WSTM-TV - News Operation

News Operation

Local news offerings on this station were originally ten minutes long and was not expanded to thirty minutes until the 1960s. For the past two decades, WSTM's newscasts have been second overall in the viewership ratings behind dominant WSYR. As of July 2008, that station remains number one in Central New York for the whole day-part. However, it is in a tight battle with WSTM for weekday mornings and weeknights at 11. WSYR makes up for this with huge leads during the week at noon, 5, 5:30, and 6. In two periods during its history, this station have used the popular Action News branding. The station's on-air slogan, "Live. Local. Latebreaking.", has been used since 1998.

In 1996, the station began producing a prime time newscast at 10 for Fox affiliate WSYT through a news share agreement. Airing every night for half-hour, this was known as Fox 68 News at 10. Original anchors were Chuck Plumpton and Betsy Sykes with Wayne Mahar providing weather forecasts. A sports anchor, Joe Brown, was added later. He was replaced by Joe Zone (now at WFSB) and Amy Kellogg replaced Betsy Sykes on the news anchor desk. Further shuffling of the staff moved Joe Zone to news anchor and Jon Herz was hired as Sports Director. In 2000, WSTM declined to renew its agreement to produce WSYT's news programming and that channel partnered with WTVH to keep the broadcasts on-air.

When WSTQ became a sister station, WSTM began producing a weeknight prime time newscast called Action News at 10 on UPN 6, The Q. This was expanded to seven days a week on January 8, 2005. On January 22, WSTM expanded its own news operation with the addition of a weekend morning show. The WSTQ show was renamed Action News at 10 on CW 6 on September 18, 2006 to correspond with that station's network switch from UPN to The CW.

After becoming operated by WSTM, WTVH shut down its news department and merged it with WSTM. It resulted in the elimination of forty jobs at that station. Michael Benny was retained to solo-anchor the weeknight newscasts on WTVH from its separate studios using other personalities from WSTM for all other content. The system set up by the other station to use all videotaped footage (including interviews) shot by WSTM was filled with problems with staffers from this station walking to WTVH's old studios to deliver raw video to be edited for its newscasts.

In October 2009, Barrington Broadcasting began to produce separate weeknight newscasts on WTVH from a new secondary set at WSTM's facilities. Although that station retains separate branding, music, and graphic aspects of the weeknight shows that air from 5 to 6:30 and 11 to 11:35, coverage is essentially the same. Outside of those broadcasts, all newscasts on WSTM are now simulcasted on WTVH except for its weekend morning show. There may be pre-emptions or delays on one channel due to network obligations especially on weekends. Neither station have attempted to offer news shows outside traditional time slots to compete with WSYR (such as weekdays at 11 am, 12:30 pm, or weeknights at 4 and 7) despite a plan originally announced. However, WSTQ's weeknight newscast was expanded to an hour on August 30, 2010.

WSTM was the first in Syracuse to use weather radar in 1985 and launched its own system in 2000. This consisted of its own radar at the transmitter site in a network with WHEC-TV/SUNY Brockport in the Rochester area as well as WIVB-TV in Buffalo. However, WIVB and WSTM have since shut down their individual radars. During current weather segments, WSTM features three live NOAA National Weather Service radars in Montague, Binghamton, and Buffalo. On-air this is known as "Live Triple Doppler" and the radar beams are superimposed over the on-screen image.

In mid-December 2010, WSTM became the first in the market to offer local newscasts in 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen with the shows on WTVH and WSTQ being included. Initially, only the digital cable feed of WSTQ was aired in enhanced definition since its over-the-air low-powered analog and digital (on WSTM-DT2) signals remained in pillarboxed 4:3 standard definition. At some point in 2012, the CW subchannel was upgraded to high definition, allowing the WSTQ shows to be aired terrestrially in widescreen. Although not truly high definition, the broadcasts match the aspect ratio of HD television screens. Rival WSYR upgraded to full high definition on January 29, 2011.