News operation
WTOC has led the local Nielsen ratings in Savannah for most of the time since records have been kept. While WSAV and WJCL made a serious threat in the 1970s, WTOC has won every timeslot since 1980, often garnering more viewers than its rivals combined. Its dominance is so absolute that the station currently calls its newscasts simply The News. WTOC airs more than seven hours of news a day, a considerable amount for a station in the 97th market and far more than any other station in Savannah. WTOC is the only station in Savannah to air a midday newscast. On August 24, 2015, WTOC introduced the market's first 7 p.m. newscast.
The station won both Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards for news gathering efforts in 2003. In addition, the station pulled in eleven Georgia Associated Press Awards in 2004. In 2005, Chris Clark won an Emmy for his football special and an Edward R. Murrow award for his story about a high school football player. In 2006, an Emmy was awarded to Mike Manhatton and Zach Powers for Freedom Fighters, a story about 3rd Infantry Division soldiers in Iraq. In 2007, Zach Powers, Alex Monarch, and Chris Clark won an Emmy for editing a special series on Rosa Parks. The same year, Chris Clark won the Emmy for best sports reporter.
On October 10, 2010, WTOC became the second station in Savannah to begin broadcasting news in high definition. Its half-hour weekday afternoon show at 4 p.m. is streamed live online. Since CBS Sports programming can sometimes preempt the 6 p.m. hour on Saturdays, WTOC also airs a newscast at 7 p.m. The station operates its own weather radar (known as "Doppler Max 11") at its studios.
On September 26, 2011, then-sister outlet Fox affiliate WFXG in Augusta launched its first ever in-house news operation. In partnership with a news director based at WTOC in Savannah, WFXG hired multimedia journalists to shoot, edit, and report coverage in the Augusta area. At this point, five personalities have joined that station and work out of WFXG's facility. All anchors for news, weather and sports are provided by WTOC and the nightly prime time broadcast at 10 p.m. originates live from this station's studios.
Until September 2019, WTOC broadcast CBS This Morning on a one-hour delay, unlike other CBS stations in the Eastern Time Zone, instead airing an extended version of The News at Daybreak at 7 a.m. On September 16, 2019, however, the delay ended when WTOC started broadcasting a new local talk show Morning Break at 9 a.m.,[10] which pushed CBS This Morning back an hour to the network's recommended timeslot.
