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WNBC

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WNBC-TV, "NBC-4" is the flagship TV station of the NBC television network, with studios located in Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. WNBC is sister station to Telemundo affiliate WNJU-TV, and the two stations have some cross promotion.

WNBC is not just a local Tri-State Area station—its reach is nationwide and international. Thanks to satellite technology, the station is seen on cable and satellite systems, where there is no NBC affiliate locally. The station is seen via satellite in the U. S. via C-Band satellite, Dish Network and DirecTV, with DirecTV providing coverage to Latin America.

History

WNBC-TV was the first commercially licensed television station in the United States, broadcasting on Channel 1 as WNBT (for NBC Television) on July 1, 1941 and was most likely the only television station to have a news special report about the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7 of that year. However, it traces its history to experimental station W2XBS, founded in 1928.

In 1946, the station changed its frequency from Channel 1 to Channel 4 after VHF channel 1 was removed from use for television broadcasting. The station changed its call letters to WRCA-TV after WNBC-AM became WRCA-AM. When the radio station changed its calls back to WNBC, the television station became WNBC-TV.

WNBC-TV also earned a place in broadcasting history as the station at which The Tonight Show was originated. 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.

File:Chuck&SueWNBC2005 .jpg
Sue Simmons and Chuck Scarborough in 2005.

WNBC-TV was simply branded as "channel 4" from 1946 to 1992. In 1992, WNBC-TV became simply WNBC (because WNBC-AM had become WFAN), and was rebranded 4 New York. The accompanying station image campaign was entitled We're 4 New York. WNBC was rebranded as NBC 4 in 1995 with the newscast entitled NewsChannel 4. For many years, in various image campaigns, the station used themes composed by Edd Kalehoff.

On September 11, 2001, the transmitter facilities of WNBC-TV as well as six other local television stations and several radio stations were destroyed when two hijacked airplanes crashed into and destroyed the World Trade Center towers in the attack that day. At first the station was broadcasting from a radio tower originally built by Edwin Armstrong in Alpine, New Jersey. As of 2005, WNBC-TV is broadcasting from the Empire State Building.

News operations

File:Sue&BrianWNBC2004.jpg
Sue Simmons and Brian Williams in 2004.

For years WNBC has had strong ratings without resorting to sensationalism or forays into tabloid television unlike most of the other stations in the market. WNBC tends to be the news leader by breaking stories and having a no nonsense news product that informs and at times entertains. Prime examples of this are Live at Five and Today in New York, which provide a mix of news, features and interviews.

Chuck Scarborough has been the station's main anchor since 1974, longer than anyone in New York television history except WABC-TV's Bill Beutel. Since 1980, he has been teamed with Sue Simmons. The two have been together longer than any anchor team in New York history, and have had some of the highest ratings of any anchor team ever.

WNBC was the first station in New York to successfully program news at 5 p.m. adding that block to its Sixth Hour show at 6 p.m. and renaming all its local newscasts NewsCenter 4. The moniker remained until 1980, when the station's newscasts were renamed News 4 New York. The 5 o'clock slot was renamed Live at Five, and its mix of news and celebrity interviews made it the most successful local program in New York (landing the cast on the cover of New York magazine).

All newscasts are broadcast from NBC's Studio 6B at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, in the Rockefeller Center complex. Their current graphics package was created by Emmy Award winner Randy Pyburn of Pyburn Films. Pyburn has produced several promos for the station and the Jane's New York specials hosted by reporter Jane Hanson.

Many WNBC newscasters have moved onto the NBC network—including Jim Hartz, Tom Snyder, Al Roker, Matt Lauer, Janice Huff, and Chuck Scarborough. In the past, Roker, Lauer and Scarborough have worked on WNBC and the network at the same time while Huff does currently. WNBC sports anchors Marv Albert and Len Berman have done the same.

File:PerriPeltzWNBC2005.jpg
Perri Peltz on Live at Five in 2005.

One popular monthly feature is Len Berman's "Spanning the World," a reel of odd and interesting sports highlights from the past month, including a recorded introduction and closing by Don Pardo. This segment also airs on NBC's The Today Show on a monthly basis.

For 25 years, WNBC's weeknight anchor rotation had Simmons and another male anchor on Live at Five, Scarborough and another female at 6, and Scarborough and Simmons together at 11. That changed in 2005 as Live at Five anchor Jim Rosenfeld jumped back to WCBS-TV, where he had once been noon and 5 pm anchor, and he took on the role as lead anchor at WCBS, anchoring their 5 & 11pm newscast. Perri Peltz returned to WNBC to co-anchor Live at Five with Sue Simmons, making this one of the rare times that two women have anchored a newscast together on a regular basis.

Newscasts

Weekdays

Saturdays

  • Saturday Today in New York - 6:00-7:00AM & 9:00-10:00AM
  • NewsChannel4 at 6 - 6:00-6:30PM
  • NewsChannel4 at 11 - 11:00-11:30PM

Sundays

  • Sunday Today in New York - 6:00-6:30AM & 7:00-9:00AM
  • News Forum (Public Affairs) - 6:30-7:00AM
  • NewsChannel 4 at 6 - 6:00-6:30PM
  • NewsChannel4 at 11 - 11:00-11:35PM
  • Mike'd Up, Francesa Sports Final - 11:35PM-12:05AM

Notable anchors, reporters, and weather forecasters past and present

WNBC-TV Legal ID

Helicopter crashes

File:Chopper4CrashWABC 2004.jpg
Rival WABC-TV covered the 2004 crash live.

On May 4, 2004, while covering a breaking news of a shooting in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, the WNBC-TV News helicopter "Chopper4" (a Eurocopter AS350BA, registered N4NY) suddenly fell out of the sky and crashed onto an apartment building rooftop. The pilot and two passengers miraculously did not receive serious injuries. Rival TV station WABC-TV's news helicopter was covering the same news story when they saw the WNBC-TV helicopter in trouble. They called for help and also got exclusive footage of the actual crash, which won an Emmy Award for their coverage.

In December 1998, WNBC-TV's previous Chopper4 news helicopter crashed into the Passaic River near Harrison, New Jersey and Newark, New Jersey. Again there were no serious injuries.

Newscast titles

File:1974WNBC2004.jpg
Chuck Scarborough behind the news desk in 1974.
  • The Sunoco Newscast with Lowel Thomas (1941)
  • The News with John McCaffrey (1950s)
  • The Shell Oil News (1956-1960)
  • The Pressman-Ryan Report (1960-1967)
  • The Sixth Hour & Eleventh Hour News (1967-1974)
  • NewsCenter 4 (1974-1980)
  • News 4 New York (1980-1995)
  • NewsChannel 4 (1995-)

See also

References

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