KMSP-TV - News Operation

News Operation

KMSP broadcasts a total of 41 hours of local news a week (6½ hours on weekdays, four hours on Saturdays and 4½ hours on Sundays), more than any other station in Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota; however as is standard with Fox stations that carry early evening weekend newscasts, KMSP's Saturday and Sunday 5 p.m. newscasts are subject to preemption due to sports coverage. Fox 9 has added Fox at 6 with Randy Meier and Tom Lyden fall til election at least. Focus on Fox at 6 is the election and big news stories of the day.

The station has had a long-running 9 p.m. newscast (now known as Fox at 9), which airs an hour before all other news broadcasts in the area. The two primary news anchors are Jeff Passolt and Robyne Robinson, who are the longest current anchor team in the Twin Cities at 14 years, according to the station. This changed when Robinson announced on May 11, 2010 that she would leave KMSP after 20 years at the station. KMSP, along with KDFW in Dallas-Fort Worth, and KSAZ-TV in Phoenix are the only Fox-owned stations to have a 10 p.m. newscast in the Central and Mountain Time Zones (of the mentioned stations, KMSP and KDFW do not run their 10 p.m. newscast nightly and KMSP is the only one that airs their 10 p.m. newscast on during the weekend, airing it on Sunday nights. However, KSAZ in Phoenix runs a 10pm newscast seven nights per week.). Sister stations WTVT in Tampa-St. Petersburg and WTTG in Washington, D.C. have a late newscast at the Eastern time zone equivalent of 11 p.m.

On September 24, 2007, sister station WJBK in Detroit, Michigan became the third Fox O&O in the Eastern time zone to add an 11 p.m. newscast. This was when WJBK joined KMSP as being one out of several Fox O&Os to go with the FNC-look (new set, new rotating logo, etc.). Fox may have all the O&Os add an 11 p.m. newscast should this become a success. This may mean more of the Fox O&Os in the Central and Mountain Time Zones could add a 10 p.m. newscast as well (KTBC in Austin had a 10 p.m. newscast for years after switching to Fox, which has since been scaled back to 9 p.m.).

Conversely, KMSP is also one of a few Fox O&Os without a midday newscast (along with WFXT in Boston, WNYW in New York City and WOFL in Orlando) and one of five Fox O&Os with a 5 p.m. newscast, but no 6 p.m. newscast (along with KTBC in Austin, WHBQ in Memphis, and KRIV in Houston.

On May 11, 2009, KMSP became the second station to launch local news in high definition. The first was KARE in 2006. The set and music remains the same. The only new thing are the new Fox O&O HD graphics with some minor tweaks and HD weather graphics. On September 14, 2009 KMSP expanded its morning newscast to five and a half hours from 4:30-10 a.m. (one of several Fox-owned stations to do so, following the cancellation of The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet), with the 9 a.m. hour being called Fox 9 Buzz.