.svg) | |
| |
|---|---|
| City | Providence, Rhode Island |
| Channels | |
| Branding | NBC 10 |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
|
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
|
| WLNE-TV[1] | |
| History | |
| Founded | 1949 |
First air date | July 10, 1949 (76 years ago) (1949-07-10) |
Former call signs | WJAR-TV (1949–1986) |
Former channel numbers |
|
Call sign meaning | taken fromWJAR radio |
| Technical information[3] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 50780 |
| ERP | 1,000kW |
| HAAT | 302 m (991 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 41°51′55.4″N71°17′12.7″W / 41.865389°N 71.286861°W /41.865389; -71.286861 |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | turnto10 |
WJAR (channel 10) is atelevision station inProvidence, Rhode Island, United States, affiliated withNBC. It is owned bySinclair Broadcast Group and operated alongsideABC affiliateWLNE-TV (channel 6).[1] The two stations share transmitter facilities inRehoboth, Massachusetts;[4] WJAR's studios are located on Kenney Drive inCranston, Rhode Island (shared withTelemundoowned-and-operated stationsWYCN-LD andWRIW-CD).
WJAR-TV signed on for the first time on July 10, 1949, broadcasting on channel 11. It was Rhode Island's first television station and the fourth inNew England. It was owned byThe Outlet Company, adepartment store chain headquartered in Providence, along with WJAR radio (920 AM, nowWHJJ; and 95.5 FM, now occupied byWLVO). In 1952, after hearing about repeated instances of interference inConnecticut between WJAR-TV andNew York City'sWPIX (also on channel 11), theFederal Communications Commission (FCC)'sSixth Report and Order changed the television allocations for Providence and forced the station to move to channel 10, which it did in the spring of 1953.[5] At that time, WJAR's coverage area increased, since the interference with WPIX had been rectified.
WJAR-TV initially carried programming from all four networks of the time (NBC,ABC,DuMont, andCBS), but has always been a primary NBC affiliate due to WJAR radio's long affiliation withNBC Radio. Despite this, WJAR only carried a little more than half of NBC's program schedule during its early years on the air; WJAR also broadcast about half of the CBS network schedule and a couple of shows each from ABC and DuMont every week. It lost ABC in 1953 whenWNET (channel 16, nowWNAC-TV on channel 64) signed on, and lost CBS in 1955 when WPRO-TV (nowWPRI-TV) launched. When WNET went dark in 1955, WJAR shared ABC programming with WPRO-TV until WTEV (nowWLNE-TV) signed on in 1963. During the late 1950s, WJAR-TV was also briefly affiliated with theNTA Film Network.[6] In 1954, WJAR-TV received national attention for its coverage ofHurricane Carol; newsreel films shot by WJAR cameramen of the storm and its aftermath not only appeared on the station, but also fed to CBS and NBC for use on their evening news programs.
For many years in the 1970s, WJAR-TV broadcast men'sbasketball games ofProvidence College and theUniversity of Rhode Island, with Chris Clark calling play-by-play. In the early 1970s, when PC was one of the top teams in the country (and the top college basketball team in New England), their home games at the newly openedProvidence Civic Center were often sellouts, despite the fact that WJAR televised many of these home games live.
In November 1980, the Outlet Company left the department store business to concentrate on broadcasting. A year earlier, the station moved its studios from the Outlet Building to a three-story modern production facility next door. The department store remained standing until 1986, when it burned to the ground in a spectacular fire. WJAR cameras perched on the neighboring rooftop captured the most dramatic footage. In April 1993, the station's studios were moved to their current location in an industrial area of Cranston just south of Providence. Three years later, Outlet Communications merged with NBC, making WJAR the secondnetwork-owned station in the market (CBS owned WPRI-TV for parts of 1995 and 1996 before it was forced to sell the station toClear Channel Communications afterCBS and Westinghouse merged due to a significant signal overlap withWBZ-TV).
In April 1997, WJAR began to operateWB affiliateWLWC (which was owned byFant Broadcasting) under alocal marketing agreement (LMA). Even by the time that station signed on, the future of the LMA was in doubt because NBC, which inherited the arrangement from Outlet, did not want to run stations outside their core owned-and-operated (O&O) outlets. The network, 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 stationWWHO inColumbus, Ohio, toParamount/Viacom for that group's NBC affiliate inHartford, 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, Alabama, andRaleigh, North Carolina. Except for the Birmingham station, these were also once owned by Outlet. On April 6, 2006,NBC Universal andMedia 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. 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.
In its earliest days, WJAR's logo included aRhode Island Red rooster, the state bird of Rhode Island. Prior to WJAR's purchase by NBC, it had included various versions of a different stylized "10" above the WJAR call letters. This had been in effect for the previous 20 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 an "NBC 10" logo first used on former sister stationWCAU inPhiladelphia. A modified version, used on newscasts starting in 2007, was designed and arranged similarly to other Media General station logos. In February 2014, both versions of that logo were replaced with the station's current logo.
On March 21, 2014,LIN Media entered into an agreement to merge with Media General in a $1.6 billion deal. Because LIN already owned CBS affiliate WPRI and operatedFox affiliate WNAC-TV, and the two stations rank among the four highest-rated stations in the Providence market in total day viewership, the companies were required to sell either WJAR or WPRI-TV;[7][8][9] on August 20, 2014, Media General announced that it would keep WPRI and the LMA with WNAC and sell WJAR, along withWLUK-TV andWCWF inGreen Bay andWTGS inSavannah, Georgia, to theSinclair Broadcast Group in exchange forKXRM-TV andKXTU-LD inColorado Springs,WHTM inHarrisburg (which Sinclair, on behalf ofAllbritton is planning on to divest) andWTTA inTampa Bay.[10][11] WHTM's sale of Media General was explored nearly two months earlier, and it was completed, nearly three months before the Media General/LIN deal was completed.[12][13] The sale was completed on December 19, marking Sinclair's return to owning a Providence market station after a year and a half, as it owned WLWC from January 2012 until April 2013.[14]
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(July 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
WJAR broadcasts37+1⁄2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with six hours each weekday,3+1⁄2 hours on Saturdays and four hours on Sundays).
For most of its history, WJAR has been the far-and-away ratings leader in the Providence–New Bedford market. WPRI is consistently in second place, while WLNE has usually been a distant third. This can be attributed to WJAR being the state's oldest station, as well as its association with its well established radio sisters. In all fourNielsen ratings periods in 2016, the station was number one in all time slots.
In mid-1988, WJAR broke a tradition in its market; it began broadcasting news on weekdays at 5:30 pm withThe 5:30 Report (renamed in 1992 asUp-front at 5:30), that included the top stories of the day, plus a cooking segment, weather, and entertainment news. It was expanded to one hour in January 1995, and was restructured as a conventional newscast.
On two occasions, WJAR has produced a primetime newscast at 10. The first began in April 1997 (entitledTV 28 News at 10) and was seen weeknights on WLWC in competition to the WPRI-produced show on Fox affiliate WNAC-TV. The broadcast was dropped that September when the LMA with WLWC ended. The second attempt has been airing on weeknights since October 1, 2007, when the station began producingNBC 10 News 10 at 10 on its NBC Weather Plusdigital subchannel. It was originally a live, 10-minute production consisting of top stories of the day along with an updated weather forecast.
When WJAR-DT2 switched to RTV, the show expanded to a half-hour and was renamedNBC 10 News 10 at 10 on RTV. A new segment was added called "Flashback", which features vintage footage of past personnel. WLNE occasionally aired news at that time when it operated Cox channel 5 as NewsChannel 5, primarily when sports preempted WNAC's newscast. On September 6, 2010, WJAR began airing the area's second newscast weeknights at 7:00, joining WLNE, though it also airs on Saturday nights, unlike the other channels' weeknight production. WLNE's newscast was officially canceled in April 2011.
WJAR is notable for having employed threeToday Show personalities. FormerToday hostsMatt Lauer andMeredith Vieira worked at WJAR. Vieira started out as a reporter on the station in the late-1970s, while Lauer was co-host of WJAR's version ofPM Magazine in the early-1980s. In 2012, former WJAR meteorologistDylan Dreyer became began doing weekend weather onToday. Other notable alumni includeCNN Chief International CorrespondentChristiane Amanpour andESPN anchorSteve Berthiaume. In 2008, WJAR was awarded the NationalEdward R. Murrow Award for Overall Excellence for a small-market television station. In 2010, the station's website won a second national Murrow. In 2011, the station won its third national Murrow in a row, this time in the "Breaking News" category for its coverage of recent historic flooding. In 2012, the station's web site won a regional Edward R. Murrow Award.[citation needed]
On May 16, 2011, WJAR became the first station in the Providence market to air newscasts in high definition (HD).[15] A new set was constructed for the transition to HD and debuted onNBC 10 News Sunrise that morning. Photographs of the set as it was being built were posted on the station's Facebook page. During construction, newscasts were broadcast from a temporary set in the station's Studio B. Several technological upgrades also were made.[16]In addition to its main studios, WJAR operates two news bureaus. The Bay State Newsroom is located at the oldStandard-Times building on Pleasant Street in New Bedford. The Downcity Bureau is on Dorrance Street in downtown Providence. The station uses a liveweather radar feed from theNational Weather Service's local forecast office onMyles Standish Boulevard inTaunton, Massachusetts.
On September 6, 2022, WJAR introduced an hour-long 4:00 pm newscast, known asNBC 10 News at 4:00, to act as a replacement for the recently canceledEllen DeGeneres Show.[17]
On May 2, 2012, WJAR partnered withCox Communications to launch theOcean State Networks (OSN) (though referred to plurally, the OSN had only one channel), serving as a replacement forNewsChannel 5 (formerly the Rhode Island News Channel), which was co-operated by Cox and WLNE-TV from November 30, 1998, until February 1, 2012. OSN aired rebroadcasts of WJAR's non-network and syndicated programming, including its newscasts, lifestyle showStudio 10,Special Olympics R.I., and10 News Conference. Prior to 2017, it also airedCox Sports programming, including live, local, high-school and collegiate sports events with teams featured on OSN including thePawtucket Red Sox,Providence Friars,Rhode Island Rams, andRhode Island Interscholastic League. The launch ofYurView New England on the channel adjacent to OSN (channel 4/1004) had those sports moved there, and the remainder of the channel's life was devoted to replays of WJAR programming.[18] OSN was wound down on April 30, 2024, after the end of Cox's news-share agreement with Sinclair, as streaming versions of its stations, including WJAR, began to launch on severalad-supported streaming services, including its existing availability on Sinclair's NewsOn service.[19]
The station's signal ismultiplexed:
| Channel | Res. | Aspect | Short name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10.1 | 1080i | 16:9 | NBC | NBC |
| 10.2 | 480i | Charge! | Charge! | |
| 10.3 | Comet | Comet | ||
| 10.4 | ROAR | Roar | ||
| 10.5 | TheNest | The Nest |
In January 2009, WJAR began broadcasting theRetro Television Network on its second digital channel and digital cable. WJAR-DT2 had previously carriedNBC Weather Plus. WJAR replaced RTV withMeTV on September 26, 2011, as part of a groupwide affiliation agreement with Media General; the channel replaced RTV on some Media General-owned stations in other markets.[24][25]
On September 1, 2022, MeTV was replaced withCharge!.[26]
WJAR discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, overVHF channel 10, on February 17, 2009, the original date on which full-power television stations in the United States were totransition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate (which was later pushed back to June 12, 2009). The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transitionUHF channel 51, usingvirtual channel 10.[27] This allowedShopNBC stationWWDP to begin operation of its permanent digital facility on channel 10.
WJAR has traditionally been available in many other Massachusetts municipalities outside Bristol County, mainly inPlymouth County andCape Cod. On December 8, 2011, cable operator Comcast had to move WJAR off channel 10 outside Bristol County, due to amust-carry claim by WWDP asking for carriage on cable channel 10 (along with later claims byWBTS-CD for channel 10).[28] Thus, outside of Bristol County onXfinity andVerizon Fios, its carriage ranges between channels 96 and 99.
Broadcast television stations by affiliation inNew England | ||
|---|---|---|
| ABC | ||
| CBS | ||
| Fox | ||
| NBC | ||
| The CW | ||
| Ion Television | ||
| Independent | ||
| PBS | ||
| Religious | ||
| Spanish | ||
| Other | ||
| ATSC 3.0 | ||
| ||
| Stations |
|  | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Networks |
| |||||||||||||||||
| Programming | ||||||||||||||||||
| Acquisitions |
| |||||||||||||||||
** Owned by third parties and operated by Sinclair through various operating agreements. *** Owned by Sinclair and operated byMarquee Broadcasting. JV Joint venture. | ||||||||||||||||||
