Newscasts on the station began when it debuted on September 1, 1965, under the title "W-2 News". In early 1968, the station rebranded as "TV-2" (while retaining a hyphen for the branding of the station's callsign, rendered as "W-TWO"), its evening newscasts were accordingly renamed "Total News Tonight" (the title was later amended to "Total News at Twelve", when the station added a midday newscast at noon, and to "Total News Today" for the 6:00 p.m. newscast). The "TV-2 News" title was used in conjunction with the "Total News" brand from 1971 until January 1972, when the former became the full-time newscast branding. The station became the first station in the market to begin broadcasting its newscasts in color in 1971, with Johnny Palmer being appointed as anchor of WTWO's evening newscasts (Palmer remained with the station until he retired in 1992). In 1973, the station adopted the "Eyewitness News" format for its news programs, which remained in use by the station until 1994, when its newscasts were renamed "NewsChannel 2" (which was amended to "WTWO NewsChannel 2" after Nexstar bought channel 2 in 1997, and then revised as "WTWO NewsChannel" in 2007).