WRC-TV (channel 4) is a
television station
A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ea ...
in
Washington, D.C., airing programming from the
NBC network. It is
owned and operated by the network's
NBC Owned Television Stations
NBC Owned Television Stations (formerly NBC Local Media and NBC Television Stations Division (TVSD)) is the division of NBCUniversal Owned TV Stations (NBCUniversal), a subsidiary of Comcast that oversees the NBC owned-and-operated television ...
division alongside
Class A Telemundo
Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by Comcast. It provides content nationally with pr ...
outlet
WZDC-CD (channel 44). WRC-TV and WZDC-CD share studios on Nebraska Avenue in the
Tenleytown
Tenleytown is a historic neighborhood in Northwest, Washington, D.C.
History
In 1790, locals began calling the neighborhood "Tennally's Town" after area tavern owner John Tennally. Over time, the spelling has evolved and by the 19th century th ...
neighborhood of
Northwest Washington. Through a
channel sharing agreement, the stations transmit using WRC-TV's spectrum from a tower adjacent to their studios.
History
The station traces its roots to
experimental television
The concept of television was the work of many individuals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The first practical transmissions of moving images over a radio system used mechanical rotating perforated disks to scan a scene into a time-var ...
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
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assi ...
WNBW (standing for "NBC Washington") was first issued on channel 3 (60–66 MHz, numbered channel 2 prior to 1946) on December 23, 1941. NBC requested this permit to be cancelled on June 29, 1942; later, the channel 3 allocation was reassigned to
Harrisonburg, Virginia
Harrisonburg is an independent city in the Shenandoah Valley region of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. It is also the county seat of the surrounding Rockingham County, although the two are separate jurisdictions. At the 2 ...
, on which the former Shennandoah Valley Broadcasting Company launched WSVA-TV (now
WHSV-TV) in 1953.
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
WTTG (channel 5) is a television station in Washington, D.C., airing programming from the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV outlet WDCA (channel 20). WTTG and WDCA sh ...
(channel 5), which signed on seven months earlier in December 1946. WNBW was also the second of the five original NBC-owned television stations to sign-on, behind
WNBT in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and ahead of
WNBQ in
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
,
WNBK in
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...
and
KNBH in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...
. The station was operated alongside WRC radio (980 AM, now
WTEM
WTEM (980 AM) is a commercial sports radio station licensed to serve Washington, D.C. Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station services the Washington metropolitan area as the flagship station of the Washington Wizards. WTEM is also the co-flagship ...
, 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. 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. The WNBW call sign was later used for the
NBC affiliate in
Gainesville, Florida
Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, which had a population of 339,247 in ...
since the station's launch in 2008.
In 1955, while in college and serving as a puppeteer on a WRC-TV program,
Jim Henson
James Maury Henson (September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990) was an American puppeteer, animator, cartoonist, actor, inventor, and filmmaker who achieved worldwide notice as the creator of The Muppets and '' Fraggle Rock'' (1983–1987) and ...
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
The Muppets are an American ensemble cast of puppet characters known for an absurdist, burlesque, and self-referential style of variety- sketch comedy. Created by Jim Henson in 1955, they are the focus of a media franchise that encompas ...
, and launched the
Jim Henson Company.
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
David McClure Brinkley (July 10, 1920 – June 11, 2003) was an American newscaster for NBC and ABC in a career lasting from 1943 to 1997.
From 1956 through 1970, he co-anchored NBC's top-rated nightly news program, '' The Huntley–Brinkl ...
'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
''NBC Nightly News'' (titled as ''NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt'' for its weeknight broadcasts since June 22, 2015) is the flagship daily evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program for NBC News, the news division of the NB ...
'' in the 1970s.
The earliest
color
Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...
videotape in existence is a recording of the dedication of WRC-TV's Washington studios on May 22, 1958. President
Dwight D. Eisenhower spoke at the event, introduced by NBC President
Robert W. Sarnoff. Before Eisenhower spoke, Sarnoff pushed a button, which converted the previously black and white signal into color. It was also the first time a U.S. president had been videotaped in color.
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
In the broadcasting industry, an owned-and-operated station (frequently abbreviated as an O&O) usually refers to a television or radio station owned by the network with which it is associated. This distinguishes such a station from an affiliate ...
.
From the opening of its Nebraska Avenue facility in 1958 through 2020, WRC-TV housed
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's v ...
' Washington bureau, out of which the network's long-running political affairs program ''
Meet the Press
''Meet the Press'' is a weekly American television Sunday morning talk shows, news/interview program broadcast on NBC. It is the List of longest-running television shows by category, longest-running program on American television, though the curr ...
'' was based. In January 2021, NBC News moved the bureau near Capitol Hill.
Telemundo affiliation
In September 2017, NBC announced they were to launch a new
Telemundo
Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by Comcast. It provides content nationally with pr ...
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
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...
(FCC)'s 2017–18
incentive auction
The 2016 United States wireless spectrum auction, officially known as Auction 1001, allocated approximately 100 MHz of the United States Ultra High Frequency (UHF) spectrum formerly allocated to UHF television in the 600 MHz band. The sp ...
, 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.
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.
NBC took control of WZDC-CD on January 1, 2018, and added a temporary relay to WRC-TV's digital subchannel 4.3.
The channel-sharing agreement took effect on March 7, 2018. Under the agreement, WZDC shares WRC-TV's physical signal as a subchannel would and is managed with its own
virtual channel
In most telecommunications organizations, a virtual channel is a method of remapping the ''program number'' as used in H.222 Program Association Tables and Program Mapping Tables to a channel number that can be entered via digits on a receiver's ...
number and license. WZDC's virtual channel changed from 25.1 to 44.1 to avoid a conflict with
WDVM-TV
WDVM-TV (channel 25) is an independent television station licensed to Hagerstown, Maryland, United States, serving the Washington, D.C. television market. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside CW owned-and-operated station WDCW (cha ...
, which also occupies virtual channel 25.1.
Programming
As of September 2022,
syndicated programs broadcast by WRC-TV include ''
Access Hollywood'' and ''
The Kelly Clarkson Show'' (both are produced by sister station KNBC).
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
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a smal ...
), 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 previously housed ''
It's Academic'', which premiered in 1961 and is the longest-running
game show
A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, ...
in television history according to the ''
Guinness Book of World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' (as of October 29, 2022, it is now aired on
PBS member station
WETA-TV
WETA-TV (channel 26) is the primary PBS member television station in Washington, D.C. Owned by the Greater Washington Educational Telecommunications Association, it is a sister station to NPR member WETA (90.9 FM). The two outlets share stud ...
). ''Sam and Friends'', Jim Henson's late-night precursor to ''
Sesame Street
''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000 ...
'' and ''
The Muppet Show
''The Muppet Show'' is a sketch comedy television series created by Jim Henson and featuring the Muppets. The series originated as two pilot episodes produced by Henson for ABC in 1974 and 1975. While neither episode was moved forward as ...
'', got its start on WRC-TV on May 9, 1955. WRC-TV served as the production facilities for the original run of ''
The McLaughlin Group
''The McLaughlin Group'' was a syndicated half-hour weekly public affairs television program in the United States, during which a group of four pundits, prompted by the host, discusses current political issues in a round table format. John ...
'' 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 Commanders
The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) E ...
(formerly the Washington Redskins) preseason games since
2009
File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...
. Before the Comcast–NBC Universal merger, games were only shown in
standard definition on WRC, with actual rights-holder CSN Mid-Atlantic (now
NBC Sports Washington
NBC Sports Washington is an American regional sports network owned by Ted Leonsis's Monumental Sports & Entertainment, and operates as an affiliate of NBC Sports Regional Networks. Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, the channel broadcasts reg ...
) exclusively airing the high definition broadcast.
Until 2021, the station also aired
Washington Capitals
The Washington Capitals (colloquially known as the Caps) are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference, a ...
games through
NBC's broadcast contract with the
NHL; this included the team's
Stanley Cup Finals
The Stanley Cup Finals in ice hockey (also known as the Stanley Cup Final among various media, french: Finale de la Coupe Stanley) is the National Hockey League's (NHL) championship series to determine the winner of the Stanley Cup, North America ...
victory in
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
.
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
James Howard Vance III (January 10, 1942 – July 22, 2017) was an American television news presenter in Washington, D.C.
Early life
Born on January 10, 1942,Heil, Emily, "5 minutes with Jim Vance", ''The Washington Post'', January 11, 20 ...
and
Doreen Gentzler
Doreen Gentzler (born September 24, 1957) is a retired American television news anchor . She anchored the news at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on WRC-TV in Washington, D.C.
Early life
Gentzler was raised in the Dominion Hills neighborhood of Arlington, ...
, 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.
[Schudel, Matt.]
Jim Vance, Washington’s longest-serving local news anchor, is dead at 75
". ''The Washington Post''. July 22, 2017. 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
MFSB, officially standing for "Mother Father Sister Brother", was a pool of more than 30 studio musicians based at Philadelphia's Sigma Sound Studios. They worked closely with the production team of Gamble and Huff and producer/arranger Thom ...
'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. Michael Randall commissioned the news theme for WRC-TV entitled "NewsCenter Theme", which was used by the station until 1986; also,
Charlie Rose
Charles Peete Rose Jr. (born January 5, 1942) is an American former television journalist and talk show host. From 1991 to 2017, he was the host and executive producer of the talk show '' Charlie Rose'' on PBS and Bloomberg LP.
Rose also co- ...
was hired by WRC-TV after his short stint at
KXAS-TV
KXAS-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, United States, broadcasting NBC programming to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongs ...
in
Dallas
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...
and hosted the ''Charlie Rose Show'' from its premiere in 1980 until he left the station in 1984 for
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the '' CBS Evening News'', '' CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 4 ...
. The station also hired
George Michael
George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the most significant cultural icons of the MTV generation and is one of the best-selling music ...
as sports anchor, eventually launching the nationally syndicated program ''
The George Michael Sports Machine
''The George Michael Sports Machine'' is a syndicated, sports-related American television program which was launched in 1984. The show aired weekends, usually on Sunday nights, and originated from WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., one of NBC's owned and ...
'', 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
NBCUniversal Syndication Studios (a.k.a. NUSS), formerly known as NBCUniversal Television Distribution (a.k.a. NUTD), Universal Domestic Television, Studios USA Television Distribution and MCA TV, is the television syndication division of NBCUniv ...
).
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. On September 7, 1987, the station changed its news branding to ''News 4''. In 1989, 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''. From January 14 to October 25, 1991, the station also produced a 7:30 p.m. newscast for then-
independent station
An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, marke ...
WFTY (now
CW affiliate
WDCW) entitled ''7:30 News Headlines''. The newscast suffered low ratings throughout 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. In 1994, WRC-TV expanded a late weekday newscast from 4:30 p.m. to a full-hour at 4 p.m.
615 Music remixed the theme in 1997, this time under the title of "Working For You". The theme was also used by other NBC affiliates (including
WHO-TV
WHO-DT (channel 13) is a television station in Des Moines, Iowa, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Grand Avenue in downtown Des Moines, and its transmitter is located in Al ...
in
Des Moines, Iowa
Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moine ...
,
KPLC
KPLC (channel 7) is a television station in Lake Charles, Louisiana, United States, affiliated with NBC and The CW Plus. It is owned by Gray Television, which provides certain services to dual Fox/ ABC affiliate KVHP (channel 29) under a sha ...
in
Lake Charles, Louisiana
Lake Charles (French: ''Lac Charles'') is the fifth-largest incorporated city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and the parish seat of Calcasieu Parish, located on Lake Charles, Prien Lake, and the Calcasieu River. Founded in 1861 in Calcas ...
,
WPSD-TV
WPSD-TV (channel 6) is a television station licensed to Paducah, Kentucky, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for Western Kentucky's Jackson Purchase region, Southern Illinois, the Missouri Bootheel, and northwest Tennessee. Own ...
in
Paducah, Kentucky
Paducah ( ) is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky. The largest city in the Jackson Purchase region, it is located at the confluence of the Tennessee and the Ohio rivers, halfway between St. Louis, Miss ...
and
WEAU in
Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Eau Claire (; ) (French for "clear water") is a city mostly located in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, of which it is the county seat, and with a small portion in Chippewa County, Wisconsin. It had a population of 69,421 in 2020, making it the stat ...
). 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
Frank Daniel Garofalo (born April 1, 1944), known professionally as Frank Gari, is an American singer-songwriter and composer.
Early life
Gari was a popular singer and songwriter from the late 1950s and early 1960s. His best known songs as a ...
'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 The name Local News Service refers to a variety of news resource share services all started in 2008 and 2009. It sometimes does not refer to a specific sharing service but to the category in general. Typically, these services include pooling video ...
(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
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
(
WCAU
WCAU (channel 10) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Mount Laurel, New Jer ...
and
WTXF
WTXF-TV (channel 29) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on Market ...
). 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
Today (archaically to-day) may refer to:
* Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now''
* Current era, present
* The current calendar date
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 ...
''; 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
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the i ...
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
Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...
; other stations still shoot live field video in
4:3 and then either
pillarbox
The pillarbox effect occurs in widescreen video displays when black bars (mattes or masking) are placed on the sides of the image. It becomes necessary when film or video that was not originally designed for widescreen is shown on a widescree ...
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-owned 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
WVIT (channel 30) is a television station licensed to New Britain, Connecticut, United States, broadcasting NBC programming to the Hartford–New Haven market. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations divisio ...
(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 October 19, 2021, WRC-TV became the last station in the group to introduce their "Look S" graphics, beginning with the 4:00 p.m. ET newscast.
Notable current on-air staff
*
Leon Harris – anchor
*
Eun Yang – anchor
Notable former on-air staff
*
Miguel Almaguer
Miguel Almaguer (born March 11, 1977) is an American journalist. He is a correspondent for NBC News, reporting for all divisions of the network and based at its Los Angeles bureau.
Early life and education
Almaguer was born in Oakland, Califor ...
– reporter (2006–2009); now with
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's v ...
*
Jess Atkinson – sports anchor (1990–1996); now back at his Alma mater, the
University of Maryland
The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of ...
*
Shannon Bream – anchor (2004–2007); now with
Fox News Channel
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ...
*
Nick Charles – sports anchor/reporter (1976–1979); died of cancer on June 25, 2011
*
Katie Couric
Katherine Anne Couric ( ; born January 7, 1957) is an American journalist and presenter. She is founder of Katie Couric Media, a multimedia news and production company. She also publishes a daily newsletter, ''Wake Up Call''. From 2013 to 2017, ...
– reporter (1987–1989); later co-anchor of NBC's ''
Today
Today (archaically to-day) may refer to:
* Day of the present, the time that is perceived directly, often called ''now''
* Current era, present
* The current calendar date
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Today'' (1930 film), a 1930 ...
'', anchor of ''
CBS Evening News
The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature st ...
'', host of
syndicated talk show, global news correspondent with
Yahoo
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...
News and
ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast '' ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include morning news-talk show '' Good Morning America'', '' ...
*
Lindsay Czarniak
Lindsay Ann Czarniak (born ) is an American sports anchor and reporter. She currently works for Fox Sports as a sideline reporter for NFL games. After spending six years with WRC-TV, the NBC owned-and-operated station in Washington, D.C., Czarn ...
– sports anchor/reporter (2005–2011); was most recently with
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
until October 2017, now with
Joe Gibbs Racing
Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) is an American professional stock car racing organization owned and operated by former Washington Redskins (today the Washington Commanders) coach Joe Gibbs, which first started racing on the NASCAR circuit in 1991. His ...
and
Fox Sports
Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world.
The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...
*
Steve Doocy
''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen
Notable people with the name include:
steve jops
* Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people
* Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people
* Steve ...
– features reporter (1983–1989); now with
Fox News Channel
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ...
*
Peter Ford – news anchor (1988–1992); now CEO of Control Bionics Neural System Technologies
*
Doreen Gentzler
Doreen Gentzler (born September 24, 1957) is a retired American television news anchor . She anchored the news at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on WRC-TV in Washington, D.C.
Early life
Gentzler was raised in the Dominion Hills neighborhood of Arlington, ...
– anchor (1989–2022); retired
*
Angie Goff
Angie Goff (born March 17, 1980 in Seoul, South Korea) is a Korean-born American broadcast journalist currently at WTTG (locally known as "FOX5") in Washington D.C. Goff also writes the popular blogbr>OhMyGoffknown for showcasing viewer genera ...
– anchor (2011–2018); now with
WTTG
WTTG (channel 5) is a television station in Washington, D.C., airing programming from the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV outlet WDCA (channel 20). WTTG and WDCA sh ...
*
Savannah Guthrie – reporter (1999–2002); now co-anchor of NBC's ''
Today Show''
*
Robert Hager – reporter in the 1960s, later an
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of the American broadcast television network NBC. The division operates under NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, a division of NBCUniversal, which is, in turn, a subsidiary of Comcast. The news division's v ...
correspondent
*
Mike Hambrick
Mike Hambrick (born in Tyler, Texas) is an American television anchor, reporter, and correspondent who has worked on network television stations such as WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C., WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., KTVT-TV in Dallas, KTAR-TV (now K ...
– anchor (1982–1985); now heard on
Howard 100 and Howard 101
Howard 100 and Howard 101 are two uncensored channels on Sirius XM, a satellite radio service that broadcasts programming affiliated with Howard Stern and ''The Howard Stern Show''. Though the channels were first broadcast on September 29, 200 ...
*
Richard C. Harkness – Washington correspondent for NBC network and local radio/TV news anchor (1942–1970); died in 1977
*
Jim Hartz
James Leroy Hartz (February 3, 1940 – April 17, 2022) was an American television personality, columnist and reporter during the mid- and late-1970s. At age 24, he was the youngest correspondent NBC had ever hired. Hartz became best known to a nat ...
– anchor (1977–1979); died in April 2022
*
Dan Hellie
Dan Hellie (born May 23, 1975) is an American sports announcer for Fox Sports and the NFL Network. Hellie can also be seen on Dana White's UFC Tuesday Night Contender Series, Tennessee Titans preseason games and Facebook's streaming college foo ...
– sports anchor (2006–2013); now with
NFL Network
NFL Network (occasionally abbreviated on-air as NFLN) is an American sports-oriented pay television network owned by the National Football League (NFL) and is part of NFL Media, which also includes NFL.com, NFL Films, NFL Mobile, NFL Now and NF ...
*
Joe Johns
Joseph Eduardo Johns is an American lawyer and journalist. He is the Senior Washington Correspondent for CNN, based in the Washington, D.C., bureau. He was promoted to the position in 2014. He previously worked as an NBC News Capitol Hill Corres ...
– reporter (1983–1993); now with
CNN
*
Susan King – anchor/reporter (1983–1987); now a dean at the
UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media
*
Joe Krebs – anchor/reporter (1980–2012); died of pancreatic cancer on April 6, 2021
*
Suzanne Malveaux – reporter (1996-1999); now with
CNN
*
Dave Marash – anchor (1985–1989); now with
KSFR
KSFR-FM is a broadcast radio station licensed to White Rock, New Mexico, and serving the Santa Fe area broadcasting on 101.1 FM.
KSFR is Santa Fe, New Mexico's community/public radio station. It is owned by the Santa Fe Community College and ...
*
Marjorie Margolies
Marjorie Margolies (; formerly Margolies-Mezvinsky; born June 21, 1942) is a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Fels Institute of Government, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, and a women's rights activist. Sh ...
– reporter (1975–1990); former U.S. Congresswoman and mother-in-law of
Chelsea Clinton
Chelsea Victoria Clinton (born February 27, 1980) is an American writer and global health advocate. She is the only child of former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former U.S. Secretary of State and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clin ...
*
Doug McKelway
Douglas B. McKelway (born 1954) is a television journalist who serves as a general assignment reporter for the Washington, D.C. bureau of the Fox News Channel. He joined the network in November 2010. McKelway previously worked at the Washington, D ...
– anchor/reporter (1992–2001); was most recently at
Fox News Channel
The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is ...
*
Craig Melvin
Craig Delano Melvin (born May 20, 1979) is an American broadcast journalist and anchor at NBC News and MSNBC. In August 2018, he became a news anchor on NBC's ''Today'' and, in October 2018, a co-host of ''Today Third Hour'' before being made p ...
– anchor (2007–2011); now
MSNBC
MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...
and ''Today Show'' anchor
*
George Michael
George Michael (born Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou; 25 June 1963 – 25 December 2016) was an English singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the most significant cultural icons of the MTV generation and is one of the best-selling music ...
– sports anchor/reporter; former host of ''
The George Michael Sports Machine
''The George Michael Sports Machine'' is a syndicated, sports-related American television program which was launched in 1984. The show aired weekends, usually on Sunday nights, and originated from WRC-TV in Washington, D.C., one of NBC's owned and ...
'' (1980–2008); died of
leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...
on December 24, 2009
*
Wendy Rieger – anchor (1988–2021); died of
glioblastoma
Glioblastoma, previously known as glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), is one of the most aggressive types of cancer that begin within the brain. Initially, signs and symptoms of glioblastoma are nonspecific. They may include headaches, personality ...
on April 16, 2022
*
Bob Ryan – chief meteorologist (1980–2010); retired
*
Jim Rosenfield – anchor (2012–2013); now with
WCAU
WCAU (channel 10) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Mount Laurel, New Jer ...
(WRC-TV's sister station) in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...
*
Dianna Russini
Dianna Marie Russini (born February 11, 1983) is an American sports journalist who currently works as an NFL host, reporter, insider, and analyst for ESPN on NFL Countdown and '' NFL Live''. Russini joined ESPN and became a ''SportsCenter'' anch ...
– sports anchor/reporter (2013–2015); now with
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
*
Willard Scott
Willard Herman Scott Jr. (March 7, 1934 – September 4, 2021) was an American weather presenter, radio and television personality, actor, narrator, clown, comedian, and author, whose broadcast career spanned 68 years, 65 years with the NBC br ...
– NBC page (1950),
Bozo the Clown (1959–1962), weather anchor (1968–1980); later on NBC's ''Today Show''; died of natural causes on September 4, 2021
*
Sue Simmons – anchor/reporter (1976–1980); retired
*
Jim Vance
James Howard Vance III (January 10, 1942 – July 22, 2017) was an American television news presenter in Washington, D.C.
Early life
Born on January 10, 1942,Heil, Emily, "5 minutes with Jim Vance", ''The Washington Post'', January 11, 20 ...
– anchor (1969–2017); died of cancer on July 22, 2017
Technical information
Subchannels
The station's digital signal is
multiplexed:
Analog-to-digital conversion
WRC-TV shut down its analog signal, on
VHF
Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter.
Frequencies immediately below 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 broadcast on its pre-transition
UHF
Ultra high frequency (UHF) is the ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz), also known as the decimetre band as the wavelengths range from one meter to one tenth of a meter (on ...
channel 48. 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
A consortium (plural: consortia) is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources ...
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'', and aired on UHF channel 34 to provide the FCC and the
National Association of Broadcasters
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is a trade association and lobby group representing the interests of commercial and non-commercial over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States. The NAB represents more than ...
a channel to conduct many experiments in the new format.
WHD-TV was discontinued around 2002.
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wrc-Tv
Cozi TV affiliates
NBC network affiliates
NBC Owned Television Stations
Television channels and stations established in 1947
RC-TV
1947 establishments in Washington, D.C.
Former General Electric subsidiaries