After being acquired by Free State Communications, the company decided to start a new news department for KTKA-TV, hiring 29 staffers and acquiring new software and hardware for the re-development of its news operations. On February 5, 2006, following ABC's telecast of Super Bowl XL and a post-game episode of "Grey's Anatomy", the station restored news operations (under the brand "49 News") with the debut of a half-hour nightly late-evening newscast at 10:00 p.m.; the following day on February 6, KTKA debuted a 90-minute morning newscast (starting at 5:30 a.m. weekdays) titled "Good Morning Kansas" and a half-hour early-evening newscast at 6:00 p.m. on Monday through Saturday evenings. Under the ownership of The World Company, KTKA also shared news content resources with Lawrence-based sister cable news channel 6 News Lawrence. In September 2007, the station debuted a midday newscast at 11:00 a.m. weekdays. Free State heavily invested in the new news department, particularly in weather coverage, creating a large network of SkyCams throughout the Topeka market (including sites located in Lawrence, Emporia, Junction City and on the Kansas State University campus in Manhattan—the latter of which captured an EF4 tornado that hit the city on the evening of June 11, 2008), and the acquisition of a customized and modified Hummer H2 (known as the "49 StormTracker") for storm chasing.