Ron Bergamo resigned after seven years and in the wake of sweeps figures showing the station's news ratings in some time slots had fallen by as much as 50 percent; that same month, an article in The Dallas Morning News called what happened to KSAZ a "worst-case scenario". Revenue reportedly dipped across the New World stations by 15 percent after their switches; New World management, however, also noted that the three months without network programming had led to the decline being more pronounced at KSAZ than elsewhere. As with most other New World stations, KSAZ declined to run Fox Kids programming, which instead moved to KTVK; in September 1995, KASW (channel 61), a station programmed by KTVK, launched with The WB and Fox Kids programs. News Corporation purchased New World Communications, acquiring only its ten Fox-affiliated stations, in July 1996; the merger was finalized on January 22, 1997, making KSAZ an owned-and-operated station of Fox. This status almost became short-lived: in February 1997, Fox nearly traded KSAZ and sister station KTBC in Austin, Texas, to the Belo Corporation in exchange for Seattle's KIRO-TV. That trade never materialized. Fox began to upgrade the station's programming, adding some high-rated off-network sitcoms (such as M*A*S*H, Seinfeld and King of the Hill) as well as higher-rated syndicated court and reality shows. In the 2010s, Fox began to use KSAZ-TV and other stations on a regular basis to test new programs that later entered national syndication, such as TMZ Live—which KSAZ was the second station to air—and The Real. Fox Television Stations purchased KUTP (channel 45) in 2001 as part of its acquisition of United Television (which had owned a 50% stake in UPN); this resulted in the creation of Phoenix's second television duopoly. In 2006, Jordin Sparks won an opportunity to audition for American Idol after winning KSAZ's own "Arizona Idol" competition; she ultimately went on to win the season. News operation In 1964, Chauncey merged the KOOL radio and television news departments into a single division under the management of Bill Close, formerly of KOY radio. Close was an 18-year veteran of Phoenix radio and television at the time, and KOOL billed him as "the Dean of Arizona Newscasters". The newsroom grew from six people when Close arrived to 23 by 1970, making it the largest among Phoenix's four news-producing stations; a helicopter, the first of several, was also added to the KOOL