News Central (American TV program)

For the Philippine newscast, see News Central (Philippine TV program).

News Central is an American series of primetime newscast television programs on television stations owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. The programs mixed locally produced news with nationally produced news and an opinion segment from Sinclair's Hunt Valley, Maryland studios, along with weather segments customized for each market also originating from Hunt Valley.^[2] News Central was broadcast between October 2002 and March 2006.

News Central
Genre	News program
Directed by	Joe DeFeo^[1]
Presented by	Morris Jones (National anchor) Vytas Reid (Chief meteorologist)^[2]
Country of origin	United States
Production
Production location	Hunt Valley, Maryland
Production company	Sinclair Broadcast Group
Original release
Release	October 28, 2002 (2002-10-28) – March 31, 2006 (2006-03-31)

History

News Central was launched on October 28, 2002, with WSMH's News At Ten.^[1] The format was original announced to be rolled out to Sinclair stations currently not offering news. But after a successful trial run at WSMH, Sinclair announced that three stations with newscasts would be next in converting to the format during the first quarter of 2003.^[3] By April 2003, News Central was planning to launch its own Washington bureau.^[4] By December 2003, 12 Sinclair stations were using the News Central format.^[2]

News Central ended all newscasts effective March 31, 2006;^[5] after that date, its stations either returned to a more traditional in-house newscast format, outsourced their newscast to a larger station in the market, or cancelled their newscasts entirely. Others, like WSMH, teamed up with non-affiliate stations in their market to either simulcast other stations' newscasts or jointly produce a news program.^[6] WYZZ and WUHF went into LMAs with other stations in their markets.

Sinclair later revisited the concept of a centralized news operation with The National Desk, a national news program that features contributions and reports from Sinclair's local stations.^[7][8]

Content

The local station news operation provided the first ten minutes of news. Then national News Central operation produced 12 minutes of international and national news of the total newscast, along with customized local weather forecasts produced from the national operation, and with other content such as stories prepared by the publicity departments of that station's network as a video news release (for instance, WVTV would carry a feature on Gilmore Girls or One Tree Hill produced by The WB as a tie-in to that evening's episodes). The national operation also provided nightly The Point commentary by Mark E. Hyman, Sinclair's Vice President of Corporate Relations.^[2] News Central additionally subscribed to AccuWeather and CNN Newsource to provide wire service video and additional context for national stories.^[4]

Carriage

• WSMH, Flint, Michigan (October 28, 2002–March 31, 2006^[1])
• KOKH, Oklahoma City (Q1 2003–March 31, 2006^[3])
• WLFL, Raleigh, North Carolina (Q1 2003–^[3] March 31, 2006)^[5]
• WUHF, Rochester, New York (Q1 2003–^[3] March 31, 2006)^[5]
• WPGH, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (2003–March 31, 2006^[4])
• WVTV, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (August 2003–March 31, 2006)^[5]
• WNYO Buffalo, New York (August 16, 2004 – March 31, 2006)^[5]
• WTTA, Tampa, Florida (August 25, 2003^[9]–March 31, 2006)^[5]
• KFBT, KVWB, Las Vegas, Nevada (2003–March 31, 2006)^[5]
• WUPN, WXLV Greensboro, North Carolina (2003–March 31, 2006)^[5]
• WBFF, Baltimore, Maryland (February 2003 – March 31, 2006)

See also

• The National Desk, Sinclair's current national newscast effort

References

1. "Sinclair to increase news output". Digital Spy. National Magazine Company Ltd. October 7, 2002. Retrieved July 9, 2014.
2. "Central Casting in Local News Broadcasts". PBS NewsHour. PBS. December 11, 2003. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
3. Trigoboff, Dan (January 5, 2003). "Sinclair Speeds Centralcasting". Broadcasting & Cable. Reed Business Information. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
4. Owen, Rob (April 23, 2003). "Tuned In: WPGH's layoffs, 'News Central' risky". Post-Gazette. PG Publishing Co., Inc. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
5. "Plug may be pulled on Channel 18 newscast". Milwaukee Business Journal. American City Business Journals. March 8, 2006. Retrieved December 28, 2015.
6. Dodson, Andrew (March 26, 2015). "WNEM TV 5 newscast on Fox 66 being replaced by WEYI 25 starting battle for 10 p.m." The Flint Journal. MLive Media Group. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
7. Pergament, Alan (January 11, 2023). "WUTV's 10 p.m. newscast ending Jan. 27, eliminating four jobs in Buffalo". The Buffalo News. Retrieved January 11, 2023.
8. Barron, Alicia (September 2, 2021). "All news may be local — but more and more of it is going national". Cronkite News Lab. Retrieved January 14, 2023.
9. Belcher, Walt (August 25, 2003). "WB Affiliate Makes Own News Tonight". The Tampa Tribune. p. BayLife 1, 6. Retrieved April 21, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.