Editing WBAL-TV (section)

===News operation===
[[File:Wbal tv live shot.JPG|thumb|right|175px|WBAL-TV, Channel 11 longtime reporters Deborah Weiner and Jayne Miller prepare for a live shot outside old St. Paul's Church (Episcopal) at North Charles and East Saratoga Streets during the funeral there of former [[List of mayors of Baltimore|Baltimore City Mayor]], [[Maryland Governor]], and [[Comptroller of Maryland|Comptroller]] [[William Donald Schaefer]], April 27, 2011]]
WBAL-TV presently broadcasts 35 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with five hours each weekday, {{frac|4|1|2}} hours on Saturdays and {{frac|5|1|2}} hours on Sundays); the station also produces a weekly public affairs program on Sunday mornings called ''11 TV Hill''.

Appropriately for a station with roots in a newspaper, channel 11 has a rich news tradition. WBAL's newscasts have spent the better part of its history in either first or second place in the ratings. It led the ratings from the 1960s until WJZ-TV passed it in the early 1970s. However, for the better part of the last 40 years, WBAL-TV had waged a spirited battle for first place in the ratings with WJZ-TV. In recent years, WBAL-TV's newscasts placed first at 5, 6 and 11 p.m. However, in the November 2009 [[Nielsen ratings]] [[sweeps]] period—the first since the debut of ''[[The Jay Leno Show]]''—WBAL's 11 p.m. newscast fell precipitously from first to a distant second behind WJZ (by contrast, the 11 p.m. newscast on WRC-TV in nearby Washington, D.C. was one of the least affected late-night newscasts of any NBC affiliate or [[owned-and-operated station]] in the country; it continued to dominate its competitors). WBAL still continued to lead at 5 and 6 p.m. until the November 2011 sweeps period. Since NBC took Leno off of prime time in February 2010—in part due to complaints from WBAL and other affiliates about effects on its newscasts—viewership of channel 11's late newscast has often come close to the WJZ newscast. However, since the November 2011 sweeps period, WJZ's newscasts took the lead in nearly all time slots but WBAL is still a strong second.

In 1974, WBAL introduced the ''[[Action News]]'' format to Baltimore. Characterized by short, usually 90 second, news "packages" and upbeat introductory news themes, Baltimore's ''Action News'' briefly replaced WJZ as the number one news station in Baltimore during the mid-1970s. The architect of the success was news director [[Ron Kershaw]], who had come to Baltimore from [[Texas]] and was considered somewhat ahead of his time.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dunne|first=John Gregory|author-link=John Gregory Dunne|title=Regards: The Selected Nonfiction of John Gregory Dunne|url=https://archive.org/details/regardsselectedn00dunn |url-access=registration|quote=ron kershaw news director.|year=2006|page=[https://archive.org/details/regardsselectedn00dunn/page/n91 80] | isbn=978-1-56025-816-2 | publisher=Thunder's Mouth Press}}</ref> He brought in talented anchors like [[Sue Simmons]] and [[Spencer Christian]] but also replaced long-time local news anchor Rolf Hertsgaard with controversial out-of-towner [[Don Harrison]] and streamlined the news operation. Kershaw later brought other innovations to [[WNBC-TV]] in [[New York City]] and [[WBBM-TV]] in [[Chicago]] as news director at those stations.

WBAL-TV lent then-meteorologist Sandra Shaw to Hearst sister station [[WDSU-TV]] in [[New Orleans]] on September 1, 2008, to assist with the Louisiana station's coverage of [[Hurricane Gustav]].

On January 3, 2009, WBAL-TV became the second station in Baltimore (behind WBFF) to begin broadcasting its local news programming in [[High-definition television|high definition]]. Only the in-studio cameras and footage from the station's helicopter were in HD at the time of the switch. For over a year, most field reports were still in [[pillarbox]]ed [[4:3]] [[standard definition]]. Most field reports are switched from [[16:9]] [[widescreen]] [[enhanced definition]] to 16:9 high definition in March 2012. On March 5, 2012, WBAL debuted a half-hour 10 p.m. newscast on its WBAL Plus digital subchannel, which competes against an hour-long newscast on WBFF.<ref name="WBAL Plus"/>

On January 12, 2015, WBAL-TV expanded their morning newscast ''11 News Today'' to 4:30&nbsp;a.m.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wbaltv.com/blob/view/-/30614086/data/1/-/39xdtwz/-/WBAL-TV-11-Expands-Weekday-Morning-News-To-4-30AM-Start.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=January 22, 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150122140722/http://www.wbaltv.com/blob/view/-/30614086/data/1/-/39xdtwz/-/WBAL-TV-11-Expands-Weekday-Morning-News-To-4-30AM-Start.pdf |archive-date=January 22, 2015 }}</ref>

News anchor [[Rod Daniels]] retired from WBAL-TV in 2015 after more than 30 years with the station.<ref>{{cite news
 |title=WBAL anchorman Rod Daniels to retire after more than 30 years |date=May 8, 2015 |access-date=December 27, 2022 |last=Zurawik|first=David |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/columnists/zurawik/bal-wbal-anchorman-rod-daniels-to-retire-after-more-than-30-years-20150508-story.html |work=[[Baltimore Sun]] |via=baltimoresun.com }}</ref>

====Awards and achievements====
[[File:Rob roblin.jpg|thumb|right|175px|Former WBAL-TV reporter Rob Roblin, April 27, 2011.]]
WBAL-TV became the first Baltimore television station to win a [[Peabody Award]] for local news coverage, specifically of their [[Chesapeake Bay]] pollution investigation (and the first Baltimore television station to win the award in any category in more than fifty years).<ref>[http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/chesapeake-bay-pollution-investigation 64th Annual Peabody Awards], May 2005.</ref> WBAL's news department was also awarded as one of the top three Best Television Newscasts by the National Headliners Association, alongside [[WFAA]] in [[Dallas]], and WBAL's Boston sister station [[WCVB-TV]]. The station has also won regional [[Edward R. Murrow Award (Radio Television Digital News Association)|Edward R. Murrow Awards]], the [[George Polk Award]] and the [[American Bar Association]] Gavel Award for excellence in reporting and journalism; it has also been rated the most outstanding television news operation in Baltimore (by the [[Associated Press]] and [[United Press International]]).

====Notable current on-air staff====
* [[Gerry Sandusky]] — Sports anchor

====Notable former on-air staff====
* [[Curt Anderson]]<ref>{{cite web|title=House of Delegates - Curtis...Anderson|website=Maryland.gov|date=August 28, 2018|url=https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/06hse/html/msa13208.html}}</ref>
* [[Sade Baderinwa]]
* [[Campbell Brown (journalist)|Campbell Brown]]
* [[Ron Canada]] – newscaster (1970s–early 1980s)
* [[Spencer Christian]]
* [[Carol Costello]]
* [[Rod Daniels]] (1984–2015)
* [[Mike Hambrick]]
* [[Vicki Mabrey]]
* [[Royal Parker]] (1962–mid-1990s)
* [[Lisa Salters]]
* [[Sue Simmons]]
* [[Ron Smith (radio host)|Ron Smith]]<ref name="RonSmith">{{cite web| url = http://www.wbal.com/article/83881/2/template-story/Ron-Smith-1941-2011| title = Ron Smith 1941–2011| date = December 20, 2011| access-date = December 20, 2011| publisher = [[WBAL (AM)|WBAL]]/[[Hearst Television]]}}</ref>
* [[Julius Westheimer]] (1916–2005) – financial and business news/commentary