News operation
KAKE presently produces 3 1/2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week for KSAS-TV (with a half-hour each on weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays). KSAS-TV's studios on West Street have always been too small to house a full-scale news department, so its newscasts have been outsourced to other stations in the market.[7]
In the mid-1990s, ABC affiliate KAKE produced news updates, branded as KAKE News 10 Update on Fox 24, that aired during Fox prime time programming between 7 and 9 p.m.; the updates served mainly to tease stories that would air on KAKE's 10 p.m. newscast. On September 29, 1997, through a news share agreement, NBC affiliate KSNW produced the first prime time newscast in the market for KSAS, a nightly 9 p.m. newscast titled Fox News at 9 (originally called Fox First News prior to its launch),[8] along with hourly local news updates that aired during early evening and prime time programming. The program was scheduled to premiere on September 15, but was delayed due to construction delays on a secondary news set at KSNW's studios that would be used for the prime time show.[9] The broadcast was terminated due to poor ratings, with the last edition airing on December 31, 1998.[10] In 2000, the station announced plans to move to a larger building that would allow it to build the market's fourth in-house news department, but those plans fell through.[7]
Another news outsourcing agreement was established in 2003 with CBS affiliate KWCH, resulting in the return of a nightly prime time newscast to channel 24, which made its debut on January 19, 2004.[11] Known as Fox Kansas Eyewitness News at 9, the half-hour show originated from a secondary set (designed by FX Group) at KWCH's facility on East 37th Street North in northeastern Wichita. In 2005, the newscast received the "Best Large Market Newscast in Kansas" award from the Kansas Association of Broadcasters. KWCH continued production of the 9 p.m. newscast even after Schurz Communications (which acquired KWCH in 2006) purchased CW affiliate KSCW (channel 33) in 2008 under a failing station waiver and added an extension of its weekday morning newscast to that station's schedule. In October 2008, KWCH became the first station in the market to upgrade its local newscasts to high definition; although not initially included in the change, KWCH upgraded its weather forecast segments to HD in March 2009.
On September 12, 2011, KWCH began producing half-hour newscasts at 4 p.m. weekdays and seven nights a week at 9 p.m. for KSCW; the latter newscast directly competed with KWCH's newscast on KSAS, until the news share agreement between both stations expired on December 31.[12] In theory, KWCH could have simultaneously broadcast two 9 p.m. newscasts until the expiration of the agreement, because KSAS' newscast originated from a secondary set at KWCH's studio facility; however on October 5, 2011, KSAS filed a lawsuit against KWCH in Sedgwick County District Court claiming that in violation of the news share agreement, KWCH began taping the KSAS newscasts in advance, while KWCH produced its newscast for KSCW as a live telecast; District Judge Jeff Goering signed an order requiring KWCH to restore the live newscast on KSAS while the suit was pending.[13]
Two days later, the two stations reached an agreement, ending the suit, and allowing KWCH to produce its newscast for KSAS live until the expiration of its news share agreement with the station, after which the live broadcasts were moved back over to KSCW. After the outsourcing deal with KWCH ended, production of the 9 p.m. newscast was turned back over to KSNW on January 2, 2012.[14] By that time, KSNW had upgraded its in-studio segments to high definition. The broadcast was renamed Fox Kansas News at 9, and originates from an updated main set at KSNW's facility which has separate duratrans indicating the KSAS broadcast.
In October 2019, KSNW announced that they would discontinue production of the 9 p.m. newscast; KAKE took over production of the 9 p.m. newscast on January 1, 2020, with the program continuing to be known as Fox Kansas News at 9.
