KFOR-TV - News Operation

News Operation

KFOR-TV presently broadcasts a total of 40½ hours of local newscasts each week (with 6½ hours on weekdays, two hours on Saturdays and 3½ hours on Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output among Oklahoma's broadcast television stations, locally beating CBS affiliate KWTV's weekly news total by four hours. The station's newscasts feature a mix of topical issues (such as politics, government, crime, the economy and investigative reports) and lighter fare (such as special-interest stories) and is well known in Oklahoma City for the longevity of its anchors. It has long competed to the title of the most-watched newscast in the Oklahoma City market with KWTV for decades. It had placed second in local news behind KWTV in the morning and late evening timeslots, but Nielsen Media Research later found an error in KFOR's ratings in September 2008 in which ratings points were mistakenly assigned to KFOR's 4.1 digital multicast for three years from 2005 to 2008. The corrected ratings showed that it had placed #2 in all timeslots at that time, a rarity given the declined ratings for NBC's programming and their affiliates' local newscasts overall.

The station's Doppler weather radars are presented on-air as "4WARN StormTracker", "4WARN Storm Scanner" and "4WARN Doppler", the first two systems operate from a radar site at the Oklahoma City studios and the latter operates as a dual-Doppler system at a radiated power of 1 million watts from a site near Newcastle, all three utilize live data from several radars operated by regional National Weather Service forecast offices. KFOR also provides local weather updates for six radio stations owned by Clear Channel: KTOK, KGHM, KBRU, KXXY-FM, KTST and KJYO. The station operates a Bell 206L-4 helicopter for newsgathering called "Bob Moore Chopper 4", named through a brand licensing agreement with local car dealership franchise Bob Moore Auto Group in January 2010. On May 3, 1999, the helicopter caught footage of a F5 tornado that caused 44 fatalities as it tore a track from Amber to Midwest City (this video was used for 11 years afterward in promos for "Chopper 4"). It became Oklahoma's first news helicopter to broadcast video footage in high definition on March 11, 2010 (KWTV's "SkyNews9 HD" would not show video in HD until KWTV's upgrade of its news broadcasts to the format in October of that year). KFOR is known for its In Your Corner investigative reports, helping area residents that have been ripped off by businesses, the segment was helmed by Brad Edwards from 1973 until a few months prior his 2006 death; Scott Hines, Lance West, Ali Meyer and former reporter Cherokee Ballard rotated handling duties for the segment until Hines was named as the permanent replacement in 2007.

Weeknight anchor Linda Cavanaugh is presently the longest-tenured member of KFOR-TV's on-air news staff, having been with the station since 1978. The Barry and the Ogle families have been prominent faces at KFOR: two sons of the late Jack Ogle, former main news anchor during most of the WKY era and early KTVY years (whose tenure also featured prominent anchor/reporters George Tomek, Ernie Schultz and Jerry Adams), serve as anchors at the station (Kevin Ogle on the 6, 6:30 and 10 p.m. newscasts, Kent Ogle on weekday morning and noon newscasts; their brother Kelly ironically works at rival KWTV as its evening co-anchor). Bob Barry served as sports anchor from 1966 to 2008 (remaining as the radio announcer for University of Oklahoma basketball and football until shortly before his 2011 death); son Bob Barry, Jr. now serves as sports director for the weeknight newscasts. Mike Morgan has been with KFOR as its chief meteorologist since 1993 (Morgan previously worked at KOCO-TV and KJRH-TV/Tulsa before that, where ex-KFOR meteorologist Dan Threlkeld is now that station's chief meteorologist); one of Morgan's predecessors, Jim Williams was chief meteorlogist at channel 4 for 32 years from 1958 to 1990, one of the few on-air personalities to work at the station under the WKY, KTVY and KFOR callsigns.

From 1990 to 2004, the station ran minute-long hourly news updates near the top of each hour outside of regular newscasts; these updates were gradually reduced over time to daytime and late fringe periods only by 2004, and down to the current format of twice daily afternoon updates in 2006 (now largely serving as promos for the early evening newscasts). KFOR was the market's first station to offer weekend morning newscasts in 1992 (these have been anchored by Tara Blume since their debut, who now only anchors the Saturday morning newscast); it added a late afternoon newscast at 4:30 p.m. 1994, followed in 1996 by an early evening 6:30 p.m. newscast on weeknights. During coverage of the April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the station erroneously reported that a member of the Nation of Islam took credit for the bombing (actually orchestrated by Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols), repeating the claim throughout the day's coverage, even though it cautioned that the claim might have been a crank call.

The station's Sunday morning political talk show Flash Point (currently moderated by weeknight anchor Kevin Ogle with panelists Mike Turpin and ex-Oklahoma City mayor Kirk Humphreys), focusing on state and national political issues, debuted in 1993. Is This a Great State or What? debuted as a regular feature segment in 1991, focusing on Oklahoma's most interesting stories and people; airing Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 5 p.m. (with brief stints during the 6 and 6:30 p.m. newscasts), it is hosted by Galen Culver (husband of weekend morning anchor Tara Blume) and began to be produced in high definition in January 2009, ahead of its newscasts' switch to the format. The Rant with Kevin Ogle (airing Monday-Thursdays during the 10 p.m. newscast) began in 2006, featuring viewer opinions on a particular story in the news, the Thursday edition serving an "open topic" forum featuring viewer comments on multiple subjects.

On June 5, 2006, KFOR-TV began producing a half-hour primetime newscast at 9 p.m. on weeknights for KAUT-TV (competing against an hour-long in-house newscast on Fox affiliate KOKH-TV that debuted ten years prior); a two-hour extension of the station's weekday morning newscast debuted on KAUT on September 8, 2008. On July 11, 2009 starting with its 10 p.m. newscast, KFOR became Oklahoma's second television station, after fellow NBC affiliate KJRH-TV/Tulsa, and the Oklahoma City's first commercial station to broadcast its local newscasts in high definition (it also upgraded its severe weather ticker to be overlaid on high definition programming without having to downconvert HD programming to standard definition). On September 7, 2011, KFOR-TV launched a half-hour 4 p.m. newscast, that features a mix of traditional news, lifestyle and entertainment stories, trending stories on the internet and web videos, and has an emphasis on social media in which viewers can comment on stories (unlike the station's other newscasts, the 4 p.m. newscast utilizes a virtual set). On August 27, 2012, KFOR expanded its morning newscast on weekdays to three hours, with the addition of an hour-long block at 4 a.m.