News Operation
In the late-1990s, the station added a newscast on weeknights known as UPN 47 News at 6:30 which was produced by WAWS. After WTEV's switch from UPN to CBS in 2002, this station expanded local news offerings from WAWS's existing news department essentially taking over primary newscast production from that station. Initially, WTEV maintained certain primary personnel (such as news anchors) that would only appear on this station. In addition, there was separate branding, graphics packages, and news sets used to distinguish the two outlets and retain separate on-air identities.
On WTEV, the 6:30 broadcast was canceled (it had been off-the-air for a couple of weeks before the affiliation switch) and replaced by a full slate of weekday morning (effectively "moved" over from WAWS), weekday noon, and weeknight newscasts as well as weekend broadcasts. The station hired First Coast News weekday morning traffic reporter Michelle Jacobs but she would eventually return to WTLV and WJXX in October 2008. Shortly after she left, WTEV hired Julie Watkins (who previously worked at First Coast News before moving on to WFTV in Orlando) as a weekend meteorologist.
On April 13, 2009, WTEV and WAWS completely revamped the two separate news departments. The outlets merged the operations into one entity and adopted the popular Action News branding presumably to compete with the First Coast News title used on rivals WTLV and WJXX (owned by the Gannett Company). The transition to new branding also introduced entirely new sets (WAWS still featured a separate one for its nightly prime time broadcast at 10), on-air graphics, weather department, and website. On January 31, 2010, WTEV and WAWS became the second local news operation in Jacksonville that upgraded to high definition (the first was WJXT back on January 14, 2009). This was followed on February 1 by WTLV and WJXX after that shared operation completed an HD upgrade.
At some point in time, WTEV's weekday morning show began to be simulcasted on WAWS. Corresponding with the change, Action News This Morning was expanded to a full two-hours (from 5 until 7) as seen on other big three network affiliates. A two-hour extension of the show (from 7 until 9) would eventually be added to WAWS while WTEV airs The Early Show. Following a national trend, the former debuted an extra thirty minute segment of the weekday morning show at 4:30. This portion (known as Action News Early Morning) is not simulcasted on WTEV since it offers the CBS Morning News in the time slot. WAWS received updated branding and introduced new graphics, music, and logos on September 19, 2010 in an effort to be separate from WTEV. When it comes to national coverage, WAWS usually carries Fox News while WTEV provides CBS News. During weather forecast segments, the stations use a live NOAA National Weather Service Doppler weather radar based at the agency's Local Forecast Office near Jacksonville International Airport.
Read more about this topic: WTEV-TV
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