WFXG - News Operation

News Operation

After ABC affiliate WJBF (owned by Media General) renovated its studios in 2004, the station entered into a news share agreement with WFXG. The outsourcing arrangement resulted in a nightly prime time newscast to debut on this station. Known as Fox 54 News at 10, the thirty minute program originated from WJBF's facility on Reynolds Street in Downtown Augusta. The broadcast featured different on-air graphics and modified WJBF's existing set with separate duratrans in order to conceal that station's logo. The principal look of the set and on-air graphics for Fox 54 News at 10 remained the same since the newscast's launch and the program always used Gari Media Group's "The X Package" as its music theme.

Meanwhile, NBC affiliate WAGT decided to establish its own weeknight prime time newscast at 10 in 2004 to go up against this station's effort. The production launched a few days after WFXG's show and was initially seen on Independent outlet WBEK-CA through a similar arrangement. Known as WBEK 16 News at 10, the program was soon cancelled due to low ratings and inconsistent viewership. The broadcast was unable to directly compete against WFXG's news because this program has been very successful in the time slot from its start. After being retooled, WAGT's weeknight prime time newscast was relaunched on cable-only WB affiliate "WBAU" and was known as WB 23 News at 10.

In September 2006 with that station's switch to The CW, WAGT renamed the broadcast CW Augusta Now and tailored it towards a younger audience as was the case with the newly-formed network. On April 23, 2007 in an attempt to boost anemic ratings, WAGT decided to drop the CW Augusta Now title and its fast-paced format replacing it with a more traditional newscast (this time known as NBC Augusta News at 10). However, the program was still unable to mount a strong challenge and alternative to WFXG's newscast so it was eventually dropped completely in April 2008 as a result. In November 2009, WJBF continued producing Fox 54 News at 10 despite that station's owner entering into joint sales and shared services agreements to operate WAGT.

On September 26, 2011 after terminating its seven year news share agreement with WJBF, WFXG launched its first ever in-house news operation. In partnership with a News Director based at sister outlet WTOC-TV in Savannah, WFXG hired multimedia journalists to shoot, edit, and report coverage in the Augusta area. At this point, five personalities have joined the station and work out of Augusta. All anchors for news, weather and sports are provided by WTOC and the broadcast originates live from that station's facility on Chatham Center Drive in Savannah's Chatham Parkway section. The executive producer of WFXG is Lauren Powell, who previously was the 4pm producer at WTOC.

WFXG also features unique, regionalized coverage provided by Raycom Media sister outlets including WTOC, WIS in Columbia and WCSC-TV in Charleston. The partnership is comparable to the existing "Raycom News Network", another regional network among the company's widespread group of television stations in the state of Alabama (WSFA in Montgomery, WDFX-TV in Dothan, WAFF in Huntsville, WBRC in Birmingham and WTVM/WXTX in Auburn/Phenix City/Opelika). The six stations share information, equipment (such as satellite trucks) and stories from reporters. WFXG became the third Fox affiliate in Raycom's portfolio to have its newscasts produced in-house joining Birmingham's WBRC and Cincinnati, Ohio's WXIX. Local newscasts on the remainder of the company's Fox outlets are produced through news share agreements by a big three network affiliate in the respective market.

With the change, WFXG upgraded its newscasts to full high definition level becoming the second station in Augusta to do so (CBS affiliate WRDW-TV was the first). According to television listings, Fox 54 News at 10 expanded to an hour on weeknights and 35 minutes on Sundays. The show remains a half-hour production on Saturdays. There is no regularly scheduled sports report seen in the broadcast. On the same day of WFXG's launch, WJBF introduced another prime time broadcast at 10 on WAGT-DT2. Known as NewsChannel 6 at 10 on The CW, the news is seen every night for thirty minutes on that station. Despite airing on a second digital subchannel of WAGT, the program has WJBF branding and features anchors from the latter station.

Despite making a valiant effort to make a name for itself in local news, WFXG only produces 6 hours of local news a week, the least of any station with a news department in the Augusta area. Despite making attempts to promote how they are based locally, including showing off their Savannah-based talent near Augusta landmarks in promos, the outsourced newscasts continue to plague them in local newscast ratings and viewership, putting them distantly behind WJBF, WAGT, and WRDW overall, but only marginally ahead of WJBF's competiting 10pm offering on CW Augusta. Recently, WJBF was named number 1 by the readers of Augusta Magazine, and was named Best of Augusta for 2012. WAGT was named number 2, followed by WRDW which placed a distant 3rd. WFXG did not place in the Best of Augusta poll.