weekend anchor Christy Lewis and weekday meteorologist Alyssa Caroprese were chosen to represent the station as contestants for the 5th annual event. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition – Southern Oregon In 2011, NewsWatch 12 aired an award-winning 30-minute special called Extreme Makeover: Home Edition – Southern Oregon, a behind-the-scenes look at an episode of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition when the show selected C.J. and Lindsay McPhail, founders of the Southern Oregon Sparrow Clubs and parents of three children (two diagnosed with autism) to have their home torn down and rebuilt. News anchors Brian Morton and Danielle Craig led the hosting duties. The special was produced by Erin Maxson. News operation KDRV presently broadcasts 36 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours each weekday and three hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). Launched on September 16, 1985, KDRV has a fully staffed news department known as NewsWatch 12. By the mid-1990s, it had shot to first place in the Medford–Klamath Falls market, and has stayed at the top for most of the last two decades. Like fellow stations KOBI and KTVL, they air newscasts at 5 p.m., 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. but beginning in 2013, weekend newscasts began airing at 8:00 a.m., 5:00, 6:00, 6:30 and 11 p.m. unlike its rivals. KDRV airs its morning news starting at 5 a.m. (as does KTVL). Anchor and reporter Ron Brown (Known as the "Dean of News Anchors" in Southern Oregon) and Chief Meteorologist Scott Lewis were the longest-tenured newscasters in the station's history, but Lewis retired in 2012 and Brown retired in May 2015. Anchor Brian Morton (who joined the station in 1995) succeeded Brown as KDRV's longest tenured anchor. Brown hosted the weekly "Oregon Trails" segment, which took a look back in Southern Oregon's history, while Morton reports on "Wednesday's Child", an adoption segment. The newscast has received numerous awards, including several National Association of Broadcasters, Associated Press and Emmy Awards. For a short period of time, KDRV was the only station in the Medford market to continue airing local sportscasts while rival stations KTVL and KOBI dropped their sportscasts in 2009. This has since changed. On January 5, 2011, NewsWatch 12 was the first station in the market to begin broadcasting its newscasts in 16:9 widescreen to coincide with its new look, which is similar to sister station KEZI in Eugene. The station is also the first