News Operation
WBTV was not seriously challenged until 1981, when, in seeking to appeal to a younger audience, it declined to renew the contract of longtime anchor and reporter Doug Mayes, who promptly jumped to WSOC-TV. Within a few months, WBTV's newscast lost the lead at 11 p.m. to channel 9, and did not regain it until 2004. WSOC-TV gained a large lead in ratings for most other news timeslots beginning in 1990. WBTV returned to a strong position in the late 1990s, culminating in wresting the lead at noon in 1998 from WSOC-TV. The two stations have gone back and forth in most time slots since then. In the November 2011 ratings, WBTV took the lead at noon and 11 p.m., while WSOC led at all other times. Soon after Raycom took control, WBTV began airing newscasts and CBS programming in high definition, leaving WCNC as the only remaining Charlotte station that has yet to begin high-definition broadcasts.
Diana Williams, now at WABC-TV in New York City, was an anchor at WBTV during the early 1980s. She was succeeded as the station's main female anchor by Sara James, now a reporter for Dateline NBC. Following the 2005 retirement of longtime WSOC anchorman Bill Walker, WBTV has billed lead anchor Paul Cameron as "The Voice of Experience." Cameron joined WBTV in 1981 as sports director, and then succeeded longtime anchorman Bob Inman upon his retirement in 1996. He is only the third main anchorman in the station's history, following Mayes and Inman. WBTV's Maureen O'Boyle, a Charlotte native and graduate of West Charlotte High School, once anchored the FOX-produced newsmagazine A Current Affair. Morning and midday anchor John Carter is a former North Carolina state senator. Other notable on-air personalities include Steve Ohnesorge, western bureau chief who started as a photographer at WBTV in 1975.
WBTV produces a 10 p.m. newscast for the area's MyNetworkTV affiliate, WMYT-TV. Until April 2012, it aired on WMYT's CW affiliated sister station WJZY. In September 2010, WBTV launched an hour-long 4 p.m. newscast; it is the market's second newscast to air in that time period.
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Famous quotes containing the words news and/or operation:
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—Chinese proverb.
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—Sydney Smith (1771–1845)