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WRAL Redefines Local News With All-Digital HD Newsroom

WRAL began broadcasting from its new all-digital newsroom Sunday, becoming the world's first HDTV newsgathering operation.

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RALEIGH — WRAL began broadcasting from its new all-digital newsroom Sunday, becoming the world's first HDTV newsgathering operation.

"Virtually every piece of equipment we use in putting together a newscast, from field cameras to editing to the control room, has completely changed," says WRAL's Vice President and General Manager Bill Peterson.

You can fully appreciate the new WRAL newscasts with a wide-screen high-definition TV, but you should notice an improvement in picture quality on standard TV sets.

Since signing on the air in December 1956, WRAL-TV has been a station of many firsts:

  • 1978: Sky 5 was the Triangle's first news helicopter.
  • 1995: WRAL OnLine was the Triangle's first TV Web site.
  • 1996: WRAL-HD became the first experimental high-definition TV station in the United States.
  • 1997: Doppler 5000 was the area's first live, local Doppler radar on TV.
  • 2000: WRAL airs the first all-high-definition newscast.

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