Newscasts WTVQ's newscasts have held many identities over the years, in large part because of their traditional third-place ratings in the market. The Lexington Herald skewered the station in 1980, just before the move to channel 36, for a "seemingly weak commitment to thorough, accurate news coverage". The station's first weather map was a hand-me-down from Miami; nobody bothered to remove the "low tide" and "high tide" markings from it despite their lack of utility in Kentucky. An attempt to bolster the newscasts by hiring former radio reporter Bill Evenson in the late 1970s was marred by sensationalism: one newscast opened with the phrase, "Kentucky, there's blood on your highways tonight." At that time, the newsroom was wracked by major turnover in personnel. This was also noticeable at the news director position. The station fired its news director in April 1981, only to do so again in January 1982. It offered the least early evening news of the Lexington stations, and its news staff of 22 compared unfavorably to the 35 and 40 of its competitors. In 1986, WTVQ revamped its local newscasts, expanding its early evening news to an hour and updating its presentation. The changes failed to move the ratings needle in the first survey. However, after poaching lead male anchor John Lindgren from WKYT, an upturn finally began. It began to contend with WLEX for second place, and improvement in news ratings and perception also aided the station's bottom line, as news represented nearly 40 percent of its gross revenue. It maintained that position for much of the decade, but ratings declined as Lindgren took extended off-air absences to treat colon cancer; he died in January 2001 at the age of 55. In the 2000s and 2010s, the station fell back to a distant third place in local news ratings. Morris dropped the station's 5 p.m. newscast shortly after taking over in order to air the syndicated show Judge Judy in hopes of increasing ratings and concentrating news resources elsewhere. Non-news In 1976, WTVQ began producing Happy's Hour, a weekday afternoon children's show that was the last of its kind to air on Lexington television. The show's host, Happy the Clown, was portrayed by staff announcer Tim Eppenstein. He was joined by his sidekick Froggy, a frog puppet portrayed by an unidentified puppeteer. Unlike most local children's shows, Happy's Hour did not feature a studio audience with