Newscasts
Concurrently with its 1995 sign-on, WRAZ added a nightly prime time newscast at 10 (produced by WRAL) through a news share agreement. This half-hour show was originally a re-purposed WRAL newscast and competed with WLFL's longer-established sixty minute broadcast also seen every night. That station already had a firmly established operation in the market by this time and it remained strong in the ratings with a popular on-air team. After the affiliation switch on August 1, 1998, WRAZ's newscast became known as Fox 50 Ten O'Clock News. On January 28, 2001, WRAL became the first Triangle station to upgrade local news to high definition.
However, the shows on WRAZ were not initially included in the change. When its broadcasts were re-branded as WRAL News at 10 on Fox 50 a few years later, they were finally upgraded. On August 16, 2004, WLFL's news department was downsized and converted into Sinclair's controversial News Central operation. A further reduction occurred at that station in September 2005 when its broadcast was cut down to thirty minutes in an attempt to boost its now anemic ratings against WRAZ. On June 26, 2006 after shuttering its in-house operation, WLFL entered into a news share agreement with ABC's owned-and-operated station WTVD.
That resulted in a new nightly prime time newscast to debut, and like the previous effort, runs directly against the WRAL-produced newscast on WRAZ. Since then, there have never been any plans announced for a weekday morning show on WLFL which would also be produced by WTVD. This is unlike WRAZ which airs a two-hour extension of WRAL's weekday morning show. Known as WRAL Morning News on Fox 50, this can be seen from 7 until 9. All newscasts originate from WRAL's facility on Western Boulevard in Raleigh as part of the North Carolina State University campus. When it comes to local breaking news, this station usually simulcasts its sister outlet. However, national coverage is provided through Fox News while WRAL airs CBS News.
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