WJAR
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| WJAR | |
|---|---|
| Image:NBC10.jpg | |
| Providence, Rhode Island / New Bedford, Massachusetts | |
| Branding | NBC 10 NBC 10 News |
| Slogan | The Team You Trust |
| Channels | Analog: 10 (VHF) Digital: 51 (UHF) |
| Affiliations | NBC WX+ (on DT2) |
| Owner | Media General (Media General Communications Holdings, LLC) |
| Founded | July 10, 1949 |
| Call letters meaning | taken from former sister radio stations |
| Former channel number(s) | 11 (1949-1952) |
| Former affiliations | CBS (secondary, 1949-1955) DuMont (secondary, 1949-1955) ABC (1949-1953 and 1956-1963) |
| Transmitter Power | 316 kW (analog) 1,000 kW (digital) |
| Height | 305 m (analog) 278.7 m (digital) |
| Facility ID | 50780 |
| Transmitter Coordinates | |
| Website | turnto10.com |
WJAR is the NBC-affiliated television station for the state of Rhode Island and Bristol County, Massachusetts. Licensed to Providence, the station broadcasts an analog signal on VHF channel 10 and a digital signal on UHF channel 51. WJAR's transmitter is located in Rehoboth (MA). Owned by Media General, the station has studios that are located on Kenney Drive in Cranston. WJAR is known on-air as "NBC 10".
WJAR offers NBC Weather Plus on its DT2 digital subchannel. On digital cable, it can be found on: Cox channel 800, Comcast channel 750, Verizon FiOS channel 860, and Full Channel 190.
Contents |
[edit] History
WJAR-TV signed on-air for the first time on channel 11 on July 10, 1949. It was Rhode Island's first television station and the fourth in New England. It was owned by The Outlet Company, a department store chain headquartered in Providence, along with WJAR Radio (AM 920, now WHJJ; and FM 95.5, now WBRU). It moved to channel 10 in 1952.
WJAR signed on as an affiliate of all four networks of the time (NBC, ABC, DuMont, and CBS) but has always been a primary NBC affiliate due to WJAR-AM's long affiliation with NBC Radio. It lost ABC in 1953 when WNET-TV signed on and lost CBS in 1955 when WPRO-TV (now WPRI-TV) signed on. When WNET-TV went dark in 1956, WJAR shared ABC programming with WPRO until WTEV-TV (now WLNE-TV) signed on in 1963.
In 1954, WJAR received national attention for its coverage of Hurricane Carol.
In November of 1980, the Outlet Company left the department store business to concentrate on broadcasting. However, the station kept its studios in the Outlet Building until a fire destroyed the building in 1986. Many Rhode Islanders can even remember the live broadcast of the fire, with the building exploding over the reporters' heads.
The most notable past staff member is Christiane Amanpour. Amanpur is currently CNN's chief international correspondent. She has won 9 Emmy awards and the Edward R. Murrow Award for Distinguished Achievement in Broadcast Journalism. Forbes magazine has named her one of the 100 Most Powerful Women. Amanpur was an electronic graphics designer during her time a WJAR.
In 1996, Outlet Communications merged with NBC. It was around this time that the station's studios were moved to their current location in an industrial area of Cranston just south of Providence.
WJAR was one of four NBC O&Os in smaller markets that were put up for sale on January 9, 2006 along with stations in Columbus, Birmingham, and Raleigh. Except for the Birmingham station, these stations were also once owned by Outlet. On April 6, 2006, NBC Universal and Media General announced that Media General would purchase WJAR as part of a $600 million four station deal between the two companies. The deal was approved by the FCC on June 26, 2006. As a result, WJAR became Media General's first television station in New England. For all intents and purposes, this undid the NBC-Outlet merger a decade earlier.
For several months after the owner switch, WJAR's website remained in the format of a NBC O&O station. WJAR's redesigned website, which launched in early-December of 2006, now credits Media General in its copyright notice and is no longer powered by Internet Broadcasting. Although the main website has changed with Media General, WJAR still maintains a local page on the NBC Weather Plus website which is operated by NBC.
As of September 13, 2006, WJAR has two alumni of its news personnel, Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira, who host NBC's weekday Today show. Vieira started out as a reporter on the station in the late-1970s and early-1980s, and Lauer was co-host of WJAR's Providence version of PM Magazine in the early-1980s.
During the April 2007 Nor'easter, WJAR's over-the-air digital transmitter was damaged. Both digital signals, WJAR-HD and WJAR-DT2, were knocked off the air. The outage did not affect digital cable or satellite services as they do not get the digital signal from the digital transmitter.
It has been announced that WJAR will begin to offer Equity Broadcasting's Retro Television Network. This service is scheduled to begin broadcasting in early-2008. [1]
[edit] News operation
In addition to their main studios, WJAR operates three news bureaus. The "Southeastern Massachusetts Bureau" is located in The Standard Times newsroom on Elm Street in New Bedford (MA). The "South County Bureau" is located in The Westerly Sun newsroom on Main Street in Westerly. The "Downcity Bureau" is located on Dorrance Street in Downtown Providence.
WJAR's weekday Noon news is streamed live on the station's website.
On October 1, 2007, WJAR began producing a weeknight 10 PM newscast on its DT2 digital subchannel. Known as 10 at 10, it is a live, 10-minute production consisting of the top stories of the day and a updated weather forecast. It is anchored by Gene Valicenti with weather from meteorologist John Ghiorse. This newscast is also streamed live on the station's website.
WJAR uses live NOAA National Weather Service radar data that originates from the NWS Local Forecast Office in Taunton (MA). This data is presented in a forecasting system known as "Storm Team 10 VIPIR".
[edit] News team
Anchors
- Frank Coletta - weekday mornings
- Kelley McGee - weekdays at Noon
- education reporter
- Dan Jaehnig - weeknights at 5 PM
- weeknight 11 PM reporter
- Patrice Wood - weeknights at 5, 6, and 11 PM
- Gene Valicenti - weeknights at 5:30, 6, 10 (on WJAR-DT2), and 11 PM
- Mario Hilario - weekend mornings
- reporter
- open position - weekend evenings
Storm Team 10
- Gary Ley (AMS Seal of Approval) - Chief seen weeknights at 5, 6, and 11 PM
- Kelly Bates (NWA Seal of Approval) - weekday mornings
- John Ghiorse (AMS certified) - weekdays at Noon, 5:30, and 10 PM (on WJAR-DT2)
- Jeff Latham (AMS certified) - weekend mornings
- R.J. Heim - weekend evenings
- feature / science reporter
Sports
- Frank Carpano - Director seen weeknights at 6 and 11 PM
- host of 1st and 10
- Joe Kayata - weekend evenings
- sports reporter
- Harry Cicma - sports producer
- sports reporter
Reporters
- Steve Handelsman - Washington D.C. Correspondent
- Audrey Laganas - Consumer Unit Director / investigative
- Barbara Morse Silva - "Health Check 10" segment producer
- Bill Rappleye - political
- Jim Taricani - investigative
- Liz Aragao
- Michelle Brown
- Brian Crandall
- Nicole Muri
Contributors
- Chef Frank Terranova - host of "Cooking With Class" segment
- is a Johnson & Wales University associate instructor
- Paul Giacobbe - ombudsman
[edit] Past Personalities / Staff
- Christiane Amanpour - electronic graphics designer (1980's), now chief international correspondent for CNN
- Caterina Bandini - reporter (1991-1996), former WHDH anchor
- Ken Bell - sports (1977-1979), now at WLNE
- Steve Berthiaume - sports (1990s), now at ESPN
- Alison Bolonga - reporter (?-2006), now at WFXT-TV
- Andrea Brody - weekend anchor (1996-1998), now at George Michael Sports Machine
- Bob Cain - anchor (1960s), former CNN anchor
- Tim Carr - reporter (1982-1989)
- Ginger Casey - anchor (1992-1997)
- Chris Clark - sports (1970s)(d)
- Ted Daniel - reporter (2004-2005), now at WFXT-TV
- Dylan Dryer - weather (2004-2006), now at WHDH-TV
- Jack Edwards - sports (1983-1985)
- Stephen Frazier - anchor (1970s), now at CNN Headline News
- Vince Gibbens - anchor (1975-1978) (d)
- Bill Gile - weather (1997-2004)
- Tim Gray - sports (1999-2004)
- Ann Halloran - weekend anchor (1992-1996)
- Jack Kavanaugh - weekend anchor/ reporter (1973-1980)
- Tom Kierein - Meteorologist (1978-1983) Now at WRC-TV
- Dyanna Koelsch- political reporter (1982-2001)
- Tom Kole- political reporter (1980-1988)
- Art Lake- WJAR-AM radio host (1944-1949) initially anchor, then weather (1949-2003) first birthdays announcer (2003-2005) Now Retired
- Matt Lauer- 'PM Magazine' host (1981-1985), now co-host of NBC's 'Today' show
- Dave Layman - anchor (1973-1976)
- Greg Liggins - anchor (1993-1995)
- Nicole Livas - anchor (1997-2001), now at WAVY-TV
- Mary Maguire - consumer reporter (1980s and 1990s)
- Ken Malloy- anchor (1990-1992), now at KGPE
- Pat Mastors - anchor (1982-1989)
- Martin Morenz- reporter (1989-1994), now at WFXT
- Cathy Ray - anchor/ medical reporter (1983-1992),
- Karin Reed - anchor/reporter (1993-2004)
- Rhondella Richardson - reporter (1992-1994), now at WCVB
- Joe Rocco - sports (1984-1996)
- John Rooke - sports (1992-1996)
- Keith Russell - sports (1996-1999), now at WPVI
- Stacy Sager - reporter (1990s)
- Frank Sommerville - anchor (1986-1991), now at KTVU-TV in San Francisco
- Maria Stephanous - reporter (1990s), now WFXT-TV
- John Sweeney - anchor (1970's-1980), worked at CNN
- Kathryn Tappen - sports (2004-2006), now at NESN
- Meredith Vieira - anchor/reporter (1976-1979), now co-host of NBC's 'Today' show
- Bob Ward- reporter/anchor (1988-1996), now at WFXT-TV
- Doug White - anchor (1978-2005), died on August 15, 2006
- Dick Wood - anchor (1960s-1970s)
- Sara Wye- anchor(1973-1981) First Female Anchor in Providence
- Tony Zarrella- sports (1988-1989) Now at KUSA
- Margie O' Brien - reporter Now at WFXT-TV
- Paul McGonagle - mass bureau reporter/assistant news director (1995-2004) now at WFXT-TV
[edit] Logo
WJAR's current "NBC 10" logo was first used on former sister station WCAU in Philadelphia. In its earliest days, WJAR's logo included a Rhode Island Red rooster, the state bird of Rhode Island. Prior to WJAR's purchase by NBC, the logo had included various versions of a different, stylized "10" above the WJAR call letters for the previous twenty years.
[edit] External links
Broadcast television in the Providence / New Bedford market (Nielsen DMA #52) |
|---|
WLNE 6 (ABC) -
WJAR 10 (NBC) (WX+ on DT2) -
WPRI 12 (CBS) -
WLWC 28 (The CW) - Significantly Viewed Out-of-Market Broadcast Stations
Cable television channels
|
Media General, Inc. |
|---|
Corporate Directors: J. Stewart Bryan, III (COB) · Marshall N. Morton · O. Reid Ashe, Jr. · John A. Schauss · Diana F. Cantor · Charles A. Davis · Thompson L. Rankin · Rodney A. Smolla · Walter E. Williams · Coleman Wortham, III · H. Graham Woodlief, Jr. · James A. Zimmerman · Neal F. Fondren · Stephen Y. Dickinson · George L. Mahoney · Lou Anne J. Nabhan · John A. Schauss · James F. Woodward
|
| Annual Revenue: $80.2 million USD (FY 2004) · Employees: approximately 7,900 · Stock Symbol: NYSE: MEG · Website: www.mediageneral.com |
