10 p.m. newscast on WISE-DT2 that was produced by WPTA and WISE-TV's Indiana's NewsCenter operation. As with the 1980 production, personnel served as multi-platform journalists, shooting and editing their own stories. There was no sports department until the newscast's expansion following the loss of the Fox affiliation. The newscast was the only one in Fort Wayne to receive an Emmy Award nomination for "Best Evening Newscast" from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences-Lower Great Lakes Chapter that year. When the station became an independent on August 1, 2011, WFFT expanded the 10 p.m. newscast to one hour; the newscast then expanded to weekend evenings on October 1, 2011 (also running for one hour); the Thursday preceding the latter expansion (September 29), WFFT became the first television station in the Fort Wayne market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. Blue eventually left WFFT, returning to WNWO-TV in Toledo, Ohio. Dan Ball took over as the news director following Blue's departure after a turbulent departure from KSNV-TV in March 2012. Ball was the news director from January 2013 until leaving two years later in January 2015 for KMIR-TV in Palm Springs, California. Audra Streetman temporarily took over as the main news anchor before leaving in May 2015 to also join KMIR-TV. Streetman and Blue currently co-anchor the 5–7 a.m. morning show. On February 13, 2023, WFFT began airing hour-long 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. local newscasts, marking the news department's first expansion in over a decade. Technical information Subchannels The station's digital signal is multiplexed: Analog-to-digital conversion WFFT began broadcasting its digital signal on UHF channel 36 in 2003. Until December 2007, the signal transmitted programming only in standard definition at an effective radiated power of 980 watts limiting reception to within miles of the station. In May 2009, the digital signal was upgraded to full power. It now broadcasts high definition programming in the 720p format, although it aired in 1080i between leaving and rejoining the Fox network. WFFT shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 55, at 6:01 p.m. on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 36. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel