News operation
WCJB presently broadcasts 39 hours, 15 minutes of locally produced newscasts each week (with 6 hours, 35 minutes each weekday and three hours each on Saturdays and Sundays). The station also broadcasts 2 1/2 hours of late local news each week on its CW subchannel.
Originally, WCJB was the only station to operate a news department covering the Gainesville area. As a result, it held the number one spot in Nielsen ratings by a wide margin for most of the station's existence. In addition to its main studios, this station operates a Marion County Bureau on Northeast 1st Avenue in Ocala.
Until the establishment of rival WGFL's GTN News in 2010 (later CBS 4 News), WCJB had the only local news department on a commercial station—non-commercial WUFT television airs a nightly newscast produced by University of Florida journalism and broadcasting students; and Fox affiliate WOGX simulcasts newscasts from sister station WOFL in Orlando, with no separate local inserts targeted to the Gainesville area. Following the discontinuation of CBS 4 News on May 12, 2023, WCJB reassumed becoming the only commercial news station serving Gainesville.
On April 19, 2009, WCJB debuted a new set complete with updated graphics and music theme (identical to that of Des Moines CBS affiliate KCCI in the late '90s) which had not changed in almost ten years. The graphics are yellow and orange instead of blue and white. Its updated logo now includes ABC in it unlike the previous two. WCJB began airing local newscasts in high definition on January 9, 2010. Its music theme was later updated in 2012, with a background graphics color change to blue and red. The music theme and news set was then modified on October 22, 2015, and the background graphics was updated on February 1, 2016, showing photos relating to Gainesville and North Central Florida.
From September 18, 2006, until February 2010, it produced a half-hour weeknight prime time newscast on WCJB-DT2, titled WCJB-TV 20 News at 10 on Gainesville CW. The live broadcast was dropped in favor of a repeat of the main channel's 6 p.m. show, but the repeat was later dropped as well.
On January 18, 2016, WCJB expanded its early evening newscast a half-hour earlier to 5 p.m. instead of 5:30.[7] The 6 p.m. newscast remains as scheduled.
On June 26, 2017, for the first time in over eight years, WCJB updated a new logo.
On September 6, 2021, WCJB added an hour-long weekday 4 p.m. newscast on the main channel and relaunched a half-hour 10 p.m. newscast on the DT2 CW subchannel.[8]
On September 5, 2022, WCJB extended its weekday noon newscast to one hour,[9] with the last half-hour replacing the canceled Right This Minute.
On January 24, 2026, WCJB added a two-hour weekend morning newscast beginning at 6 a.m.[10]
Florida–Dayton recreation
On March 29, 2014, the Florida Gators beat the Dayton Flyers 62–52 in the Elite Eight of the NCAA basketball tournament. Since WCJB is an ABC affiliate and CBS owned the broadcast rights (although the game aired nationally on TBS), the network could not show highlights until the day after per NCAA regulations. The news team instead recreated the highlights inside a conference room at the station's studio, using a mini-hoop attached to the wall and the station staff doubling as players.[11]
