sexual discrimination, becoming one of the first such cases to be widely publicized in the United States. Craft initially won her case when it went to trial in 1983; although when the suit was retried on a second appeal three years later, the presiding judge ruled in favor of Metromedia (which, by then, had merged into News Corporation after it purchased Metromedia's major-market independent stations to later serve as the nuclei for the Fox Broadcasting Company). The station launched a local morning newscast on December 1, 1987, when it launched the initially 30-minute traditional news program FirstNews, a program that evolved out of local news inserts it aired during World News This Morning, which was initially anchored by Maria Antonia and weather anchor Joel Nichols (Bryan Busby, who has served as chief meteorologist at KMBC since 1985, conducted the program's forecast segments for a few weeks prior to Nichols' hire). During the late 1980s and early 1990s, KMBC became engaged in very competitive race with KCTV and WDAF-TV for first place in overall news viewership, frequently trading places with both stations in certain time periods, although it ended the former decade in second place overall behind NBC affiliate WDAF-TV. After WDAF became a Fox affiliate in September 1994, KMBC-TV experienced a resurgence to first place, overtaking both KCTV and WDAF as the most watched television news operation in Kansas City. At present, channel 9 generally places first in the early evening time period among total viewers; it also battles KCTV for first place at 10 p.m., while continuing to battle WDAF for first place on weekday mornings. In November 2007, KMBC-TV's newscasts finished first in most news timeslots during the sweeps period, while tying for #1 with KCTV at 10 p.m. During the following sweeps month in February 2008, channel 9's newscasts won all of its time periods outright. In 2007, the station's news department won seven Edward R. Murrow Awards—the most wins by any American television station—in the news series, feature, news documentary, spot news, continuing coverage, newscast and overall excellence categories. On August 23, 2007, beginning with the 5 p.m. newscast, KMBC-TV began broadcasting from its new purpose-built facility near Swope Park, which included a newly constructed set for its newscasts that was designed by FX Group. With the relocation, channel 9 became the first television station in the Kansas City market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts