of the NBC family . . . I'm excited to be back doing what I love, moving forward, and using my experiences to make me a better journalist," Lane said in a statement released through KNBC.

"I'm grateful to NBC for the opportunity to contribute to an already stellar TV news team."

Lane's CBS 3 career abruptly ended in January 2008 after a confrontation the previous month with a New York police officer, and the plot later thickened with the revelation that her former co-anchor Larry Mendte, had hacked into her e-mail accounts. Lawsuits followed and her hunt for work began.

Lane, 37, was inundated with job offers in the last several months, her agent, Gregg Willinger, said yesterday. "Looking for the right situation, we've spoken to many stations, networks and syndicators," he said.

Now, with her multiyear contract, "she's working for a terrific station, KNBC, a wonderful company, NBC Universal," Willinger said.

He declined to specify the length of the contract or what Lane will be paid.

But broadcast-news insiders agreed it's not Philly money. (It's estimated Lane made $650,000-$750,000 a year at CBS 3.)

"I guarantee she's not making in L.A. what she made in Philadelphia," said Scott Jones, a former news director and editor of FTVLive.com, a news-industry Web site. "A weekend-anchor position doesn't get as much."

Lane has chosen a network that is reputed to be lean and mean and run by "bean counters," Jones said. Broadcast networks have been reducing costs due to the economy and the malaise in the news industry, "but NBC is the worst," Jones said.

TV-news veteran David Goldberg said Lane "can look forward to a fresh start" in the Los Angeles market. "It's a different market, it's more geared toward personality," said Goldberg, who worked in the business for 36 years including eight years as a news director in L.A., Houston and Dallas.

Neither Goldberg nor Jones was surprised that KNBC hired Lane after her high-profile arrest and firing here.

Lane has been "employable" all along, he said, but probably didn't pursue any offers for personal and "legal reasons," he said.

"A lot of her lawsuits were contingent on her not being employable."

There "were always opportunities but the timing was not appropriate," said Lane's lawyer, Paul Rosen. "She wasn't ready until she was strong emotionally."

Now, L.A. Lane is ready for her close-up.

In Philly, she was part of Team CBS 3, co-anchoring the 11 p.m. newscasts with Mendte. Although that pairing resulted in increased ratings for the station, the relationships between Lane and Mendte, and between Lane and the station, took a twisted turn.

Almost six months after Lane was fired, Mendte was dismissed after he admitted to illegally hacking into Lane's personal e-mail accounts.

He spent six months on house arrest after pleading guilty.

Lane later sued CBS 3 for defamation and invasion of privacy, and also filed suits against CBS 3, Mendte, the Daily News and columnist Dan Gross.

Mendte's attorney Julia Morrow had a message for Lane after the KNBC announcement: "A congratulations is in order for Miss Lane. Apparently her career hasn't been destroyed after all, despite the dramatic allegations in her 122-page complaint."

Rosen didn't disagree. Lane's new gig "is good for her at all levels - emotionally, psychologically and economically," he said.

"But it does not deter from any of the claims she brought for emotional and reputational harm," he said. And she misses Philadelphia.

"She's obviously sick that she had to leave her hometown of Philadelphia in order to have this opportunity," he said, adding that she is "very close to the city and the people." (Lane is originally from Suffolk County, N.Y.)

"But it will be NBC and Los Angeles' gain."