Founded as WEEK-TV on February 1, 1953, 25NewsNow came into being as Peoria, Illinois's first television station, originally owned by the West Central Broadcasting Company under CEO and U.S. Senator Robert S. Kerr. The station moved to channel 25 in 1964 and changed ownership several times over the decades before being acquired by Quincy Media in 2014, which later merged with Gray Television. In 2022, Gray Television consolidated WEEK's NBC and ABC news operations under a single brand, retiring the separate Heart of Illinois ABC identity and rebranding all coverage as 25News. Today, 25NewsNow operates under Gray Media alongside sister station WHOI, sharing studios in East Peoria, Illinois. Today, 25NewsNow is mainly focused on Central Illinois local news, weather, sports, and community coverage from their headquarters in East Peoria, Illinois. One interesting fact: Since 1978, the station has produced an annual St. Jude Children's Hospital telethon that has raised over 150 million dollars total for childhood cancer research, making it one of the station's longest running community traditions.