KCYU/KFFX FOX First at Ten Open, 3/7/2026 (Now Produced by KEPR/KIMA)

JOIN BROADCAST PLAZA TODAY, DISCORD'S MEDIA DISCUSSION COMMUNITY — http://bit.ly/S31MA Open from the 10pm newscast on Rincon's Fox affiliates in the Yakima, Washington and Tri-Cities, WA market. Recorded on Saturday, March 7, 2026. This version does not feature any Bandicam use. Last weekend, we brought you the debut show of KAYU's new 10pm news share with KXLY out of Spokane. The Spokane and Yakima/Tri-Cities markets have shared close connections for a very long time, and all local affiliates have sister stations in Spokane, with the exception of the CBS stations which have always been separate. So, unsurprisingly, the Fox affiliates here share common ownership with the Fox affiliate in Spokane. However, I feel the story starts here in this market, rather than Spokane, and Spokane just got affected by the changes here. Last month, Rincon Broadcasting acquired control of KIMA and KEPR, the local CBS affiliate, from Sinclair, but not the licenses. Rincon and Sinclair have very close ties, but are separate companies. Rincon already owned the Fox affiliates they bought last year from Imagicomm. Fox was already getting its news from Cowles' NBC affiliate in Kennewick just like KAYU had been getting its news from KHQ. Both partnerships had existed for about two decades. Since KCYU (Yakima)/KFFX (Tri-Cities) were now under common management with KIMA/KEPR, it made sense for their new sister stations to take over the production, and wind down the partnership with Cowles, since Rincon was paying Cowles to do their news. Why do that when they now have their own operation? Since Rincon does not have a news producing station in Spokane (remember, the CBS affiliates in the two markets have never been co-owned), KXLY was tapped to take over there. But I feel if this deal with KIMA/KEPR never happened, KHQ would still be doing the news today. It was probably a mutual understanding on both sides, since why is KHQ doing news for a competitor in one market but not the other. The separate Good Day morning show also ended and in Yakima/Tri-Cities, was replaced with the KXLY-produced morning show for KAYU. I guess Morgan Murphy is more open to this since they're also a direct competitor in this market, but they're not doing a local show for this market, just a simulcast from the next market over. The newscast comes out of KEPR, which is where the bulk of the production for this duopoly originates from (KIMA only does one hour of local news on weeknights out of Yakima, which is more than the competition which closed their Yakima studios in 2008). Graphics are the standard Sinclair ones but with the corporate tagline removed (remember Rincon just took over), music is Sinclair's standard group theme from Warner Chappell, and David Kaye is the voiceover. Anchored by Allen Leister. ©2026 Rincon Broadcasting and KEPR-TV, no copyright infringement intended. For educational and historical purposes only. We do not profit off of this video.