Newscasts
WATM and WWCP began airing local newscasts in 1992. WWCP produced an hour-long broadcast at 10 pm from Johnstown while WATM aired a nightly program at 11 pm from State College. As a result, these newscasts focused on their respective areas and barely registered as a blip in the ratings against longer-established WJAC-TV and WTAJ-TV, who had market-wide coverage. Due in part to continued ratings struggles, WATM's separate news department was shut down in December 2002 and merged with WWCP in Johnstown.
On November 28, 2007, The Tribune Democrat reported that the shared news department of WATM and WWCP was going to shut down. According to a written statement, the two stations had been operating at a loss for years and the move was needed. The closure resulted in all reporters being released from their contracts. NBC affiliate WJAC had on-air positions open but no personalities from those two stations were hired. Effective January 14, 2008, WJAC assumed production responsibility of the prime time show (still known as Fox 8 News at 10) which was reduced to 35 minutes on weeknights and thirty minutes on weekends. The WJAC-produced news uses the same music package and some voice-overs seen during segment opens as the former operation did. A new graphics package slightly different from WJAC and new logos similar to the WWCP promo logo introduced in 2007 were created specifically for the 10 o'clock program.
Since WJAC has prior commitments with news and weather cut-ins during Today, WATM still produces its own Good Morning America news and weather cut-ins that are seen Tuesday through Saturday mornings. Former WWCP co-anchor Sherry Stalley, who was still under contract when the news department shut down, anchored the updates. The cut-ins use news video from the previous day's WJAC-produced WWCP broadcast and the same graphics package. On Sunday and Monday, the cut-ins are filled by WATM promos. In October 2010, Stalley was hired by WJAC to return as the anchor for Fox 8 News, but on Monday, March 14, 2011, Stalley's picture was removed from the Fox 8 Website, indicating that she is no longer with the station. While a replacement for Stalley was sought, WJAC anchor Marty Radovanic served as anchor for the station's 10:00 p.m. newscast, and the Good Morning America news and weather cut-ins still produced by WATM were filled by former WWCP/WATM Executive Producer Josh Bandish. On March 22, 2011, former WWCP/WATM reporter Christine Strugala returned to the station to take on anchoring duties for the Fox 8 News and WATM's Good Morning America cut-ins.
WJAC's nightly 11 o'clock newscast was simulcast on WATM and branded as ABC 23 News from January 2007 until March 2011 when it was replaced by syndicated episodes of Seinfeld.
Read more about this topic: WATM-TV