WDAF-TV - News Operation

News Operation

WDAF-TV broadcasts a total of 59½ hours of local news per week (with ten hours on weekdays, 4½ hours on Saturdays, and five hours on Sundays), giving the station more hours of local news than any other station in Kansas City; however as is standard with Fox stations that carry early evening weekend newscasts, WDAF's Sunday 5 p.m. newscasts are subject to preemption due to sports coverage (though the Saturday 5 p.m. newscast is usually delayed to 6 p.m. during baseball season). Until October 2011, it was the last remaining Big Four network affiliate in the Kansas City market that still started its weekday morning newscast at 5 a.m. (KSHB and KMBC moved the start time of their morning newscasts to 4:30 a.m. in August 2010, with KCTV also doing so the following month). WDAF would eventually expand its weekday morning newscast to 5½ hours in length, from 4:30-10 a.m. on October 3, 2011, becoming the last station in the Kansas City market to expand its weekday morning newscast to the 4:30 a.m. slot.

Since WDAF became a Fox affiliate in 1994, the station has placed more emphasis on its newscasts and has maintained a newscast schedule very similar to a ABC, CBS or NBC affiliate, having added additional newscasts from 7-9 a.m. and 5:30-6 p.m. on weekdays, the extension of its noon newscast to one hour and adding an hour-long nightly primetime newscast at 9 p.m. In 1996, WDAF attempted to relaunch the 5:30 p.m. newscast as Your World Tonight, a locally-produced newscast featuring national and international news, to compete with the network news programs; the concept was not successful, and on January 3, 1997 it was canceled in favor of returning to a traditional local newscast in the timeslot. The station is one of a steadily growing number of Fox stations with a newscast in the traditional late news timeslot (in WDAF's case, at 10 p.m. Central time), in addition to the primetime (9 p.m.) newscast, along with one of the few to continue their Big Three-era 10 p.m. newscast after the affiliation switch and one of the few Fox stations to run a 10 p.m. (or 11 p.m.) newscast seven nights a week.

The station also has a Hummer called "Storm Fox" equipped to track and chase severe weather along with Sky Fox. WDAF-TV has gained notice in the Kansas City market for its investigative team created in 2003, called the "Fox 4 Problem Solvers", helping people who have been ripped off by businesses and uncovering various scams. Until August 31, 2009 WDAF-TV used a news helicopter, called "Sky Fox" for traffic and breaking news reporting, and severe weather coverage. WDAF is working on alternative methods for covering breaking news from the air.

Beginning in 2006, the Fox-owned stations revamped their sets and graphics, and created standardized logos similar to Fox News Channel's, and changed their websites to use the "MyFox" name and interface (which has also been adopted by all the other Fox O&Os). WDAF-TV debuted the new logo (which retains the "4" logo used since 1992 under NBC affiliation), graphics and music package on October 23, 2007, starting with its noon newscast. Minor changes were made in the studio to match the new theme. WDAF-TV and most of the other former Fox O&Os that were acquired by Local TV still use the logo, graphics, and news music implemented under Fox ownership. Minor changes were made in the studio to match the new theme.

In April 2007, WDAF-TV began simulcasting the 7-9 a.m. portion of its weekday morning and nightly 9 p.m. newscasts on Fox affiliate KTMJ-CA (channel 43) in Topeka, Kansas and its three repeaters KTLJ-CA (channel 6) in Junction City, KMJT-CA in Ogden (channel 15) and KETM-CA (channel 17) in Emporia even though WDAF-TV and the signals of other Kansas City area VHF stations adequately cover the Topeka area. In November 2008, after KTMJ's purchase by New Vision Television (owners of Topeka NBC affiliate KSNT, channel 27) was complete, the simulcasts were dropped and replaced with morning and 9 p.m. newscasts produced by KSNT.

On August 14, 2010, WDAF-TV aired its final broadcast from its existing news set, and began broadcasting the next day from the newsroom while a new, larger set was being installed for their high definition broadcasts. The station began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition on October 12, 2010, with the noon newscast, making it the last of the major broadcast network-affiliated stations in the city to broadcast in HD. On March 24, 2011, WDAF-TV expanded its weekday morning newscast to five hours as the newscast expanded into the 9 a.m. hour; a few weeks later on April 11, WDAF-TV also became the first Fox station in the country (and one of only a handful of television stations in the Central and Mountain time zones) to broadcast its late evening 10 p.m. newscast to one hour.

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