Local newscasts on PBS stations?

[genius]

I know WHYY in Philly/Wilmington has one. Two PBS stations here in New Mexico, KRWG and KENW have newscasts as well (News 22 and News 3 New Mexico respectively), and I suspect it's because they are rimshot stations in-between markets. I think the PBS stations in Alaska have one, maybe.

Any others?

 

[RadioFanBoy]

San Bernardino Valley College's KVCR tried a nightly 11pm newscast in 2005, but it only lasted a few months.

 

[Mark Giardina]

Back in the 1970s WXXI in Rochester had a nightly TV newscast on the air from 6 to 6:30 pm. It was called Rochester Reports and it was cancelled due to budget cuts. Years later the station started airing a once-a-week news program which is now called Need to Know. That show concentrates on just one story plus interviewing guests in the studio.

The staff consisted of a full time host, a videographer and once in a while I was asked to help out as a field reporter. Now, from what I understand, the show just has a host and videographer.

I don't see the station putting money and resources into a nightly TV news product because that would mean having to hire more reporters and support staff. And I don't believe management is about to open its purse strings for such a venture.

 

[bpatrick]

WUNC/4 Chapel Hill had newscasts at
12:30 and 6 PM in the '60s; in the early
'70s there was a newscast on the state
public-TV system that aired around 7 PM.
I don't remember any details about it, since
I didn't live in North Carolina at the time.

There was also a period of about a year
or so in 1963 and '64 when WUNC carried
The Huntley-Brinkley Report (with PSAs
instead of commercials); this is when the
Triangle had only two commercial stations,
with WRAL carrying ABC's Ron Cochran and
WTVD carrying Walter Cronkite.

 

[rwells2265]

The South Carolina ETV station in Beaufort, WJWJ channel 16, had a local newscast until the end of 2005. It was a pretty decent production, but what I loved about it was the '70s-style logo and ID slide (!) WJWJ cut to when they'd break from the main feed out of Columbia. They've since replaced the newscast with several locally-produced weekly shows. I wish they still had it, though.

WJWJ isn't on cable in the Savannah area, despite it putting a fairly good signal into parts of the metro area, especially up into Effingham County, where I live.

Their website: www.wjwj.org

--Russell

 

[Apollo7979]

I know WHYY in Philly/Wilmington has one. Two PBS stations here in New Mexico, KRWG and KENW have newscasts as well (News 22 and News 3 New Mexico respectively), and I suspect it's because they are rimshot stations in-between markets. I think the PBS stations in Alaska have one, maybe.

Any others?

We have two in Indiana.

Vincennes University's WVUT 22 in Vincennes, IN has a 5pm newscast which is repeated at 11pm. WVUT's newscast is student-operated and only runs during the fall and spring semesters.

Also, WYIN 56 in Gary runs a newscast at 9pm weeknights with an encore presentation at 11pm.

Ball State's PBS station was going to launch a daily 30 minute newscast, but scrapped the idea due to lack of funding. Instead WIPB 49 in Muncie launched a nightly 5 minute newsbrief program during primetime called "Newslink Indiana." I believe that was even scrapped sometime last year.

 

[Frasier]

NJN has been doing state newscasts for years, and if I'm not mistaken, still feed their newscasts to WNET/New York (transmitter in Newark).

 

[chuckydoll]

Re: Local newscasts on PBS stations

NJN News is a 100 percent New Jersey newscast seen weekdays at 5:30 PM on Thirteen/WNET and 6 PM on NJN.

Correction: Thirteen/WNET is licensed to Newark NJ and transmits from the Empire State Building in NYC.

 

[mjlarochelle]

WGBH/2 in Boston had a newscast at 10 PM for many years, I believe predating even WNEW-TV in New York. The Ten O'Clock News on WGBH was cancelled around 1991.

 

[Markxxx]

WUSI Channel 16 in Olney, IL and WSUI Channel 8 Carbondale, IL both run by Southern Illinois University run newscasts when school is in session

WEIU Channel 51 in Charleston IL run by Eastern Illinois Univesity runs a newscast.

All three stations are PBS and all are run by students for credits.

 

[ansky212]

NJN has been doing state newscasts for years, and if I'm not mistaken, still feed their newscasts to WNET/New York (transmitter in Newark).

Just to expand on this, the local news on NJN is not your typical local newscast that you would find on other networks. NJN tends to focus more on public interest and political stories, rather than the typical day to day crime stories, fires, etc. that are covered on other newscasts.

 

[Ultimajock]

...I seem to recall WHA-TV/21 Madison doing one in the early '70s that they called "Six30," aired at 6:30 P.M. weeknights. This was before Wisconsin Public Television had its network of stations up and running (WPNE-TV/38 Green Bay was the only one operating by that time) and programming on all the stations -- WHA-TV included -- was identical. I think WHA-TV discontinued it around the time PBS started offering "The Captioned ABC Evening News" and "The MacNeil-Lehrer Report"...

 

[retrothoughts]

WUNC/4 Chapel Hill had newscasts at
12:30 and 6 PM in the '60s; in the early
'70s there was a newscast on the state
public-TV system that aired around 7 PM.
I don't remember any details about it, since
I didn't live in North Carolina at the time.

There was also a period of about a year
or so in 1963 and '64 when WUNC carried
The Huntley-Brinkley Report (with PSAs
instead of commercials); this is when the
Triangle had only two commercial stations,
with WRAL carrying ABC's Ron Cochran and
WTVD carrying Walter Cronkite.

I think this was during the period when WRAL-TV presented editorials by a station executive named Jesse Helms [a future US Senator]. His conservatism of the day may have had something to do with that station carrying ABC News instead of NBC.

 

[mostb1]

KOCE 50/Orange County-Los Angeles runs a Monday-Friday 6:30 PM and11 PM 1/2 hour newscast focusing on Orange County rather than Los Angeles called "Real Orange". Ed Arnold, for many years the primary sports anchor on KABC-TV, is the male anchor. www.koce.org/realorange

 

[mjlarochelle]

NJN has been doing state newscasts for years, and if I'm not mistaken, still feed their newscasts to WNET/New York (transmitter in Newark).

Just to expand on this, the local news on NJN is not your typical local newscast that you would find on other networks. NJN tends to focus more on public interest and political stories, rather than the typical day to day crime stories, fires, etc. that are covered on other newscasts.

Which is why local news should be on more PBS stations.

 

[jdkaraokeking]

In the late 90's WBTV in Charlotte moved their 10:00 newscast from WJZY channel 46 to WTVI channel 42, this lasted several years before it was cancelled and then later they put it back on WJZY where it remains today.

 

[searadiofreak]

Student operated is one thing, but an experienced news team on a local PBS is rare. Chicago's WTTW, "Chicago Tonight", comes close, but is really more of an interview program than newscast.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

It has been my experience that some local Public Broadcasting operations that have both radio and TV stations tend to let radio take care of local newscasts while TV might do a weekly program where a group of people sit around a table and discuss important events that occurred that week. The Public TV operation in my city dropped local news many years ago with the excuse it could not compete against the commercial stations. That was unfortunate because their newscasts were actually enjoyable to watch and informative.

 

[Kurt Toy]

For a few years in the late '60s-early '70s, WQED-13 in Pittsburgh offered "Newsroom". Anchored by John Roberts [formerly of KDKA-TV, and who has since passed on] and later Herb Stein.

 

[johnnya2k6]

In the '90s, Maryland Public Television (producers of "Wall $treet Week" and "Motorweek") and Twin Cities Public Television ("Newton's Apple", "Dragonfly TV", "Hoop Dreams") had Newsnight Maryland and Newsnight Minnesota respectively. Both lasted a few years.

MPT and TPT may know how to produce some of PBS' popular shows (including a documentary that was ultimately ignored by the Oscars), but they can't produce good statewide newscasts...except if you happen to be in North Carolina, where UNC-TV (The Woodwright's Shop) has "North Carolina Now"

Jonathan Allen