News operation
WWTV/WWUP has long been the highest-rated television station in the market, especially in news. WWTV/WWUP has always been well ahead of distant runner up WPBN/WTOM in the Nielsen ratings. This is mainly because its newscasts focus on the entire region, while WPBN/WTOM focuses mostly on Traverse City. The station's various owners have always devoted significant resources to its news department, resulting in a higher-quality product than conventional wisdom would suggest for what has always been a very small market. Currently, WWTV/WWUP produces and airs 42 hours of news every week, a very large amount for a station in the 120th market.
One of the station's best-known faces is John McGowan, who joined the station's on-air roster in 1977, and remained a station personality for 37 years, until suffering a stroke in 2014. McGowan served as sports director and anchor, and later served as the lead anchor on the station's weekend newscasts. The longest serving on-air personality currently with WWTV/WWUP is anchor Kevin Essebaggers, who debuted as a reporter in 2001 before moving up to an on-air anchor position in 2004, and currently co-anchors the station's 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts. Other WWTV/WWUP alumni include WTVG weatherman Bill Spencer, Jeopardy! "Clue Crew" member Sarah Whitcomb Foss, WOOD-TV reporters Larry Figurski and Dee Morrison, and former KPSP anchor Trish O'Shea.
WWTV/WWUP courted controversy when it polled viewers asking if they wanted the station to air a CBS special about the career of CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather, who was stepping down from his broadcast. After much attention from both local and national press, the poll was dropped and the special was aired.
On October 31, 2007, WWTV/WWUP began producing a weeknight 10 o'clock newscast on new sister station WFQX. On January 7, 2008, CBS began requiring affiliates to carry The Early Show in its entirety. The third hour of Michigan This Morning, which had been running from 7 to 8 in the morning, was moved to WFQX and expanded to two hours. That evening on WFQX, WWTV/WWUP launched the market's first 7 o'clock newscast. In April 2013, WWTV and WFQX became the only television stations in the market to broadcast news in High Definition.
In addition to its main studios, WWTV/WWUP operates two news bureaus in Traverse City (located on Aero Park Drive, near Cherry Capital Airport) and Petoskey. During its weather forecasts, WWTV/WWUP uses live, NOAA National Weather Service radar data from several regional sites. This data is presented on-screen as the "Doppler 9&10 Radar Network". The main signal comes from the radar located at the NWS Local Forecast Office in Gaylord. Mondays through Thursdays after the 11 o'clock news, the station airs Sports Extra, an extended sportscast. During high school sports season, Friday night 11 o'clock newscasts devote over 20 minutes to Sports Overtime. Known as "the original big show", it regularly features highlights from more than a dozen area high school sporting events and has won numerous awards for the station. 9&10's website features video content from news and sports.
