WITI (TV) - News Operation

News Operation

WITI broadcasts a total of 52 hours of local news a week (8½ hours on weekdays, and five hours on Saturdays and 5½ hours on Sundays), for the most local newscasts of any television station in the Milwaukee market and the entire state of Wisconsin. The news programming on WITI ranges from a traditional 10 p.m. newscast, to a 90-minute early evening news block, to an hour long feature-driven 9 p.m. newscast, to 4½ hours (4:30-9 a.m.) of weekday morning newscasts.

From the time WITI became a Fox O&O station in the mid-1990s, the station has put more emphasis on its local newscasts; it has more or less maintained a newscast schedule similar to an ABC, CBS or NBC affiliate, along with additional newscasts from 7-9 a.m. and 5:30-6 p.m. on weekdays and the hour-long nightly primetime newscast at 9 p.m. The station is also one of a steadily growing number of Fox stations with a newscast in the traditional late news timeslot (in WITI's case, 10 p.m. Central time), in addition to the primetime 9 p.m. newscast, along with one of the few to continue their existing Big Three-era 10 p.m. newscast after the affiliate switch, and one of a handful of Fox stations to run a 10 p.m. (or 11 p.m.) newscast seven nights a week. The station's newscasts usually place a strong first or second in the demographic ratings with WTMJ and WDJT finishing third or fourth. With the November 2011 ratings book, the Fox 6 Wake Up News beat all its competitors to finish first in the ratings and officially holding that position for two straight years.

On December 3, 2007, the noon newscast on weekdays moved to 11 a.m. Two days prior to that, the Saturday morning Wake-Up broadcast was expanded to two hours beginning at 7 a.m., and the Sunday morning broadcast was also moved to 7 a.m., but remained one hour long. In addition, Gus Gnorski's DIY program on Saturday mornings, Ask Gus, was put on hiatus, with Gnorski's segments merged into the Saturday morning Wake-Up broadcasts and his former studio becoming the new home of Wake-Up in May 2008. After March 28, 2009, the Saturday morning Wake-Up and 6 p.m. Saturday newscasts were suspended. The Sunday morning Wake-Up and 5 p.m. Sunday newscasts were suspended the following day. On April 4, Ask Gus briefly returned as reruns. The show was expected to continue. However, Gnorski's medically-necessitated retirement put an end to these plans. The weekend Wake-Up and weekend newscasts returned because of this. The how-to program ended its 15-year run on November 24, 2007.

WITI also took advantage of the fact that the audio for Channel 6 could be heard on an FM radio on 87.7 FM, mentioning often during its morning newscasts, station promotions, and breaking news events that listeners could 'Listen to Fox 6 in your car'. With the end of analog television service on June 12, 2009 and the end of the nightlight loop on June 30, 2009 (though the nightlight loop was interrupted twice in those two weeks for severe weather coverage), the anomalous audio service on 87.7 was also discontinued.

However, the feature was restored in early August 2009 on the HD3 HD Radio subchannel of WMIL-FM (106.1), as Channel 6 came to an agreement with the six-station cluster of Clear Channel radio stations to provide them weather forecasts and news stories as of July 27, 2009, along with news updates for the LCD billboard network of Clear Channel Outdoor in the area; a forecast-only content agreement between Channel 6 and Entercom Communications's three local stations and occasional check-in during WakeUp on WXSS's and WSSP's morning shows continues without any audible forecasts from Fox 6 meteorologists. The HD Radio subchannel makes WITI one of a few former Channel 6 analog signals in the nation to restore their station audio legally, as Albany, New York's WRGB attempted a subcarrier audio service after the digital transition that was subsequently pulled on FCC request. Station anchor Ted Perry is also a regular guest on the "Dave & Carole Morning Show" on Saga Communications classic rock station WKLH (96.5) under his own personal time.

On December 5, 2009, WITI became the second station in Milwaukee (behind WTMJ-TV), and the third station in the state (the first being Madison's WISC-TV) to air their newscasts in HD. WITI is the first and (as of June 28, 2011) only station in Milwaukee to broadcast all locally-originated portions of its newscasts including live field reports in high definition (WTMJ has a mix of live trucks that can do HD or only 16:9 SD video and chopper is 4:3 SD stretched while WISN airs only studio video in HD and most field footage in 16:9 SD, and most of WDJT's cameras are 16:9 HD with a few remaining SD units).

In February 2010, WITI extended its weekday morning "WakeUp News" newscast to 4½ hours, now running from 4:30-9 a.m, with WISN following into a 4:30am start in September 2010 when ABC pushed broadcast of America This Morning to an earlier timeslot. On November 16, 2010 WITI announced that after a two-year absence, it would resume its weekend morning edition of "WakeUp News" beginning on April 2, 2011, airing for two hours from 7-9 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. Weekend early evening newscasts were restored at the start of April 2012.

The station announced in early November 2012 that news set designer and constructor FX group would construct a new set in Studio A in December, ending the fourteen year life of the "Milwaukee's Newscenter" set, which had received three refreshes. All newscasts will originate from WakeUp's Studio B through the construction period.