During its years as an independent station and later as a WB affiliate, WBSG-TV operated a news department; its local newscasts, branded as NewsCenter 21 with half-hour evening newscasts at 6:00, 10:00 and 11:00 p.m., were targeted at Brunswick and southeast Georgia. After it switched to ABC in December 1996, the station cancelled its 10:00 p.m. newscast as the network began running regular primetime programming during that hour. The news department was shut down in December 1997, when WJXX launched its own news operation and Allbritton transferred most of WBSG's news staff to WJXX (during the stations' first months as an ABC affiliate, the two stations split their simulcast at 6:00 and 11:00 p.m., with WBSG continuing its local newscasts while WJXX aired M*A*S*H reruns).
