WESH - News Operation

News Operation

WESH called its news department "NewsCenter 2" for most of the 1980s, and it's eleven o'clock newscast was called the NewsCenter 2 Nightcast. The station then switched to "Newschannel 2" in 1992 before adopting the current "WESH 2 News" in 2005. Also in 2005, it began pronouncing the call letters as a word for the first time since the late 1980s-early 1990s (although it should be noted that in the grammatical sense, the station's callsign does not spell an actual word).

WESH began broadcasting newscasts in high definition on November 1, 2007, making WESH the second station in Orlando to broadcast its local newscasts in HD behind WFTV, and the fourth Hearst-Argyle station to broadcast its local newscasts in HD. Their graphics are similar in ways to sister stations WCVB and KMBC. As part of the HD revamp, music from Gari Media Group's The NBC Collection (which they used for openings, teases and bumpers since 2005) officially replaced the mandated Hearst TV News Music Package (created by Newsmusic Central) while the chimes of "Where the News Comes First" were retained during the weekly forecast. However, as of November 2008, the Hearst TV News Music Package (with the de facto "Where the News Comes First" signature) has been fully reinstated.

As of May 2009, WESH is the only station in Central Florida which airs a newscast at 4 p.m. since WKMG cancelled its late afternoon newscasts. On November 30, 2009, WESH debuted new opens, updated graphics and a new station slogan ("Local. Live. Late Breaking.") on their 4 p.m. newscast. WESH unveiled a new Hearst-mandated standardized graphics and music package (Hearst News Package by Fuze Artz ) on July 18, 2012. The new music package was "written, arranged and produced by a talented team of composers from across America" and was "recorded by a 70 piece ensemble of elite musicians in Prague".

In April 2010, WESH unveiled new technology for its news helicopter "Chopper 2"; it became the first and, until June 2010, only news station in Central Florida to bring high-definition pictures (WFTV upgraded the camera for their news chopper ("Skywitness 9") to HD a few months later). The primary news anchors at WESH are Martha Sugalski and Jim Payne. The position of "Chief Meteorologist" was formerly held by Dave Marsh, who retired on July 31, 2006, after 37 years at WESH. Tony Mainolfi was named the new "Chief Meteorologist" on May 3, 2007.