WFFT-TV - News Operation

News Operation

For most of the station's history, WFFT did not have a regular newscast. For a year in 1980, it did operate a news department and air a half-hour primetime news program known as The 10 O’Clock Report; this was established during a time of heavy competition from other newscasts. As an independent, WFFT did not have network shows that could lead into its newscast, so consistent viewership and ratings were difficult to maintain. The news team consisted of only five people and personnel would shoot and edit their own video. After that broadcast's cancellation, WFFT delivered news bulletins in primetime for almost two decades.

On April 6, 2009, the station launched a second news operation and prime-time broadcast known as Fox Fort Wayne News First at 10 (now WFFT News First at 10 as of late June 2011). It was the last Fox affiliate in Indiana to launch a news operation, but the only local affiliate in the country to launch a new newscast in 2009. Airing for 35 minutes on weeknights, the show competes with MyFox Fort Wayne News at 10 on WISE-DT2. As with the 1980 production, personnel serve as multi-platform journalists shooting and editing their own stories. There was no sports department until the newscast's expansion following the loss of the Fox affiliation. WFFT's current newscast was nominated for an Emmy award for "Best Evening Newscast" from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences-Lower Great Lakes Chapter. No other station in Fort Wayne received the nomination.

When the station became an independent station on August 1, 2011, WFFT expanded the 10 p.m. newscast to one hour; the newscast expanded to Saturday and Sunday evenings as of October 1, 2011 (also running for one hour), and the station began broadcasting their news in high definition the previous Thursday, becoming the first station in the Fort Wayne market to do so. In addition, the station also airs a weekly sports wrap-up show, titled The Locker Room, airing Sundays after the 10 p.m. newscast.