WJAR

WJAR (more commonly known as NBC 10) is the NBC-affiliated television station for the state of Rhode Island and Bristol County, Massachusetts licensed to Providence. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 50 from a transmitter in Rehoboth, Massachusetts. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station shares studios on Kenney Drive in Cranston with ZGS Communications-owned Telemundo affiliate WRIW-CD.

History

WJAR-TV signed on for the first time on July 10, 1949, broadcasting on channel 11. It was Rhode Island's first television station and the fourth in New England. It was owned by The Outlet Company, a department store chain headquartered in Providence, along with WJAR radio (AM 920, now WHJJ; and FM 95.5, now occupied by WBRU). It moved to channel 10 in 1953. In 1952, after hearing about repeated instances of interference in Connecticut between WJAR-TV and New York's WPIX (also on channel 11), the FCC changed the television allocations for Providence and forced the station to move to channel 10, which it did in the spring of 1953. At that time, WJAR's coverage area increased, since the interference with WPIX had been rectified.