in high definition. On March 3, 2008, KMBC-TV debuted a two-hour extension of its FirstNews morning newscast, from 7 to 9 a.m. on CW affiliate KCWE. For many years, KMBC management cited concerns with cannibalizing the station's audience as its reasoning for not expanding news offerings to its sister station. On November 13, 2008, Channel 9 again became the focus of a lawsuit filed against the station, parent company Hearst-Argyle Television and Wayne Godsey, then-general manager of KMBC/KCWE, by anchor/reporters Maria Antonia (named as a plaintiff under her legal name, Maria Albisu-Twyman) and Kelly Eckerman, and general assignment reporter/former evening anchor Peggy Breit, alleging that station management engaged in age and gender discrimination, perpetrated "a hostile environment, permeated with threats, intimidation and disrespect" and demoted them in favor of younger women, while men much older than them stayed in their assigned anchor slots. Antonia, who was demoted from weekend evening anchor to assignment reporter in 2007, alleged that Godsey told her upon disclosing her demotion that she "[would] never anchor at Channel 9 again" and passed her over for a role offered to her to anchor the KCWE FirstNews broadcast in favor of a woman in her 20s. Eckerman, who had been co-anchor of the 5 and 6 p.m. newscasts since 1997, claimed that management promoted co-anchor Kris Ketz (who joined KMBC in 1983) to a more prominent role as weeknight early-evening anchor at the expense of her being reassigned from a weeknights-only to a Tuesday-to-Saturday shift to get him out from under the "shadow" of longtime main anchor Larry Moore. Breit—who was moved from a weekday daytime to a Tuesday-to-Saturday reporting slot in 2007—alleged that KMBC management passed over assignment reporters older in age for higher-profile shifts in favor of younger hires. Godsey was dismissed from the lawsuit in July 2009, on procedural grounds citing the plaintiffs' failure to name him in the complaint involving twelve other KMBC employees that was originally filed with the Missouri Human Rights Commission did not put him on notice that he was being held personally responsible for the work environment alleged in the suit; KMBC and Hearst-Argyle reached a settlement with the three anchors in September 2010. On July 30, 2010, as most of its Hearst-owned ABC-affiliated sister stations did on that date, KMBC-TV added an hour-long extension of its weekend morning newscast at 8 a.m. This was followed on August 23 by