News operation
Clear Channel Communications decided to start a full-fledged news department for WPMI shortly after the station took the NBC affiliation; the station debuted its local newscasts on January 1, 1996, with an hour-long 6 a.m. newscast, half-hour newscasts at noon and 5 p.m. on weekdays and evening newscasts at 5 and 10 p.m. nightly.
On March 17, 2006, WPMI aired a report featuring interviews with several unidentified African American residents in Crichton, Alabama, describing or speculating about a leprechaun that had reportedly been spotted in a neighborhood tree. The video went viral on the Internet and became widely known as the "Crichton Leprechaun" on websites such as YouTube and Google Video.[10] The story gained national media attention from pundits such as Fox News' Bill O'Reilly and was referenced in episodes of South Park, Web Junk 20, and Tosh.0, where host Daniel Tosh called the "Crichton Leprechaun" the "Gone with the Wind of Internet videos."[11] The video has registered millions of hits and has since spawned a website selling T-shirts inspired by the video.[10]
On August 24, 2009, WPMI adopted the "Local 15" branding, beginning with its 5 p.m. newscast; it also began using "The Weather Authority" as the brand for its weather forecasts. Both brands are a nod to Cincinnati sister station WKRC-TV, which has been known as "Local 12" since 2004 and used "The Weather Authority" name for its weather branding since the late 1980s. On April 22, 2012, WPMI-TV became the fourth and last television station in the Mobile-Pensacola market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition; the transition occurred the day after WALA-TV upgraded its own newscasts to HD.
On September 9, 2013, WPMI expanded its weekday morning newscast by a half-hour to 4:30 a.m. That same day, it also expanded its weekday noon newscast to one hour with the addition of a half-hour at 12:30 p.m.[12] On September 23, 2013, WPMI began producing two half-hour evening newscasts on sister station WJTC that airs weeknights at 6:30 and 9 p.m.;[13] the 9 p.m. newscast competes with WALA's longer-established prime time newscast (which comparatively runs for one hour) and ironically, also competes with fellow sister station WFGX's 9 p.m. newscast that is produced by WEAR-TV (a half-hour program that debuted one month earlier on August 12, 2013). The 6:30 newscast was canceled in 2016 and the 9 p.m. newscast was moved to 7 p.m. in 2018.
In June 2015, the 4:30 a.m. newscast was canceled; under FCC regulations, a company providing more than 15% of a station's programming per week would have an "attributable interest" in the station, thus counting as ownership. Sinclair cannot hold an attributable interest in WPMI due to its ownership of WEAR, as both stations rank among the top four in the market.
In September 2016, WPMI scaled their noon newscast back to a half-hour to make room for the daily lifestyle program Gulf Coast Today.
In November 2019, WPMI announced they were hiring meteorologist Alan Sealls, who had worked at rival station WKRG for over 20 years until failing to reach a new contract with station management. He made his on-air debut in January 2020.
In April 2023, the morning and noon newscasts and Gulf Coast Today were canceled and 20 members of WPMI's news staff were laid off. The morning newscast was replaced with The National Desk and the noon newscast and Gulf Coast Today were replaced with reruns of Family Feud. Weekend newscasts are now produced by WEAR in Pensacola either pre-recorded or simulcast on NBC 15.
As of March 2025, all of the station's main anchors had departed, leaving only four local news personalities remaining.[14][15]
