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| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Idaho,Oregon,Washington,Montana (Northwest; other areas),Alaska (Juneau,Dutch Harbor,Sitka,Fairbanks,Hydaburg,Ketchikan,Kodiak,Anchorage andNome), NorthernCalifornia |
| Headquarters | Seattle,Washington |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) 1080i (HDTV) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | Tegna Media |
| Sister channels | Seattle, WA:KING-TV,KONG Portland, OR:KGW Spokane, WA:KREM,KSKN Boise, ID:KTVB |
| History | |
| Launched | December 18, 1995; 30 years ago (1995-12-18) |
| Closed | January 6, 2017; 9 years ago (2017-01-06) (21 years, 19 days) |
Northwest Cable News (NWCN) was an Americancable newstelevision channel owned byTegna Media. The channel, which launched on December 18, 1995, provided24-hour rolling news coverage focused primarily on thePacific Northwest region of the United States (Washington,Oregon,Idaho and northwestMontana). The channel was headquartered out of the studio facilities of Tegna-ownedNBC affiliateKING-TV (channel 5) in downtownSeattle. The channel was available to 2.9 million residents (through bothcable television and over-the-air) within the region, and, to a lesser extent,Alaska, NorthernCalifornia, and other areas ofMontana.
Some of the network's programming was carried on a sister broadcast stationKTVB inBoise, during the overnight hours. From August 28, 2009 to January 20, 2015, it was also aired over the air on their DT3 subchannel, as well asCable One. It was previously on Cable One until 2003; it was re-added on February 12, 2010. On January 20, 2015, a corporate mandate where Gannett became a charter carrier of theJustice Network meant that it was replaced on KTVB-DT3, and it was carried onDish Network from April 26, 2011 to February 29, 2016, when it was removed per a mutual decision between the two parties.
On October 28, 2016, Northwest Cable News announced that the channel would shut down on January 6, 2017. Approximately 20 employees were affected, and Tegna offered some of them positions at other Tegna stations.[1] The final program to air on NWCN was a farewell show "Saying Goodbye to NWCN" (which showcased the network's history) at 6:00 p.m.PST. After the credits rolled, NWCN officially signed off for the final time at around 6:59 p.m. following a final turn off of the lights in the network'smaster control operations, resulting in the channel fading to dark.
The network incorporated news content purposed from four Tegna-owned stations in the northwestern United States – NBC-affiliated stations KING-TV in Seattle,KGW inPortland, KTVB in Boise andCBS affiliateKREM inSpokane. In addition, the channel maintained content sharing agreements with several other stations.
In addition to rolling news and weather coverage throughout the day, Northwest Cable News produced the nightly sports highlight and discussion programNorthwest Sports Tonight (weeknights at 9:00 p.m.) and the call-in showsGardening with Ciscoe LIVE (which aired Friday evenings at 6:00 p.m.) andNorthwest Sports Tonight Game Day (which aired evenings afterSeattle Seahawks games during theNFL season). The channel also aired rebroadcasts of sister station KING-TV's lifestyle programEvening each evening at 10:00 p.m. Three other KING-TV programs,Gardening with Ciscoe (a pre-recorded program which the live NWCN program was spun off from),Northwest Backroads andThe 5th Quarter (which aired during the NFL season), were also rebroadcast on the channel on weekends. In addition, the channel aired the KGW-produced Sunday evening discussion programStraight Talk. In February 2011, NWCN switched their format from 4:3 to 16:9 aspect ratio. At the time of the channel's shutdown, NWCN was the last news station in the Tegna portfolio that did not air their newscasts in HD (although some of its content has been aired in HD digitally online).[2][3][4][5][6]
