WAGT - News Operation

News Operation

For at least the first quarter of a century on-the-air, WAGT aired virtually no local newscasts apart from brief news and weather cut-ins during Today on weekday mornings and the early evenings and late evenings on weeknights. On September 21, 1995, the station finally established its first ever news department with broadcasts under the name 26 News. Initially included in the launch was a nightly show at 11. Soon after, a nightly newscast at 6 and a weekday morning show were added to the schedule.

The latter program was expanded in June 2003 to a full two-hours (from 5 until 7) in the morning resulting in WAGT being the first outlet in the market to make such a launch. In addition, there was also a thirty-minute news and lifestyle show weekdays at noon called Top 'o the Day. Although that program would eventually be dropped, the station added a new midday newscast at 11 on September 10, 2007 that aired for a half-hour.

For the most part over the years, WAGT has traditionally maintained a third place ranking among the area's other big three affiliates. The station has changed its branding several times in attempts to improve ratings and increase viewership by adopting variations including 26 Action News. It finally re-branded in 2003 as WAGT News. Between 2003 and 2005, Action News was completely phased out along with the "3D Weather" (a.k.a. "3 Degree Guarantee") weather segments. In 2005, its newscasts were branded as NBC 26 News phasing out the call letters "WAGT" in most but not all station graphics and logos. This was due to the fact the graphics package produced by Television By Design was less than a year old and still carried the WAGT News moniker. Along with this re-brand came other changes such as updates to the studio set, graphics package, and the regional Doppler weather radar.

After WJBF renovated its studios in 2004, the station entered into a news share agreement with Fox affiliate WFXG (then owned by Southeastern Media Holdings and operated by Raycom Media). The outsourcing arrangement resulted in a nightly prime time newscast to debut on that station. Known as Fox 54 News at 10, the thirty-minute program originated from WJBF's studios on Reynolds Street in Downtown Augusta. The broadcast featured different on-air graphics and modified WJBF's existing set with separate duratrans in order to conceal WJBF's logo. The principal look of the set and on-air graphics for Fox 54 News at 10 remained the same from the newscast's launch and always used Gari Media Group's "The X Package" as its music theme.

Meanwhile, WAGT decided to establish its own weeknight prime time newscast at 10 in 2004 to offer an alternative against WFXG's effort. The production launched a few days after that outlet's show and was initially seen on Class A Independent station WBEK-CA (ironically Augusta's original Fox station) through a similar outsourcing agreement. Known as WBEK 16 News at 10, this program was soon cancelled due to low ratings and inconsistent viewership. The broadcast was unable to directly compete against WFXG's news because that broadcast was very successful in the time slot from its start.

After being retooled, WAGT's weeknight prime time newscast was relaunched on "WBAU" and became known as WB 23 News at 10. With that station's September 2006 affiliation switch to The CW, WAGT renamed the broadcast CW Augusta Now and tailored its format towards a younger audience as was the case with the newly-formed network. On April 23, 2007 in an attempt to boost continual anemic ratings, WAGT decided to drop the CW Augusta Now title and its fast-paced format replacing it with a more traditional newscast. However, NBC Augusta News at 10 was still unable to mount a strong challenge and alternative to WFXG's newscast so it was cancelled in April 2008.

Following a national trend among television stations, WAGT's continual third place ranking and low advertising sales resulted in Schurz Communications handing over daily operations to Media General and rival WJBF. The ABC outlet continued producing WFXG's Fox 54 News at 10 despite the operational agreements with WAGT. As a result, some reporters and video footage from this station began to be seen on WFXG. In January 2010, WAGT dropped its weekday midday show and added a weeknight newscast at 7 that can currently be seen for a half-hour. This show remains the market's only local broadcast seen in the time slot.

Although physical operations of WAGT and WJBF remained based at their respective facilities for the time being, later plans called for this outlet to move into expanded space at WJBF's studios on Reynolds Street. Media General ultimately decided to construct a new combined facility at the Augusta West Shopping Center in a former Barnes & Noble bookstore. After completion in October 2011, WAGT and WJBF finally upgraded newscasts to full high definition. Rival WRDW became Augusta's first television station to add 16:9 widescreen enhanced definition broadcasts on August 17, 2010 and upgraded to full high definition (another area first) on January 24, 2011.

On September 26, 2011 after terminating a seven-year-old news share agreement with WJBF, WFXG launched its first ever in-house news operation. Corresponding with the launch, the Fox station became the second outlet in Agusta to broadcast local newscasts in high definition. On the same day, WJBF introduced another prime time broadcast at 10 on WAGT-DT2. Known as NewsChannel 6 at 10 on The CW, the news is seen every night for thirty minutes. Despite airing on a second digital subchannel of WAGT, the program has WJBF branding and features anchors from that station. Like all CW Plus affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone, WAGT-DT2 airs the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz on weekdays from 6 until 9.

Currently, WAGT and WJBF operate news departments that are technically separate. There is, however, a considerable amount of sharing between the two when it comes to coverage, video footage, and the use of reporters. The outlets do maintain their own primary on-air personalities (such as news and sports anchors) that only appear on one station. WAGT and WJBF maintain separate sets at the Augusta West Shopping Center studios allowing them to maintain individual on-air identities and offer local news at the same time. WAGT features a red graphics theme while WJBF has traditional blue colors (as seen on other Media General-owned outlets) for newscast packages.

Recently, WJBF was named number 1 by the readers of Augusta Magazine, and was named Best of Augusta for 2012. WAGT was named number 2, followed by WRDW which placed a distant 3rd. WFXG did not place in the Best of Augusta poll. WAGT forecaster Jay Jefferies, morning anchor Liz Hill, and evening anchor Paige Tucker, each took home Best Of awards for Best Weather Personality, Best News Personality, and Best Hair respectfully.