News operation
KSNW presently broadcasts 31 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with five hours each weekday, and three hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). Despite being the first television station in the market to build a network of semi-satellites in the western and central parts of the state, KSNW's newscasts had lagged far behind rivals KWCH and KAKE for several decades. In recent years, however, KSNW has waged a spirited battle with KAKE for second place behind long-dominant KWCH, with the two stations regularly trading the runner-up slot in several timeslots.
Although the three KSN satellites originated their own newscasts for many years, their local operations were progressively cut back from the mid-1980s onward. By the start of the 21st century, local news programming on the other Kansas State Network stations had been reduced to inserts shown during KSNW's newscasts, and separate station identifications had largely been eliminated.
On April 26, 1991, as an F2 tornado approached their vehicle, a KSNW news crew took shelter underneath an overpass in Butler County. Video of the event that was captured by a station photographer accompanying reporters Ted Lewis and Gregg Jarrett resulted in public misunderstanding that overpasses provided adequate shelter from tornadoes as it did not take a direct hit from the tornado, experiencing only strong outer winds; the National Weather Service now strongly advises against sheltering under overpasses due to the likelihood of fatalities caused by flying debris, dangers from wind channeling, changes in wind direction and wind speed increases above ground level as the vortex passes, and the lack of girders on most overpasses. The station received national headlines again on May 19, 2013, when then-chief meteorologist Dave Freeman ordered the KSNW staff to take shelter as an EF2 tornado approached the southern portions of Wichita, out of concern that it would also hit the station's downtown studios.
On September 29, 1997, KSNW began producing a half-hour prime time newscast at 9 p.m. for Fox affiliate KSAS-TV (channel 24),[14] as part of a news share agreement in which channel 3 would also produce news updates to air during KSAS's evening programs.[15] The program was canceled on December 31, 1998, due to low ratings.[16] In January 2009, KSNW acquired regional cable news channel Kansas Now 22, which is carried locally on Cox Communications, from Gray Television (owners of KAKE, and WIBW-TV in Topeka) to produce its own news and weather content for the channel and provide rebroadcasts of its local newscasts.
On October 31, 2010, KSNW began broadcasting its local newscasts in widescreen standard definition; in-studio, field and other station camera feeds were upconverted to a 16:9 format in the control room. On January 30, 2011, KSNW began broadcasting the weather segments of its newscasts in high definition, with the remaining in-studio segments following suit on July 17 (when KAKE upgraded its newscasts from 4:3 standard definition to 16:9 high definition), becoming the third television station in the Wichita–Hutchinson market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition; video from the field remained in widescreen standard definition. In June 2011, KSNW underwent major staff changes for its 10 p.m. newscast with the shifts of weekend anchors Brooke Martin and Jamison Coyle and meteorologist J. D. Rudd (all of whom have since left the station) to the weeknight broadcasts, citing higher ratings for with that team on weekends than on the weeknight newscasts. Upon the shakeup, longtime sports director Jim Kobbe left KSNW; while chief meteorologist Dave Freeman moved from the 10 p.m. newscast to the 5 and 6 p.m. broadcasts (Freeman added the 10 p.m. newscast back to his duties for several years before his retirement from the station in 2017).
KSNW re-assumed production responsibilities for KSAS's newscast on January 2, 2012, after KWCH (which had produced the current 9 p.m. newscast since 2003) ended its news share agreement with channel 24 to focus on its newscasts for CW-affiliated sister station KSCW-DT (channel 33).[17] The KSAS newscast is produced out of KSNW's main news set, which features separate duratrans for the channel 24 broadcast.[17] On January 27, 2014, KSNW upgraded its field and other non-studio cameras to HD; with the upgrade, came the introduction of a new HD-ready news set and graphics package.[18]
- Melissa Beck – anchor
- Gregg Jarrett – reporter
- Todd McDermott – anchor/reporter
