WRC-TV

WRC-TV, virtual channel 4 (UHF digital channel 34), is an NBC owned-and-operated television station licensed to the American capital city of Washington, District of Columbia. Owned by the NBC Owned Television Stations subsidiary of NBCUniversal (itself a subsidiary of Comcast), it is sister to Class A Telemundo owned-and-operated station WZDC-CD (channel 44) and regional sports network NBC Sports Washington. WRC-TV and WZDC-CD share studios and transmitter facilities on Nebraska Avenue in the Tenleytown neighborhood of northwest Washington.[2]

WRC-TV
Washington, D.C.
United States
ChannelsDigital: 34 (UHF)
(shared with WZDC-CD)
Virtual: 4 (PSIP)
BrandingNBC 4 (general)
News 4 (newscasts)
SloganWorking 4 You (general)
Washington's News Leader (newscasts)
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerNBC Owned Television Stations
(a subsidiary of NBCUniversal)
(NBC Telemundo License LLC)
Sister stationsWZDC-CD
NBC Sports Washington
History
First air dateJune 27, 1947 (1947-06-27) (73 years ago) as WNBW
Former call signsWNBW (1947–1954)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog:
  • 4 (VHF, 1947–2009)
  • Digital:
  • 48 (UHF, 1998–2019)
Former affiliationsNBC Weather Plus (DT2)
Call sign meaningRadio Corporation of America
(NBC's former parent)
Technical information
Licensing authorityFCC
Facility ID47904
ERP1,000 kW
HAAT244 m (801 ft)
Transmitter coordinates38°56′24″N 77°4′53″W
Links
Public license informationProfile
LMS
Websitewww.nbcwashington.com

WRC-TV houses and originates NBC News' Washington bureau, out of which the network's (and television's) long-running political events program, Meet the Press, is based.

On cable, the station is available on Comcast Xfinity channel 24 in Washington, D.C. (C-SPAN is carried on cable channel 4) and channel 4 in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs, and on Cox Communications, RCN and Verizon FiOS channel 4.

History
WRC-TV's studio/transmitter facility, which also houses NBC's Washington operations, have been in use since 1958. (1962 photograph)

The station traces its roots to experimental television station W3XNB, which was put on the air by the Radio Corporation of America, the then-parent company of NBC, in 1939. A construction permit with the commercial callsign WNBW (standing for "NBC Washington") was first issued on channel 3 (60–66 MHz, numbered channel 2 prior to 1946)[3] on December 23, 1941. NBC requested this permit to be cancelled on June 29, 1942; channel 3 was reallocated to Harrisonburg, Virginia.[4][5]

On June 27, 1947, WNBW was re-licensed on channel 4 and signed on the air. Channel 4 is the second-oldest commercially licensed television station in Washington, after WTTG (channel 5), which signed on six months earlier in January 1947. WNBW was also the second of the five original NBC-owned television stations to sign-on, behind WNBT/New York City and ahead of WNBQ/Chicago, WNBK/Cleveland and KNBH/Los Angeles. The station was operated alongside WRC radio (980 AM, now WTEM, and 93.9 FM, now WKYS).

On October 18, 1954, the television station's callsign changed to the present WRC-TV to match its radio sisters.[6] The new calls reflected NBC's ownership at the time by RCA. It has retained its "-TV" suffix to this day, nearly four decades after the radio stations were sold off and changed call letters.

In 1955, while in college and serving as a puppeteer on a WRC-TV program, Jim Henson was asked to create a puppet show for the station. The series he created, Sam and Friends, was the first series to feature the Muppets, and launched the Jim Henson Company.[7]

The second presidential debate between candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon was broadcast from the station's studios on October 7, 1960. David Brinkley's Washington segment of the Huntley-Brinkley Report originated at WRC-TV between 1956 and 1970, as did Washington reports or commentaries by Brinkley or John Chancellor on NBC Nightly News in the 1970s.

The earliest color videotape in existence is a recording of the dedication of NBC/WRC's Washington studios on May 22, 1958. As Dwight D. Eisenhower spoke at the event, introduced by NBC President Robert W. Sarnoff, it was also the first time a U.S. president had been videotaped in color.[8][9]

At the time of its sign-on, channel 4 was one of two wholly network-owned stations in Washington, the other being DuMont's WTTG. DuMont was shut down in 1956, and for the next 30 years WRC-TV was Washington's only network owned-and-operated station. That distinction ended when WTTG was sold to the News Corporation, regaining its status as a network owned-and-operated station upon it becoming a charter station for the Fox network on its startup in 1986; it has since been accompanied by WDCA (channel 20) as UPN was owned by the station's owner Viacom until 2001 when Viacom traded the station to Fox (it is currently affiliated with the MyNetworkTV programming service). Today, WRC is one of three network-owned stations in the nation's capital, alongside the Fox Television Stations-owned duopoly of WTTG and WDCA.

Telemundo affiliation

In September 2017, NBC announced they were to launch a new Telemundo owned-and-operated station based out of WRC-TV. ZGS Communications, owner of Washington's existing Telemundo affiliate WZDC-CD (channel 25), sold the station's channel allocation in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)'s 2017–18 incentive auction, accepting a $66 million payout to turn off its signal and continue operations by sharing the channel of another station. A Telemundo spokesperson stated that the sale of WZDC's spectrum "gave us the ability to take back the Telemundo affiliation for this market," without elaborating what that meant.[10][11][12] NBC later purchased WZDC-CD with the intention of moving its over-the-air signal to that of WRC-TV through a channel-sharing agreement.[13]

NBC took control of WZDC-CD on January 1, 2018, and added a temporary relay to WRC-TV's digital subchannel 4.3.[14] The channel-sharing agreement took effect on March 7, 2018.[15] Under the agreement, WZDC shares WRC-TV's physical signal as a subchannel would, but exercises control over its part of the signal and retains its own virtual channel number and license. WZDC's virtual channel changed from 25.1 to 44.1 to avoid a conflict with WDVM-TV, which also occupies virtual channel 25.1.[16]

Digital television

Digital channels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Channel Video Aspect PSIP Short Name Programming[1]
4.11080i16:9WRC-HDMain WRC-TV programming / NBC
4.2480iCOZICozi TV
4.3LxLx

Analog-to-digital conversion

WRC-TV shut down its analog signal, on VHF channel 4, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition UHF channel 48.[17] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 4.

The station participated in the "Analog Nightlight" program, with its analog signal carrying information on the digital transition until analog signal broadcasts were permanently discontinued on June 26, 2009.

Beginning in 1996, WRC-TV's studios were the home of WHD-TV, an experimental high definition television station owned by a consortium of industry groups and stations which carried the nation's first program in the format transmitted by a television station, an episode of Meet the Press,[18] and aired on UHF channel 34 to provide the FCC and the National Association of Broadcasters a channel to conduct many experiments in the new format.[19][20] WHD-TV was discontinued around 2002.

Programming
The late Mac McGarry was the original host of It's Academic until June 2011. (Photo is from c. 2009.)

As of September 2019, syndicated programs broadcast by WRC-TV include Access Hollywood, The Kelly Clarkson Show (both are produced by sister station KNBC), and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, among others.

Because of its ownership by the network, WRC-TV generally carries the entire NBC network schedule, though the station airs an alternate live feed of NBC Nightly News at 7 p.m. (rather than 6:30 p.m. as with most NBC stations in the Eastern Time Zone), due to a longtime hour-long 6 p.m. newscast. The weekend edition of the network's newscast airs at its usual 6:30 p.m. time slot. Like network flagship WNBC, it airs Meet the Press an hour-and-a-half later than most NBC affiliates in the Eastern Time Zone due to a two-hour Sunday morning newscast.

WRC-TV's building is home to Meet the Press, the longest-running program in U.S. broadcast television history, which debuted on November 6, 1947 and It's Academic, which premiered in 1961 and is the longest-running game show in television history according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Sam and Friends, Jim Henson's late-night precursor to Sesame Street and The Muppet Show, got its start on WRC-TV on May 9, 1955. WRC-TV was served as the production facilities for the original run of The McLaughlin Group from its premiere in 1982 until May 2008, when the production facilities moved to Tegna Inc.-owned CBS affiliate and WRC-TV's rival WUSA and it remained until the original show's ending in 2016.

Sports programming

WRC-TV has been the over-the-air home of Washington Redskins preseason games since 2009. Before the NBC/Comcast merger, games were only shown in standard definition on WRC, with actual rightsholder CSN Mid-Atlantic (now NBC Sports Washington) exclusively airing the high definition broadcast. In addition, all Redskins games aired via NBC's broadcast contract with the NFL are also broadcast (from 1970 to 1997, these were games in which the team played host to an AFC team, since 2006, all Sunday night games are shown on WRC-TV). The station aired coverage of the Redskins' victory in Super Bowl XVII.

In addition, all Washington Capitals games broadcast through NBC's broadcast contract with the NHL are also broadcast; this included the team's first-ever Stanley Cup Final victory in 2018.

WRC-TV also aired games involving the NBA's Washington Bullets/Wizards from 1990 to 2002 via NBC's broadcast rights to the NBA.

News operation

WRC-TV presently broadcasts 45 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 7 hours, 35 minutes each weekday; three hours on Saturdays and five hours on Sundays). By 2001, WRC's newscasts had all been rated number one in the market, with some of the success attributed to Jim Vance and Doreen Gentzler, who anchored together from 1989 until Vance's death in 2017. Vance had been with Channel 4 since 1969, and was promoted to anchor three years later.[21] In the May 2010 sweeps, it placed first at 5:00 a.m., 6:00 a.m., 6:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. in total viewers, and first at 6:00 a.m., 6:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. in the 25–54 demo. It still leads most time slots today, although WTTG's morning news and WJLA's 11:00 pm news have given it much competition in the 25–54 demo.

In 1974, WRC-TV adopted the NewsCenter branding, following the three other NBC-owned stations at the time in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago in adopting the NewsCenter branding.

In 1975, the station adopted MFSB's song "My Mood" as the closing theme music for the 6:00 p.m. newscast every Friday, which remains in use by the station today.[22][23] Michael Randall commissioned the news theme for WRC-TV entitled "NewsCenter Theme", which was used by the station until 1986; also, Charlie Rose was hired by WRC-TV after his short stint at KXAS-TV in Dallas and hosted the Charlie Rose Show from its premiere in 1980 until he left the station in 1984 for CBS News. The station also hired George Michael as their sports anchor, eventually launching the nationally syndicated program The George Michael Sports Machine, which originated from the studios of WRC-TV from its entire run from 1984 until 2007 (The George Michael Sports Machine was distributed by the station's sister company NBCUniversal Television Distribution).

In 1982, after 8 years of using the NewsCenter branding, the news branding was changed to Channel 4 News. The station added a 5:00 p.m. newscast in 1984. In 1989, the news branding was changed again to its current name of News 4. Coinciding with the name change, the station used a new promotional campaign "We Work Well Together", produced by Music Oasis, which was also adopted as its news theme until 1992. In 1991, WRC-TV added a morning newscast under the title of News 4 Today, becoming the first morning newscast in Washington, D.C. From January 14 to October 25, 1991, the station also produced a 7:30 p.m. newscast for then-independent station WFTY (now CW affiliate WDCW) entitled 7:30 News Headlines. The newscast suffered low ratings during its run.

In 1993, the station adopted the news music theme entitled "Working 4 You", which also serves as a current station slogan for News 4. 615 Music remixed the theme in 1997, this time under the title of "Working For You". The theme was also used by other NBC affiliated stations (including WHO-TV in Des Moines, Iowa, KPLC-TV in Lake Charles, Louisiana, WPSD in Paducah, Kentucky and WEAU-TV in Eau Claire, Wisconsin). In 2002, WRC-TV adopted "The Tower" news theme commissioned by 615 Music from Chicago sister station WMAQ-TV with the notes of the "Working For You" theme as a musical trademark added only in the news opens. The "Working For You" theme continued to be used as a closing theme for all of its newscasts. Both "Working For You" and "The Tower V.1 with Working For You" were both in use by the station until 2008, when they switched to Gari Media Group's "The NBC Collection" now with added notes of the "Working For You" theme.

On January 14, 2009, WRC-TV and WTTG entered into a Local News Service (called LNS) agreement in which the two stations pool video and share news helicopter footage. The agreement is similar to ones already made between Fox and NBC owned-and-operated stations in Chicago (WMAQ-TV and WFLD) and Philadelphia (WCAU and WTXF).[24] WUSA later joined that agreement. In 2012, News Director Camille Edwards announced the station would no longer participate in LNS, but the stations would continue to share the helicopter. In 2016, the station launched its own helicopter, Chopper4.

On April 8, 2010, the station began test broadcasts of its news programming in high definition during local news updates seen during Today; regular newscasts continued to be broadcast in standard definition. WRC-TV started broadcasting its newscasts from a temporary set on February 8, 2010 while "upgrades" were being made on its main set and the station made final adjustments for its switch to high definition. On April 22, 2010, WRC became the fourth (and final) English-language television station in the Washington, D.C. market to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high definition. It is the only station in the Washington market that shoots most of its remote field video in 16:9 widescreen; other stations still shoot live field video in 4:3 and then either pillarbox or stretch this content to widescreen—though WRC's field video is shot in standard definition.

On September 15, 2014, the station's newscasts shifted to a full 16:9 widescreen presentation, therefore becoming the third English-language television station in the Washington, D.C. market to do so, following Tegna-owned CBS affiliate WUSA (January 2013) and Fox O&O WTTG (August 2013). In conjunction with this, the newscast title was changed to a variation of the station's NBC 4 logo and also, its longtime newscast theme music was heavily updated. Also, the station's "Look F" graphics package from NBC ArtWorks, which was introduced 2 years earlier (May 2012), was reformatted for the 16:9 presentation.

On June 29, 2016, the station officially began using the "Look N" graphics package that was first adopted by sister station WNBC (which began using the package on June 11), becoming the sixth NBC-owned station to use this package, following WVIT (June 13), WTVJ (also on June 13), KXAS-TV (June 20) and WMAQ-TV (testing on June 21; full usage beginning June 28).

On July 31, 2017, WRC-TV became the first station in Washington, D.C. to expand its morning newscasts to 4:00 a.m. In May 2018, after 10 years of using "The NBC Collection with Working for You" news theme, the station brought back 615 Music's "The Tower" news theme, this time without the famous "Working for You" musical trademark; the news theme was previously used with the "Working for You" signature only in the news opens from 2002 until 2008; the theme has also been used by sister station WVIT since 2016.

On-air staff

Notable current on-air staff

Notable former on-air staff
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References
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  5. Staff (July 27, 1942). "Four FM Permits Cancelled by FCC" (PDF). Broadcasting. p. 18.
  6. "RCA replaces NBC in O&O calls." Broadcasting – Telecasting, October 4, 1954, pg. 78.
  7. Sickels, Robert C. (August 8, 2013). 100 Entertainers Who Changed America: An Encyclopedia of Pop Culture Luminaries [2 volumes]: An Encyclopedia of Pop Culture Luminaries. ABC-CLIO. pp. 253–258. ISBN 1598848313. Retrieved September 23, 2014.
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  30. Jim Hartz
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