WDJT's newscasts have fared somewhat better than those of other former independents and Fox stations that joined a Big Three network through the 1994–96 affiliation switches. This is remarkable considering the station barely registered in the ratings prior to joining CBS and did not even have a news department for over a year after aligning with the network. Indeed, the only other such stations who've had success in starting up a news department have either been owned by E. W. Scripps Company (KNXV-TV in Phoenix, WFTS-TV in Tampa, and KSHB-TV in Kansas City) or, in the case of Raycom Media-owned WOIO in Cleveland, going to a controversial tabloid format in order to garner ratings. (WOIO has since switched to a traditional format.) While it has spent the last two decades in fourth place, in recent years its news ratings at 10p.m. have come close to (and at times surpassed) WITI, WTMJ and WISN-TV on some nights (especially during past carriage disputes between Time Warner Cable, Hearst Television and Journal Communications, that resulted in weeks long removal of WISN and WTMJ). Reporter/anchor Mike Strehlow has been with the station since the news department was launched, with former anchor Paul Piaskoski staying with the station 19 years until his mid-2015 departure. Unlike the situation in Atlanta with WGCL-TV, which has gone through multiple shifts in personnel on both sides of the camera, most staff turnover at WDJT has been of the traditional move of talent to higher markets, which is to be expected given Milwaukee's status as a mid-major market and its close proximity to Chicago.