K55BW - News Operation

News Operation

KSAZ presently broadcasts a total of 45 hours of local newscasts each week (with nine hours on weekdays, 4½ hours on Saturdays and three hours on Sundays); this gives the station the second largest local news output of any television station in the state of Arizona, surpassing Phoenix area independent station KTVK's weekly news total by 5½ hours, though the two stations produce an equal amount of local newscasts (nine hours) on weekdays. As is standard with Fox stations that carry early evening newscasts on weekends, KSAZ's 5 p.m. newscast on Saturdays and Sundays is subject to preemption due to sports coverage.

On July 31, 2006, KSAZ launched a half-hour 6 p.m. newscast (the newscast is anchored by Troy Hayden, who also anchors the 10 p.m. newscast). Alongside the launch of the newscast was the debut of a brand new on-air appearance for KSAZ, taking on the Fox Television Stations standardized graphics and logo first used by sister stations WTVT/Tampa and WNYW/New York City. On July 6, 2009 starting with the 5 p.m. newscast, KSAZ began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition, becoming the last Fox owned-and-operated station to produce their newscasts in that format.

On April 1, 2009, Fox Television Stations and the E. W. Scripps Company announced the formation of the Local News Service model between stations owned by the two station groups in the Phoenix, Detroit and Tampa markets. The service allows the pooling of newsgathering efforts for local news events and each station provides employees to the pool service in exchange for the sharing of video. Meredith Corporation-owned CBS affiliate KPHO-TV (channel 5) eventually joined the Phoenix LNS agreeement shortly after the announcement.