News operation
By 1982, with Metromedia owning major news-producing independent stations and planning a national news program (for which it attempted to poach Charles Kuralt and John Hart), KRIV was considering starting a news department of its own.[36] This led to the August 1983 launch of KRIV's 7 p.m. newscast, the first prime time newscast in the Houston market.[37] The newscast was originally intended to be a television equivalent to All Things Considered, more sophisticated than its competition.[38] By 1986, it was attracting an audience that at times equaled the third-place 6 p.m. broadcast from KHOU,[39] and a 12:30 p.m. newscast was added. When Fox began providing network programming in prime time, the newscast relocated to its present 9 p.m. position, which brought better ratings and a more loyal news audience.[40]
In 1989, the station began airing Sunday night news specials under the banner City Under Siege, focusing on drug-related issues in Houston.[41] The program regularly featured drug busts, and what some viewers called an overemphasis on Black people being arrested led to rules being set by the Houston Police Department.[42] The program later evolved into a general crime program and outlived several others using the same format at other stations.[43]
Since the 1990s, the station has conducted several major news expansions. In 1993, it started a morning newscast, initially at 7 am, as well as a Sunday night newscast.[44] The morning newscast first expanded to three hours, then to four in 2003.[45] On August 18, 2008, KRIV debuted an hour-long weeknight 5 p.m. newscast.[46]
On July 7, 2012, KRIV significantly expanded its news offerings on weekends beyond its one prime time hour, debuting a three-hour weekend morning newscast from 5 a.m. to 8 a.m. and expanding its hour-long 5 p.m. newscast to weekends for a total of eight additional hours of news on the weekends.[47] Prior to the launch of the new newscasts, KRIV was one of only two Fox-owned stations – alongside Chicago sister station WFLD – that did not have an early evening newscast seven nights each week. On August 21, 2017, KRIV launched a 10 p.m. weeknight newscast titled The NewsEdge at 10, which emphasizes a recap format.[48] The NewsEdge brand was expanded in 2020 to a 6 p.m. newscast, anchored by Kaitlin Monte.[49]
On September 24, 2018, KRIV rebranded the first three hours of its weekday morning newscast from 4 to 7 a.m. as ''Wake Up! with SallyMac & Lina'', with longtime KRIV reporter/anchor Sally MacDonald and new hire Lina De Florias (who would join the station from KTVK/KPHO-TV in Phoenix) serving as the namesake anchors, featuring a format similar to that of its 10 p.m. newscast; the remainder of the newscast was then rebranded months later as "Houston's Morning Show".[50]
