News Operations
Unlike most ABC affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone, WOLO-TV does not carry a full two-hour weekday morning newscast or newscasts during the 5 p.m. slot on weeknights and in the early evenings on weekends.
WOLO has experienced several firsts, including the first certified meteorologist and color radar in South Carolina (in 1978) and the first live broadcast via satellite (in 1980). The station also had the first female news anchor in the market, Elizabeth Snite. WOLO was the first television station to have a hand-held videotape camera, a Sony Mini-Cam and Jerry Emanuel, Sports Director and reporter was the first to use that camera to do feature stories as opposed to breaking news stories.
However, WOLO has spent most of its history as one of the weakest ABC affiliates in the nation. For all but a few years in its current incarnation, it has been a distant third behind WIS and WLTX. In 1997, WOLO upgraded its news image by hiring Jim Blue and Leslie Mouton (Mattox) and branded itself as "25 Eyewitness News". It also adopted the "AccuWeather" franchise. It also expanded its news product to include a morning show, Good Morning Columbia, and a 5 p.m. newscast.
In 2002, Bahakel moved WOLO's operations to WCCB in Charlotte, where they stayed for three years. During that time, WCCB's studios played host to WOLO's newscasts. All news gathering was still based in Columbia with a News Director and reporters producing the daily newscasts. WOLO cut many jobs and shows, and only the weekday evening newscasts were retained. This was one of the first examples of "central casting" (housing several stations' operations in one location) in the United States.
Bahakel returned WOLO's anchors to Columbia in Fall 2005 while keeping the weather forecasts in Charlotte, and built a new street-side studio across from the state capitol. It has underscored its commitment to local news with slogans such as "Live from Main and Gervais" (the major intersection housing WOLO's new street-side newsroom) and "More Local News." Around the same time, WOLO switched its on-air name from ABC25 to ABC Columbia, similar to the change made at WCCB, which switched its branding from "FOX 18" to "Fox Charlotte".
While it is still well behind WIS and WLTX, WOLO has been more competitive since it moved back to Columbia. Additionally, it has begun reaping the full benefits of its technical upgrades of the past decade and the switch to digital.
On September 21, 2009, WOLO was the first station in Columbia to air its news in high definition, accompanied by a new graphics and music package. Along with WOLO's September 21, 2009 transition to high definition came a new website scheme, a simple flash layout, aimed towards younger viewers. The station was the first to begin gathering its field video in high definition in February 2010. On October 12, 2010, WOLO became the first station in the market to air live shots in HD. On November 2, 2010, WOLO became the first station in Columbia to stream live video to the iPhone.
After nine years of not airing a morning newscast, WOLO-TV re-launched Good Morning Columbia on August 1, 2011. It also debuted its first-ever noon newscast on the same day.
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