WYTV - News Operation

News Operation

Traditionally, WFMJ has been a strong ratings force in Youngstown for several years. That station's newscasts typically garner higher viewership than competitors WYTV and WKBN combined in most time slots. The NBC affiliate's longtime dominance is a result of remaining the only locally owned-and-operated television station in the market and one of a few left in the Unites States. It regularly points out this fact through advertisements and promotions. For a period as a separate station, WYTV produced a prime time newscast at 10 on its MyNetworkTV second digital subchannel. This competed with another broadcast airing at the same time on Fox affiliate WYFX that was produced by WKBN.

In December 2007, the news departments of WYTV and WKBN physically merged. As a result, over forty personnel at WYTV and six at WKBN were laid-off. Under the shared services agreement, the senior station partner began producing newscasts on this ABC affiliate from a secondary set at the Sunset Boulevard studios. A previous plan calling for WYTV to build satellite streetside studios in Downtown Youngstown were abandoned due to the consolidation. The current operational status of its Doppler weather radar based at the old facility on Shady Run Road is unknown. The two stations gradually had their on-air looks mirror each other while their respective web sites became identical. New logos for the stations and updated websites debuted in January 2009 including combined operations for sports and weather.

An updated graphic and music theme for the CBS affiliate, created by John Christopher Burns Design, premiered on February 24, 2009 replacing graphics dating back to 1997. The "WKBN" lettering style in its new logo was inspired from the WKBN sign at its historical facility. To differentiate the ABC and CBS affiliates from each other and maintain a separate identity, the stations adopted individual graphic and music packages. Unlike WKBN and WFMJ, WYTV tends to focus more on Trumbull County-related topics which has become more evident under WKBN control. Due to the duopoly, WYTV and WKBN maintain separate primary anchors for news, weather, and sports during the week but share most general assignment reporters and video footage.

Since being taken over by WKBN, WYTV has not aired a weekday noon newscast unlike most ABC affiliates. Unlike most CBS affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone, WKBN does not air local news weeknights at 5:30. This is done so that WYTV can air its own broadcast that does not directly compete with that station. In most other time slots, however, this situation does occur. On May 6, 2010, the two outlets upgraded their combined news operation to high definition complete with new graphics on WYTV. There are news and weather sharing partnerships with WNCD-FM 93.3, WAKZ-FM 95.9, WMXY-FM 98.9, WBBG-FM 106.1, WKBN-AM 570, and WNIO-AM 1390.