News Operation
A key to WDBJ's ratings success has been the continuity of its on-air team, which is not the norm in local news especially for a market of Roanoke-Lynchburg's size. Keith Humphry anchored News 7 at Six for 30 years until his retirement on May 25, 2011 (in the Roanoke-Lynchburg market, newcast ratings tend to be much higher at 6 PM than 11 p.m.). Robin Reed has been the lead weathercaster since 1982. Jean Jadhon has anchored WDBJ7's evening broadcasts since 1992 and morning anchor Kimberly McBroom has been with the station since 1993. Senior reporter Joe Dashiell has been at WDBJ since the 1970s and was the longtime Richmond newsroom correspondent.
In 2006, WDBJ began a news partnership with its former radio sister WFIR. In August 2006, WDBJ added an outdoor Weather Deck; this deck provides a new location for controlled outside weather and news segments. Alongside the Weather Deck is the Weather Garden. WDBJ often presents feature packages about the Weather Garden and offers tips, advice and ideas about common gardening.
On August 13, 2007, WDBJ became the only station in the Roanoke/Lynchburg market with four meteorologists in its weather center. WDBJ's weather department is the Weatherbug Network affiliate for the Roanoke/Lynchburg market. The Weatherbug network offers real-time statistics and information from all around the region. There are 24 Weatherbug locations within the WDBJ viewing area. On April 22, 2008, WDBJ began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. The station also became the first in the Roanoke-Lynchburg market with high-definition weather graphics.
In 2012, WDBJ began to phase out the "News 7" branding, deciding to go with "Your Hometown News Leader: WDBJ 7". Newscasts no longer reference a specific time, except for the morning newscast which is still called "Mornin'". WDBJ's weather department also took on a new brand, adopting "First Alert" and dropping "Skytracker 7."
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Famous quotes containing the words news and/or operation:
“When the newspapers have got nothing else to talk about, they cut loose on the young. The young are always news. If they are up to something, that’s news. If they aren’t, that’s news too.”
—Kenneth Rexroth (1905–1982)
“Waiting for the race to become official, he began to feel as if he had as much effect on the final outcome of the operation as a single piece of a jumbo jigsaw puzzle has to its predetermined final design. Only the addition of the missing fragments of the puzzle would reveal if the picture was as he guessed it would be.”
—Stanley Kubrick (b. 1928)