WTVJ - News Operation

News Operation

Currently, WTVJ broadcasts a total of 31 hours of local newscasts each week (with five hours on weekdays and three hours on weekends). Unlike most NBC stations, WTVJ does not air a midday newscast on weekdays; instead, it airs a local talk/lifestyle program at 11 a.m. called Live Miami at 11 a.m. However, on May 14th 2012, WTVJ started airing a midday newscast again, this time as NBC Miami News at 11:00 AM (now NBC 6 News at 11:00 AM), followed by NBC 6 in the Mix at 11:30 AM, hosted by Entertainment Reporter Roxanne Vargas, featuring the latest Entertainment News, similar to sister station WSCV Telemundo 51's Acceso Total, which is broadcast in the same time slot as NBC 6 in the Mix.

During weather segments, WTVJ uses two weather radar systems, "TITAN" and "VIPIR". The VIPIR Radar is branded under "Live Doppler 6." The station offered NBC Weather Plus on its second digital subchannel and on Comcast and Atlantic Broadband digital cable, but in conjunction with NBC/Comcast Universal's new campaign, it has been reformatted into a 24-hour local content channel, "NBC Miami Nonstop"; the subchannel also carries a weeknight 9 p.m. newscast which at some point later in time, it was cancelled.

Soon after WTVJ signed on, it hired Ralph Renick, who had just graduated from the University of Miami, as its first anchorman and News Director. Renick would be the face of WTVJ for nearly 36 years best known for his catchphrase at the end of every newscast, "Good night, and may the good news be yours". At the same time, the station also hired Bernie Rosen and Bob Weaver. One of the nation's first ever television news meteorologists, Weaver reported weather for the station for more than five decades. Rosen, who went on to run the station's award winning sports department for more than three decades, is the only remaining original employee still working at the station, and is currently in his 64th consecutive year at WTVJ. On February 6, 2008, Rosen was presented with the prestigious Golden Circle Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The Academy honored Rosen for his more than 50 years of service to the South Florida television community. While many of South Florida's veteran television personalities have received the Silver Circle Award for marking 25 years in the business, the Golden Circle Award has been given only once before in South Florida, in 2004 when it went to Bob Weaver, also a lifelong WTVJ employee.

In 1992, when Hurricane Andrew struck South Florida, WTVJ was the only station to give complete coverage of the story non-stop with meteorologist Bryan Norcross. WTVJ won local Emmys for its coverage of Hurricane Andrew. Most of WTVJ's archive from 1949 through 2004 (as well as other Florida television stations) are stored at the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives in downtown Miami.

In 1997, WTVJ and the Sun-Sentinel began co-producing a nightly 10 o'clock newscast on WB affiliate WDZL known as WB 39 News at 10. After the station (by then renamed WBZL) became a CW affiliate on September 18, 2006 and became WSFL-TV, the newscast title changed to CW News at 10. The newscast was broadcast from a secondary set at WTVJ's studios and was a similar operation to other Tribune-outsourced newscasts that were (and still are) seen on KRCW-TV and WPHL-TV. The final WSFL newscast aired on August 31, 2008, as Tribune did not renew the partnership because of the then-pending sale of WTVJ to Post-Newsweek, a newspaper competitor to Tribune.

On September 10, 2007, in hopes of catching a new audience, WTVJ launched the market's first weeknight 7 o'clock news, a format NBC liked, and used with several other NBC owned stations including WNBC and KNSD. At the same time, WTVJ dropped its 5 p.m. newscast, opting to show The Ellen DeGeneres Show instead (this lasted until May 2011, when they reinstated the 5 p.m. newscast, canceling the 7 p.m. program).

On March 5, 2008, WTVJ began broadcasting its local news in high definition. It was the first television station in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale market and the fourth station in South Florida to have made the upgrade. On October 1, 2011, WTVJ debuted weekend morning newscasts, airing from 6-7 and 8-9 a.m. on Saturdays and 6-8 a.m. on Sundays after having to cancel them in years past due to the NBCU 2.0 budget cuts.

On July 18, 2012, WTVJ debuted a brand new set designed by Clickspring Design, and the new "Look F" graphics package used by other NBC-owned stations. Additionally, WTVJ dropped most references to Miami in its branding, renaming itself NBC 6 South Florida.