News Operation
Soon after buying channel 33, Granite merged its news department with that of WPTA, even though WPTA was nominally the junior partner in the LMA. Granite fired nearly all of WISE's anchors and reporters, with longtime anchorwoman Linda Jackson being the only channel 33 holdover integrated into the WPTA operation. This station began airing a weeknight newscast at 7 which was the first and, at the time, the only one in the state of Indiana. On September 11, 2006, this was replaced with an extra episode of Dr. Phil due to low ratings. In November 2005, after several months of using the "Alive" news brand on both stations, WPTA debuted a new set in the basement of its studios formerly used to tape public-affairs programs such as Impact. With it came a new branding for the newscasts, Indiana's NewsCenter.
When WPTA took over production of news on WISE-TV, there was initially a significant decrease in ratings. WANE-TV was the market's news leader for several years after that according to Nielsen Media Research since it was the only other local news operation in the area. This was most easily attributed to continued viewer resentment towards WPTA and Granite for the elimination of WISE-TV's news department and arguably its identity and history. However, WPTA management said the changes were part of a longer-term plan that would need up to five years to take hold with viewers. Part of the plan to win back viewers included new technology such as text messaging, an improved website with more online video, and upgrading weather equipment to a VIPIR system.
Eventually, the changes started to take hold and ratings began to drastically improve. In the November 2007 sweeps period, WPTA and WANE-TV were nearly neck-and-neck in the Fort Wayne television news ratings race with WANE-TV continuing to show a slight lead. Starting July 24, 2006, WISE-TV began airing a weeknight prime time newscast at 10 for a half-hour on its NBC Weather Plus subchannel. With the September 2006 change to MyNetworkTV on WISE-DT2 and the addition of The CW on WPTA's second digital subchannel, the show (known as Indiana's NewsCenter Prime News) became part of those channel's schedules through a simulcast. On May 18, 2009, WISE-TV and WPTA became the first two stations in Fort Wayne to air local newscasts in 16:9 enhanced definition widescreen. Although not truly high definition, the aspect ratio matched those of HD television screens.
WISE-TV's first high definition newscast aired the morning of October 15, 2012; WPTA started the night prior at 11 p.m. Until March 2013, WISE-TV simulcasted WPTA newscasts, with separate news opens used to replace the Indiana's NewsCenter brand on-air.
On March 4, 2013, WISE-TV began newscasts featuring a separate on-air team at 4 p.m., 6 p.m., and 11 p.m., focusing on lifestyle and social media. This new team originally began on subchannel WISE-DT2, whose 10 p.m. newscast was canceled following the settlement of a lawsuit that saw its Fox affiliation return to previous affiliate WFFT-TV. Though WPTA personnel do not appear on these broadcasts, news resources continue to be shared such as video footage. WISE-TV does not air broadcasts on weekday mornings, noon, weeknights at 5-5:30 p.m., or on weekends unlike most NBC affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone.
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Famous quotes containing the words news and/or operation:
“There’s a long story, my friend. I never did like the idea of sitting on newspapers. I did it once and all the headlines came off on my white pants. On the level, it actually happened. Nobody bought a paper that day. They just followed me around over town and read the news off the seat of my pants.”
—Robert Riskin (1897–1955)
“It is critical vision alone which can mitigate the unimpeded operation of the automatic.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)