KOKI-TV - News Operation

News Operation

KOKI-TV presently broadcasts a total of 39½ hours of local newscasts eack week (with 7½ hours on weekdays and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the highest local newscast output among the broadcast television stations in the Tulsa market and the second-highest among Oklahoma's television stations overall (falling behind Oklahoma City NBC affiliate KFOR-TV's weekly news total by one hour).

KOKI is a relative newcomer to the field of local newscasts in Tulsa, though it has managed to make significant gains in news viewership since the station began offering local newscasts in 2002. The station has also gained a reputation in the Tulsa area for its "Solving Problems" investigative reports, helping area residents that have been scammed by local businesses; the investigative unit was originally known as the "Fox 23 Problem Solvers" until 2007, when it was changed to its current name in order to avoid confusion with NBC affiliate KJRH's similarly named "2NEWS Problem Solvers" investigative unit.

From the mid-1980s until January 2002, KOKI produded three-minute news updates that aired daily during daytime and Fox primetime programming from a small studio. At the time, it was one of only a few Fox stations that were not owned by the network offering some local news prorgramming, albeit KOKI's news presence was relatively minor. On January 26, 1997 immediately following Fox's telecast of Super Bowl XXXI, KOKI premiered First Weather on FOX23, a nightly weather forecast feature that ran interspersed within its syndicated programming; it featured a five-minute segment at 10 p.m., with two additional minute-long update segments at 10:35 and 11:05 p.m., First Weather ran on the station until shortly before KOKI's newscasts debuted.

The station's news department began on February 3, 2002 (following Fox's telecast of Super Bowl XXXVI), with the debut of a nightly hour-long 9 p.m. newscast, becoming the first independently produced newscast to debut in the Tulsa market since KGCT's news department disbanded in the early 1980s. Five months later in June 2002, KOKI added an early evening newscast at 5:30 p.m. on weeknights, this was followed a year later by the debut of additional half-hour newscast at 5 p.m., creating an hour-long local news block from 5-6 p.m. weekdays. In April 2006, KOKI moved its syndicated children's program block to Sunday mornings as it launched a four-hour long morning newscast on weekdays (it is currently the only local morning newscast of that time length in the Tulsa market; although KOTV's morning newscast previously ran for four hours, until it moved the 8 a.m. hour of the program to sister station KQCW in 2008). Two months later in June 2006, the station launched an hour-long midday newscast at noon, this program solely competes against KOTV's own hour-long newscast in that timeslot (KJRH's midday newscast airs one hour earlier at 11 a.m., KTUL does not produce a midday newscast at all). On January 18, 2010, KOKI began producing a half-hour 10 p.m. newscast on weeknights.

On January 16, 2011, starting with the 9 p.m. newscast, KOKI began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition, becoming the second Tulsa area station to make the transition (behind KJRH-TV). The station began using a logo and graphics package by Hothaus Creative based on the standardized look of Fox's owned-and-operated stations (this package is a variant of the graphics first used by San Diego Fox affiliate KSWB-TV upon resuming its in-house news department in August 2008, and was later adapted for use by other Newport Television-owned stations, including WAWS and KLRT-TV). The Fox searchlights are noticeably absent from the station logo unlike other stations that use versions of the Fox O&O graphics.