When channel 38 signed on as WIIL-TV in 1973, the station produced a half-hour newscast at 6:30 p.m. weeknights, titled the "WIIL-TV Evening News". Due to low advertising and budget cuts, the news operation was shut down in 1974; however, the station continued to provide weather updates during the evening hours. News programming returned to the station in 1978, with a single daily broadcast each evening under the "News 38" branding; at one point, the station's news staff was largely composed of former employees from WTHI-TV's news department. WBAK discontinued local news programming with the cancellation of its evening newscast in 1981; for the last fourteen years of its tenure as an ABC affiliate, the station only broadcast syndicated programs at both 6:00 and 11:00 p.m. However, the station would produce a weekday morning program titled "Good Morning Terre Haute," which consisted of interviews and included a weather segment. The station also aired its own public affairs programming; one such program, "Valley Point of View", ran until 2004 and was produced by the organization Leadership Terre Haute.