News operation
KMPH-TV presently broadcasts 34 1/2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6 1/2 hours each weekday and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays); in addition, the station produces the lifestyle program Around the Valley, which airs weekdays at 11 a.m. prior to its midday newscast.
In 1978, KMPH launched its news department and began producing a nightly prime time newscast Monday through Friday; The 10 O'Clock News. Originally the station sourced its national news from the ITN Satellite News Service and API Wire Services to augment its own local news coverage, primarily split between the cities of Visalia and Fresno and the surrounding communities. In late 1979, KMPH launched a short-lived midday newscast, The Midday Edition, which was canceled after nine months. Later, in the early 1980s, the station's newscast was expanded to Saturdays. In early 1982, KMPH, launched a weekly newsmagazine show, The Sunday Edition, which occupied the 10 p.m. timeslot on Sunday nights; it was canceled a year later. The 10 O'Clock News went on to become the longest-running prime time newscast in the Fresno market. On October 6, 2003, KMPH debuted a three-hour weekday morning newscast, titled Great Day; that same date, the station also launched a half-hour midday newscast at 11:30 a.m. In the spring of 2007, Great Day was expanded to five hours, running from 5 to 10 a.m.
In January 2006, KMPH began to produce a half-hour 11 p.m. newscast for sister station KFRE-TV; the newscast was unable to compete against the established late evening newscasts on KFSN-TV, KSEE and KGPE and was canceled the following year in February 2007, due to low ratings. On September 30, 2009, KMPH-TV became the second television station in the Fresno market (after KFSN, which made the upgrade in April 2007) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. It was the first television station in the market to provide news video from the field in true high definition, as KMPH upgraded its ENG vehicles, satellite truck, studio and field cameras and other equipment in order to broadcast news footage from the field in high definition, in addition to segments broadcast from the main studio.[18]
From 2013 to 2023, KMPH produced a newscast for sister station KPTM in Omaha, Nebraska; the program was produced from Fresno with contributions from Omaha-based reporters.[19][20][21]
In July 2014, Politifact reported that KMPH, in a news story, claimed that the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act had increased the average emergency room wait time in California to five hours. Its reporting was deemed inaccurate, as it was based on statistics released by the California HealthCare Foundation in 2012, and not from after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.[22]
Notable current on-air staff
- Kopi Sotiropulos – anchor
- Vic "The Brick" Jacobs – sportscaster
- Lloyd Lindsay Young – weathercaster
