WINK-TV - News Operation

News Operation

WINK-TV has been the dominant news station in Fort Myers for nearly all of its history. This is largely due to its status as the area's only VHF station for most of the analog era (the only other such station being low-power WUVF-LP on channel 2, which signed on in the early 1990s). Until cable television came to the area in the 1970s, WINK-TV was the only station that put a clear signal to much of the area. Due to the duopoly of WBBH and WZVN, WINK-TV primarily competes with WBBH. Starting on March 26, 2007, WINK-TV began producing a nightly 10 o'clock newscast for Sun Broadcasting on WXCW).

On October 20, WINK-TV became the first station in Southwest Florida to broadcast local news in high definition. It purchased new high definition studio cameras, field cameras, weather computers, and graphics to complete the launch. The newscasts on WXCW were included in the upgrade. Back on July 12, WZVN began to broadcast its local news in 16x9 widescreen standard definition calling it "enhanced digital definition". However, this was not true high definition compared to WINK-TV. WBBH followed soon after with its own launch of news in the format. On January 7, 2008, several programming changes were made on WINK-TV. It started showing The Early Show in its entirety because CBS now requires all of its affiliates to do that. The Early Show received a makeover and hopes to compete against its rivals, NBC's Today and ABC's Good Morning America. Originally, WINK-TV had preempted the first hour of that show to air an extra hour of local news known as Hello Southwest Florida. The station moved this broadcast to WXCW and expanded it to two hours. In addition, WINK-TV launched a 7 o'clock newscast. To coincide with all of these changes, it began branding its newscasts as WINK News Now.

On July 19, 2008, WBBH and WZVN started broadcasting their local newscasts in full high definition becoming the second and third stations respectively in Fort Myers to do so. In addition to its main studios, WINK-TV operates two news bureaus. The Charlotte County Bureau is in the Charlotte Sun newsroom in Charlotte Harbor while the Collier County Bureau is on 8th Street South in downtown Naples. The station's weather radar, called "SKY Tracker Doppler HD", is located next to the its studios. During the spring training season for the Boston Red Sox, WINK-TV shares its coverage of the team with fellow CBS affiliate WBZ-TV in Boston. It also cooperates with FOX affiliate WFLX in West Palm Beach on some occasions. On September 8, 2009, WZVN began airing a weeknight broadcast at 7 known as The 7 O'Clock News to compete with WINK-TV's prime time show. Both news departments of WZVN and WBBH contribute to this show. At some point in time, this station began airing a weekday 11 a.m. show on WXCW to compete with WBBH, which has since been cancelled.

On May 26, 2011, WINK-TV debuted an hour-long 4 p.m. newscast, one of many added on television stations around the United States on that date to replace The Oprah Winfrey Show, which ended its 25-year run the day before. On June 11, 2011 WINK-TV debuted a 90-minute morning newscast on Saturday and Sunday mornings. WINK-TV also added a half-hour broadcast at 10 a.m. on September 6, 2011.

WINK-TV's 5 a.m. and 6 p.m. newscasts are simulcast on WINK radio (1200 AM) and WNPL (1460 AM); both stations carry a news radio format that utilizes WINK-TV's resources, as well as those of The News-Press and the Naples Daily News, for local news.