WJAR
{{Infobox broadcast}} may refer to:
- Template:Infobox broadcasting network
- Template:Infobox television channel
- Template:Infobox television station
If an internal transclusion led you here, you may wish to change it to point directly to the intended page.
{{Template disambiguation}} should never be transcluded in the main namespace.
WJAR, channel 10, is the NBC-affiliated television station for the state of Rhode Island and Bristol County, Massachusetts that is licensed to Providence. Its transmitter is located in Rehoboth, Massachusetts. Owned by Media General, the station shares studios on Kenney Drive in Cranston with Telemundo affiliate and ZGS Communications-owned WRIW-CA. Syndicated programming on WJAR includes: Extra, Access Hollywood, Oprah, Ellen, and Rachael Ray.
Digital television
The station's digital channel is multiplexed. After the digital transition scheduled for February 17, 2009, WJAR will remain on its current pre-transition channel number, 51 using PSIP to display WJAR's virtual channel as 10.
| Analog Channel | Digital Channel | Programming |
|---|---|---|
| 10.1 | 51.1 | main WJAR programming / NBC HD |
| 10.2 | 51.2 | NBC Weather Plus |
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-TV until WTEV-TV (now WLNE-TV) signed on in 1963.
In 1954, WJAR received national attention for its coverage of Hurricane Carol. In November 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. 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.
In April 1997, WJAR began to operate primary WB and secondary UPN affiliate WLWC (which was owned by Fant Broadcasting) under a local marketing agreement (LMA). Even by the time the station signed on, the future of the LMA was in doubt, given the fact that NBC, which inherited the arrangement from Outlet, did not want to run stations outside their core owned-and-operated outlets. NBC, during this time, pushed Fant to sell WLWC. In September 1997, NBC came up with a three-way swap in which Fant exchanged WLWC and sister station WWHO in Columbus, Ohio to Paramount / Viacom for that group's NBC affiliate in Hartford, Connecticut, WVIT.
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 an NBC O&O station. WJAR's redesigned website, which launched in early-December 2006, now credits Media General in its copyright notice and is no longer powered by Internet Broadcasting.
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 signal from the digital transmitter. 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. This had been in effect for the previous twenty years. The stylized 10 was initially retained after the purchase, but with the NBC peacock attached to the right-hand side and the call letters removed. This was dropped in 2002 in favor of its current logo, which was first used on former sister station WCAU in Philadelphia; a modified version, used on newscasts since 2007, is designed and arranged similarly to other Media General station logos. WJAR had planned to broadcast the Retro Television Network on a new third digital subchannel. However, the launch was put on hold.
News operation
For most of its history, WJAR has led in the market in terms of local newscast ratings. More recently, WPRI has mounted a challenge for viewership; for a time in 2007, that station beat WJAR in the weeknight 5 and 11 o'clock timeslots. In April 1997, WJAR launched a 10 P.M. newscast on WLWC known as TV 28 News at 10, in competition to the WPRI-produced 10 o'clock news on Fox affiliate WNAC-TV; it was dropped that September when the LMA with WLWC was ended. 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. Meredith Vieira started out as a reporter on the station in the late-1970s and early-1980s. Matt Lauer was co-host of WJAR's Providence version of PM Magazine in the early-1980s. WJAR offers NBC Weather Plus on its second digital subchannel. On digital cable, it can be found on: Cox channel 800, Comcast channel 750, Verizon FiOS channel 860, and Full Channel 190. On October 1, 2007, the station began producing a weeknight 10 o'clock newscast on the subchannel. Known as NBC 10 News 10 at 10, it is a live 10-minute production consisting of the top stories of the day and an updated weather forecast.
Even though its airtime is short, 10 at 10 competes with the WPRI-produced Eyewitness News at 10 on Fox Providence and now (as of October 22, 2008) a 10 o'clock newscast on WLNE's Rhode Island News Channel. In addition to their main studios, WJAR operates three news bureaus. The Southeastern Massachusetts Bureau is located in The Standard Times newsroom in New Bedford. The South County Bureau is located in The Westerly Sun newsroom in Westerly. The Downcity Bureau is located on Dorrance Street in downtown Providence. The station uses live, NOAA National Weather Service radar data that originates from the NWS Local Forecast Office in Taunton, Massachusetts. In weather segments, this data is presented in a forecasting system known as "Storm Team 10 VIPIR". WJAR offers a live video stream of its weekday Noon, 5, 5:30, 6, and 10 P.M. newscasts on its website. Its nightly 6 o'clock news is simulcasted on WPRO-AM 630, WEAN-FM 99.7, and WSAR-AM 1480. 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 at WJAR.
Newscast titles
- Your Esso Reporter (1949-1954)
- TeleNews Daily (1954-1962)
- The 6 O'Clock Report / The 11 O'Clock Report (1962-1970)
- 10 Extra Effort News (1970-1974)
- NewsWatch 10 (1974-1994)
- NewsChannel 10 (1994-2005)
- NBC 10 News (2005-Present)
News team
Anchors
- Frank Coletta - weekday mornings
- Kelley McGee - weekdays at Noon and education reporter
- Dan Jaehnig - weeknights at 5 and reporter
- Patrice Wood - weeknights at 5, 6, and 11
- Gene Valicenti - weeknights at 5:30, 6, 10, and 11
- Mario Hilario - weekend mornings and reporter
- Nicole Muri - weekend evenings and reporter
Storm Team 10
- Gary Ley (AMS Seal of Approval) - Chief seen on weeknights at 5, 6, 10, and 11
- Mark Searles (AMS Seal of Approval) - weeknights at 5:30
- Kelly Bates (NWA Seal of Approval) - weekday mornings and Noon
- John Ghiorse (AMS Seal of Approval) - weekend mornings
- R.J. Heim - weekend evenings
- feature and science reporter
Sports
- Frank Carpano - Director seen on weeknights at 6 and 11
- host of 1st and 10
- Joe Kayata - weekend evenings and sports reporter
- Harry Cicma - sports producer and reporter
Reporters
- Steve Handelsman - Washington D.C. correspondent
- Barbara Morse Silva - health
- Bill Rappleye - political
- Jim Taricani - investigative
- Michelle Brown - Southeastern Massachusetts Bureau
- Tom Stewart - weekday traffic
- Chef Frank Terranova - host of "Cooking With Class" segment
- is a Johnson & Wales University associate instructor
- Paul Giacobbe - ombudsman
- Brian Crandall
Past personalities
- Christiane Amanpour - electronic graphics designer (1980s), now chief international correspondent for CNN
- Caterina Bandini - reporter (1991-1996), former WHDH anchor
- Ken Bell - sports (1977-1979), now at WLNE-TV
- Steve Berthiaume - sports (1990s), now at ESPN
- Alison Bolonga - reporter (?-2006), now at WFXT-TV
- Steve Bousquet- News reporter (1970's) Columinst Miami Herald
- 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 director (1970-1983)(d)
- George Colajezzi- News reporter (1970's)
- Tony Conigliaro - Sports (1970's) Former Red Sox OF. (deceased)
- 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)
- Carrie Jackson- News anchor/reporter (1979-1982)
- 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
- Franz Laubert- anchor (1960's)
- Mike Lawrence- Reporter (1978-1982) Worked at WHDH
- 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)
- Paul McGonagle - mass bureau reporter/assistant news director (1995-2004) now at WFXT-TV
- Martin Morenz- reporter (1989-1994), now at WFXT
- Bill Northup- Reporter (1970's)
- Margie O' Brien - reporter Now at WFXT-TV
- 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), also play-by-play man for Providence College basketball on WPRO-AM
- 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-1981), 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 (1970-1973)
- Sara Wye- anchor (1973-1981) First Female Anchor in Providence
- Tony Zarrella- sports (1988-1989) Now at KUSA