News Operation
WAVE-TV currently broadcasts a total of 36 hours of local newscasts each week (with six hours on weekdays, three hours on Saturdays and four hours on Sundays). On July 9, 1990, WAVE-TV debuted the first local 5 p.m. newscast. Titled "FirstNews", the newscast was anchored by veteran broadcaster Jackie Hays, the longest-serving female anchor ever at WAVE-TV. She and co-anchor Don Shroeder were voted "Best TV news Anchor Team" and the station was chosen as "Best Source for Local News" by readers of Louisville Magazine.
As of 2008, chief meteorologist Tom Wills holds the record as the station's longest-tenured on-air personality, having forecast the weather at WAVE since 1969. Wills retired in July 2009 after 40 years. Wills said he would be a vacation fill-in and may return to the University of Louisville to teach meteorology as he did for several years. The station honored him by having a special two-hour edition of its local talk show "WAVE 3 Listens Live". His family and co-workers were the guests.
Meteorologist John Belski, who left the station in September 2010, received numerous awards during his 20+ years at WAVE, including being named "Best Of Louisville" by the readers of Louisville Magazine for a number of years and was named "Best of Kentucky" by the readers of Kentucky Monthly magazine. Belski also received LEO's Readers' Choice Award. He received a "Best of the Best" award from Louisville Magazine. This award is given to people and organizations that have won the "Best of Louisville" award more than 10 times. He anchored Emmy Award-winning severe weather coverage. John was also presented the Mark Trail Award for public awareness of NOAA weather radios. This prestigious national award was presented on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. Sports Director Kent Taylor was voted Kentucky TV Sportscaster of the Year by the Associated Press in 2008, 2009 and 2012.
On June 30, 2008, WAVE-TV became the first television station in the Louisville market to broadcast its local news in high definition. Currently, although all of Louisville's major news stations broadcast local news in 16:9 widescreen, WAVE-TV is one of the two (along with WDRB-TV) to broadcast local news at least partially in HD. WAVE-TV's live local field video, however, is still in widescreen standard definition.
In March 2011, WAVE-TV and WHAS-TV began sharing a news helicopter supplied by St. Louis-based Helicopters Inc., through a Local News Service agreement. The starboard side of the copter displays "Sky 11" (WHAS-TV) graphics, while the port side carries the "Air 3" (WAVE-TV) logo. The cost-cutting agreement allows the two stations to share air time and video feeds, especially in the event of breaking news, while also partitioning time for individual use of the chopper.
Following a disappointing November 2011 sweeps period, WAVE-TV moved its midday newscast from noon to 11 a.m. With the change, WAVE-TV is the only station in the market with a newscast in the 11 a.m. timeslot. The station repeats the newscast at 1 p.m. on Ion Television affiliate WBNA-TV (Channel 21), which is seen in 4:3 standard definition due to that station only being able to pass through network programs in high definition.
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—Bible: Hebrew Proverbs, 25:25.
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