WLNE-TV - Programming

Programming

Syndicated programming on WLNE includes Katie, The Jeff Probst Show, The Insider, Inside Edition, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and The 700 Club.

The longest-running program on channel 6 is TV Mass from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River, which began in 1963. Produced by WLNE, the show was originally aired at 8:00 am. TV Mass is currently aired at 11:00 am as it has been since 2004. It is normally taped at the chapel of Bishop Stang High School in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Easter Mass and Christmas Mass are normally taped at St. Mary's Cathedral in Fall River, Massachusetts.

Prior to its host's retirement, the longest running program on WLNE was The Truman Taylor Show. The Sunday morning public affairs program debuted very early in 1963. Numerous politicians appeared on the show, including two U.S. presidents. In late-2005, Taylor taped his final show. He is now a featured op-ed columnist for The Providence Journal.

In early-2006, ABC6 News On the Record replaced Truman Taylor, with Jim Hummel hosting the program until his departure from the station in July 2008. Following his departure, On the Record was temporarily taken off-the-air and replaced with infomercials. The show returned in October 2008 with weeknight anchor John DeLuca and Chief Political Analyst Buddy Cianci as hosts. Cianci became a solo host in 2011 and the program's title was officially changed to On the Record with Buddy Cianci. The program is traditionally taped on Friday afternoons and currently airs on Saturday and Sunday mornings at 7:30 am.

WLNE has been the market home of the MDA Show of Strength (formerly the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon) since 1993. As WTEV, it was one of the first affiliates of the "Love Network" when it was formed in 1968. Local cutaways had been broadcast from the Warwick Mall for years. In 2007, the telethon relocated to the Providence Marriott hotel in downtown which is on the same street as WLNE's studios. Once again, the location was changed in 2008 to the Twin River Casino in Lincoln. This is where the current pledge record was established. In total, $755,705 in local donations was raised. The 2009 telethon returned to Twin River and was simulcast on former sister station NewsChannel 5 and WALE radio (990 AM). $731,573 in local donations was raised that year.

WLNE became the first station in Rhode Island to broadcast a local program in high-definition when it aired Bristol's 4th of July Parade in 2008 live with production facilities provided by Comcast. It was hosted by John DeLuca, Allison Alexander, Fred Campagna, and Paul Mueller of WLNE and Todd Newton of Comcast. In 2009, the station won an Emmy Award for its pre-parade special, Reflections of the Fourth: Celebrating Bristol, from the Boston/New England chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The 2009 parade was also broadcast in high-definition, with production facilities provided by CSP Mobile Productions. The parade was also simulcast on NewsChannel 5 and streamed live on abc6.com, the site's first offering of a live video web stream. The parade was not broadcast in 2011 amidst the change in station ownership, but it returned in 2012.

The 2012 parade was marred by technical difficulties with the station's satellite feed from Bristol that prevented them from going live at their scheduled start time. Pre-packaged reports on the parade were anchored in studio by reporter Andrea Medeiros and meteorologist Chelsea Priest with the weather while the issues were being tended to. The live stream on abc6.com was not available until about an hour into the broadcast and when it was, the audio was low and it was not shown in the full 16:9 aspect ratio the station was broadcasting in. Subsequent rebroadcasts on its Live Well Network digital subchannel were shown in a windowboxed format. These technical difficulties resulted in a production that was less efficient than what the station had hoped for. Posts on the station's Facebook page from viewers in the area and around the country that planned on watching the live stream were highly critical of the difficulties and the production. Also, notably absent from the 2012 broadcast was chief meteorologist and Bristol native Fred Campagna, who would depart the station at the end of the month.

WLNE has been the official television home of the parade since 2006.