WDJT-TV - News Operation

News Operation

Currently, WDJT produces a total of 22 hours of local newscasts per week (with four hours on weekdays and one hour each on Saturdays and Sundays), which by a large margin, is the lowest newscast output out of the Big Four network affiliates in the Milwaukee area (in contrast, WITI offers 49½ hours, WTMJ offers 40½ hours and WISN offers 31½ hours of news each week). In addition, WDJT produces a nightly half-hour 9 p.m. newscast for sister station WMLW-TV. The station also gathers news for CBS Radio in Milwaukee, due to the lack of any area radio station broadcasting the network's radio newscasts (WOKY had broadcast the network's hourly newscasts until a September 2008 format change, but does not have a news division), and has a forecast and advertising agreement with the stations of the Milwaukee Radio Alliance, which includes WLDB, WLUM-FM, and WMCS.

Unlike most CBS affiliates in the Central Time Zone, WDJT does not have a weeknight 6 p.m. newscast; the station carried a 6 p.m. newscast from the 1996 launch of the news department until the acquisition of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! in the fall of 2005, when the station chose to air both shows during that hour. Although this is unusual scheduling in the Central Time Zone due to the reduction of one hour from early primetime, it is the common default scheduling for stations in the Eastern and Pacific time zones (Fox affiliate WLUK-TV/Green Bay also carries both shows in the same timeslots). WDJT also does not carry newscasts on weekend mornings, and is currently the market's only Big Four affiliate not to do so since WITI-TV reinstated its weekend morning newscasts in April 2011, following a two-year suspension (local weather inserts are taped after the Friday and Saturday 10 p.m. news for broadcast during the Saturday edition of CBS This Morning and CBS Sunday Morning, except during ongoing severe weather events). Until the launch of a half-hour noon newscast on September 12, 2011, the station opted instead to fill the noon half-hour with a lower-profile syndicated show instead of airing a midday newscast as other CBS affiliates do. WDJT also produces a nightly weather forecast segment using its meteorologists for sister station (and Weigel flagship) WCIU in Chicago.

The station uses the Ten at Ten format for its late newscast, emphasizing the top stories and weather in the first 10 minutes of the program. WDJT has won regional Emmy awards, along with honors from the Associated Press for best newscast presentation. In 2009, the station began to carry the syndicated Mr. Food cooking segments on their morning newscasts, bringing back the feature to the Milwaukee market after a three year hiatus when WITI dropped the segments. During the 2007 World Series, WDJT produced a 9 p.m. newscast for WMLW-CA, in an attempt to attract non-baseball viewers who would normally watch WITI's newscast in that time period but were unable to do so due to broadcast delays during the World Series. The 9 p.m. newscast on WMLW went to full-time status on January 1, 2008. WDJT also produces Spanish-language evening newscasts for co-owned Telemundo affiliate WYTU-LD with local reports inserted into the network's 10 p.m. national program; several of WDJT's reporters are bilingual and present news stories for both stations.

Until April 2011, the station also produced an 11-minute late evening newscast for ABC-affiliated sister station WBND-LP/South Bend called News at 11:00, featuring video shot locally in South Bend and then edited and written by anchor McCormack and executive producer Adam Wilhelm in Milwaukee (WBND has since launched its own in-house news department, though the imaging and format for its newscasts are very similar to WDJT's).

On July 25, 2011 (after a two-day test by WYTU's news segments the week before), the station's news department moved to a newly built extension of the Weigel facility, including a new set and fully equipped weather center optimized for HD broadcasting. The station began broadcasting its newscasts in high definition on January 8, 2012 at 10 p.m. after a one-day news hiatus for technical work, the evening before the debut of the new version of CBS This Morning (WDJT originally planned to make the upgrade in mid-September 2011, but that target was not met as the station installed their new master control and graphics software by December 9, then acquiring HD field equipment). WDJT was the last television station in Milwaukee to convert its newscasts to HD, and outside of some field video and national satellite stories (including the WMLW and Telemundo Wisconsin programs, which switched to HD in August 2012), has all news programming broadcast in the format. The station also maintains a traffic car where a photojournalist with a 3G connection back to the studios with a dashboard camera (branded by the station as iCAM) circuits the freeway system where possible every morning and some evenings to report current traffic conditions in traffic or nearby breaking news, in lieu of a traditional news helicopter.