WHEC-TV - News Operation

News Operation

During Viacom ownership, WHEC stayed steadily in second place in the Nielsen ratings between WHAM-TV and WROC. This was also because ABC was in first place while NBC was a distant third in the viewership ratings during that period. On January 30, 2006, the station launched a 24-hour weather station known as "News 10 NBC WeatherPlus" on a new second digital subchannel and Time Warner Cable digital systems. After the national service shut down on December 1, 2008, WHEC-DT2 reverted to a local weather channel. WHEC was the first station in Rochester to launch a weeknight newscast at 7 in 2008.

Even with ownership change to Hubbard, WHEC remained a solid runner-up in Rochester for many years. However, during the November 2008 ratings period, WHEC's weeknight broadcast at 11 fell to third place behind WHAM and WROC while the ratings for its other shows also plummeted (largely due to NBC's recent ratings struggles which have continued into the present day). At that time, it fell to a distant second overall closer to third-place WROC than it is to WHAM. However, this station recovered during the May 2009 sweeps with the weeknight news at 11 virtually tying WHAM and both are just ahead of WROC in that time slot.

The three stations became competitive during the May 2009 ratings period each winning different contests. WHAM still won total-day ratings with WHEC's biggest strength at the time being its late-night newscast. Meanwhile, WROC led in prime time. It has a fairly long-standing partnership with local news-talk outlet WYSL-AM 1040. The radio station simulcasts all weekday newscasts from WHEC except weeknights at 7. This arrangement is in exchange for advertisement time. In addition to the main studios, the station maintains a Finger Lakes Bureau in the Messenger-Post newsroom on Buffalo Street in Canandaigua.

During the ratings periods of 2011 (through July), WHEC's newscasts have remained in second place for most time slots. With WROC-TV's upgrade to high definition local newscasts on September 4, 2012 (with the newscast on WUHF included in the switch), WHEC remains the only major station in Rochester which has not yet upgraded its newscasts to high definition or 16:9 widescreen. However, those who update the station's Facebook page have hinted at a high definition upgrade occurring sometime in 2013.