WHAS and WAVE in total-day ratings, largely due to their higher-rated syndicated and local programming lead-ins to their newscasts. In 2008, WLKY changed its branding from WLKY NewsChannel 32 to WLKY News. The station's news helicopter "NewsChopper 32" was also renamed as the "WLKY NewsChopper", and a new graphics package also made its debut. In February 2010, WLKY became the third station in the Louisville market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in a widescreen format—and the second to air them in upconverted 16:9 standard definition rather than true high definition (as of August 1, 2019, WLKY is one of three remaining Hearst Television stations to actively air local newscasts in 16:9 widescreen SD, along with Albuquerque ABC affiliate KOAT and New Orleans NBC affiliate WDSU; Burlington's WPTZ, also a Hearst-owned NBC affiliate, had also broadcast local newscasts in 16:9 widescreen SD until it launched HD newscasts in late July 2019). In February 2012, WLKY debuted a two-hour extension of its weekday morning newscast, airing from 7:00 to 9:00 a.m., on its MeTV affiliated second digital subchannel. It competes with the longer-established in-house morning newscast in that timeslot on WDRB. On September 17 of that year, WLKY launched a half-hour 10:00 p.m. newscast on that same subchannel to compete with WDRB's hour-long prime time newscast (which debuted in 1990) and what was then a WHAS-TV-produced half-hour newscast on CW affiliate WBKI-TV (channel 34) in that slot (the WHAS-TV newscast on WBKI-TV officially ended its run on October 26, 2012; thereafter, syndicated programming replaced the 10:00 p.m. newscast). WLKY also truncated its morning news program on the MeTV subchannel to one hour, 7-8 a.m., on that date. Notable former on-air staff Michael Gargiulo – reporter (now morning anchor for WNBC/New York City) Mark Giangreco – sports anchor (was most recently at WLS-TV/Chicago until he was terminated in 2021) Dan Lewis – anchor (former evening anchor for KOMO-TV/Seattle) Tom Mintier – reporter (later at CNN; died in 2016) Diane Sawyer – reporter and weather anchor (1967–1970; former anchor of World News) Charlie Van Dyke – announcer (1986–1990; did voice-overs for rival WAVE) Technical information Subchannels The station's digital signal is multiplexed: On September 1, 2011, WLKY began carrying the Weigel Broadcasting-owned classic television network MeTV on digital subchannel 32.2, which is also available on Spectrum 188. 32.2 carries CBS programming in case of breaking news or severe weather coverage and special local