Watch Out, NY1: NBC Will Launch NYC News Channel

Big changes are ahead for WNBC, Channel 4. The NY Times reports NBC wants to transform the local station into a "content center" and "will start a 24-hour local news channel along the lines of cable’s New York One."

Overall, NBC will "de-emphasize" WNBC--the WNBC website will be NBC New York. No layoffs are planned, but a huge culture shift is: Employees will be retrained and have "expanded duties," such as producers who usually produce segments for a specific timed broadcast will be producing content that will be used round the clock and on various platforms, be they on broadcast, digital cable, taxi cabs, or online.

The channel will also have "live headlines every half-hour and the latest weather and traffic information for the area" and reflect any breaking news (like 1010 WINS, but on the half hour!). The new space for this channel is being carved out of 30 Rock, and because NBC Universal has been growing so much, a new facility (location TBD) is being built to accommodate the growth and to consolidate office space around the city.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on May 7, 2008 4:55 PM

Comments [rss]

BongoBoy

Al Jerome was a legend.

Left at just the right time [before GE] to head Spectravision. You know, the company that provided televised, pay-per-view movies to hotel rooms. Porn, too.

He now runs the public tv station KCET in Los Angeles.

Kershaw, he's dead. But he did invent "Live at Five".

And was Jessica Savitch's boyfriend ... played by Robert Redford in that crappy movie "Up Close and Personal".

Sang was the guy who promoted it all.

But this all was 25 years ago ... when the greenest WNBC reporter was probably just born or was a toddler.

nivek

Yaay, ANOTHER useless news channel!

nyc881

Interesting idea, but they're many years late on this one

I doubt they have the crew, editorial resources and creative supervision to pull this off.

And we all know how groundbreaking the 7pm

New York Nightly News has been.

Steve Paulus at NY1 owns this area for now, although they tend to

lag on live shots and breaking events because of their allocated budget from TimeWarner.

So....will NBC be bringing back Ron Kershaw (since passed away)

Al Jerome, and Peter Sang in order to make this work both

operationally, and in terms of local impact and content, as the original News 4 New York?

bornbrednewyorker

Who needs this? Unless it's live 24/7 it's just a lousy NY 1 rip off.

wiseguynyc

I hope this spurs on NY1 to improve its production values some. Don't get me wrong - I love NY1's dedication to (mostly) hard news, arts programming, transit stories, etc., but their production is stuck in the mid 90s. It looks bad. But I also hope NBC doesn't have the effect that Fox News did on CNN and drag it down into the gutter. Should be interesting to watch.