News operation
In 1964, Chauncey merged the KOOL radio and television news departments into a single division under the management of Bill Close, formerly of KOY radio. Close was an 18-year veteran of Phoenix radio and television at the time, and KOOL billed him as "the Dean of Arizona Newscasters".[58] The newsroom grew from six people when Close arrived to 23 by 1970, making it the largest among Phoenix's four news-producing stations;[59] a helicopter, the first of several, was also added to the KOOL arsenal at that time.[60] Under Close's watch, KOOL News 10 became the perennial news leader in Phoenix. At one point, channel 10's dominance was so absolute that its 6 p.m. newscast (anchored by Close) attracted 46 percent of all TV households in the market, the same share as the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. The news department was largely a reflection of the bola tie-wearing Close. According to his longtime anchor desk partner, Mary Jo West—the second full-time female anchor in Phoenix—Close took a fatherly attitude toward his reporters and placed a high premium on accuracy and professionalism.[61]
The station's success produced people who went on to larger jobs, both in and out of Phoenix. In 1979, Kent Dana—who would become a fixture at KPNX and later KPHO—was hired from KOOL-TV, where he was anchoring the weekend news, by channel 12.[62] KOOL was also the first Phoenix television station to win a Peabody Award, doing so in 1980 for a documentary, The Long Eyes of Kitt Peak.[63]
On May 28, 1982, at about 5 pm, Joseph Billie Gwin, wanting to "prevent World War III", forced his way into the KOOL-TV studios and fired a shot from his gun. The butt of the gun struck Luis Villa in the back of the head; Gwin then held Villa in a chokehold, at gunpoint, for nearly five hours. Gwin took four people hostage and demanded nationwide airtime. Two of the hostages, Jack Webb and Bob Cimino, were released three hours later. At 9:30 pm, anchor Bill Close read a 25-minute statement as Gwin sat next to him holding a gun under the table; Close took Gwin's gun after the statement and set it on the table.[64] Gwin surrendered to the police following the broadcast of the statement; he was charged with kidnapping, assault, and burglary and was later declared insane.[65] Gwin was put on parole and placed in a halfway house but violated that parole after assaulting two convenience store clerks in 1984;[66] he was released from prison in 2006.[67]
Channel 10 remained at the top of the ratings for a time after becoming KTSP-TV. However, in the late 1980s, after KTVK poached Miller and Alvidrez, channel 10's news ratings began to decline, not helped by a series of unforced errors. In 1989, KTSP newscaster Shelly Jamison left the station after appearing as both a cover model and posing nude in a Playboy pictorial.[68] The most publicized move, however, was the 1991 dismissal of anchor Karen Carns, who found out she had been fired 15 minutes before the evening newscast when a newspaper reporter called to get her reaction.[69] In the February 1992 sweeps, KTSP-TV lost the lead at 6 p.m. in both the Arbitron and Nielsen ratings, the first time in memory that it had failed to win that timeslot.[70] That year, Close retired from channel 10 after a 28-year career, having stepped down from the anchor desk four years earlier.[61]
With the Fox switch, KSAZ-TV added 30 news staffers and increased its news output from three hours a day to seven, with the addition of the two-hour morning newscast Arizona Morning, an additional early evening newscast at 5:30 pm, and a 9 p.m. news hour, Arizona Prime.[71] A simulcast of KTAR talk show McMahon Live with Pat McMahon was also added in late mornings. However, the switch proved to be very messy for the newsroom. Close, who said he felt "betrayed" by the affiliation switch, predicted that the station would lose its standing in local news.[72] Ratings for KSAZ-TV's other newscasts declined after the switch, prompting morale to fall. Arizona Morning was retooled just months after its debut, and Heidi Foglesong—the former KTVK anchor who was the show's centerpiece—left after just over a year.[73] The McMahon program was dropped in January 1996.[74]
After two years of a news product that was more staid and conservative than had become the norm for a Fox station, things began to change in 1996 under new news director Bill Berra, who promised to "bring up the intensity".[75] Presentation was revamped that fall; the sound of an emergency siren was incorporated into the opening of the 10 p.m. newscast.[76] One anchor, June Thomson, increased her delivery speed at the behest of the new management, but the relationship broke down, and Thomson took a job at KGO-TV in San Francisco. She told the San Francisco Examiner that the station practiced "crime and body-bag journalism, just like Miami" and that she "watched the destruction of a once-fine newsroom" at channel 10.[77] Arizona Prime was replaced in April 1997 with Fox 10 News at Nine.[78]
On April 1, 2009, Fox Television Stations and the E. W. Scripps Company, owner of KNXV-TV, announced the formation of Local News Service, a model for pooling newsgathering efforts for local news events in which each station provided employees to the pool service in exchange for the sharing of video.[79] KPHO-TV eventually joined the Phoenix LNS agreement shortly after the announcement.[80] By 2020, all four English-language television newsrooms in Phoenix shared a helicopter.
In 2014, KSAZ debuted an expanded Saturday morning newscast and a new Sunday morning news hour.[81] KSAZ added a 4 p.m. weekday news hour, a second half-hour to its 10 p.m. newscast, and a 7 p.m. nightly hour of news for KUTP in 2018.[82] By 2020, KSAZ-TV's daily news output had reached twelve hours on weekdays.[83]
Phoenix was also the starting point for LiveNow from Fox, the over-the-top streaming news offering from the Fox television stations. It began as "Fox 10 News Now" in November 2014, streaming for seven hours a day on the station's website and YouTube channel.[84] In 2020, production of the service was spread between the Fox stations in Phoenix, Orlando, and Los Angeles.[85]
- Walker Edmiston – host of a puppet show, 1962–1963[86]
- Troy Hayden – evening and morning anchor, 1994–2024[87][88]
- J. D. Hayworth – sports anchor, 1987–1994[89]
- Kari Lake – anchor, 1999–2021[90]
- Geoff Morrell – reporter, 1995–1996
