At least one competitor, Bob Freeman, news director at market leader WFIE, admires the hyper-local approach. WEHT's local mission defines the newsroom culture. Between the chopper, the satellite truck and news crews, WEHT covers up to 15 local high school games. Such depth about high school sports lends perspective to the whole newscast. A simple presentation is part of the philosophy, too.
Investigative pieces seek facts rather than villains.
When the station went undercover to determine whether Evansville retailers were abiding by new laws about selling cigarettes to minors, hidden cameras found a couple of guilty parties, but the station concluded the problem was not widespread. It's heavy on crime coverage and uses more unnamed sources than any station in the market. Many of its young reporters also struggle to weave the words with the pictures into coherent stories. Yet the station has kept enough senior talent to teach them. Upriver from Evansville, in Louisville, Kentucky, local news competition is cutthroat.