Seeing even more potential in the early risers, late shifters, and insomniacs of the Indianapolis area, WXIN will now begin its early morning newscast even earlier. Beginning in January, the Fox-affiliate will begin its day at 4:00 a.m.

WXIN has seen positive audience gains since it expanded its morning news to 4:30 a.m. earlier this year and now it hopes to make an even bigger imprint with a six-hour programming stretch on weekday mornings, from 4:00 a.m. to 10:00.

“We have seen viewers waking up earlier and watching earlier, ever since we moved up our start time to 4:30am,” said Jerry Martin, WXIN’s general manager. It appears that Martin’s objective is to provide enough early morning time to build viewers for the station’s big competition against NBC’s “Today” from 7:00-10:00 a.m.

“Coming on even earlier, starting at 4 a.m., is part of our overall mission to meet the needs of our viewers and be the number one choice for them, whether they are up in the early hours or later in the morning,” said news director Lee Rosenthal.

Setting their alarms a half hour earlier are current 4:30 anchors Jenny Anchondo and Scott Jones. Meteorologists Jim O’Brien and Ron Smiley will split weather duties. WXIN plans to begin the 4:00 start time on January 10th.