News operation
KSPR-LD presently broadcasts 24 1/2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 4 1/2 hours on weekdays and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). Unlike most ABC affiliates, the station does not air a local newscast in the 5 p.m. timeslot on weekdays (syndicated programming fills the half-hour between its 4 p.m. newscast and ABC World News Tonight). KSPR (then on full-power channel 33) launched its news department in 1983; when the station assumed the market's ABC affiliation in 1986, the station expanded its news programming to include newscasts at 6 p.m. on weekdays and 10 p.m. seven nights a week.
On November 1, 2009, when KSPR moved its operations into a renovated portion of KYTV's studio facility, channel 33 became the second television station in the Springfield market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition; the newscasts are produced out of a secondary set at the Sunshine Street facility. The two stations maintained separate news departments; however, both KSPR-LD and KYTV occasionally shared footage for certain news stories.
KYTV produces 11 1/2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with two hours on weekdays, a half-hour on Saturdays and one hour on Sundays) for KSPR-LD2; in addition, the station produces the half-hour sports highlight program O-Zone Sports, which airs Saturdays at 9:30 p.m.
On August 22, 2011, KYTV began producing an hour-long extension of its weekday morning newscast (from 7 to 8 a.m.) and a nightly half-hour 9 p.m. newscast for K15CZ.[12] The 9:00 p.m. newscast was expanded to one hour in June 2013.
On August 18, 2017, reports surfaced that Gray Television (the current owner of both KSPR and KYTV) had laid off many KSPR employees, including news anchor Jerry Jacob. Reports also suggested that Gray Television would either greatly reduce the KSPR news output or eliminate the KSPR news department altogether.[13][14] The move was met with opposition from loyal KSPR viewers. Ultimately, KYTV's operation took over KSPR's; KSPR retains unique local news broadcasts at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., while at most other times, the stations air combined newscasts. Additionally, Ozarks Today expanded to a fourth hour, airing from 8 to 9, and the KYTV noon news was extended to a full hour upon consolidation.[15] The KY3-KSPR consolidation has been criticized by some viewers.[16]
