WFTV - News Operation

News Operation

In 1992, WFTV dropped two of the five hours of ABC's Saturday morning cartoons in order to add a local newscast. The station ceased airing the block completely in 1993 when the broadcast expanded to three hours. Alongside its own Eyewitness News shows, WFTV has also been producing a nightly 10 o'clock news (Eyewitness News at 10 formerly known as Action News at 10) for sister station WRDQ since 2000. It added a two-hour long weekday morning newscast (Eyewitness News This Morning) at 7 on WRDQ in 2007, and a half-hour 6:30 p.m. newscast on that station in 2010.

The main anchor duo on Eyewitness News, Bob Opsahl and Martie Salt, have been together on-air for over 15 years, from 1984–1994 and again since 2003. Opsahl has been the primary anchor at WFTV since 1984. Salt was originally an anchor from 1982–1994, departing for Tampa, Florida ABC affiliate WFTS-TV from 1994 to 2003 (where she anchored the news under her married name, Martie Tucker); she returned to WFTV in 2003.

On June 29, 2006, this station became the first Florida station to offer newscasts in 720p high definition. It was also the first Cox owned-and-operated station and the tenth in the country to begin producing HD newscasts. With the switch to HD came a new set from FX Group and graphics from Giant Octopus. The station operates a Baron Services weather radar called "Early Warning Doppler 9 HD" at its old analog transmitter site north of Bithlo along the Orange and Seminole County line. WFTV palns to upgrade the radar's power to one million watts, that would make it the second most powerful radar in central Florida (WOFL's also having one million watts).