News Operation
WHBQ broadcasts a total of 46.5 hours of local news a week (eight and a half hours on weekdays, two hours on Saturdays and Sundays), more than any other television station in Memphis and the state of Tennessee; however as is standard with Fox stations that carry early evening weekend newscasts, WHBQ's Saturday and Sunday 5 pm newscasts are subject to preemption due to sports coverage.
WHBQ's newscasts, for many years, had been called Eyewitness News and stayed true to the Eyewitness News "Happy Talk" format, along with using the "Cool Hand Luke" music package the ABC O&Os used. WHBQ had a number of high-visibility anchors and reporters in the 1970s and 1980s, including Ed Craig, Tom Bearden, Marge Thrasher, Fran Fawcett, Jim Jaggers and Charlie B. Watson. After Fox acquired the station in 1995, the newscasts were briefly called Fox 13 Eyewitness News. In the late 1990s, WHBQ renamed its newscasts Fox 13 News. But despite this change (and even rivals WPTY-TV and WLMT picking up the name Eyewitness News in 2002), WHBQ has remained Memphis' "Happy Talk" station.
WHBQ is one of four Fox O&Os with a 5 p.m. newscast, but no 6 p.m. newscast (along with KTBC in Austin, KRIV in Houston and KMSP-TV in Minneapolis). WFXT in Boston was included in this until September 2009, when the reverse became true after the station "moved" its 5 p.m. newscast to 6 p.m.
WHBQ-TV began broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition on June 23, 2009, making it the second television station in Memphis (behind WMC-TV) to do so. On September 7, 2009, Good Morning Memphis was expanded to five hours, running from 5-10 a.m. On April 26, 2010 an additional half-hour was added to the morning newscast, expanding it to 4:30-10 a.m.
WHBQ started a new 10 p.m. newscast on August 16, 2010, hosted by Ernie Freeman. This marks the first time since December 1, 1995 (when WHBQ became a Fox affiliate) that they are in direct competition with WREG-TV, WMC-TV, and WPTY-TV in the all-important late night news spot. The new newscast follows a similar format to what is already in use at some of its sister Fox stations including WTVT-TV (see NewsEdge at 11 article).
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