ANC aired up to five live half-hour newscasts each day (airing at 4:00 a.m., 8:00 a.m., noon, 4:00 p.m., and 10:00 p.m. Central Time, with an occasional sixth at 4:30 a.m.), with each edition being repeated until the next live newscast aired; however, exceptions to this set scheduling were made for major breaking news stories, with updates being regularly incorporated into the newscasts as new information became available.
Like CNN Headline News and Satellite News Channel before it, ANC's newscasts utilized a news wheel format, which was intended to allow viewers to receive updated information on national and international headlines at any time throughout the day. This format featured national and world headlines at the top of the hour (:00/:30); a national news summary (titled "Across America") at :08/:38 after the hour; national weather forecasts (including a rundown of daily forecasts for 20—later, 15—U.S. cities, accompanied in later years by a notable weather headline and a daily summary of national temperature extremes) at :15/:45 after; consumer reports and stock market summaries at :17/47 after; sports headlines and scores (during the evening and overnight hours) or health and medical news (in the morning and daytime) at :20/50 after; and entertainment and lifestyle reports at :25/:55 after.
If mistakes were made during the live broadcasts, a corrected segment would be produced (sometimes live) for the repeat broadcasts. ANC operated on a fixed schedule, where each news block ran the same length every day, and commercials (which consisted mainly of direct response advertisements, and from 1994 to 1999, promos for USSB's slate of general entertainment and premium channels; the satellite provider's ads were also seen at times on some stations that carried ANC programming) aired at the same time every day.
The on-air talent was mostly exclusive to All News Channel, though some anchors from Hubbard flagship station KSTP also served as ANC anchors, most notably Stan Turner, who worked for the network from 1992 until its closure; KSTP meteorologists and weather producers (Dave Dahl, who was the station's chief meteorologist throughout ANC's existence, among them) also presented taped weather segments for All News Channel until early 2002. Later, ANC show producers voiced their own weather segments, along with other stories.
9/11 News Coverage
During the September 11 attacks, ANC struggled to keep up with the bombardment of information. ANC's traditional format only had a live newscast every four hours. Due to their small staff on 9/11, the network could only be live for 30 minutes per hour and then repeat the broadcast. The channel also did not have the live remote broadcast abilities of other sources, instead relying on second-hand reporting. Unlike most news broadcasts on 9/11, ANC continued to air scheduled commercials.[26]
