News operation
After ABC affiliate WJBF, channel 6 (owned by Media General) renovated its studios in 2003, the station entered into a news share agreement with WFXG. The outsourcing arrangement resulted in a nightly prime time newscast to debut on this station. Known as Fox 54 News at 10, the thirty-minute program originated from WJBF's facility on Reynolds Street in Downtown Augusta. The broadcast featured different on-air graphics and modified WJBF's existing set with separate duratrans in order to conceal that station's logo. The principal look of the set and on-air graphics for Fox 54 News at 10 remained the same since the newscast's launch and the program always used Gari Media Group's "The X Package" as its music theme.
Meanwhile, NBC affiliate WAGT decided to establish its own weeknight prime time newscast at 10 in 2004 to go up against this station's effort. The production launched a few days after WFXG's show and was initially seen on independent outlet WBEK-CA (now WAGT-CD) through a similar arrangement. Known as WBEK 16 News at 10, the program was soon canceled due to low ratings and inconsistent viewership. The broadcast was unable to directly compete against WFXG's news because this program has been very successful in the time slot from its start. After being retooled, WAGT's weeknight prime time newscast was relaunched on cable-only WB affiliate "WBAU" and was known as WB 23 News at 10.
In July 2011, WFXG announced that it would launch an in-house news operation by October, which was to be produced in collaboration with other Raycom stations to give it a "regional" feel.[10] In partnership with sister outlet WTOC-TV in Savannah, WFXG hired multimedia journalists to shoot, edit, and report coverage in the Augusta area. Currently, five personalities have joined the station and work out of Augusta. All anchors for news and weather are provided by WTOC and the broadcast originates live from that station's facility on Chatham Center Drive in Savannah's Chatham Parkway section.
WFXG also features unique, regionalized coverage provided by Raycom Media sister outlets including WTOC, WIS in Columbia and WCSC-TV in Charleston. The partnership is comparable to the existing "Raycom News Network", another regional network among the company's widespread group of television stations in the state of Alabama (WSFA in Montgomery, WDFX-TV in Dothan, WAFF in Huntsville, WBRC in Birmingham and WTVM/WXTX in Phenix City–Auburn–Opelika). The six stations share information, equipment (such as satellite trucks) and stories from reporters. WFXG became the third Fox affiliate in Raycom's portfolio to have its newscasts produced in-house joining Birmingham's WBRC and Cincinnati's WXIX. Local newscasts on the remainder of the company's Fox outlets are produced through news share agreements by a big three network affiliate in the respective market.
With the change, WFXG upgraded its newscasts to full high definition level becoming the second station in Augusta to do so (CBS affiliate WRDW-TV was the first). At that point, according to local program listings, Fox 54 News at 10 was expanded to an hour on weeknights and Sundays; the program continues to air for a half-hour on Saturday evenings. There is no regularly scheduled sports report featured during the broadcast.
In July 2016, WFXG announced plans to expand its news programming and launch a 3 1/2-hour weekday morning newscast from 5:30 to 9 a.m. Remodeling to expand the studio building in Martinez to allow production of in-studio segments began later that month. Even after the program, titled Fox 54 Morning News Now, launched on February 6, 2017, WTOC continued to produce in-studio news and weather segments for the 10 p.m. newscast in the interim until WFXG hired anchors and meteorologists to helm the broadcast at its Washington Road facility. By 2019, WFXG had added locally produced news at 6:30 p.m., 10–11:30 p.m. and the market's only four-hour morning newscast from 5 to 9 a.m.[11]
