locally produced newscasts each week (with 5½ hours on weekdays, two hours on Saturdays and one hour on Sundays). For most of its history, WLTX has been a solid, if usually distant, runner-up to WIS. Indeed, for a time in the 1980s, WLTX didn't air a newscast at 11 p.m., even after activating its new tower. However, in recent years, WLTX has taken the lead at noon due to having CBS Daytime as a lead-in, and has frequently traded the lead in the early morning timeslot with WIS. During the early 1990s, WLTX launched a weekly news segment titled "News 19: Player of the Week," which recognized the accomplishments of high school student athletes in the classroom and in their sport. Future NBA star Ray Allen won the award several times while playing at Hillcrest High School (now Hillcrest Middle School) in Dalzell. After being acquired by Gannett, the station also debuted feature segments for its newscast such as "On Your Side", "Restaurant Report Card" and "Big Money Monday." In 2001, WLTX premiered a half-hour 7:00 p.m. newscast. WLTX's popular morning anchor team of J. R. Berry and Darci Strickland were promoted to anchoring the evening newscasts that year. During the May 2007 ratings period, WLTX's midday newscast continued to place at #1 in the noon timeslot (traditionally having the same lead-in since 1979), while it also won first on weekday mornings during the 5:00 a.m. half-hour. On August 20, 2007, WLTX debuted an hour-long 5:00 p.m. newscast titled News 19: Friends @ Five; the program won a Southeast Regional Emmy Award on June 23, 2008, for its innovative approach to connecting with viewers. The station's 11:00 p.m. newscast also won an Emmy Award for "Best Newscast" for the second year in a row. On June 26, 2010, the station's 6:00 p.m. newscast took home an Emmy Award for "Best Newscast." On January 24, 2011, WLTX became the third television station in the Columbia market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. In July 2013, WLTX became the second station in Columbia to expand its weekday morning newscast into the 4:30 a.m. timeslot; later on October 5, 2013, WLTX premiered an hour-long Saturday morning newscast at 11:00 a.m., becoming the second station in Columbia to air a morning news program on weekends (after WIS). On January 20, 2015, WLTX was awarded the prestigious Alfred I. duPont Award for