FIRST ON THE BLOG: It won’t be just WRC in Washington, D.C. that will be expanding to 4:00 a.m. It seems like four of WRC’s sister stations will do the same as well.
Also starting next Monday, July 31st, New York’s WNBC 4, Los Angeles’ KNBC 4, Philly’s WCAU 10 and Boston’s WBTS 8 will all also expand their weekday morning news by a half-hour earlier to 4:00 a.m.
In New York, WNBC 4’s Today in New York will air for three hours from 4:00-7:00 a.m. It will become the ONLY station in the market to do so but it won’t be the first in the market. WPIX 11 (CW) did so for quite a while at 4:00 a.m. starting in 2010 but went back to 5:00 a.m. just four years later.
In Los Angeles, KNBC 4’s Today in L.A. will also air for three hours from 4:00-7:00 a.m. It will become the second station in the market to do so after KTLA 5 (CW) has aired its morning news at 4:00 a.m. since 2012. So at least in Los Angeles, they’ll be two options at 4:00 a.m.
In Philadelphia, the options are back to two after WCAU 10’s NBC 10 News Today will also expand to 4:00 a.m. This is just the second time it will do so after it previously did so last year. They’ve since cut it back but it looks like they’re ready to re-add the half-hour. It will compete against WTXF 29 (FOX)’s FOX 29 Morning News which has broadcast at 4:00 a.m. since 2014.
In Boston, WBTS 8 will jump to the 4:00 a.m. game as well with NBC Boston News Today. It will also become the second option for local news at that timeslot in the market after WFXT 25 (FOX)’s Boston 25 Morning News which has aired at 4:00 a.m. since 2012, during the FOX ownership days. This will be the first such expansion for WBTS 8 since their news department debuted on January 1st of this year.
All four stations will join WRC 4 in Washington, D.C. in which we reported FIRST days ago. They’ll expand to 4:00 a.m. as well with News 4 Today and will be the ONLY station in D.C. to offer local news at that timeslot in the nation’s capital.
The only question remains now is what will happen to Early Today which currently broadcasts LIVE at 4:00 a.m.? Some stations will soon air it at 3:30 a.m. which leads me to believe that the program will move to that timeslot or cancel it entirely because let’s be honest, more and more Americans are waking up even earlier to start work and need their local news at an earlier time, therefore prompting these NBC O&O’s to start earlier in the morning.
But at least its good for those who need it. Pretty nice.
changingnewscasts.wordpress.com 
It looks like Early Today will be broadcast LIVE at 3:30 a.m. ET for those in New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Boston to make room for the morning newscasts expansion while Los Angeles will air at 3:30 a.m. PT. I don’t seem to think Early Today would be cancelled anytime soon and they’re will be more NBC affiliates that will eventually be encouraged to move their start time of morning newscasts to 4:00 a.m. in four time zones Pacific, Mountain, Central, and Eastern! I’m excited for some NBC O&O’s to be starting earlier!
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I wonder if ABC and CBS will follow suit and start airing their national morning newscast which air at 4:00am and move their very early morning newscasts to 3:30am. I think in a few years you will see a bunch of local morning newscasts expanding to 4:00am. I wonder if any local morning newscasts will start at 3:30am which is way too early.
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Maybe WTVJ in your city of Miami, WVIT-TV in Hartford, KXAS-TV in DFW, KNTV in San Jose, and KNSD-TV in one of my favorite cities of San Diego will start their morning newscasts at 4:00am since it looks like most of the NBC O&O stations have already expanded their morning newscasts to 4:00am, Normally when the big kahunas NBC O&O stations such as WNBC and KNBC expand newscast other NBC O&O stations follow suit like when the NBC O&O stations got 4:00pm newscasts with the exception of KNTV.
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Hopefully remaining NBC O&O stations (WTVJ 6 Miami, KNSD 39/Cable 7 San Diego, WVIT 30 Connecticut, and KXAS 5 Dallas) consider adding 4AM half-hour to their morning newscasts very soon. Miami, it’d be interesting to see WTVJ beat WSVN 7, WPLG 10, and WFOR 4 to 4AM. DC, it’s a bit of a surprise to see WRC 4 beating WUSA 9 (with many firsts).
I wouldn’t anticipate NBC cancelling Early Today news program anytime soon. I could see NBC revamp their late-night and overnight line-up… Tonight Show remains 11:35 eastern-pacific/10:35 central-mountain, Late Night 12:37/11:37, Last Call 1:36/12:36… local programming at 2:05/1:05… Early Today live at 3:30AM in all time zones. NBC discontinue All-Night reruns (including reruns of Kathie Lee and Hoda hour of Today, Nightly News encore, etc.) or NBC could bring back overnight news program Nightside (canceled in 1999)… or if one of the late-night shows had to go away, I could easily see Last Call getting axed.
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It could be possible that later this year that the rest of the Fox O&O’s stations will expand their morning newscasts by starting a half-hour earlier at 4:00am in Los Angeles, New York City, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Phoenix, Minneapolis, Dallas, and Austin!
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Forgot about Detroit and Charlotte!
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