WWTI - News Operation

News Operation

For its entire existence, WWNY has held the number one spot in Nielsen ratings by a wide margin. It has been the dominant station in the North Country because the station had the market to itself until WWTI signed-on. Even after this station began maintaining a minimal local news presence for many years, WWNY remained the most watched outlet. WWTI's original news team was quite small compared with other big three stations operating news departments. Its first attempt at airing newscasts and competing with WWNY ceased in early-1991. Four years later, a second attempt was established and the station maintained a small news team similar to the previous effort.

After the Ackerley Group acquired WWTI, it became more reliant on content originating from its sister stations in Upstate New York particularly flagship WIXT in Syracuse. In July 2002, a two-hour weekday morning show known as Daybreak debuted on this station. The broadcast, airing from 5 until 7, was simulcasted on sister stations WIVT in Binghamton and WUTR in Utica. The newscast was produced by WIXT from a secondary set at its studios and included brief localized updates (focusing on Watertown) twice an hour. Most coverage, however, presented was regional in nature with area-wide weather forecasts.

Having never successfully competed with WWNY, WWTI's nightly NewsWatch 50 newscasts were canceled in 2004. For a short time afterward, the station featured a 24 Hour News Source-style series of short hourly news updates seen throughout the day. After this, it continued to air several daily news and weather updates under the NewsWatch 50 branding. In December 2006, WWTI added a news and weather update on weeknights known as 5 at 5. On June 5, 2009, the station's news department was shut down completely after Newport Television implemented across the board cuts. At the same time, WIVT and WBGH-CA announced their Binghamton news operation would be consolidated with sister station WETM-TV in Elmira. This affected WWTI because it only maintained one locally-based meteorologist and WIVT/WBGH provided all other weather forecasts seen on-air. On September 14, the station switched its branding to "ABC 50" and website from "newswatch50.com" to "myabc50.com" de-emphasizing local news.

Even though WWTI lost a Watertown-based news department, it began simulcasting WSYR's NewsChannel 9 Eleven at 11 every night through a news share agreement. Occasionally, a reporter based at WWTI will contribute content to WSYR but most local coverage is seen on WWTI's website consisting of short headlines and features. During the 2009-2010 NFL season, the station featured half-hour reports from the Buffalo Bills training camp produced by sister station WHAM-TV in Rochester. On September 8, 2009, WWTI began simulcasting WSYR's weekday morning and nightly 6 o'clock newscasts. Although that station eventually expanded its weekday morning show to 4:30, the first half hour is not seen on WWTI.

On Saturday and Sunday mornings, the station simulcasts WSYR's local news and weather cut-ins during Good Morning America. On January 29, 2011, WSYR upgraded its newscasts to high definition and the simulcasts on this station were included. WWNY remains the only station operating a news department based in the North Country but Your News Now (operated by Time Warner Cable) covers Watertown and Massena as well from a Syracuse-based newsroom with regional content. Like all CW Plus affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone, WWTI-DT2 offers the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz on weekdays from 6 until 9.