Main channel (21Alive – ABC)
WPTA presently broadcasts 29 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with five hours each weekday and two hours each on Saturdays and Sundays); in addition, the station also produces the sports highlight program The Score, which airs Friday nights. While WPTA has a weather radar dating back to the late 1990s on its premises, it has used NEXRAD data exclusively since 2007, first with Baron Systems' VIPIR processing under the name Pinpoint VIPIR HD, then from 2016 onwards with The Weather Company's Max Radar as a result of the station's acquisition by Quincy.
Under Combined Communications ownership, WPTA significantly invested in its news department. During that time, Wes Sims and Harry Gallagher served as co-anchors with meteorologist Bill Eisenhood and sports anchor Tom Campbell. In July 1978, WPTA replaced the Eyewitness News format for its newscasts with the "Alive" (as "21 Alive") format, originating from a studio doubling as the station's newsroom; WXIA-TV in Atlanta is another former Combined station that currently uses the "Alive" brand, though it abandoned the open newsroom concept in the early 1980s. In the summer of 1984, the station received its first live truck to assist in news production.
After being taken over by Granite, WISE-TV's news department was promptly folded and combined with WPTA. The company fired most of WISE-TV's news staff, with the exception of lead anchor Linda Jackson, who became part of the WPTA operation and would eventually become morning co-anchor on WPTA. That station began airing a weeknight newscast at 7 p.m. which was the first and only one in the state of Indiana at the time. On September 11, 2006, this was replaced due to low ratings with an additional episode of Dr. Phil. In November 2005, after several months of using the "Alive" news brand on both stations, WPTA debuted a new set in its second studio formerly used to tape public-affairs programs such as Impact. With it came a new branding for the newscasts, Indiana's NewsCenter.
When WPTA took over news production for WISE-TV, there was a significant decrease in ratings initially. WANE-TV became the market's news leader for several years after that, according to Nielsen Media Research, since it was the only other local news operation in the area at the time. This was most easily attributed to continued viewer resentment towards WPTA and Granite for the elimination of WISE-TV's news department and arguably its identity and history. However, WPTA management said the changes were part of a longer-term plan that would need up to five years to take hold with viewers. Part of the plan to win back viewers included new technology such as text messaging, an improved website with more online video, and upgrading weather equipment to a VIPIR system.
Eventually, the changes started to take hold and ratings began to improve. In the November 2007 sweeps period, WPTA and WANE-TV were nearly neck-and-neck in the Fort Wayne television news ratings race with WANE-TV continuing to show a slight lead. On July 24, 2006, WISE-TV began airing a weeknight prime time newscast at 10 p.m. for a half-hour on its NBC Weather Plus subchannel. With the September 2006 change to MyNetworkTV on WISE-DT2 and the addition of The CW on WPTA's second digital subchannel, the show (known as Indiana's NewsCenter Prime News) became part of those channel's schedules through a simulcast. On May 18, 2009, WPTA and WISE-TV became the first two stations in Fort Wayne to air local newscasts in 16:9 aspect ratio.
In September 2009, Granite began producing a pre-recorded weeknight prime time newscast at 10 p.m. on sister MyNetworkTV affiliate WMYD in Detroit, replacing a similar production by the Independent News Network The broadcast featured news anchor Melissa Long, chief meteorologist Curtis Smith, sports director Dean Pantazi, and a group of Detroit-based reporters. The co-production was established after the Butler Road facilities became a master control hub for Granite's Midwestern stations.[12] The newscast was discontinued and taken in-house following the sale of WMYD to the owners of local ABC affiliate WXYZ.[13]
During the Indiana's NewsCenter era, WPTA co-produced newscasts with WISE-TV that were essentially the same in terms of coverage and format. Shows simulcast on both stations included weekday morning (except for the 5 a.m. half-hour on WPTA), weeknight 6 p.m. and weekend newscasts. WPTA aired separate weekday noon and weeknight 5 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts. WISE-TV did not (and continues not to) air newscasts on weeknights at 5 and 5:30 p.m. unlike most NBC affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone. For a time, WISE-DT2 offered rebroadcasts of the entire weekday morning (at 7 a.m.), noon (at 1 p.m.) and weeknight 6 p.m. (at 6:30 p.m.) newscasts.
On October 14, 2012, at 11 p.m., WPTA began broadcasting its newscasts in high definition. With this, newscasts on the station returned to the 21 Alive News brand. WPTA and WISE-TV continued to simulcast newscasts under respective titles until March 4, 2013, when the latter station began airing its own newscasts with a separate news team. News resources such as video footage continue to be shared between the two stations. Parts of the Indiana's NewsCenter brand remained in use over the next two years, including the station's website, INCnow.tv; in October 2014, WPTA changed its web address to 21alive.com, with the website now prominently displaying the two stations' logos.
In a presentation submitted to the FCC in August 2014, Quincy said that its plans for WPTA and WISE-TV include the construction of a new studio facility at the WPTA site, after which both stations would produce competing live newscasts and maintain separate websites.[14] This plan was effectively maintained after the decision to transfer WISE-TV's NBC affiliation to WPTA-DT2, for which Quincy will produce a separate news product from that of the main channel. Construction on an addition to the WPTA studios commenced in the spring of 2016, and Quincy subsequently posted job listings for news personnel. Quincy said in a statement that WPTA would become the largest news operation in its stable.[15]
The addition would become known on-air as "Television Park". This includes two studio spaces with matching control rooms at opposing ends of a larger newsroom shared by the WPTA-ABC and WPTA-NBC news teams. Built by the FX Group, WPTA's new set was rolled out to Quincy stations WREX, KBJR-TV, KWWL, WEEK-TV and WKOW later in the year. The former "Indiana's NewsCenter" studio was set to be converted to a work space for the station's production department.
In the months following Quincy's acquisition of WPTA, several popular on-air personalities left the station. Evening anchor Melissa Long retired after 23 years at the end of 2015; within months, chief meteorologist Curtis Smith and sports director Tommy Schoegler took positions at Parkview Health after 21 and 13 years respectively, breaking up what had mostly been a static anchor team about for a decade. In July 2016, WISE-TV weather specialist Katie Law also left for Parkview. Late that month, two anchors from South Bend sister station WSJV were transferred to WPTA for its impending newscasts on the NBC subchannel. This came as WSJV's news operation wound down due to Quincy trading its Fox affiliation for Sinclair's ABC and CW affiliations in Peoria. In September, amid further changes to WPTA's anchor teams, former WSJV reporter Alexis Gray began as evening co-anchor and Leach returned to the station as chief meteorologist.
WPTA relaunched its newscasts as ABC21 News on November 7, 2016, from its new facilities, marking the end of the 21 Alive brand after 38 years. It soon brought on board a fourth meteorologist, a first for the station, which now uses the slogan "Your Weather Authority". ABC21 became the first station in northeastern Indiana to begin morning news at 4:30 a.m. and added four hours of weekend morning news to its programming slate. With the relaunch of a full slate of newscasts on WPTA-DT2 on November 21, 2016, a total of 50 1/2 hours per week of news content aired on WPTA channels 21.1 and 21.2. The Indiana's NewsCenter brand was abandoned with the relaunch of newscasts on 21.1 and 21.2.
On November 3, 2017, WPTA's ABC21 was named Station of the Year in Region 2 (stations outside of Indianapolis) at the Indiana Broadcasters Association Spectrum Awards banquet.[16] In 2018, channel honors included two Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards,[17] Emmy nominations including Overall Excellence and News Excellence and statewide honors including Outstanding News Operation (from the Indiana Associated Press Broadcasters Association)[18] and Best Newscast (from the Society of Professional Journalists). In 2019, ABC21 received another Regional Edward R. Murrow Award,[19][20] which qualified the station for the national competition. "Digging Deeper: Dying on the Job", a series of reports focused on workplace safety in Indiana, then received the National Edward R. Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting.[21] The station was again nominated for the News Excellence Emmy and won the award in the categories of Evening Newscast and Investigative Reporting (series).[22]
Following Gray's acquisition of the station, its main newscasts were rebranded back to 21Alive News on October 17, 2022. In November, the station announced plans to consolidate its news departments under the same brand and add additional newscasts.[28]
WPTA-DT3 (MyTV Fort Wayne)
On July 24, 2006, WISE-TV began to produce a prime time newscast at 10 p.m. for the subchannel. Known on-air as Indiana's NewsCenter Prime News, the 30-minute weeknight program preempted regular NBC Weather Plus programming normally seen in the timeslot. It began to be simulcast on WPTA-DT2 when that subchannel launched as a CW affiliate that September. As a MyNetworkTV outlet, WISE-DT2 began to air repeats of its parent station's weekday morning newscast at 7 a.m., WPTA's midday newscast (at 1 p.m.), and the weeknight 6 p.m. broadcast at 6:30 p.m. Although WISE-TV and WPTA became the only stations in Fort Wayne to upgrade their local newscasts to 16:9 widescreen enhanced definition on May 18, 2009, all newscasts seen on WISE-DT2 remained in pillarboxed 4:3 standard definition.
After WISE-DT2 joined Fox, Indiana's NewsCenter Prime News was upgraded to widescreen SD. WPTA-DT2's simulcast of that program as well as the repeats of local newscasts from WISE and WPTA on WISE-DT2's schedule were dropped at some point in the fall of 2011. Corresponding with WISE-TV and WPTA further upgrading to full HD newscasts, the prime time newscast on the subchannel was relaunched as MyFox Fort Wayne News at 10 on October 14, 2012, and began originating from a new secondary set. The program also introduced an updated graphics package and news music package that is separate from the on-air presentation of the main WISE-TV channel's local news programs. The broadcast continued to air only weeknights for a half-hour. On February 5, 2013, following the announcement that Fox programming would move back to WFFT on March 1, the 10 p.m. newscast was canceled. On March 4, 2013, WISE-TV began newscasts at 4, 6 and 11 p.m. that effectively revived the format used on the WISE-DT2 newscast.
Upon Quincy's acquisition of the station in 2016, WPTA transferred WISE-TV's NBC affiliation to WPTA-DT2 and its MyNetworkTV affiliation to a new third subchannel, in exchange for WISE-TV becoming a primary CW+ affiliate. The current MyTV subchannel WPTA-DT3 did not air regular newscasts until January 2023, when WPTA began airing an extension of its morning news from 7 to 9 a.m.[37]
