History of newscasts on WHYY[]
| WHYY-TV | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Wilmington, Delaware | |
| City of license | Wilmington. Delaware |
| Branding | WHYY or PBS WHYY |
| Channels | Analog: 12 Digital: 13 |
| Affiliations | PBS |
| Network | PBS |
| Owner | WHYY, Inc. |
WHYY-TV moved to Wilmington in 1963, and launched two nightly newscasts, an early evening broadcast focusing on Philadelphia called Tri-state News at 6:15 PM, and the flagship late-night newscast focusing on Delaware called Delaware Tonight at 11 PM. The Philadelphia focus was soon dropped. Early on the early evening slot was intermittent, and mostly an afterthought, and the focus was on the 11 PM newscast, but there was a gradual shift to focusing on the early evening slot through the early 1970s, and the 11 PM newscast was dropped in 1973. A brief revival of the 11 PM newscast was attempted around 1979, but did not last long. The early evening slot varied between 6:00 and 6:30 before settling on 5:30 in 1983. Nightly news was discontinued with the closure of the Wilmington studio in 2009.
| Years | Time | Early Evening Newscast | Time | Late Night Newscast |
| 1963-1964 | 6:15 PM | Tri-State News | 11:00 PM | Delaware Tonight |
| 1964-1965 | 6:00 PM | Channel 12 News | 11:00 PM | Delaware Tonight |
| 1965-1967 | 6:00 PM | TV 12 News Digest | 11:00 PM | Delaware Tonight |
| 1967-1972 | - | - | 11:00 PM | Delaware Tonight |
| 1972-1973 | 6:00 PM | Eye on Delaware | 11:00 PM | Eye on Delaware |
| 1973-1979 | 6:00 PM or 6:30 PM | Today in Delaware | - | - |
| 1979-1981 | 6:00 PM | Today in Delaware | 11:00 PM | Today in Delaware (repeat of the 6 PM newscast) |
| 1981-1982 | 6:00 PM | Today in Delaware | - | - |
| 1982-1983 | 6:00 PM | WHYY-TV 12 News | - | - |
| 1983-1985 | 5:30 PM | Delaware News 12 | - | - |
| 1985-1994 | 5:30 PM | TV 12 News | - | - |
| 1994-2000 | 5:30 PM | 12 Tonight | - | - |
| 2000-2009 | 5:30 PM | Delaware Tonight | - | - |
