In the 1970s and 1980s, WDTN used the "Eyewitness News" branding. For most of its history, its newscasts have been a runner-up to market leader WHIO-TV. On April 11, 2012, the station announced that it was in the process of reconstructing its studios in preparation for the production of high definition content. After June 8, 2012, newscasts were moved to the station's newsroom as the new news set was being built in the same location as the old one. The first high definition newscast was at 6 p.m. on Saturday, July 21, 2012. WDTN was the second station in Dayton to have made the upgrade to HD newscasts; the shows on WBDT were included in the upgrade.