Television news in the United States
Television news in the United States has evolved over many years. It has gone from a simple 10- to 15-minute format in the evenings, to a variety of programs and channels. Today, viewers can watch local, regional and national news programming, in many different ways, any time of the day.
Origin of television news
Lowell Thomas hosted the first-ever news broadcast on television in 1930 and the first regularly scheduled television-news broadcasts in 1940, which were simply simulcasts of his nightly NBC network radio newscast, with the television broadcast seen only in New York over pioneer NBC television station WNBT (now WNBC). The television simulcast lasted for only a few months.
The first serious attempt at dedicated television news broadcasts in the United States was by CBS. Upon becoming commercial station WCBW (now WCBS-TV) in 1941, the pioneer New York CBS television station broadcast two daily news programs, at 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. weekdays, anchored by Richard Hubbell. Most of the newscasts featured Hubbell reading a script with only occasional cutaways to a map or still photograph.