produced news," and that the increased station competition hampered its ability to attract viewers. Locally produced newscasts returned to channel 43 after a 25-year absence once The New York Times Company assumed control of the station. On June 5, 2006, KFOR-TV debuted a half-hour prime time newscast at 9:00 p.m. for KAUT under the title Oklahoma's NewsChannel 4 at 9:00 on 43 (the title was altered to correspond with KAUT's rebranding as "OK43" in September of that year). The program—which has aired only on Monday through Friday nights since its premiere—directly competes against an hour-long prime time newscast in that timeslot on Fox affiliate KOKH-TV, which debuted as the market's first local prime time news program when channel 25 launched its current news department ten years earlier in May 1996. The KFOR-produced program would eventually gain additional prime time news competitor on April 5, 2016, when ABC affiliate KOCO-TV began producing a half-hour nightly newscast for its MeTV-affiliated digital subchannel. Originally anchored by Ernie Paulsen and former KOCO weekend evening anchor Cherokee Ballard, the newscast included a commercial-free block leading off the broadcast for the first five years of its run, featuring the day's top headlines and an updated weather forecast segment during the first ten minutes of the program (modeled after the Eleven @ 11:00 late news format). At that time, KFOR also began producing local weather inserts for KAUT to air during the syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz (which had aired from 5:00 to 8:00 a.m. from July 2004 until the station ceased carrying the third hour of the program after Rise & Shine premiered, with the remaining two hours continuing to air until September 2010, when it replaced The Daily Buzz with second runs of syndicated programs seen on KFOR in the time slot). On September 8, 2008, KFOR began producing a two-hour morning newscast for the station (separate from the traditional morning newscast seen on channel 4), under the title Rise and Shine Oklahoma (later shortened to simply Rise and Shine in April 2012). In addition to airing opposite Today on KFOR-TV, the program—which airs weekdays from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m.—competes against the third and fourth hours of KOKH's four-hour in-house morning newscast, which premiered in April 2007 as a three-hour broadcast; over time, Rise and Shine evolved into a more irreverent format, infusing more serious news content with light-hearted and humorous news stories and