WJLA 24/7 News is an American regional cable news

television channel A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the terrestrial or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with ...

Washington D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

-affiliated station

WJLA-TV WJLA-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Washington, D.C., affiliated with ABC. It is one of two flagship stations of Sinclair Broadcast Group (alongside dual Fox/ MyNetworkTV affiliate WBFF hannel 45in Baltimore), and is also s ...

(channel 7) owned by the

Sinclair Broadcast Group Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, ...

. The channel provides

24-hour The modern 24-hour clock, popularly referred to in the United States as military time, is the convention of timekeeping in which the day runs from midnight to midnight and is divided into 24 hours. This is indicated by the hours (and minutes) pass ...

news coverage primarily focused on Washington, D.C., northern

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

and suburban areas of

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

within the

Washington, D.C. metropolitan area The Washington metropolitan area, also commonly referred to as the National Capital Region, is the metropolitan area centered on Washington, D.C. The metropolitan area includes all of Washington, D.C. and parts of the states of Maryland, Virgi ...

. The channel shares studio facilities and offices with WJLA-TV and the Rosslyn-based '' Circa News'' in Arlington,

. WJLA 24/7 News reaches more than 1.2 million cable television households within the D.C metropolitan area.

History

The channel was launched on October 7, 1991 as NewsChannel 8. The "8" branding was selected as a part of the name to attempt to get Washington-area cable providers to place the channel between its parent ABC-affiliated station, WJLA-TV (at channel 7), and local

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

affiliate

WUSA-TV WUSA (channel 9) is a television station in Washington, D.C., affiliated with CBS. It is the flagship property of Tegna Inc. (based in the nearby Virginia suburb of McLean). WUSA's studios and transmitter are located at Broadcast House on ...

on channel 9. Allbritton also bundled the channel along with WJLA in carriage contracts. In 1995, the channel began airing timeshifted

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, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

programs hours or days after their original broadcast. NewsChannel 8 initially only had ad revenue stream until federal regulations required cable operators to pay for its carriage. In 1997, the channel was reported as profitable and started a streak of profitability by Allbritton. As NewsChannel 8's carriage expanded to those areas, coverage was expanded to include

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and

Prince William County Prince William County is located on the Potomac River in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population sits at 482,204, making it Virginia's second-most populous county. Its county seat is the independent city of Manassas ...

governmental meetings by the end of the 1990s. In July 2001, NewsChannel 8 beat

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

, Headline News,

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 politi ...

and

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in the ratings, the highest viewership that the channel had ever accrued in its first 10 years. In August 2001, Comcast agreed to carry the channel for another 10 years. In August 2002, Allbritton Communications merged NewsChannel 8 and

with NewsChannel 8 laying off 30 of its 125 staff. The channel in Springfield and station in Northwest Washington moved to a Rosslyn section twin towers office complex in Arlington, Gannett Co. and

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...

's former home. Logo of NewsChannel 8

On September 5, 2006, Comcast moved NewsChannel 8, at the channel's request, to channel 28 on the analog tiers of some of its systems, placing it next to sister station WJLA-TV on channel 27 (Comcast's systems in the immediate Washington, D.C. area slot the market's broadcast stations in the 20-29 channel range; this is an artifact from when television stations broadcast in

analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analog ...

prior to the 2009 digital television transition in order to avert co-channel interference with the broadcast signals). Systems outside of Washington, D.C. proper carry it on channel 8, next to WJLA on channel 7. In all cases, however, the channel's high definition feed is carried on digital channel 808. On July 17, 2013, satellite provider

DirecTV DirecTV (trademarked as DIRECTV) is an American multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital satellite service serving the United States. I ...

began carrying NewsChannel 8 on channel 8 within the Washington, D.C. market. On December 21, 2015, the channel was added to satellite provider Dish Network's D.C.-area broadcast lineup, also on channel 8. On August 9, 2010, the channel was rebranded as TBD TV, in order to associate it with the recently established news website

TBD.com TBD.com was a hyperlocal news site focused on the Washington, D.C. area. Launching on August 9, 2010, it was owned by the Arlington-based Allbritton Communications as a locally focused companion to its other media properties in Washington, incl ...

, which provided news content for both the channel and WJLA. Allbritton subsequently reverted its news channel's branding to the original NewsChannel 8 name in February 2011. On July 29, 2013, Allbritton Communications announced that it would sell its entire television group, including NewsChannel 8 and WJLA-TV, to Hunt Valley-based

(owners of flagship station

WBFF WBFF (channel 45) is a television station in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, affiliated with Fox and MyNetworkTV. It is one of two flagship stations of Sinclair Broadcast Group (based in nearby Hunt Valley), alongside ABC affiliate WJLA-T ...

, as well as operators of two other stations in the adjacent

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market). Sinclair had indicated that it may use NewsChannel 8 as a base to launch a national cable news channel. On July 23, 2018, WJLA announced that NewsChannel 8 will be rebranded as WJLA 24/7 News on Tuesday July 24, aligning it further with the call letters of its broadcast station, WJLA-TV. On March 25, 2021, Sinclair launched ATSC 3.0 operations on WIAV-CD and for the first time, made the channel available over the air via the station.

Programming

Through a fiber optic delivery system, NewsChannel 8 provided programming and advertising targeted at three separate geographical regions of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and was once known for airing specific "Zone Reports" on weeknights to these regions, including "The Washington Report" (featuring news stories affecting the District of Columbia), "The Virginia Report" (featuring news stories from northern Virginia) and "The Maryland Report" (featuring news from communities in adjacent suburban areas of Maryland). The appropriate edition was fed to each of the cable systems in the region. The newscasts were all the same, except for the second segment (aired between the first and second commercial breaks), which was specifically tailored to each "zone." The channel ended this practice in 2009. WJLA 24/7 News employs its own anchors and certain meteorologists while sharing reporting and weather staffers with WJLA-TV. The two news operations share the same on-air news staffers for the weekend evening newscasts aired respectively by the cable channel and television station. The channel (along with its sister broadcast station) operates a bureau in Washington, D.C. When it is not airing newscasts, WJLA 24/7 News airs encore presentations of

programs as well as various local programs, including ''Let's Talk Live'' (an hour-long call-in talk show, airing at 10:00 a.m. with a repeat at 12:00 p.m.), "Government Matters" (a news show geared towards federal government employees and contractors and the "business of government"), and ''SportsTalk'' (a sports discussion program). Unlike most regional news channels which air newscasts during overnights and weekends on a recorded loop, WJLA 24/7 News airs some

paid programming Paid or PAID may refer to: * ''Paid'' (1930 film), an American film starring Joan Crawford * ''Paid'' (2006 film), a Dutch film *''Personality and Individual Differences'', a journal See also * Paide Paide is a town in Estonia and the ...

during certain timeslots within those periods. Previous talk shows included ''Moms Talk'' (a Monday morning advice show hosted by two housewives), the Wednesday movie review ''Entertainment Forecast'' show, ''NewsTalk'' (a live hour-long daily call-in show featuring prominent newsmakers), ''Capital Insider'' (a political discussion program), ''Goss' Garage'' (a Saturday morning automotive program), ''The Arch Campbell Show'' (an entertainment news program) and ''Capital Golf Weekly'' (a program featuring golf instruction and feature reports on the sport). In 2015,

D.C. United D.C. United is a professional soccer club based in Washington, D.C. that competes in the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer, the top tier of American soccer. Domestically, the club has won four MLS Cups (league championships), four Supp ...

of Major League Soccer reached a new multi-year deal with Sinclair Broadcast Group to broadcast all 26 of the team's regional matches on then NewsChannel 8 and WJLA, succeeding

CSN Mid-Atlantic 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 ...

Notable on-air staff

Notable former on-air staff

Lisa Fletcher Lisa Fletcher is an American television journalist. She is an investigative reporter and news anchor who has covered stories around the world - both for ABC News as a correspondent and various major-market television stations. She was previously t ...

– anchor/reporter (was at

Al Jazeera America Al Jazeera America was an American pay television news channel owned by the Al Jazeera Media Network. The channel was launched on August 20, 2013, to compete with CNN, HLN, MSNBC, Fox News, and in certain markets RT America. It was Al Jazeera' ...

, host of The Stream until the network's closure on April 12, 2016; returned to WJLA/NewsChannel 8 later that same year) * Morris Jones – anchor/reporter (left network in May 2016) * Britt McHenry – sports anchor/reporter (was at

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%). Th ...

until April 26, 2017) *

Joe Witte Joe Witte (born 1943) is currently an Outreach Specialist for Aquent, a contractor of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA. He adapts science content for use by 2,000 television meteorologists around the country. Joe Witte started his career as a gla ...

– meteorologist (now a researcher at the Goddard Space Flight Center)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:WJLA 24/7 News Television stations in Washington, D.C. 24-hour television news channels in the United States Sinclair Broadcast Group Television channels and stations established in 1991 1991 establishments in Washington, D.C.