WNBC
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| WNBC | |
|---|---|
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| New York, New York | |
| Branding | 4 New York (general) News 4 New York (newscasts) |
| Slogan | We're 4 New York |
| Channels | Analog: 4 (VHF) |
| Subchannels | (see article) |
| Affiliations | NBC |
| Owner | NBC Universal (NBC Telemundo License Company) |
| Founded | July 1, 1941 |
| Call letters’ meaning | National Broadcasting Company |
| Sister station(s) | WNJU |
| Former callsigns | WNBT (1941-1954) WRCA-TV (1954-1960) |
| Former channel number(s) | Channel 1 (1941-1946) |
| Transmitter Power | 30 kW (analog) 200.2 kW (digital) |
| Height | 439 m (analog) 397 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 47535 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | www.wnbc.com |
WNBC, channel 4, is the flagship station of the NBC television network, located in New York City. WNBC's studios are co-located with NBC corporate headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in midtown Manhattan. WNBC is the sister station to Linden, New Jersey-based WNJU (channel 47, flagship of the co-owned Telemundo network), and the two stations have some cross promotion.
In the few areas of the eastern United States where viewers cannot receive NBC programs over-the-air, WNBC is available on satellite via C band, and to subscribers of Dish Network and DirecTV, which also provides coverage of the station to Latin America, the Caribbean, and Jetblue's LiveTV inflight entertainment system. The station is also seen on certain cable providers in markets where there is no local NBC affiliate. [1]
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[edit] Early history
[edit] Experimental operations
What is now WNBC-TV traces its history to experimental station W2XBS, founded by the Radio Corporation of America (a co-founder of the National Broadcasting Company), in 1928. Originally a test bed for RCA's Photophone theater television, it used the low-definition mechanical scanning system, and later was used mostly for reception and interference tests. W2XBS left the air sometime in 1933 as RCA turned its attention to cathode ray tube (CRT) television research at its Camden, New Jersey facility, under the leadership of Dr. Vladimir Zworykin.[citation needed] The station originally broadcast on the frequencies of 2.0 to 2.1 megahertz. In 1929, W2XBS upgraded their transmitter and broadcast facilities to handle transmissions of 60 vertical lines at 20 frames per second, on the frequencies of 2.75 to 2.85 megahertz.
It was 1935 before the CRT system was authorized as a "field test" project and NBC converted a radio studio in the RCA Building (now the GE Building) in New York City's Rockefeller Center for television use. In mid-1936, small-scale programming began to air to an audience of some 75 receivers in the homes of high-level RCA staff, and a dozen or so sets in a closed circuit viewing room in 52nd-floor offices of the RCA Building. The viewing room often hosted visiting organizations or corporate guests, who saw a live program produced in the studios many floors below.
Viewership of early NBC broadcasts was tightly restricted to those authorized by the company, whose installed set base eventually reached about 200. Shortly after NBC began a semi-regular transmission schedule in 1938, DuMont Laboratories announced TV sets for sale to the public, a move RCA was not yet contemplating. In response, NBC ceased all TV broadcasting for several months.
[edit] Firsts for W2XBS
As W2XBS, the station scored numerous "firsts", including the first televised Broadway drama (June 1938), live news event covered by mobile unit (a fire in an abandoned building in November 1938), live telecast of a Presidential speech (Franklin D. Roosevelt opening the 1939 New York World's Fair), the first live telecasts of college and Major League Baseball (both in 1939), the first telecast of a National Football League game (also in 1939), the first telecast of a National Hockey League game (early 1940) and the first network telecast of a political convention (the 1940 Republican National Convention).
[edit] First commercial TV station
The station began commercial television operations on July 1, 1941, the first fully-licensed commercial television station in the United States. The call letters were changed to WNBT and it originally broadcast on channel 1. [2] Soon after signing on that day, WNBT aired the first television commercial. The Bulova Watch Company paid $9 for a commercial aired during a baseball game of the Philadelphia Phillies at the Brooklyn Dodgers.
During World War II, RCA diverted key technical TV staff to the U.S. Navy, who were interested in developing a TV-guided bomb. WNBT's studio and program staff were placed at the disposal of the New York Police Department and used for Civil Defense training. Public programming resumed on a small scale during 1944.
In 1946, the station changed its frequency from channel 1 to channel 4 after VHF channel 1 was removed from use for television broadcasting. (Channel 4 was previously occupied by WABD before moving to channel 5.) The station changed its call letters on October 18, 1954 to WRCA-TV (for NBC's then-parent company, RCA) and on May 22, 1960, channel 4 became WNBC-TV.
WNBC-TV also earned a place in broadcasting history as the birthplace of The Tonight Show. It began on the station in 1953 as a local late-night program, The Steve Allen Show, and NBC executive Pat Weaver brought it to the network in 1954. The NBC studio from which Tonight was broadcast during the Jack Paar and early Johnny Carson years (it first originated at the Hudson Theatre on 44th Street) is now WNBC-TV's main news studio - Studio 6B.
On June 1, 1992, channel 4 dropped the -TV suffix from its call letters and became simply WNBC, with the new branding slogan 4 New York. The accompanying station image campaign was titled We're 4 New York, and featured a musical theme composed by Edd Kalehoff. WNBC was rebranded again as NBC 4 on September 5, 1995, with its newscasts being renamed Newschannel 4.
On September 11, 2001, the transmitter facilities of WNBC, as well as eight other local television stations and several radio stations, were destroyed when two hijacked airplanes crashed into and destroyed the World Trade Center. WNBC broadcast engineer Bill Steckman died in the tragedy, along with six other engineers from other television stations. After resuming over-the-air transmissions, the station broadcast from Armstrong Tower in Alpine, New Jersey. As of 2005, WNBC-TV is broadcasting its signal from the Empire State Building.
In 2004, WNBC served as the model station for NBC Weather Plus, a 24-hour digital weather channel that airs on its second digital subchannel (4.2) and on several local cable television systems. Other NBC-owned stations launched their own Weather Plus channels in 2005.
On September 13, 2006, WNBC began broadcasting all of their local newscasts in High-Definition, becoming the first station in the New York market to do so. While looking forward, the station reached back: channel 4 revived the We're 4 New York promotional campaign in May 2007, using both a theme and on-air promos similar to the original 1992 version. And on March 31, 2008, WNBC reverts its general branding to 4 New York and its newscast branding to News 4 New York. Although the voiceover in the current opening titles to News 4 New York refers the station as NBC 4 New York[3] and the 7:00 p.m. newscast is still called New York Nightly News rather than Nightly News 4 New York.
[edit] Digital television
The station's digital channel is multiplexed:
Digital channels
| Subchannel | Programming |
|---|---|
| 4.1 / 28.1 | main WNBC-TV/NBC programming |
| 4.2 / 28.2 | NBC Weather Plus |
| 4.4 / 28.4 | WNBC 4.4 |
[edit] Analog-to-digital conversion
After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009 [4], WNBC will remain on its current pre-transition channel number, 28. [5] However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display WNBC's virtual channel as 4.
[edit] News operation
Over its history, WNBC-TV has enjoyed success with its news department, in terms of ratings and critical acclaim. During the 1960s, channel 4 battled with WCBS-TV for the top-rated news department in the New York market. They also remained a strong player even during the late 1970s and early 1980s, when the NBC-TV network was at its nadir in the ratings. WNBC's hallmark over the years has been strong coverage of breaking stories and a straight news product that feaures entertainment elements as well as information. Prime examples of this are Live at Five and Today in New York, which provide a mix of news, features and interviews.
WNBC's news team is one of the most stable in the country; many of its personalities have been at the station for 20 years or more. Chuck Scarborough has been the station's main anchor since 1974. Since 1980, he has been teamed with Sue Simmons at 11:00 p.m., and the two have been together longer than any anchor team in New York history. Len Berman has been the station's sports director and lead sports anchor since 1985, and senior correspondent Gabe Pressman has been at the station since 1956, except for a seven-year stint (from 1972 to 1979) at WNEW-TV (now WNYW).
WNBC-TV was the first major-market station in the country to have success with a 5:00 p.m. newscast, adding that program to its Sixth Hour show at 6:00 p.m. in 1974 and renaming all its local newscasts NewsCenter 4. Three of NBC's other owned-and-operated stations (in Chicago, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles) also adopted the NewsCenter name. The moniker remained until October 1980, when they were renamed News 4 New York. Shortly before then the 5 o'clock slot was renamed Live at Five, and the hour was reformatted from a straight news program into a mix of news and celebrity interviews. Live at Five eventually became the most successful local program in New York, a feat that resulted in landing the show's cast on the cover of New York magazine.
For most of the time from 1980 to 1990, it used various themes written by Jim McAllister. His theme for News 4 New York was based on a synthesized version of the NBC chimes, with a graphics package featuring a lightning bolt striking its logo from 1980 to 1990, a fancy die-cut "4". In 1992, the station began calling itself 4 New York and the campaign song, written by Edd Kalehoff, was quickly adopted as the theme for the newscast. The theme was briefly brought back after the September 11, 2001 attacks. In 1995, after the station rebranded itself as NBC 4 and its newscasts as Newschannel 4, Kalehoff wrote a new theme called "NBC Stations" featuring the NBC chimes, the chime sequence is G-E-C. It remained in use for eight years, along with a graphics package using a simple red line for lower thirds. While very popular, it made the station look somewhat dated at the turn of the century.
The 2003 graphics package was created by Emmy Award winner Randy Pyburn of Pyburn Films. Pyburn has produced several promos for the station and the now-defunct Jane's New York specials hosted by former WNBC reporter Jane Hanson. The graphics package was also branded on other NBC stations. The music was written by Rampage Music and features a brassy version of the NBC chimes, and lower thirds feature a shimmering peacock. Other NBC-owned stations are in the process of standardizing around similar graphics packages used by Pyburn although the current 2006 look was designed and executed out of house by Element, based in New York.
Many WNBC personalities have appeared, and have also moved onto the NBC network, including: Scarborough, Berman, Marv Albert, Jim Hartz, Tom Snyder, Al Roker, Matt Lauer, Tony Guida, Maurice DuBois, and Janice Huff. In the past, Albert, Snyder, Roker, Lauer, Brokaw, Scarborough, Guida and DuBois have worked on channel 4 and at the network at the same time while Huff and Berman do currently.
One popular monthly feature is Berman's "Spanning the World," a reel of odd and interesting sports highlights from the past month, including a recorded introduction and closing by legendary NBC staff announcer Don Pardo. This segment also airs on NBC's The Today Show on a monthly basis.
When Sue Simmons joined the station in early 1980, she was paired with Chuck Scarborough on both the 6:00 and 11:00 newscasts. However, for most of the time until 2005, WNBC-TV's weeknight anchor rotation had Simmons and another male anchor (including Jack Cafferty, Matt Lauer, and briefly Scarborough) at 5:00; Scarborough and various anchors (John Hambrick, Pat Harper, and Michele Marsh among them) at 6:00; and Scarborough and Simmons together at 11:00. That changed in 2005 as Live at Five anchor Jim Rosenfield jumped back to WCBS-TV, where he had once been noon and 5 p.m. anchor and took on the role as lead anchor for their 5:00 and 11:00 newscasts. Former reporter Perri Peltz returned to WNBC to co-anchor Live at Five with Simmons, making New York the one of the few large markets with two female anchors on an evening newscast.
Though a notable event, it was short-lived as Simmons and Peltz were both displaced from Live at Five due to changes in the station's early evening news line-up that went into effect on March 12, 2007: David Ushery and Lynda Baquero became co-anchors of a truncated, 30-minute long Live at Five broadcast, followed by Peltz with a 30-minute soft news program, News 4 You. Simmons was moved to co-anchor at 6:00 with Scarborough.
The early Autumn of 2007 brought additional changes to WNBC's early-evening lineup. On September 10, the station moved the newsmagazine series Extra to 5:00 p.m., and cancelled Live at Five. News 4 You remained at 5:30, but was replaced on October 15 with a traditional newscast, anchored by Sue Simmons and Michael Gargiulo. The 6:00 newscast is now anchored by Ushery and Baquero, and New York Nightly News, a new half-hour newscast with Chuck Scarborough as sole anchor, debuted at 7:00 p.m.. Unfortunately, these changes didn't result to an increase in WNBC's ratings in the November 2007 sweeps period. The most shocking of WNBC's ratings decrease is their 11 p.m. newscast as it fell to third place, behind WCBS and WABC. [6] WNBC altered their 5:00-6:00 p.m. hour on January 2, 2008, swapping the half-hour news at 5:30 with Extra.
Currently WNBC cooperates with radio station WINS during its morning newscasts to provide additional coverage of traffic in the New York City area through Shadow Traffic.
[edit] Looking ahead
On May 7, 2008, NBC Universal announced plans for a major restructuring of WNBC-TV's news department. The centerpiece of the restructuring would be the creation of a 24-hour all-news channel, which would operate on WNBC's fourth digital subchannel (4.4). Channel 4's current news operations are to be revamped and melded into the all-news channel, which will serve as a "content center" for the station's various local distribution platforms. Preliminary plans also call for WNBC to de-emphasize the use of its call letters on its website, and perhaps on-air as well.
The digital news channel is targeted for launch in November 2008. If WNBC is successful, NBC Universal will use this model as a template for a possible future expansion to its other television stations. [7] [8]
[edit] Current personalities
- Anchors
- Pat Battle - Saturday and Sunday mornings
- Carolyn Gusoff - Saturday and Sunday mornings
- Carol Anne Riddell - Sundays 6 and 11 p.m.
- Darlene Rodriguez - weekday mornings
- Melissa Russo - Saturdays 6 and 11 p.m.
- Chuck Scarborough - weeknights 6, 7, and 11 p.m.
- Sue Simmons - weeknights 5, 6, and 11 p.m.
- David Ushery - weeknights 5 p.m.
- Weather
- Chris Cimino - weekday mornings
- Joe Cioffi - substitute meteorologist
- Janice Huff - chief meteorologist/weekday evenings
- John Marshall - weekend evenings
- SallyAnn Mosey - weekend mornings
- Sports
- Bruce Beck - Friday-Sunday evenings
- Len Berman - sports director/Monday-Thursday evenings
- Otis Livingston - weekday mornings
- Jonas Schwartz - weekend mornings
- Reporters
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[edit] Notable alumni
[edit] Newscast titles
- The Sunoco Newscast with Lowell Thomas (1940-41) (simulcast with the NBC Blue radio network)
- The News with John McCaffrey (1950s)
- The Shell Oil News (1956-1960)
- The (Gabe) Pressman-(Bill) Ryan Report (1960-1967)
- The Sixth Hour/Eleventh Hour News (1967-1971)
- News 4 New York (1971-1972, 1980-1995, 2008-present)
- Channel 4 News (1972-1974)
- NewsCenter 4 (1974-1980)
- NewsChannel 4 (HD) (1995-2008)
[edit] See also
- WFAN (660 kHz.), formerly WNBC (AM)
- WQHT (97.1 MHz.), formerly WNBC-FM/WYNY
- Early television stations
[edit] References
- ^ DRTV Research - Backchannelmedia Research Software
- ^ NBC History - About Us News Story - WNBC | New York
- ^ WNBC News 4 New York tease and Open.
- ^ http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-06-1082A2.pdf
- ^ http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/cdbs/forms/prod/cdbsmenu.hts?context=25&appn=101232921&formid=387&fac_num=47535
- ^ Richard Huff (2007-10-09). "News 4 You" no longer on WNBC. New York Daily News. Retrieved on 2008-05-08.
- ^ Richard Huff (2008-05-08). WNBC launching 24/7 news channel. New York Daily News. Retrieved on 2008-05-08.
- ^ Bill Carter (2008-05-08). NBC to Start News Channel in New York. The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-05-08.
[edit] External links
- WNBC Website
- WNBC Wireless
- WNBC History
- WNBC Set Design
- Photos of WNBC's news set
- WNBC-TV logos and screenshots from 1950s to the present day
- Query the FCC's TV station database for WNBC
- WNBC America Technical Information
- In Memoriam - Bill Steckman [3]
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