Newscasts
The station established a news department after becoming an ABC affiliate in 1995. At the operation's height, it aired local news weeknights at 6 and 11 as well as on weekends under the branding News 45 (subsequently changed to ABC 45 News). There were also weather cut-ins during Good Morning America on weekday mornings. WXLV's sports department produced a local high school sports show known as Friday Night Football. However, the station could not gain significant viewership and compete with WFMY-TV, WGHP, and WXII-TV. WXLV ended its weekday morning cut-ins and weekend newscasts in 2000. The remaining broadcasts and news operation were shut down on January 11, 2002.
In 2003, sister station WUPN began airing a nightly 10 p.m. newscast. As part of Sinclair's News Central operation, local news originated from the Winston-Salem studios while national news, weather, and sports were based at company headquarters on Beaver Dam Road in Hunt Valley, Maryland. In 2004, an identical 11 p.m. newscast, ABC 45 News Late Edition, was launched on WXLV. It also aired "The Point", a one-minute conservative political commentary, that was controversial and a requirement of all Sinclair-owned stations with newscasts (regardless of whether it carried the News Central format or not). Both newscasts were pulled in August 2005 as a result of poor ratings; the News Central format would be phased out entirely in its other markets by March 2006.
For a time afterward, News Central still provided WXLV with weekday morning weather cut-ins during Good Morning America featuring meteorologist Tony Pagnotti. Production of the cut-ins is now at its Asheville sister station, WLOS, with meteorologist Julie Wunder providing the updates. Currently, Eric Gabriel produces various entertainment, sports, and community features that can be seen on-air as well as on WXLV's website. In addition, there is a taped weekly public affairs show called Triad Today hosted by Jim Longworth.
As part of the settlement of Time Warner Cable (TWC)'s latest retransmission consent agreement with Sinclair, local cable news channel News 14 Carolina, which is owned by TWC, began producing newscasts for WXLV, known simply as News 14 Carolina on ABC 45, on January 2, 2012. WXLV airs traditional 6pm and 11pm news shows from News 14 Carolina, along with a 6:30am morning newscast before Good Morning America (it is unknown if this will include the :25/:55 local cut-in segments and weather cut-ins). Although in the past local Time Warner news channels have produced news and sports content for broadcast stations (such as a now-expired agreement between Kansas City's KCTV and Metro Sports for the latter to compile and produce their sports coverage), the WXLV/News 14 agreement represents the second time in the United States that a cable news channel produces all of the local newscasts for a broadcast station; in Boston, New England Cable News produced a 10 p.m. newscast that aired on Fox affiliate WFXT from 1993 to 1995 and on UPN affiliate WSBK-TV from 1995 to 1998. Like programming on the cable channel, the newscasts on WXLV are aired in 16:9 widescreen (though not truly high definition).
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