KWTV-DT - News Operation

News Operation

KWTV presently broadcasts a total of 36½ hours of locally-produced newscasts each week (with six hours on weekdays and 3½ hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in regards to the number of hours devoted to news programming, it is the second-largest local newscast output among Oklahoma City's broadcast television stations, falling behind KFOR-TV's weekly news total by four hours. Since 2006, the station has operated a Bell 407 helicopter for newsgathering called "SkyNews9 HD", which was the market's first to be equipped with a high definition video camera (though helicopter images were not broadcast in HD until October 2010); this helicopter replaced "Ranger 9", which had a camera installed below the helicopter's nose (dubbed "EagleVision") in 2000, and was the first helicopter in the state used for daily newsgathering (having debuted one day before KOCO's "Sky5" in 1980). KWTV also provides local weather updates for the Clear Channel-owned Oklahoma News Network and four radio stations owned by Tyler Media Group: KOKC, KOMA, KMGL and KRXO.

The station's newscasts have had a long ratings rivalry with KFOR-TV for the highest-rated newscast in the market, and has long been one of CBS' strongest affiliates. KWTV had the highest-rated late evening newscast in the United States during the May 2006 sweeps period. and its 10 p.m. newscast was the top-rated newscast in the nation in May 2007, and placed as the most-watched in the market during the February 2012 sweeps period. KWTV's newscasts compete for the #1 ratings slot with KFOR in most timeslots where both stations run local newscasts.

KWTV partners with Tulsa sister station KOTV-DT to provide feature stories filed by the latter during its newscasts, as well as to cover news events occurring within the Tulsa market; both stations collaborate in the production of the Oklahoma Sports Blitz sports wrap-up program on Sundays. Though the Ogle family is associated with KFOR-TV dating back to when Jack Ogle joined that station as anchor in the 1950s with Kent and Kevin Ogle now with that station today, Kelly Ogle serves as KWTV's weeknight co-anchor, and provides an op-ed segment weeknights on the 10 p.m. newscast titled My Two Cents. After the Prime Time Access Rule was imposed by the FCC that cut the major broadcast networks' nightly primetime schedules by 30 minutes down to three hours in 1971, KWTV created Oklahoma City's first hour-long 6 p.m. newscast (predating KFOR-TV's 6 p.m. news hour by 25 years). That newscast split into two half-hour broadcasts at 5 and 6 p.m. in 1976, with the CBS Evening News airing in between at 5:30 p.m. From 1966 to 1971, KWTV used the Eyewitness News format later used by ABC affiliate KOCO.

KWTV places a significant emphasis on weather and is known for the severe weather coverage often headed by chief meteorologist Gary England, as well as for having the top weather technology in the United States. Oklahoma native England is the state's longest-serving television meteorologist (assuming the title upon his 32nd year at the station in 2004, from Jim Williams, who worked for KFOR-TV from 1958 to 1990) and the longest-tenured member of the station's current on-air news staff, having been with KWTV since October 1972. In 1973, KWTV installed the United States' first television weather radar, first utilized on May 24 of that year to cover an F4 tornado that caused extensive damage in Union City (the original film of that televised warning from 1973 was used in later years for the station's severe weather coverage). The first commercial Doppler radar in the nation was installed at KWTV in 1981, and shortly after had detected a tornado near Binger, which was broadcast live by a photographer inside the station's news helicopter.

In 1986, England developed the country's first television weather alert system called "First Warning" (while First Warning manually updated watches and warnings, the similarly-developed First Alert created by KOCO-TV in the late 1980s, was the first automatically updated system). KWTV presently operates MOAR (for "Massive Output Arrayed Radar"; though colloquially referred by Gary England as the "Mother of All Radars"), which was first used on May 8, 2003 to track an F3 tornado that hit north Oklahoma City; the radar uses enhanced street-level mapping to detect the path of tornadoes and uses GPS to track the location of KWTV's storm spotters. In 2000, the station introduced "I-News", internet-enabled software for personal computers that alerts users to severe weather alerts and breaking news. In February 2007, KWTV debuted "Storm Monitor" (now known by its standard brand name of ESP for "Early Storm Protection"), which utilizes VIPIR technology to measure a mesocyclone's strength and its tornado-producing potential.

From the 1980s to 2006, England and the KWTV weather staff presented "Those Terrible Twisters" during the spring and summer months, a program that toured local Oklahoma communities providing tornado safety information and promoted the station's efforts in providing severe weather coverage; these extended to half-hour specials that aired each spring on KWTV, which also showcased storm footage shot by KWTV storm spotters alongside behind-the-scenes video of KWTV's storm coverage. In 1998, KWTV was one of the first stations in the United States to introduce a computer forecasting system that predicted hour-by-hour future weather conditions. During a tornado outbreak that affected Oklahoma City on June 13, 1998, a camera on the station's transmitter tower caught the live collapse of an auxiliary tower operated by KFOR-TV and its former radio sister WKY.

In November 2006, KWTV debuted a high definition-ready news set designed and built by FX Group. On August 2, 2010, the 4 p.m. newscast received a reformatting into a more lifestyle-oriented program (Christina Eckert and former Miss Oklahoma and Miss America Lauren Nelson serve as anchors of that program). On October 24, 2010, beginning with the 10 p.m. newscast, KWTV became Oklahoma City's second and Oklahoma's fourth television station (after KJRH-TV/Tulsa, KFOR-TV and KXII/Ardmore) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition (the graphics, logo, slogan and CBS Enforcer News Music Collection theme music that debuted with the change, were also adopted by KOTV that same day upon its newscasts' upgrade to widescreen standard definition broadcasts). On January 24, 2011, KWTV expanded its weekday morning newscasts with the addition of a third hour of the program at 4 a.m.