Is your local news in HD?

One of the first? Sure, that's easy to say. The first? No.

KOMO-DT -16x9 SD
KING-DT - studio only HD

both in Seattle (totally spoiled here, you have no idea)

No HD news here in Milwaukee.

I can usually pick up WRAL out of Raleigh and they have been HD for years.

Read the HDTV Programming Synopsis.

Currently most NBC's are starting to broadcast news in HD this year. Channel 11 - NBC here in Atlanta also announced its first broadcast of HD news in Atlanta, which will be the first in our state!

Actually it is not years that they have been broadcasting HD it is more like a Decade. They were actually the first HD channel. Pretty cool that it is a local channel for us. Anyway it is still one of the best HD channels out there. Check it out.

http://www.cbc-raleigh.com/inside_cb...980911cbc.html

I used to live in the Goldsboro area. WRAL is an amazing station. Great news/weather and programming. Awesome with the community. Shoot, I dont know if you have ever seen their broadcast tower off of U.S. 70 close to Selma, but it is HUGE!!!!!!!!!!!!
They claim 250 mile radius i believe on their boradcast.
"2,000-foot tower registers as the heaviest transmitting tower in the world, weighing in at about 723 tons."

Check this out.
Leaders In Technology

WRAL is committed to staying on the forefront of technological innovations. From our award-winning Web site to being the first HDTV station in the nation, WRAL-TV has always remained on the cutting edge.

In June 1979, WRAL-TV became the first TV station in the state to dedicate a helicopter to our newsgathering efforts. Sky 5 became a familiar sight in N.C. skies. The capability to broadcast live from the helicopter was added a year later. A new Sky 5 took to the air in 1999. The Bell 407 carries five on-board cameras, as well as a moving map that can be used on the air to show viewers were the helicopter is.

With the unveiling of an open newsroom set concept in 1982, WRAL introduced the area's first team of professional TV meteorologists.

http://www.wral.com/wralinfo/460085/detail.html

KARE likely means the first in HDTV news in their city. WUSA-DT here in Wash DC also has a big "First in HDTV" banner at the begining of the news, as well as all news promos throughout the day.

With Sony just releasing a new HD video format called XDCAM HD at a price comparable to SD broadcast equipment, I wouldn't be surprised if more newscasts go HD.

Here in LA, only KABC-DT broadcasts HD from one of their helicopters, the rest of the newscast is SD. CBS O&O stations are considering upgrading to Sony XDCAM HD equipment and may go HD soon; for LA, that would be KCBS-DT and KCAL-DT.

Ya, here in raleigh, we have CBS local news in HD and also fox local news I believe.

Local stations with HD helicopters:
KUSA Denver, CO
KABC Los Angeles, CA
WRAL Raleigh, NC
WABC New York, NY
WNYW New York, NY

Local stations with HD news studios:
WRAL Raleigh, NC
KING Seattle, WA
KOMO Seattle, WA
WJW Cleveland, OH
WUSA Washington DC
KUSA Denver, CO

You can add KUSA's sister station in Atlanta, WXIA-DT, to the list.
http://www.11alive.com/news/news_art...?storyid=75566

you can add ATLANTA to the list

our NBC affiliate (WXIA) just started HD local news broadcasts this week.

oleus

It steams me that, before all the BS attendant on "distant waivers", et al....I "qualified" for "distant" signals, including WRAL....No doubt about it....surely one of THE finest facilities in the nation....both technically and aesthetically!!
It was always interesting to see the car dealership ads from PR....(Se Habla Espanol....)
Alas....That's all gone now...Thanks to more beaurocracy.....

Nothing here in the DFW area is broadcasting in HD yet.


Curious to see who will be the first!

Tulsa- No. in fact CBS here does not even do DD5.1

I saw it and my jaw dropped. Damn it looked good. I could see the gray hair the anchorwoman was previously hiding.

According to the previously cited WXIA-DT 11.1 (Atlanta), they were the 6th or 7th (can't recall if they said, "6 others in the country" or, "we're the 6th in the country") to have HD local news.

You can also add WRAZ Raleigh, NC (FOX) as well.

Agreed. I was also surprised that most of their remote shots seemed to be in HD as well, not just the studio cameras.

Still Waiting for WPTV in West Palm to announce. They have the cameras, but need everything else

bay area??? we have 5 capable news channels: KTVU, KRON, KNTV, KPIX and KGO. They all send hd signals, all have nightly news. you'd think that someone like KRON would go HD first to entice people to watch their awful awful awful hd lineup of mostly old hdnet stuff.

Ken H, are you keeping track of the go to HD dates for the local new broadcasts? It appears from this thread and the recent announcement about CBS O&O stations news operations being upgraded with new HD cameras that we will see a number of local news go HD this year (in the studio anyway) and probably still more in 2007, 2008. It would be interesting to track by quarter, or half a year breakdowns, the increase in the number of HD local news broadcasts and look back at these numbers a few years from now.

dont foget all the local shows in HD, like evening magazine , NW backroads, NW afternoon ect... were spoiled I know.

BTW the KING5 PQ is jaw dropping... and the 720p weather graphics on KOMO are pretty cool.

Pittsburgh - no HD local news here.

With an asterisk next to WRAL, since WRAZ is a sister station to WRAL.

As noted above, WJW/Cleveland is doing HD news in our market. I haven't heard of any plans by other stations here, but locally, the NBC affiliate is owned by Gannett...which seems to be doing this in other markets.

And the station (WKYC) recently opened up a new "digital broadcast center", so it wouldn't as be difficult for them to do it. The ABC affiliate (WEWS) is in their original building, though it's been remodeled somewhat over the years. The CBS/UPN combo will probably go HD about the time I'm old enough to retire.

Check it closely.

It's not just as simple as putting a HD Camera in the field. The REAL expense is back at that station when you have to convert all the edit bays and other equipment to HD etc, etc, etc. The equipment / bandwidth to shoot back a live HD picture is also another astronomical expense when it comes to conversion (and if you read or listen to what most Network People have said, there is really no good transmit HD signals back to Master Control and keep the timing correct in a HD program (which is why Football, Golf etc uses optical to all their remote HD Cameras).

Thus, most everyone is using 16:9 480 for remote shots. Even those who are purchasing HD Camera for remote shots seem to be doing the same at this time.

I have no first hand knowledge of what WXIA is doing, but odds are they are doing the same.