NJ PBS (known as NJTV prior to 2021) is a
public television network serving the
U.S. state of
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...
. The network is owned by the New Jersey Public Broadcasting Authority (NJPBA), an agency of the
New Jersey state government which owns the
licenses for all but one of the
PBS member stations licensed in the state. NJPBA outsources the network's operations to Public Media NJ, a wholly-owned subsidiary of
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 ...
-based The WNET Group (formerly known as the Educational Broadcasting Corporation and later as WNET.org), the parent company of
Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the List of municipalities in New Jersey, most populous City (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat, seat of Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County and the second largest city within the New Yo ...
–licensed
WNET (channel 13) and
Garden City, New York
Garden City is a village located on Long Island in Nassau County New York. It is the Greater Garden City area's anchor community. The population was 23,272 at the 2020 census.
The Incorporated Village of Garden City is primarily located within ...
–licensed
WLIW (channel 21). In addition to PBS programming, NJ PBS airs shows distributed by
American Public Television (APT); the network also produces and broadcasts its own programs, mostly related to issues in New Jersey. NJ PBS' operations are based in
Englewood, New Jersey
Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which at the 2020 United States census had a population of 29,308. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from po ...
. Its anchor studio is located at
Gateway Center in Newark.
Master control
Master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations and television networks. It is distinct from a production control room (PCR) in television studios where the activities such as swi ...
and some internal operations are based at WNET's studios in the
Worldwide Plaza complex in
Midtown Manhattan
Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildi ...
.
NJ PBS is the successor to
New Jersey Network (NJN), the state-controlled public television and radio service. NJN ceased operations on June 30, 2011, and Public Media NJ took control of the former NJN television stations the following day.
History
In 2008, officials with the New Jersey Network asked the
New Jersey Legislature
The New Jersey Legislature is the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, as defined by the New Jersey Constitution of 1947, the Legislature consists of two houses: the General Assembly and the ...
in 2008 for permission to explore making NJN an independent nonprofit organization. Under this scenario, the NJN licenses would have been transferred to the network's fundraising arm, the NJN Foundation. However, on June 6, 2011, New Jersey's
Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
during that time,
Chris Christie
Christopher James Christie (born September 6, 1962) is an American politician, lawyer, political commentator, lobbyist, and former federal prosecutor who served as the 55th governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018.
Christie, who was born in N ...
, who vowed to end state-funded public broadcasting when he took office in 2010, announced an agreement to turn control of the NJN television network to WNET. As part of the deal, WNET.org created Public Media NJ as a separate New Jersey-based nonprofit to operate the stations.
[Press release (June 6, 2011)]
"Gov. Christie Selects WNET for NJN Takeover"
. NJN (via WMGM-TV). Ironically, NJN had been created in 1971 partly due to concerns that WNET 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 ...
's main PBS outlet,
WHYY-TV (channel 12), weren't adequately serving their New Jersey viewers.
Under the terms of the deal, the NJPBA would retain the licenses, but outsource the stations' operations to Public Media NJ for five years with two additional five-year renewable options. Public Media NJ would receive funding from the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...
(CPB) and all revenues related to the former NJN technical operations. The measure was defeated by the state assembly on June 23, 2011. The state senate, however, passed the resolution on June 27, allowing Public Media NJ to take over NJN's television operations as scheduled on July 1, 2011. The network was relaunched as NJTV; all members of NJN automatically became members of NJTV. The first program to be aired on NJTV was ''
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- ...
'' (which was produced by its sister station WNET).
On July 26, 2011, NJTV announced a partnership with the Foundation for New Jersey Public Broadcasting (formerly the NJN Foundation) to jointly fund and create additional public affairs programming. NJTV and the NJN Foundation merged in September 2012.
Rebranding
On February 24, 2021, NJTV rebranded as "NJ PBS," adapting to the 2019 PBS rebrand recommended to its local stations.
Programming
The Caucus Educational Corporation (CEC), a non-profit producer of New Jersey-focused public affairs programs, is under contract with Public Media NJ and WNET to provide original programming for NJ PBS. CEC produces ''Caucus: New Jersey'', ''State of Affairs'', and ''
One on One with Steve Adubato'', which are hosted by
Steve Adubato. CEC also produced the ''New Jersey Capitol Report'', which ended after a seven-year run in March 2017. NJ PBS also broadcasts programming distributed by PBS,
American Public Television, and additional local productions.
Locally produced programming
*''American Songbook at
NJPAC
The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), in downtown Newark, New Jersey, United States, is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States. Home to the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra (NJSO), more than nine million visitors ...
''
*''Classroom Closeup NJ''
*''Driving Jersey''
*''Due Process''
*''On the Record''
*''Que Pasa NJ''
*''Reporters Roundtable''
*''State of the Arts''
*''This is South Jersey''
News programming
At the inauguration of NJ PBS (as NJTV), the network launched ''NJ Today'', a half-hour newscast that replaced ''
NJN News'' and was aired at its former weekday time slots of 6, 7:30 and 11 p.m. It was originally anchored by WNET personality Rafael Pi Roman.
Mike Schneider later took over the anchor role. It was renamed to ''NJTV News'' on November 4, 2013. On June 12, 2014, Schneider announced his retirement as anchor on ''NJTV News'' and was replaced by veteran journalist
Mary Alice Williams on July 1. Williams later left the newscast after March 13, 2020 to help care for family members who were suffering from health problems. She eventually announced the following month on April 27, 2020 that she would step down as anchor of ''NJTV News''. She was succeeded by Briana Vannozzi, who has anchored the newscast since March 15, 2020. She was an interim anchor until September 9, 2020 when she became a full-time anchor.
Schneider still appears on other WNET and NJTV-produced programs, including WNET's ''Metrofocus''. ''NJTV News'' is produced at the Agnes Varis studio in Two Gateway Center in Newark. The newscast can also be seen on sister station WNET and online via
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
and on NJTV's website. Because of WNET (as well as its sister station WLIW) and WHYY carrying ''
PBS NewsHour'', NJ PBS does not carry that program, to avoid unnecessary duplication.
Michael Aron, NJN's
news director at its closure and a former member of the foundation's board, revived his former NJN programs ''Reporters Roundtable'' and ''On the Record'' on NJTV. He also appears on ''NJTV News'' as its chief political correspondent.
On October 5, 2020, NJTV's newsroom merged with the New Jersey news site NJ Spotlight (which was acquired by WNET in 2019) and the newscasts were rebranded as ''NJ Spotlight News.'' In May 2022, ''NJ Spotlight News'' released its first podcast series, ''Hazard NJ,'' hosted by journalist Jordan Gass-Pooré.
Lottery drawings
When NJN shut down operations, no
New Jersey Lottery drawings were aired until September 8, 2011, on a
tape delay. Before this happened, the New Jersey Lottery had no other outlet to showcase any of their live drawings except via online live streaming services such
Ustream and
Livestream.com. NJTV continued hosting the tape-delayed drawings until January 1, 2013, when the drawings were moved to two
CBS owned stations,
WLNY and
WPSG-TV. From 2014 to 2020, lottery drawings were aired live on
WPIX
WPIX (channel 11) is a television station in New York City. Owned by Mission Broadcasting, it is operated under a local marketing agreement (LMA) by Nexstar Media Group, making it a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated station and flagship of ...
and
WPHL-TV. As of 2020, no drawings for the state lottery are televised; instead the Lottery's afternoon, evening and
Cash4Life drawings are carried on the Lottery's website and social media platforms.
Powerball and
Mega Millions drawings were never aired on NJTV as
WTXF-TV and
WABC-TV
WABC-TV (channel 7) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the ABC network. Owned and operated by the network's ABC Owned Television Stations division, the station maintains studios in the Lincoln Square neig ...
air these drawings (with the latter occasionally airing Powerball drawings at certain occasions).
Stations
NJ PBS' four full-power stations reach a potential audience of almost 28 million people in parts of six states—all of New Jersey, plus parts of New York,
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
,
Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent ...
, and even
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 t ...
. While this gives NJ PBS one of the largest potential audiences in the country, it also must compete directly against three of the most-watched PBS member stations in the country–sister stations WNET and WLIW, as well as WHYY-TV. Additionally,
WLVT-TV (channel 39) in
Allentown, Pennsylvania
Allentown ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. The city has a population of 125,845 as of the 2020 census. It is the fastest-growing major city in Pennsylvania ...
, overlaps some of NJ PBS' broadcast area.
In the FCC
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 ...
concluded in 2017, WNJN and WNJT's spectrum was sold back to the FCC for $138,059,363 and $193,892,273, respectively. NJ PBS has announced that these stations will share spectrum with the two remaining stations, WNJS and WNJB respectively. On January 23, 2018, per FCC filings, WNJN began channel-sharing with WNJB and WNJT began channel-sharing with WNJS.
Notes
Translators
Cable and satellite availability
NJ PBS is available on all New Jersey cable providers, along with most cable, satellite and IPTV providers in the New York (utilizing WNJN/WNJB) and Philadelphia (utilizing WNJS/WNJT) television markets, into New York State, Delaware, and Pennsylvania (with some limited availability in
Fairfield County, Connecticut, and
Cecil County, Maryland
Cecil County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland at the northeastern corner of the state, bordering both Pennsylvania and Delaware. As of the 2020 census, the population was 103,725. The county seat is Elkton. The county was ...
).
Technical information
Subchannels
The digital signals of the NJ PBS stations are
multiplexed:
References
External links
*
NJ Spotlight News website{{Navboxes, list1=
{{NYC TV
{{Philly TV
{{TV Stations New Jersey
{{PBS Pennsylvania
{{Public broadcasting in the United States
{{PBSTV
2011 establishments in New Jersey
Englewood, New Jersey
Mass media in Newark, New Jersey
PBS member networks
Television channels and stations established in 2011
Television stations in New Jersey